Back in the Saddle's Bits on the Side!

[Back in the Saddle]

Welcome to my new thread which will be a refuge for all my little side projects!

 

Despite having far too many models on the go already, most of which are almost (but not quite!) complete, I sometimes can't resist the urge to start another. @Paulaero knows what I'm talking about...😁

 

This latest side venture had the promise of genuinely being a short diversion, something I could finish in a matter of days - possibly whittling away the hours whilst away from home. However, as with many things in life, my first BOTS grew arms and legs and became a little more convoluted than I had anticipated!

The mission was simple - rejuvenate a model from 2022 which had suffered in the sunlight and no longer looked its best. The aircraft was one of my fictional British Airways 727's in the 'Benyhone' tartan livery and it looked like this when it first rolled off my workbench (more images are on my RFI thread if you wish to see her in all her glory!):

 

 

My homemade decals have unfortunately suffered in the direct sunlight - I need to find another source of decal paper which is more durable in the heat for future projects... After a couple of years in the sun, these decals had shrunk and cracked badly:

 

 

My plan was simple - soak off the offending decals and apply some new ones!

 

I packed the kit into my bag and took it away on a work trip; when I arrived I gave it a long soak in the sink:

 

 

After many hours soaking (and much scrapping with a cocktail stick!), I had finally removed 99.9% of the decal material. This is when my problems began - either the water or the wooden stick had affected the white paint, leaving it looking a little wrinkled:

 

 

The above photo was taken after I had returned home and realised my little project had become bigger!

I gave the fuse a gentle sanding to remove the blemishes and applied primer where necessary:

 

 

I have run out of the Halford's Appliance white paint which I use on my airliner kits (and it has also now been discontinued!😲), so I bought a can of something similar from them which I will try out and see how it looks. Hopefully it will do the job!

 

[Gimme Shelter]

decals are just like humans - they wrinkle with age!

 

And probably just as difficult to overcome - all the best with the 727, and all the others.......... not forgetting that Concorde of yours (yes, I had to get my two penny's worth in there!)

[woody37]

Don't you just hate these setbacks? Modelling is a great source of resilience building...and swearing!

 

Have you tried spraying the decals with car lacquer as a sealant before applying (several light coats)? Touch wood, this has worked really well, with a few builds in sunlight that have coped fine. 

[Back in the Saddle]

7 hours ago, Gimme Shelter said:

decals are just like humans - they wrinkle with age!

These ones have aged very badly! 😁

 

7 hours ago, Gimme Shelter said:

And probably just as difficult to overcome - all the best with the 727, and all the others.......... not forgetting that Concorde of yours (yes, I had to get my two penny's worth in there!)

A little Concorde update has just been posted!👍

 

3 hours ago, woody37 said:

Have you tried spraying the decals with car lacquer as a sealant before applying (several light coats)? Touch wood, this has worked really well, with a few builds in sunlight that have coped fine. 

I haven't, as the decals were sprayed before application (to seal the ink). I will try spraying them again once they are on the model to see if that helps.👍

 

 

The decals I'm planning to use on the tail fin are a spare set of Revell's 'Chelsea Rose' decals, left over from my BA 767 'Sweden' build. The inspiration came from a comment made by @Vince1159 on the original 727 RFI thread - thanks for the suggestion!

 

These are the decals; I'm hopeful the design can be applied on the 727 fin:

 

 

I'll have a go as soon as the fuselage is repainted!

 

[Back in the Saddle]

I had another minor setback with this project, when the model slipped from my fingers whilst being sprayed and landed in the grass!

 

I gave it another rub down once it was dry and sprayed the affected areas with filling primer, but I think a bit more work is needed - I can still see a gouge in the fuselage paint just above the window line:

 

 

Note the clamp holding it securely this time - no more falls!

In other news, the paint I traditionally use on my airliner models was supplied by Halfords but is now discontinued. However, I think I may have tracked down the company that supplied it to Halfords in the first place, so am about to order a can of Appliance White and Capri Blue from them to confirm if it really is the same paint. Fingers crossed, as I use that stuff all the time! 🤞

 

Finally an update about another side project I'm working on. Along with @FortyEighter, we are trying to produce a set of 'Delftblue Daybreak' decals for Mike's 777 model - you might have seen this mentioned on my Concorde build thread a while ago.

 

As a quick recap, Mike bought some decals from a well known supplier, but they were very inaccurate - the size was far too big, the design was flawed and the colour was wrong! Coincidentally, I also had many inaccuracies when I bought a different BA Utopia set from this supplier too, which is how I got started with making my own decals... Here's a picture of Mike's decals, which shows how oversized they are, especially the ones to wrap around the fuselage:

 

 

Getting these corrected has been an ongoing task, fitting in around other projects and work. After much dabbling I thought I had something broadly correct, so printed out a set of decals to try them on the model to see how they looked. They are still not quite right, as can be seen below - the fin decal extends slightly too high:

 

 

The fuselage decal was added next. This one includes two different shades of blue, so I could check which one looked most accurate. You can also see the green template markings around the tailcone, used to help me get the general dimensions correct:

 

 

Not quite right, but invaluable information for making final adjustments to the design.👍

 

Any cracks in these decals are a result of me using a batch of dodgy decal paper. No good for final prints, but quite OK for a sacrificial decal such as this!

 

A bit more tweaking should produce something that looks very authentic.

[Gimme Shelter]

Keep Calm and Decal On.....

 

ride the storm 

[Back in the Saddle]

My painting woes continue... Having sanded the fuselage until all blemishes were removed, I gave it a coat of primer:

 

 

I have never had this happen before, it almost looks like the paint coating shrank as it dried. Another session with 240 grit sandpaper awaits; this time I'm going back to bare plastic in case this was a reaction between the new primer and the remains of the old topcoat...