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Looking for suggestions on applying Eduard Color Zoom


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Hello all!! I'm getting back to building a F-104 and going to use the Eduard Color Zoom PE set. This is the one that you stick down with its own adhesive. It looks easy enough, but so does any PE, and i have problems with the standard stuff. Any hints anyone can give me on how to apply, align. Does it work better on a gloss finish, flat finish, raw plastic, how delicate is it, does it take a flat coat, am i overthinking this?..... I'm really terrible at painting cockpits, decided to give this a try.

 

Don

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If you haven't gotten the Zoom set, don't. In my opinion its a waist of time and money. If you stick it and its not right, you risk of damaging it trying to move it.Also it might sit up higher off the plastic due to glue thickness.  Your better off getting the regular Eduards set and gluing yourself. I found that the best glue to use for PE is Gorilla glue, because it has better sheer strength than CA. I get it at Lowes, but can be found at other stores......harv 

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Thanks Harv! Already have the set and the kit parts prepped for the PE so it's go time. What i plan on doing is to paint all with grey then clear gloss, stick the PE down, weather with washes, flat clear, then Bondic on the lenses. If others have BTDT and have ways to avoid problems, it would really help.

 

Don

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If you haven't gotten the Zoom set, don't. In my opinion its a waist of time and money. If you stick it and its not right, you risk of damaging it trying to move it.Also it might sit up higher off the plastic due to glue thickness.  Your better off getting the regular Eduards set and gluing yourself. I found that the best glue to use for PE is Gorilla glue, because it has better sheer strength than CA. I get it at Lowes, but can be found at other stores......harv 

 

Haven't had the greatest results with most brands of CA glue till I tried the Loctite thin and gel CA glues. The plastic bottles use a side pressure set up for dispensing, which worked well, as I found less clogging issues. Still, I just bought both thin and Gel Gorilla glues on Harv's recommendation to see which is the better for PE use.

 

Joel

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I know a lot of modelers do not like the self adhesive PE but I have been using it since it came out and have not had any adhesive failures yet. Follow the obvious and apply to a clean surface. I flat coat all of mine as it seems to smooth out the textured appearance and gets rid of the gloss. I have only used acrylics for this, either Future with Tamiya flat base or Model Master's acryl clear flat so I can't speak to using solvent based material.

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Well, i had a look at them and i thought, "how hard can it be?" Usually saying that gets me in trouble but in the end i made sure everything was clean, cut them out, applied them, and pressed down. No big deal. I found the adhesive allowed a little room to move for alignment, helpful on the two part panels. I found it best to use a sharp blade to cut them free as close to the part as possible, do this on a hard surface. Flat coating improved the look a lot, as did a drop of Future on the gauges for lenses. There are very very VERY small pieces for handles/switches/etc that are to be applied.....good luck with them. I tried to do a few of them, they all pinged off somewhere to be future little mined to stick in my feet. I used a tooth pick to add red and grey paint to the panels instead of the small pieces. In the end, they are much better than i could ever hope to do with paint, i'm good with them and will probably use again in the future.

 

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Don

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