The T’riffic Tale has Ended.

[Bertie McBoatface]

38 minutes ago, Retired Bob said:

I just looked at your thread on the GB page, it has 2.1k views and 97 replies so that's pretty good.  Sometimes you get interest and replies and sometimes you don't.  I thought I was asking some good questions in the Vulcan builds but didn't get much response, life can be a female dog at times. 

 

Yes, you're right. It was just the change in the pattern that kicked off my paranoia. I never claimed to be sane, you know. 

[Retired Bob]

2 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I never claimed to be sane, you know. 

Neither did I ...wibble, wibble.  Buying hundreds of plastic kits, spending a fortune on books and aftermarket accessories and not finishing them after hundreds of hours researching and building them...

Totally insane/bonkers or plain old nuts!  

[Bertie McBoatface]

7 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

plain old nuts!  

I prefer the salted ones. 

[Retired Bob]

2 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I prefer the salted ones. 

Tsk, tsk, don't you know what salt does to your blood pressure?

[Bertie McBoatface]

26 minutes ago, Retired Bob said:

Tsk, tsk, don't you know what salt does to your blood pressure?

 

I'm able to reject your Tsks because I have hypOtension - low blood pressure. It's only my salty nuts that keep me upright. (As the bishop said to the actress...)

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 8/30/2021 at 4:07 PM, Bertie Psmith said:

So all that's left is that 'salt staining' (tonight) and final assembly (in the morning).

 

I never did post a picture of the salt stains, if that's what they were.

 

 

 

So there you go. Oil paints are marvellous!

 

 

[Terry1954]

On 8/30/2021 at 4:07 PM, Bertie Psmith said:

Humbrol clear is amazing btw. It's cheap, ready to spray, dries fast and hard. I think it's probably Kleer but as it comes in gloss, satin and matt, I will continue to buy the stuff. 

 

 

I totally agree with that comment. For me it seems to beat a lot of other very specialised varnishes, often much more expensive and in much smaller containers! I'm using it quite a lot lately.

 

Great work on these F4's. I recall reading about the jungle green US Navy schemes during the Vietnam war when I was a teenager. At the time there was little in the form of references to help the modeller on that, but those CTA decals look really good.

 

Keep up the great F4 work!

 

Terry

[Terry1954]

1 minute ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I never did post a picture of the salt stains, if that's what they were.

 

 

Our posts crossed in the ether! That shot looks superb!

 

Terry

[Bertie McBoatface]

2 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

 

Our posts crossed in the ether! That shot looks superb!

 

Terry

 

It was seeing what you had reacted to that made me notice my omission. I posted a picture back on page 4 as well. 

 

And thank you. It came out exactly as intended, which was a very satisfying moment as I'm new to oils and everything is still something of an experiment. Paint bravely!

[Bertie McBoatface]

10 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

Neither did I ...wibble, wibble.  Buying hundreds of plastic kits, spending a fortune on books and aftermarket accessories and not finishing them after hundreds of hours researching and building them...

Totally insane/bonkers or plain old nuts!  

 

There are many ways to enjoy our hobby as well as actually finishing a model. I like: finding a bargain; getting inspired by a story; opening the box and smelling the plastic; research; scratching details; closing the fuselage; and many more highlights. There are also the boring bits like canopy masking!

 

Unfortunately there are also many ways that we can make ourselves unhappy too. For example, I tend to rush and neglect some of the basics like seam elimination. Then at the end, all I can see is my sloppiness, which takes away much of my satisfaction. (And yes, I do realise that beating myself up about it is the dumb thing, not the rushing.) 

[Retired Bob]

1 hour ago, Bertie Psmith said:

There are many ways to enjoy our hobby as well as actually finishing a model. I like: finding a bargain; getting inspired by a story; opening the box and smelling the plastic; research; scratching details; closing the fuselage; and many more highlights. There are also the boring bits like canopy masking!

I totally agree, and I suspect most other modellers are the same, explains the level of intensity in the run up to the start of a GB then the drop off as the kit building begins, I think every one dislikes the canopy masking part as it it can make or break the look of a model, with AFV's it's the tow cables and tools, in reality they would have been camouflaged along with the rest of the vehicle but do that on a model and it looks....like sloppy modelling! 

[Bertie McBoatface]

3 minutes ago, Retired Bob said:

with AFV's it's the tow cables and tools

Tracks. I'm afraid of tracks. They drive me round the sprocket!

