TheyJammedKenny! Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 This is looking sweet indeed! I too use Novus polishing compound #2 on my canopies and clear parts and immensely satisfied with it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted March 19, 2021 Author Share Posted March 19, 2021 Hi Kids, It's been a while since an update, but it doesn't mean i haven't been working on this thing. I am becoming disenchanted with Micro Krystal Kleer. On one hand, it is tackier than conventional white glue, and it yields a slightly flexible joint which makes it great for things like clear parts, landing gear doors and weapons pylons. However, it tends to dry up fairly quickly in the accident-prone vial. Adding plain water only seems to make a bad situation worse in trying to revive the stuff. To that end, i'm trying out *this* stuff, which i'd heard a few things about: Unlike Krystal Kleer, this bottle is more reluctant to topple over. With its big mouth top, its a lot easier to maneuver a paint brush in to get at the stuff. Just like with the KK, i let the excess "ooze" out from beneath the joint, and so far it rinses away quite nicely with a wet paintbrush. I used the stuff to attach the ARI12818 ECM sensors... Changing subjects, i was always dubious of the attachment of the inflight refueling probe. I drilled a small hole in the probe base and its corresponding depression on the fuselage. I CAed a short length of brass wire into the base, providing a much stronger joint. Rather importantly, it allows me to install the probe late in the "end game" with very little glue. What i haven't decided yet, is if i will use the MASTER turned metal receptacle fitting. It comes down to attaching it to the probe mast. Editorializing a bit, 95% of modeling mistakes seem to be made in the last 5% of the building process. Persistent bad actors are things like antenna masts, blade aerials, navigation lights and pitot probes....which seem to be often surrounded with glue blobs. Its as if the thinking was, "The smaller the part, the more glue i need to hold it on" if i didn't know better. Re-engineering little things like this go a long way in helping to get a clean end result. A finished model is only as good as its least-well-rendered-detail, IMHO. The Air Brake assembly is up next. Until next time, keep those letters and cards coming! -d- 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 Good stuff. The Master turned brass refueling receptacle is very slick. That's my vote! Cheers, Bill PS. Unless you've already glued on the probe - then removing the plastic end and adding the metal is not as straightforward. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted March 20, 2021 Author Share Posted March 20, 2021 43 minutes ago, Navy Bird said: PS. Unless you've already glued on the probe - then removing the plastic end and adding the metal is not as straightforward. No worries of that Bill. The probe is seen installed only for photography purposes. Right now, i'm in a pitched battle with the air brakes.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Poultney Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 Looking great! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 FWIW: I am always skeptical about attaching small parts, like data probes, with CA glue, in the final stages of construction, and endorse your using a strong, flexible, PVA instead. You are so, so correct about modeling mistakes in the last furlong of the model-building process. As you may see elsewhere, I'm an extremely slow modeler, and a paranoid one at that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted March 20, 2021 Author Share Posted March 20, 2021 32 minutes ago, TheyJammedKenny! said: FWIW: I am always skeptical about attaching small parts, like data probes, with CA glue, in the final stages of construction, and endorse your using a strong, flexible, PVA instead. You are so, so correct about modeling mistakes in the last furlong of the model-building process. As you may see elsewhere, I'm an extremely slow modeler, and a paranoid one at that. i think its the fiddly bits that stop a lot of almost-finished builds in their tracks at the 98% finished point. