gwana

It is a big kit. I do most of my messy work on the weekends, but I like to pick out small sub-assemblies from various kits and piece them together in the evening while the TV is on. So I have the engines and the wheels assembled, and I'm working on the instrument panel. Has there been a definitive answer on the color of the engine bulkheads? I thought I saw some posts that said the Tamiya instructions were wrong in the nacelles, as were some of the restored birds. And a technique question: I really struggle with detail painting and keeping paint 'within the lines' and not getting it on adjacent details. I have magnifiers, tiny brushes, and a shaky hand. I can't draw a straight line to save my life unless a ruler is involved. Anyone conquered this?

Well, here goes, my first public grown-up build. Having aired my demons in a previous post, I'm going to try to document my learning experience by starting a build thread. Hopefully I can stay motivated and get some feedback as I progress. Pay no attention to the parts of other kits floating around on my bench in this shot - I've been jumping around lately building things and not doing much past basic paintwork. So, having never weathered anything (unless I can count lighting on fire as weathering), I present one Merlin engine as an exercise in light and shadow, which to me now looks a lot more like a hunk of used iron than a chunk of new plastic. Further detail painting will come as well as a semi-gloss varnish, and I may add some additional plumbing. Or I may not, since I tend to come off the rails and wander off into detail hell. I will be using HGW harnesses and Master gun barrels, otherwise pretty much OOB. Undecided on decals. There's also a bit of cockpit visible, where I'm playing with chipping. So far I'm quite pleased with how it's going. I can also see that I'm going to have to dig out my digital camera. Phone isn't cutting it.

I started out with my sanding/polishing sticks at the finer grits - 1500, 4000, then I used an auto scratch remover on a towel. For the sticks, I would press the needle to the stick at the angle of the taper and spin the needle. Yes, I polish my needle a lot...

But how many of those original 229 kits remain unbuilt? Here's a conversion for a kit we don't make anymore! I just figured it would be good marketing to do another run because surely folks into the 229 will want one of each.

Have you tried polishing your airbrush needle? I was having all sorts of problems with my .3mm needle on my 105. Tip dry, splatter, clogging. I was going to get a different airbrush. Polished the needle and it's a heck of a lot better. The needle (brand new) was really rough.

I presume they'll bring the HO-229 kit back when the 2-seat conversion kit rolls out. But I've also noticed that a lot of online sellers are clearing out their stock of ZM add-on detail sets. Once you spend that kind of money on a super detailed kit, it doesn't look like many are dropping extra cash for ground crew or weighted tires. IMHO, weighted tires should already be in the kit. Last time I looked, every kit in 1/32 was still available directly from Volks USA, which is their USA distribution arm.

FYI for those facing an almost empty bottle of Tamiya cement: Take off the cap/brush. Grab the brush just above the bristles with pliers. Twist/pull. The brush extends to reach the bottom of the bottle.

I should have picked it up when I saw it.

I've just picked up the Revell HE-219 in 1/32 as a break from my stop-and-start HK B-25. The B-25 is going to be "The Ink Squirts", but I got over my head in PE and advanced techniques and I decided I needed to practice on some cheap kits before I burn that B-25 to the ground with mistakes. The Revell is not a bad kit for $40, but no engines or guns. Pretty much a shell with a detailed cockpit. There is simulated framing behind the rudders, etc. that you can see when the surfaces are turned (which I assume is painted RLM02 like the insides of the gear bays and other areas), and I'm roadblocked on when to stop gluing and start painting, and how to resume gluing and not getting overspray on those semi-hidden areas when I paint my camo scheme. When I was a kid, I'd glue everything together and spray bomb it with a can of metalflake and damn the torpedoes (and panel lines). This is more... refined. I plan to fill seams, re-scribe, and make mistakes on the $40 kit first.

