The elephant in the room - Airfix 1:72 Shack MR2

[alhenderson]

38 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

Yep, there’s a couple of pics here if you are interested. It is still stuck down after two years, I just checked!

 

Regards,

Adrian

That's a lovely finish, good to know about other applications of the trusty chocolate foil!

[alhenderson]

Been a couple of weeks since I updated this thread.  In all honesty, not a lot has happened.  I lost my enthusiasm for a while there, what with all the filling and sanding and apparent lack of progress.  I then decided I'd done enough of that and was going to prime it and see where we were.  But then I had to mask the transparencies with brought its own set of challenges - I seemed to be taking more steps backward than forward.  I then happened across someone on Twitter doing a charity group build thing and before I know it there was a Tamiya 1:48 Buffalo in the post.  Never done 1:48 before, but that was the rules so figured it was worth a go.  Has actually been good, given me something else to focus on for a bit and got me back into the swing of things.  When I started out, I swore I wouldn't start a new kit before finishing the previous one - oops!  

 

Anyway, the Buffalo's going reasonably well and has also got me back into tinkering with the Shack.  It has sprouted the ECM aerial on the fuselage.  From what I have read, often the mast was removed from its plinth due to weight issues, but I like the look of it, so its on.  I have plenty of pictures of them attached so not that unusual either.  Masking the transparent tailcone was a painful exercise.  Couldn't get my new favourite technique of chocolate foil wrappers to work, too much bending and curving I think.  Ordered some Maskol and tried that, but I couldn't paint that in a straight line so that didn't help.  Ended up with a combination of lots of little bits of tape and some maskol in the middle.  Hopefully that works out OK!  Also started fitting the exhausts to the engines.  Normally I'd paint these seperately and attach at the end, but bearing in mind the tight tolerances thus far, I figured I'd better at least try dry fitting them.  Just as well I did, as they need some work to get a flush fit with the engine.

 

Anyway, here she is with her little brother in the background.  Put some sponge in the bigger holes thinking I was nearly ready to prime, but then realised wasn't quite there yet as there are a few aerials etc to go on.  Usual toss up between putting them on so I can prime and paint with everything else and leaving off in case they get broken in the process..  Still - its progress and maybe I now have some enthusiasm back 👍

 

 

Al.

[alhenderson]

Having finished my Buffalo last week, the bench is now solely devoted to the Shack.  I finally put some white primer on the fuselage.  Result was better than I thought - a few little bits to re-fill and sand but not too bad.  So now onto painting the white on top of the fuselage.  Am trying lots of coats of well thinned white (Vallejo in this instance) after watching a You Tube video which seemed to get good results.  The colour is looking pretty good - white primer is a god-send.  Problem is, with each coat my brush is depositing more detritus.  Not sure what it is, little bits of grit, the odd little hair.  I try and remove the worst of it a I go but inevitably there's always some left.  Might have to consider some sanding, but I don't want to take off too much of what I've already done.  Probably need something finer than the 600 grit sanding sticks I already have.  Bit annoyed, the brush is brand new out of the packet and I'm keeping it in the packet between coats to try and keep it clean 😞 

 

  

Have also put some Dark Sea Grey down on one of the wings.  Since I wanted to thin it, I bought some Tamiya XF-54 to use instead of the humbrol enamel I already had.  Have put one coat on so far and its barely darker than then grey primer underneath - I really hope its going to get a lot darker as I build up the layers..

 

Anyway, that's about it so far..  Slowly, slowly..

 

Al.

[Dr. Quack]

Nice to see the Shack back on track.

Coming along nicely.

Q

[AdrianMF]

Sadly, quite often the paint ends up getting detritus in it. When you open a pot of paint, you dislodge and crumble dried paint around the lid, some of which falls inwards. Well, that's what happens to me! The good news is that with a light pass of a fine enough sanding stick, and even a little encouragement from a scalpel blade, the finish will even out.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[alhenderson]

Just now, AdrianMF said:

Sadly, quite often the paint ends up getting detritus in it. When you open a pot of paint, you dislodge and crumble dried paint around the lid, some of which falls inwards. Well, that's what happens to me! The good news is that with a light pass of a fine enough sanding stick, and even a little encouragement from a scalpel blade, the finish will even out.

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

I have just ordered some very fine sanding sticks, the finest I have atm is 600 grit and that just takes the paint off.  So fingers crossed for that one.. 🤞

[AliGauld]

Coming along very nicely.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[alhenderson]

Hmmm.  It looks like Tamiya and Humbrol have different ideas about what Dark Sea Grey looks like..

 

 

Top is Humbrol satin 164, bottom is Tamiya XF-54.  Both straight out of the tin.  I was hoping to use Tamiya cos its acrylic and I can thin it more easily to get a better finish.  Personally, I don't think the Tamiya looks anything like DSG.. 

 

Al.

[TonyOD]

1 minute ago, alhenderson said:

Personally, I don't think the Tamiya looks anything like DSG.. 

It does look a bit anemic! More like US gull grey or something.