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted March 20, 2021 Author Share Posted March 20, 2021 Well, in a combined painting/assembly evolution, i assembled the air brake yesterday. To Airfix' credit, they did a rather nice job of depicting this complicated but distinctive aspect of the Buccaneer's construction. The way the assembly is constructed (along with my choice of paint scheme) dictates that much of the assembly be painted before gluing the bits together. For example, the curved sheet metal actuator covers (Parts D17 and D18) had to be painted in the Extra Dark Sea Grey and Gloss White first. These were then masked off before i could paint the Light Admiralty Grey actuator beams (D37) on the insides. The flat airbrake plate (B13) had the weight reduction holes bored out and this was painted up separately, decaled, and given my customary wash of Future/Water and Tamiya Flat Black. The way the airbrake attaches to the actuator means that the flat plate gets glued to the actuator beams before the aerodynamic fairings go on. This construction is a big driver behind why i wanted to try out the Mig acrylic glue. i robbed the aerodynamic fairings out of the new RAF S. Mk 2B boxing, because they don't have the prominent boilerplate seen on later-life Buccaneers. These were also painted with Tamiya LP-2 Gloss White and Mr Color C333. The "fins" cast onto the flat airbrake plate were masked off and sprayed, and then the plate was glued onto the actuator beams with Tasmiya Extra Thin. The aerodynamic fairings went on last, using the Mig Acrylic Glue. It's still something i'm learning to use. On the one hand, its easy to apply with a brush, and any excess ooze rises away very easily with a wet paint brush or a moist cotton bud. That is.... as long as it isn't fully dried. I've been having a time trying to get to fully cured excess off surfaces where it shouldn't be. I haven't figured out the best way yet. So, until i get some more experience with the stuff i'm taking a "wait and see" stance. Before i forget, the air brake is just fitted in place for photography purposes. Not glued on yet. -d- 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 Not much of an update today, but i made good progress on the tyre/brake assemblies. The Eduard resin wheels are all painted up and the final wash on the main tyres is drying right now. I seriously considered trying to snap the Eduard wheels into the assembled Airfix gear legs, but i was just too afraid to take the risk in snapping the forks off, so in the end i sawed away the brake housings from the outboard forks, and carefully drilled holes to take a piece of brass rod to serve as the wheel axles. Taken chapter and verse directly from Chris Jones' Airfix ModelWorld build narrative. Again, i used the Mig acrylic ultra glue. Again it bonded the parts together great and *most* of the excess cleaned up with water but i was still faced with a shiny glue patch here and there, so i applied another coat of Mr Color Tyre black. Good thing i had two sets of Eduard wheels masks handy. Finally, i used my customary wash of 50-50 Future/Water tinted with (a lot) of Tamiya Flat Black. Mainly because i wanted to accentuate the tyre treads but in the end it went on the entire tyre. So, see you fellas in 8 days or so. Hopefully the rocket pods will be ready for sanding by then... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 On 3/23/2021 at 6:56 AM, David H said: I seriously considered trying to snap the Eduard wheels into the assembled Airfix gear legs, but i was just too afraid to take the risk in snapping the forks off, so in the end i sawed away the brake housings from the outboard forks, and carefully drilled holes to take a piece of brass rod to serve as the wheel axles. Thanks so much for this explanation, David. You'd shown pics of the Eduard wheels in an earlier update and I was wondering how they would attach; I thought it unlikely that the Eduard pieces could co-exist with the moulded wheel/brake housing elements. I also need to dig out the Airfix Model World build you mention... Andrew. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heloman1 Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 Looking good, great paint and decals. Colin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 (edited) On 3/24/2021 at 5:39 PM, Andrew said: Thanks so much for this explanation, David. You'd shown pics of the Eduard wheels in an earlier update and I was wondering how they would attach; I thought it unlikely that the Eduard pieces could co-exist with the moulded wheel/brake housing elements. I also need to dig out the Airfix Model World build you mention... Andrew. Eduard gave the modeller the option of mating their resin wheels up with the existing Airfix brake stacks, so i know they will fit. However, i eliminated that option early on in the build when i glued the halves together, so i could fill the seams. The Eduard wheels appear to be based mainly on the Airfix ones, the main changes being the tyre treads and the itty bitty "Dunlop" labels embossed on them.... Edited March 27, 2021 by David H 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted March 26, 2021 Share Posted March 26, 2021 6 hours ago, David H said: However, i eliminated that option early on in the build when i glued the halves together, so i could fill the seams. Absolutely! Eduard was clever to offer the modeller the choice of installation options, but I can see why you'd adopt that approach - the seams are just too apparent. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted April 5, 2021 Author Share Posted April 5, 2021 Time for another update. File this one under, "No build is complete without unexpected aggravations". After getting to servicing placards on the belly of the model and clear coating over them, i decided to re paint the wingtip pieces as they were still slightly translucent and looked darker than the adjacent wing. In the process of removing the tape, i ripped up most of the "XN 977" on the lower left wing. The decals hadn't visibly silvered but clearly they did not bond well enough to the underlying gloss paint. In the process of removing the damage, i decided to re do the lower left leading edge as well.... and in the process of doing that i damaged the letter "7" that still remained. So... then that came off, and i masked off the damaged area and repainted it all with gloss white. I then scavenged some Buzz Numbers from an Xtracal Sea Vixen sheet. They laid down and bonded to the paint much better... Once this debacle was handled, i applied a panel line wash made from MM Enamels composed of FS 36495 Light Grey and 35237 Medium Grey, thinned with plain old turpentine. I swabbed away the excess with a moistened Q-Tip. Its not plainly visible from some angles, but i mixed up the panel line wash for the upper surfaces from Humbrol 77. It's almost too subtle to see, but i knew i couldn't use black, and i didn't really have any suitable dark greys lying about... I am pondering my next moves. There are some places where the BLC slots on the upper wings are not as cleanly executed as i'd like, plus i'm vacillating between a gloss and a semi gloss finish to sort of clean up and unify the overall surface. I think i might paint up the tail skid assembly and let my thoughts percolate for a while... Until next time.... -d- 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted April 5, 2021 Share Posted April 5, 2021 David, The further this goes, the better it looks. The EDSG smoothness is what gets me most. One tiny thing though: your underwing 7s are different, port & starboard. A touch of white on the corners maybe? Justin 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted April 6, 2021 Author Share Posted April 6, 2021 6 hours ago, Bedders said: David, The further this goes, the better it looks. The EDSG smoothness is what gets me most. One tiny thing though: your underwing 7s are different, port & starboard. A touch of white on the corners maybe? Justin Wow! Good eye. i just noticed that. The sizes seemed to check out close enough by eyeball, but the original Modeldecal codes were Dark Blue. The Xtracal replacements are black. Put it down to a wing repair and repaint at the depot level at Sydenham. It's on the underside of the wing anyway. If i were to do these over again, i would have masked and painted them. But i don't have the technology. -d- 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
At Sea Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 Lovely build and bookmarked as a reference for when I do mine! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted April 6, 2021 Author Share Posted April 6, 2021 7 hours ago, At Sea said: Lovely build and bookmarked as a reference for when I do mine! i wonder if Airfix will eventually re-release the kit as an early S. Mk. 2C with the early airbrake cones and instructions on how to backdate the model... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 Nice save, and this is looking really nice. I especially love the symmetrical meeting of the EDSG on the nose, which was not an easy feat, I can imagine. As for lifting the decals by mistake, do I understand correctly that you masked over the decals using tape? Uh, oh. That's never, ever, worked out well for me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted April 7, 2021 Author Share Posted April 7, 2021 2 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said: Nice save, and this is looking really nice. I especially love the symmetrical meeting of the EDSG on the nose, which was not an easy feat, I can imagine. As for lifting the decals by mistake, do I understand correctly that you masked over the decals using tape? Uh, oh. That's never, ever, worked out well for me. Yes. There is a fine line between audacity and foolhardiness. i tap dance across that line all the time. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted April 7, 2021 Author Share Posted April 7, 2021 Time for another update, before i depart on another 8-day Disaster movie. I was not happy with the overall finish of the Bucc. While it was smooth and shiny, it was also smudgy and the remainder of the enamel wash gave the model a rather skanky appearance. Problem with gloss finishes is, they're almost as bad as silver. They tend to highlight every little surface imperfection. So, i masked off the extra dark sea grey and sprayed the upper surfaces with Mr Color Semi Gloss, 181. I am pleased with how it turned out... Some parting thoughts about the windscreen. The Eduard masks worked extremely well, but the fit of the windscreen is so good that if i were to do it over, i'd probably delay installing it until after painting. I nearly had a heart attack when i removed the masking. Dust from painting had gotten onto the inside surface of the windscreen and i was at a loss as to how to fix this. I wound up mixing some warm soapy water, and i shot the inside of the windscreen with my Iwata, using it like a pressure washer. I think its gonna be okay. When i get home, i'll need to clean up some overspray one one of the intake lips, then i will begin to finalize installation of the undercarriage. The outboard Rocket pods are ready to go, but i'm not crazy about mounting the underwing tanks. They don't exactly help the looks of the thing. I should probably start thinking about mounting the speed brake too.... Oh well. See you in a couple weeks. 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 Looks really nice! I'm a firm believer in "scale gloss" - I don't think that super shiny works in 1:72 scale. It makes the model look like a toy. I always do just what you've done, and that's to use a semi-gloss or egg-shell sheen instead. I've had many arguments disciplined discussions with mates in my modelling club over this, and I think it boils down to horse for courses. I like what you've done here, she looks really sweet. Cheers, Bill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted April 8, 2021 Author Share Posted April 8, 2021 2 hours ago, Navy Bird said: Looks really nice! I'm a firm believer in "scale gloss" - I don't think that super shiny works in 1:72 scale. It makes the model look like a toy. I always do just what you've done, and that's to use a semi-gloss or egg-shell sheen instead. I've had many arguments disciplined discussions with mates in my modelling club over this, and I think it boils down to horse for courses. I like what you've done here, she looks really sweet. Cheers, Bill The problems i encountered were 1) i couldn't make and keep the surface uniformly shiny, and 2) it just seemed like a magnet for fingerprints...even when i used gloves. This is a good compromise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nikolay Polyakov Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 On 20/03/2021 at 18:34, TheyJammedKenny! said: FWIW: I am always skeptical about attaching small parts, like data probes, with CA glue, in the final stages of construction, and endorse your using a strong, flexible, PVA instead. It’s interesting approach and reasonable, too. As for me, I have a tendency to glue the plastic parts to each other as much as possible - just to be sure. But the other side of this approach is some problems on masking and handling the model before it’ll be finished... Beautiful job on the Buccaneer, David! 👍 The painting looks extremely accurate and the decals took the work at another level. Bravo! 👏 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 Quote Looks really nice! I'm a firm believer in "scale gloss" - I don't think that super shiny works in 1:72 scale. It makes the model look like a toy. I always do just what you've done, and that's to use a semi-gloss or egg-shell sheen instead. I've had many arguments disciplined discussions with mates in my modelling club over this, and I think it boils down to horse for courses. I like what you've done here, she looks really sweet. Looking good -d-, great finish. Regarding the finish, I totally agree with you Bill. I think one of the problems is that an aircraft's skin is made up of many painted panels, each with a slightly uneven mating area/rippling that, over time, dull down with the effects of airflow, debris, weather and particularly UV. When viewed at a distance, the overall scale effect is one of a satin/gloss finish. I did the same thing with the new Airfix Vulcan I recently finished. Although the real aircraft were finished in a protective gloss coat (the early camo aircraft having an even glossier polyurethane finish), I decided to finish it using a semi-gloss varnish (MRP) for that very reason. It would look too toy-like if finished in high gloss. The same applies to matt finished airframes, after a bit of use they're very rarely completely matt, just look at RAF Phantoms, Buccs and Tornados, they take on more of an egg-shell finish with different sheens everywhere. As you say, horses for courses but, personally I prefer this approach. Quote i'm not crazy about mounting the underwing tanks. They don't exactly help the looks of the thing. Leave them off David, ugly things, (SAAF ones are even worse). The aircraft definitely looks better without them. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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