Gidge Posted July 16, 2021 Author Share Posted July 16, 2021 More prep for priming Masking off areas that will later be glued for better adhesion. From what limited testing I've done, you can probably get away without this. But I figured better safe than sorry. Glued on the two tabs of the gear bay that I'd left off to avoid damaging them Stuffing the intakes with foam. This is surprisingly fiddely. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 16, 2021 Author Share Posted July 16, 2021 More small parts. Pitot tubes are a pain to hold and glue 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 16, 2021 Author Share Posted July 16, 2021 Evidently I've underestimated how much needs to be primed and painted together to ensure uniform (ish) colour Slightly crooked. That's what I get for doing this at 2:30 AM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 17, 2021 Author Share Posted July 17, 2021 Some ejector pin mark clean-up on the inside of the gear bay doors. Depending on how fussy you are you could probably get away without this as they're not in the most visible spots. Remarkable how much easier this is when you're not working in the middle of the night and sleep deprived. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 17, 2021 Author Share Posted July 17, 2021 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 19, 2021 Author Share Posted July 19, 2021 (edited) Some last minute changes before priming I decided to attach the second lower antenna before painting and priming because I figured it'll be easier to make it match the front one. I'm hoping that masking the white gear bay sections shouldn't be much of an issue. the areas around the antenna should be easy to mask or touch up if there's any overspray. Failing that it should be reasonably well hidden by the gear bay doors and landing gear. I originally was going to leave these ejector pin marks because they'll probably be hidden by the landing gear. But if I'm wrong that'll be a real pain to fix later. Edited July 19, 2021 by Gidge typo 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 20, 2021 Author Share Posted July 20, 2021 So last night was an exercise in making all the rookie airbrush mistakes and learning to fix them. The white primer I was using clogged the air brush spectacularly and I wound up spilling it on a good pair of pants (the one time I was too lazy to change into poo-poo clothes to paint I spill it). After completely stripping and cleaning the airbrush I switched to grey primer and that worked like a charm. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 20, 2021 Author Share Posted July 20, 2021 Testing out my new technique for mounting parts for airbrushing. Pin is inserted on parts that'll either be fully or partly covered so I can prime them evenly without having to do multiple passes and work in sub sections. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 20, 2021 Author Share Posted July 20, 2021 Seems to be a workable setup. Time will tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 20, 2021 Author Share Posted July 20, 2021 So it took me a while to figure out how best to attach these tiny photoetch rings to the back of the AGM 88 HARM's. The solution I came up with was to put some superglue on the back and glue the whole photoetch sheet to the back. That would allow me to easily position and hold the part. Then simply trim away the connection points. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 First build after 20 years!!! I have to say it looks like you haven't lost anything, lovely work! I have the same model its based from, it has to be one of Hasegawa's really nice models. From memory I didn't have any serious issues....other than one's caused by myself and AM bits! With regard to your airbrush issues. Try thinning your mix further, 50:50 or great thinner to paint ratios work well, I go up to 90:10 thinner/paint for some stuff, even higher on occasions. When running these thin/super thin mixes you need to keep your pressures low and same with paint flow. It'll take longer to do the coat and you have to move the paint area around to avoid paint pooling. But you'll get a great fine finish, plus it'll allow you build up layers and to modulate the finish so that you don't get that "flat model" look. Have a bit of the practice/play and see how you go, If you really want to go for those amazing super fine finishes, then try the Lacquer based paints, MRP, AK Real Colors, Tamiya LP range. They are a bit different to work with, they are super thin from the jar (well the AK stuff is super thick and needs to be thinned down alot! But works out really cheap coat wise). The go on super nice, again low flow and pressure is the best and they dry super smooth and quick. I can do a 4 colour scheme with masking in a day easy. This whole scheme (underside included) was done in around 5 hours with Real Color lacquers. Anyway good luck with the rest of your build, you're doing an awesome jobs, look forward to seeing her completed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 21, 2021 Author Share Posted July 21, 2021 3 hours ago, trickyrich said: First build after 20 years!!! I have to say it looks like you haven't lost anything, lovely work! I have the same model its based from, it has to be one of Hasegawa's really nice models. From memory I didn't have any serious issues....other than one's caused by myself and AM bits! With regard to your airbrush issues. Try thinning your mix further, 50:50 or great thinner to paint ratios work well, I go up to 90:10 thinner/paint for some stuff, even higher on occasions. When running these thin/super thin mixes you need to keep your pressures low and same with paint flow. It'll take longer to do the coat and you have to move the paint area around to avoid paint pooling. But you'll get a great fine finish, plus it'll allow you build up layers and to modulate the finish so that you don't get that "flat model" look. Have a bit of the practice/play and see how you go, If you really want to go for those amazing super fine finishes, then try the Lacquer based paints, MRP, AK Real Colors, Tamiya LP range. They are a bit different to work with, they are super thin from the jar (well the AK stuff is super thick and needs to be thinned down alot! But works out