[Retired Bob]

3 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Tracks. I'm afraid of tracks. They drive me round the sprocket!

I used to get into problems with tracks but after joining the Tiger big build on this site I found that building them along with the wheels was the way forward, whether you paint them neatly or just smother them with mud it gets the job done early and without the stress.

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

Did you ever have one of those days when you spill every liquid, drop everything delicate, lose anything important?

 

Perhaps the Phantom Jinx is back to haunt me, but I've achieved 60% of everything I've attempted. Before lunch I remember saying, "I'm too tired for moddelling today, I'd only pork everything up" and then I went right ahead and proved myself right. The only saving grace was that I neglected to photograph much of it all, saving myself some embarassment. Anyway, here are the better parts of the afternoon.

 

 

This ain't bad. The turbine is actually steel coloured but it failed to catch the light in this photo (!). That strange green colour came out ok and has highlighted the groovy jetpipe (man!), in an agreable way.

 

 

 

 

I made the green colour from these, seeking transparency, but it was too transparent so in the end I lobbed in some white acrylic paint too. Once again Berie was being a bit too clever! Any old green paint would have done the job with far less faffing about. 

 

 

 

 

This got painted but all my plans for a shadowed effect were lost because I used the wrong size nozzle and flooded it all. Next step here is to apply some of the Quinta decals. I've gone right off them. They are fantastically detailed and will provide me with instruments on which you can read the maker's name and serial number - but. But to me they still look like stickers. Maybe they will be ok when they are on. Or rather, maybe I won't feel so negative when they are on. We'll see.

 

 

 

 

I sprayed some metal about the place and it doesn't look bad but every attempt to shade my two colours into each other fell flat. Perhaps I can rescue this with the inks. They might allow me to do the brown heat marks. Maybe.

 

My intake trick looks absolutely awful now it's painted. I fear that the intakes are too wide in 1/48 for the effect to work. FOD blanks anyone?

 

I wish I could say I've learned a lesson from all of this. But I already knew it was a mistake to work when I'm deathly tired and that didn't stop me, and wont stop me next time. What a dumb-bottom! Still nothing is a 'fatal error' so far and I remain determined to finish this. So let's just say some days are diamonds and some days are stone, and leave it at that. 🎼 'Tomorrow, Tomorrow! I love ya, Tomorrow....

 

 

 

 

[Ghostbase]

7 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Unfortunately there are also many ways that we can make ourselves unhappy too. For example, I tend to rush and neglect some of the basics like seam elimination. Then at the end, all I can see is my sloppiness, which takes away much of my satisfaction. (And yes, I do realise that beating myself up about it is the dumb thing, not the rushing.) 

 

Good to hear that I am not the only one 👍 I am just finishing an ESCI F-8 Crusader which has come out a lot better than I expected, yep I rushed some of the basics and don't they show!

 

Good work with the oil paints.

 

Michael

[Bertie McBoatface]

3 minutes ago, Ghostbase said:

Good to hear that I am not the only one

 

It's probably everyone at some time or other. I just get disappointed when I make the same errors over and over.

 

And thanks for the comment about the oils. That's something that I can do, apparently.

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

Even on a baaaad day like today, I could make a Quinta-perfect cockpit in about 15 minutes. And five of that was spent decanting PVA glue from a gallon container (you can imagine how that went! lol). I feel like a Victorian portrait painter the day he first saw a 'photograph'. At first dismayed because now everyone can do what I used to be good at, and then not so dismayed because I think they clash horribly with the rest of the model. They may be better with a bit of oil washing to blend them in. I'll have to be careful though as they may disintegrate entirely. Acrylic varnish first, I guess.

[Bertie McBoatface]

Update 7th September

 

1. There will be no update today. Thank you.

 

 

[Retired Bob]

On 06/09/2021 at 17:24, Bertie Psmith said:

I wish I could say I've learned a lesson from all of this. But I already knew it was a mistake to work when I'm deathly tired and that didn't stop me, and wont stop me next time. What a dumb-bottom!

I was still suffering from a bad attack of Vertigo from last week, not helped by a bit of whiplash when some dumb-bottom rear ended my car on Saturday (not my fault)  So I laid out the parts that needed painting and then went and had a nap, felt much better afterwards but guilty that I hadn't progressed any of my Phantom builds. 