[TonyOD]

On 3/24/2021 at 3:41 PM, TonyOD said:

I have a hankering to do a Shackleton and was leaning towards the Revell MR.3 but these Airfix kits do look very nice.

 

Quoting myself here... just found myself an Airfix MR.2 for a very decent price on FB Marketplace so your build is now doubly interesting. Looking forward to your further progress. (I do like that "White Knuckle Airlines" scheme!)

[AliGauld]

Hi there,

The Tamiya definitely looks wrong.

Can't help with the Humbrol as I used Colourcoats which was spot on.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[alhenderson]

1 minute ago, TonyOD said:

 

Quoting myself here... just found myself an Airfix MR.2 for a very decent price on FB Marketplace so your build is now doubly interesting. Looking forward to your further progress. (I do like that "White Knuckle Airlines" scheme!)

Fab - it is a nice kit.  If I started again I think I would minimise the painting of anything prior to assembly.  Also, dry fit *everything* at *every* stage.  I started out down that road but got cocky a couple of times and it caught me out 😞 I had particular challenges with the fit of the nacelles into the wings - maybe attaching the nacelles to the upper wing prior to attaching the bottom section of the wing might have helped.  Anyway, it's all here I guess..   Plus don't buy Tamiya DSG!

 

Al.

[TonyOD]

2 minutes ago, alhenderson said:

dry fit *everything* at *every* stage. 

 

I will, thanks for the advice.

 

3 minutes ago, alhenderson said:

I had particular challenges with the fit of the nacelles into the wings

 

I've been earning my spurs on my current Pe-8 build... can't be any worse than these... 😁

[alhenderson]

6 minutes ago, TonyOD said:

 

I will, thanks for the advice.

 

 

I've been earning my spurs on my current Pe-8 build... can't be any worse than these... 😁

You're right - I don't think you have anything to fear here 🙂 Although you might want to stock up on filler seeing how much you used on that beast!

 

Al.

[Vulcanicity]

Just caught back up with this, excellent work! You are a bit ahead of me (although my WIP thread is rather out of date). I too really struggled to blend the inboard nacelles in, looking inside the wings from the wing roots I concluded most of the fit problems were due to the u/c bay roof being too high and stopping the nacelle from fitting high enough into the wing. My solution was to take a DIY sized rasp file to the top of it! First time I have used one of those on a model since the old tool Vulcan, but it did work, and with the addition of a fair amount of filler I eradicated the step where the top of the nacelle blends into the wing leading edge.

 

Those are beautiful print photos of WR964 you had in a previous post. I have very poor internet copies of a couple of them - is there any chance I could possibly trouble you for decent scans? Most of my conclusions about the aerial fit for this particular aircraft are educated guesswork...

 

PS that Tamiya grey looks miles out to me too. For what it's worth, I evaluated Lifecolour DSG against Mr Hobby Aqueous (H331) and settled on the latter as being the best shade, although a little tricky to brush paint. I suspect if you added some flow improver it would work fine.

[dogsbody]

As I usually stick to 1/72 WW2 postings, I have always gone passed this particular post. But for some reason, today I looked in. Your Shack is looking great!

 

As for fine sanding sticks and the like, take a look through the makeup section of any store that carries such material. There are a lot of fingernail polishing items available that are usually of a cheaper price than those made specifically for scale modeling. My youngest daughter is a trained beautician and works in the boutique of a national pharmacy chain, giving me access to a whole host of items. I sometimes get her to buy stuff for me, at her employee discount.

 

 

 

Chris

[Steve Coombs]

1 hour ago, Vulcanicity said:

I too really struggled to blend the inboard nacelles in, looking inside the wings from the wing roots I concluded most of the fit problems were due to the u/c bay roof being too high and stopping the nacelle from fitting high enough into the wing. My solution was to take a DIY sized rasp file to the top of it!

Yup, the undercarriage bay must no higher than the sides of it, if you get my drift. It also helps to take your rasp to the curved section at the front and reduce it so it doesn't foul the upper wing later. I got good results I tested on a Shack I cocked up earlier and kept for spares/scrap by attaching the nacelle to the lower wing first. This lets you compensate for any flex in the lower wing at the points of contact, improves the fit at the rear of the nacelle, and eradicates the risk of a step at the leading edge. Then it's test and sand to get a good fit to the upper wing.

[alhenderson]

@dogsbody thanks for looking in, and for the kind words.  I've just bought some sanding sticks from Flory. I had an inkling there was probably a cheaper, non-modelling option, but wasn't quite sure what that would be. Now I know! 👍

[alhenderson]

3 hours ago, Vulcanicity said:

Just caught back up with this, excellent work! You are a bit ahead of me (although my WIP thread is rather out of date). I too really struggled to blend the inboard nacelles in, looking inside the wings from the wing roots I concluded most of the fit problems were due to the u/c bay roof being too high and stopping the nacelle from fitting high enough into the wing. My solution was to take a DIY sized rasp file to the top of it! First time I have used one of those on a model since the old tool Vulcan, but it did work, and with the addition of a fair amount of filler I eradicated the step where the top of the nacelle blends into the wing leading edge.

