A Couple of Kits Needing Love - Tamiya Jeep and Sword EE Lightning

[Scargsy]

So it's time for me to try and clear up a couple of kits that didn't quite get finished in previous GBs.

Neither need a massive amount of work so thought I'd place them in the same thread.

 

Firstly a Sword 1/72 scale EE Lightning, from the 2020/2021 Interceptors GB previous build thread here.

I got bogged down and disheartened by the decals, especially after finding I'd placed the roundels in the wrong place for the wing walkway demarcation lines.

Looking a little wet there as I rinsed off the shelf dust!

It needs that tail tip paint fixing, possibly some more decals adding, the undercarriage fitting, clearcoat and some weather and I should be able to call it done. 

 

The second kit needing some finalisation is a Tamiya 1/35 SAS Jeep kit, from the Less than a Tenner GB, build log here.

All that stowage really ground me down - especially having to clean up loads of nasty seam lines on every piece. Again it shouldn't take too long to actually get done but I'm still far from finding the enthusiasm for this one, other than actually getting a bit of peace of mind for finishing it!

[JeroenS]

Looks like only minor work is needed, you'll get them done!

[Lazy Modeller]

Just a little more love and you're done!

Cheers

LM

[Scargsy]

So I managed to get a bit of bench time and move the Lightning along.

 

First job was tackling my ugly previous attempt at hand painting the yellow tip of the vertical stabiliser - I'd used Tamiya flat yellow over black, that doesn't cover well so it had gone on incredibly lumpy (I guess as I tried to get coverage).

A little bit of their X20a (isopropyl alcohol based thinners) on a cotton wool bud and it was wiping away nicely - the black was Alclad primer (and had been overshot with their clear) which I think is possibly enamel based but is certainly in some lacquer type thinners - given that was a lot tougher the black stayed put (phew).

However this time I was planning on airbrushing to get a smoother coat, this presented a problem given I've already applied decals! So time to improvise...

Firstly I masked just around the area I needed with some thin tape, then to ensure I didn't pull the letter identification decals I cut some small squares of paper big enough to cover them, then firstly placed these in the centre of some masking tape before placing the tape over the decal (so no sticky part is touching the decal but they were covered.

Then I found a spare clear plastic bag, cut a hole in for the tail and put the whole aircraft inside - I really don't trust myself not to either overspray or get some wet paint finger marks on the model!

I then sprayed up the tip - firstly with a thin coat of Mr Surfacer White primer, then a few light coats of Tamiya yellow, both thinned with Self Levelling Thinner.

 

The next thing to tackle was fitting the undercarriage which proved a rather frustrating task!

Firstly the front wheel, I seem to have somehow managed to bend to the side, relative to the leg (maybe when I assembled it, or it's been bent to the side since assembly/paint).

Then the rear legs - I'd attached the doors to the legs first, before painting ages ago, including the smaller doors at the tops of the legs. However when it came time to fit them - the legs aren't long enough to fit into the small mounting points, either an issue with the kit or my assembly, to that end they are effectively now resting on the smaller top doors (however these seem quite thick at the rear side and inset, so hopefully doesn't look too much like they're flush.

 

The rear legs have an additional two hydraulic ram parts per side - so I added those, hopefully they will add some stability! With the legs fitted and the glue set I turned her over and behold - my nose weights work (only just - I seem to remember placing some steel ball bearings in it), however - erk...

With all the messing around with it upside down I'd not noticed there was a bit of masking tape on the paint stand and it's take off a bit of the black edge marking!

 

The undercarriage doors were also a pain to fit - whilst they have small 'tabs' on the doors, there's no related mounting points to mate into. At one point I thought I'd lost one of the smaller front wheel doors but investigating a light rattling sound in the box it seems it had escaped the poly bag I'd placed it in for safe keeping, lucky save there. 

 

There were some of the line decals left on the sheet - so I cut a few short lengths and used them to repair the new gap and also lengthen the rear edge markings back to the body, then added the vertical stabiliser tip decals on each side.

At this point I'd have enough of decaling this kit, (I also noticed one of the roundels under the wing had a rip) it's not great but at least it's got the main parts on now - so I gave it a coat of clear, though it's quite lumpy (not very smooth) - the previous one wasn't super smooth either.

So I'm going to leave it to dry and then decide what to do with it later - a wash or maybe just some satin/flat clear to hide the bumpiness of the gloss clearcoat. I'm beginning to remember why this build got left on the shelf with all these trials but at least it's almost there now.

 

 

 

[JeroenS]

Maybe you could very carefully sand the gloss black in the the larger flat area's with a fine grid? Then apply some satin or flat on top. 

[Scargsy]

So I'm calling the the Lightning finished.

I gave it a few thin coats of thinned Microscale satin, mixed with their flat varnish.  

Not the greatest kit and certainly not the best build but it's now finished.

I don't think the NMF came out very well (looks quite grainy), due to the Alclad - I didn't put a gloss black underneath it and I think the initial clear I put to protect the (very) fragile coat was their lacquer based one. It reacted somewhat with the metallic coat, next time I guess I'll try something like a water based acrylic clear on it.

Still hopefully next time I can do a better job, live and learn.

I also noticed I'd missed off the underside stabilizer fin from the rear belly - oh well.