[Bertie McBoatface]

2 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

but guilty that I hadn't progressed any of my Phantom builds. 

my stash (of only ten kits and two figures) gives me an excuse for feeling guilty. The voice in my head says “What did you buy him all those toys for? He never plays with half of them!”
 

I think moddelling is like psychotherapy, it reveals us to ourselves, if we are only capable of seeing. 

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

And now we turn our attention to the known difficult area of the Italeri F-4J. That canopy is horrid. It would be beyond my skills to do a closed version and I'm not certain that I can make an open one look ok. It is very brittle plastic, even for clear parts. I'm really bothered about busting the centre arch section. There's no provision for attaching the moving parts to the airframe apart from two tiny nubs on each which should, but don't, locate...

 

 

 

           

 

...here in these big slots. The potential for a glue mishap onto the clear sections is rated 'inevitable'. Also note those huge empty spaces especially the one under that arch. On the real thing that's full of canopy hingeing stuff and RIO instruments. I will try to fill it and sincerely wish I hadn't already stuck the arch down! Lol! We may well end up with blacked out windows on that bit.

 

 

 

 

This is the best solution I could come up with. Plasticard as thick as I could find.

 

 

 

 

Like so.

 

Note #1 Remember how I was trying to avoid glue on the clear parts?  That is my glue soaked thumbprint inside the pilot's lid. (Expletive deleted)

 

Note #2 See also the short shot on the same part. There's probably  a way to fix that.

 

What shall we use, to fill the empty spaces? I'll be trying to find enough nurnies (I love these words) to look busy AND provide a firm location for my single hinges. Wish me luck on that quest into the spares box.

 

 

 

 

I had a bash at painting the seats. I'm not finished with them yet; there's the faceblind handles to fit for one thing. They are Quickboost resin MB Mk7 and seem pretty accurate. More accurate than my painting hand anyway. Ha! Don't we all hate these massive enlargements on the big screen.

 

 

 

 

Finally, with everything glued together, here's the money shot of the misemployed Quinta set that I purchased originally for the Tamiya F-4B. I've drybrushed the edges a bit to sort of integrate the decals with the plastic and that helped the appearance a lot, in my opinion.

 

It's been a hot 'Busy Wednesday' today so there's not been a huge amount of progress, but I am still inching towards the finishing line.  It can't be long now before I get to do some outside painting, can it?

 

 

 

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

 

Today I've been playing with the back end trying for that illusive streaked effect. This isn't it by the way, this is the oil paint drying enough that i can blend it without wiping it off entirely.

 

 

 

 

At the other end, I've spent a lot of time today filling and sanding joints like this and the intakes that should never have been this bad, even in 1980. This is why I tend to buy newer stuff whenever I can. I get bored with this basic but time consuming work, and with me boredom is a model killer. I will finish this one though, on the understanding that it (and its little brother Hasegawa) wont make it past this year's Christmas cull.

 

 

 

 

It was a bit more interesting making these. The larger diameter one was not used as it seemed overscale. 

 

 

 

 

That will do. 

 

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

I need to finish this model by Monday morning or it's never going to end. The race is on.

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

Filler cleaned up 

U/C legs cleaned up and fitted 

ECM gear fitted and filled

HUD fitted and painted 

Cooling air intakes fitted and filled

 

 

 

 

Tyres painted, two shades

 

 

 

 

Windshield fitted using Tamiya Quick setting. Bad choice. Clear areas fogged despite being clear-coated.

 

 

 

Next:  Masking, priming, main paints, gloss coat, decals, satin coat, detail painting, final assembly and weathering.

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

You may be wondering, 'Why the rush?'

 

I've noticed that lately, I've been doing a little less work each day on this Phantom and missing some days entirely. This is because I've fallen out of love with her and she's beginning to bore me. Since I use this hobby to stave off boredom, you'll appreciate the danger of becoming seriously bored by it. (I say 'seriously' because there are always going to be boring bits in any hobby, but that's different.) So, to raise the interest level a little and provide a fixed point beyond which I know I'll be doing something more interesting, I'm blitz-finishing this pos. On Monday night, I'll be free to start on my Nordic II GB project for a change of scenery (it's a diorama. 😁).

 

I have a family visitor for most of the daylight hours of Sunday so time is a little tighter than you may have thought, but on Monday morning I'll either be taking my camera to a finished moddel or taking a hammer to it. 😱