 

Those are beautiful print photos of WR964 you had in a previous post. I have very poor internet copies of a couple of them - is there any chance I could possibly trouble you for decent scans? Most of my conclusions about the aerial fit for this particular aircraft are educated guesswork...

 

PS that Tamiya grey looks miles out to me too. For what it's worth, I evaluated Lifecolour DSG against Mr Hobby Aqueous (H331) and settled on the latter as being the best shade, although a little tricky to brush paint. I suspect if you added some flow improver it would work fine.

  When I started this, my cunning plan was to follow along slightly behind our WIP - oh well!  😁  I will fire up the scanner in the morning and let you have come copies of the pics.  Problem I find with a lot of them is that the white aerials tend to blend in to the sky making it look like the DF loop, HF aerials and even the ECM antenna are not even there, despite the date of the picture clearly suggesting they should be!  All fun and games..

 

Al.

[Steve Coombs]

The cashier at my local DM (analogous to Boots, I would say) no longer gives me a funny look when I come away with a selection of four-grade nail files, buffing sticks and blocks, and nail varnish remover (which strips acrylic paint beautifully - not surprising when you consider what most nail varnish is). And in non-COVID times, the local market has a stall with medical and dental tools, which is ideal for various types of scissors, spatulas, self-locking tweezers, picks, and scrapers. There's even a tick removal pen, a bit like a clutch mechanical pencil, which is ideal for holding small photoetch parts (and is rather more tolerant of stray dabs of superglue than silicone-tipped 'pens' on offer).

[alhenderson]

Small update this week.  I've lost track of how many thinned coats of Vallejo white are on the top - but I think we're rapidly approaching "enough".   Made the mistake of trying to thin it with Tamiya X-20A thinner the other day (cos all acrylic paints are basically the same, right?).  Ha - no!  Curdled like gone off milk - back to water!  I'll get a coat of gloss on the top when I'm happy and then mask it.  Think I'm going to re-prime the rest of the fuselage in grey primer to match the wings.  That way I can be sure of the same finish as the wings.  And in the background - 3 coats of Humbrol 164 looks pretty good.  I was planning on painting thinned coats to get a better finish, but I didn't want to thin enamel so just went with it out of the tin - its a decent enough finish, just time consuming to try and keep the coats thin and free of detritus.

 

And that's about it.  Will be nice to get some grey on the fuselage, then it'll really be progress..

 

Al.

 

  

[TonyOD]

On 5/19/2021 at 10:29 PM, Steve Coombs said:

The cashier at my local DM (analogous to Boots, I would say) no longer gives me a funny look when I come away with a selection of four-grade nail files, buffing sticks and blocks, and nail varnish remover

 

It's funny the stuff you buy for modelling purposes... I bought some lighter fuel in Tesco yesterday to try out as an enamel wash thinner, they keep it in a cupboard behind the customer services counter with the cigarettes, I felt all guilty and squeamish asking for it because I've never smoked and think it's a disgusting habit. 

 

The Shack is looking really smart @alhenderson, my Big Red Box arrived yesterday but I won't be making a start on it for a good while yet!

[alhenderson]

2 hours ago, TonyOD said:

 

It's funny the stuff you buy for modelling purposes... I bought some lighter fuel in Tesco yesterday to try out as an enamel wash thinner, they keep it in a cupboard behind the customer services counter with the cigarettes, I felt all guilty and squeamish asking for it because I've never smoked and think it's a disgusting habit. 

 

The Shack is looking really smart @alhenderson, my Big Red Box arrived yesterday but I won't be making a start on it for a good while yet!

Next thing you know you'll be buying cigarettes to use the tobacco as hedgerows in dioramas - or even to make 1:72 cigarettes for your pilots! 🤣

[alhenderson]

Just before half term I felt like I was making progress on the fuselage and was about ready to paint some grey.  I gave the white a coat of gloss to allow it to better withstand the masking I was about to do.  Since we were going away for half term I didn't want to mask it before I went so satisfied myself with putting some grey on the tailplanes.  Had a quick look today and not happy with the white.  There's a load of hairs and grit in the white - I think from when I glossed it 😞  Not happy with it, so have had to sand some of it back to make it presentable.  So we start again with more coats of thin white.  Just really struggling to keep my brushes in good nick..

 

Here she is as of tonight, although you can't see all the detritus in the white from this picture (which in itself might suggest I'm getting a little obsessed)..

 

 

 

[alhenderson]

I'm getting back into this slowly but surely.  I sanded back the worst of the white to remove the hairs etc and did a few more coats of thinned white.  Then decided the time had come to move on from that and do the grey on the fuselage.  3 coats of Humbrol Satin 164 and here we are - about done with that I think.  Don't dare take the masking off 😬  

 

 

Have also started assembling the props and attaching to the wings.  Which led me to start the main gear as well to try and give the props some protection.  I deviated from the instructions early on and didn't do the gear when I put the nacelles together as I didn't want to break anything while painting etc.  Probably shouldn't have worried - they're pretty sturdy legs.  Assembly is doable with the wings assembled, but easier done in the order in the instructions I guess..

 

Getting there!

 

Al.