really cheap coat wise). The go on super nice, again low flow and pressure is the best and they dry super smooth and quick. I can do a 4 colour scheme with masking in a day easy. This whole scheme (underside included) was done in around 5 hours with Real Color lacquers. Anyway good luck with the rest of your build, you're doing an awesome jobs, look forward to seeing her completed. Thanks mate. Yes it's a very nice kit, generationally better than anything I ever worked on as a kid. Your build turned out really nice. I see you picked similar aftermarket parts to me. Literally a couple days after I did the ECS pipes the Meng kit dropped with the swappable ones. Thanks for the tips. I've noticed the lacquer based paints are nicer to work with and seem to be much more flexible with their thinning ratios. I plan to transition to them with the next project or two. I've got really nice results with the SMS gloss black and metallic. That Sufa of yours is looking really nice. Is that the Kinetic kit? How are you finding it? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 arr no, it's the monster Academy 1/32nd beast. A nice model to build generally, i does need a wee bit of work though to get things right. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 21, 2021 Author Share Posted July 21, 2021 Looks good. I'll keep that in mind for future projects Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 21, 2021 Author Share Posted July 21, 2021 Prepped all the ordinance, pylons and wheels for primer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 22, 2021 Author Share Posted July 22, 2021 So I was feeling really clever scaling up the manual by measuring it against parts. Measuring the instructions against the top of the vertical stabiliser gave me a scale difference of 216%. Eduard conveniently keep a PDF on their website so there's no messing around with scanners and scaling images. https://www.eduard.com/out/media/11129.pdf As you can see below horizontally it appears to scale but vertically it definitely isn't. Note the slime lights and comparison to the reference photos below. There isn't a good spot to get vertical dimensions in the manual but it would appear they're at 225% difference. Eyeballing it and noting how close the lime lights are, appears to be about right. The back up plan is to use it as a starting point to work with. I can just draw some lines over it in MS Paint and so from there. Conveniently there's a good bank of reference photos for the squadron https://www.seaforces.org/usnair/VFA/Strike-Fighter-Squadron-81.htm?fbclid=IwAR1k1qqn0Lpg1AW8brO4fT64ONRUsSWE0-ef7pRV4rh1NQByHAPgLLzOfTI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 22, 2021 Author Share Posted July 22, 2021 (edited) Nope. Definitely not to scale vertically Edited July 22, 2021 by Gidge error Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 22, 2021 Author Share Posted July 22, 2021 Success! Never under estimate Microsoft Paint! Scaled up to 216% and annotated the image in Paint with cutting lines. I'm ordering some A4 masking sheets that I can print directly onto (lockdowns suck) and I'll add the last horizontal section with a piece of tape directly back to the leading edge extension and line it up with that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 22, 2021 Author Share Posted July 22, 2021 (edited) That's way out. Proportions are completely wrong Actually it's pretty close Edited July 22, 2021 by Gidge Stupid mistake. I'm an ideot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 22, 2021 Author Share Posted July 22, 2021 With some slight reshaping the 216% is actually pretty close. After rechecking my reference pictures the "blob" in the camo is a lot larger and more prominent than I thought. The colour shift is subtle enough that it can be really hard to tell unless you're looking at a very clean jet. Also much more consistent between different aircraft, a little dirt and grime gives the illusion of it being hand painted and less uniform. https://www.seaforces.org/usnair/VFA/Strike-Fighter-Squadron-81.htm?fbclid=IwAR1k1qqn0Lpg1AW8brO4fT64ONRUsSWE0-ef7pRV4rh1NQByHAPgLLzOfTI If we look at some RAAF Super Hornets it's easier to spot. RAAF planes have a reputation for being kept super clean (and have the unfair advantage of not living on aircraft carriers) we can get good detail on it. Not only is it fairly large but very uniform and consistent between aircraft. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 23, 2021 Author Share Posted July 23, 2021 Pylons, ordinance, wheels and tyres are now primed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 26, 2021 Author Share Posted July 26, 2021 So here's my first go at creating a masking sheet using Word and Paint. I've doubled up a bit to give me some margin for error so if I mess one up I've got a backup and don't have to waste another sheet. I've done a 15% undersized version of the camo blob at the back for painting the light ghost grey. The hope is that'll give me a nice gradient colour transition when I paint over the edges in dark ghost grey. Time will tell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 26, 2021 Author Share Posted July 26, 2021 So the whole undersized mask didn't quite work out (too hard to trim and align). I switched back to the full size ones. Having the panel lines printed on the mask made alignment a bit easier. Evidently laser printer ink doesn't bond too well to masking sheets so it rubs off when burnishing down the mask. If I ever do this again I think I'll distort the colours to better contrast with the mask and make it easier to I also managed to ever so slightly bleed on a section. Is that likely to interact with the paint? Is there anything I should be doing to prevent the paint failing? Surely I can't be the first person to do that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 26, 2021 Author Share Posted July 26, 2021 Sanded it back to be safe. I've put too much work into this to roll the dice on something so minor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gidge Posted July 27, 2021 Author Share Posted July 27, 2021 Re-primed the section I stuffed up and masked the "box" on the nose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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