Looking for some tips. I'm back into modeling after a long hiatus, and fairly new to airbrushing in general. I've got two kits now in the construction stage where I can't go much further without making some decisions. I've got moveable control surfaces that have some detailed frame structure behind them. Besides figuring out what color they're supposed to be, I'm trying to come up with a strategy to paint them and keep them that color. These are the type where say two halves of an elevator are glued together trapping a pin on the horizontal stab that's not glued. So should I paint these inner surfaces now behind the elevator, mask them, temporarily adhere the two halves of the control surface in place, then paint my exterior scheme? Then disassemble, unmask, and hopefully glue the parts with no squeeze-out? These are some thin trailing edges and my usual application of Tamiya extra thin and letting it wick along the joint will mess up my finish. This is especially frustrating because I have a dual rudder on an HE-219 that goes *through* the horizontal structure of the tail, and the assembly instructions have you glue the whole mess together before putting the vertical stabs on the plane. I can't possibly get a good paint job on those 4 pieces and assemble them after, and I need to paint behind them. How do you guys/girls handle your ailerons, flaps, rudders, etc?

Seems like it wouldn't be too hard to simulate the needed blade with the kit paddle blade and some putty for the tapered cuff? If you want to be a stickler for that detail...

If you don't want to decant the spray stuff, I, umm.... *borrowed* a bottle of my girlfriend's clear nail polish (laquer). It works a treat on PE. Gives you some time for re-positioning, dries clear and mostly flattens out. If you leave the cap off for a bit, the stuff gels up. As a bonus, it comes in many, many colors, so if you're doing a pit, you can find a nail polish that's pretty darned close to RLM66 or Interior Green, or what have you, and your "glue" won't show up even if you glue after paint. They also make a UV curing gel, which I haven't tried yet, but it sounds promising. Of course, this requires you to peruse the beauty aisle at some store and you will get some looks. The only thing it's not good for is if your PE part has any force on it while drying. There's not much initial tack, just surface tension holding the part in place.

To add to this - I just got into airbrushing recently and I bought some cheap craft acrylics to practice and to see if the rumors were true that you could airbrush the stuff. At $.50 a bottle on sale, how can you pass it up? I learned how to mix paint properly using this stuff, made my own homebrew thinner, and I figured out the brush on some plastic card. Now mixing and spraying Tamiya is a dream because the pigments are so much better. End result: Craft paints DO work, and they stick quite well to plastic. I wouldn't use them for a finish coat, but maybe interiors and weathering. Problem is, the bottles have very little shelf life, and you have to be into mixing your own colors. I was very successfully spraying $.50 craft paint with a 0.3 needle doing fine lines. I still have the plastic card and it won't come off with my fingernail.

Windshield washer fluid. It's cheap and it does the job with all the acrylics I use. When done painting, put a few drops in the cup and wipe most of the paint out with a paper towel. Now fill the cup about 1/2 way and use a throwaway paint brush to scrub. Dump it out. Wipe the cup. Repeat. Dump. Now fill the cup about 1/2 again and spray it through the brush. Take off the needle shroud and wipe off the tip. Done. Couple of drops of Badger needle oil in the cup and it's good to go next time. <5 minutes if you really take your time at it. Hasn't clogged up yet.

Probably not. Since these paints are designed to bind to plastic, they may react with whatever plastic the pellets are made of. Even acrylics can have a base of alcohol or be mixed with lacquer thinner, and those pellets may melt, soften, or harden and turn to dust. I'd maybe try a long-term test in a pot of paint I didn't care about, but we could be talking months or years. Glass beads may be a good alternative. Glass is pretty much inert for our purposes.

Amazing work!

Maybe all you junkies can give me some tips? My stash consists of... four. Four kits. Two in progress, two armor kits put aside due to lack of interest. And now my girlfriend wants to know why I could possibly want another kit before I've finished one of the ones I have? She actually said "You're not going to start a new one before you've finished the one you've started, are you?" Yes, yes I am. Because it's all a work in progress until it isn't. I'm not sure how to explain how having 4-5 builds going at the same time is actually fun. And she's supportive! She even proposed a display cabinet in the dining room! Yet, she collects vintage Christmas items that spend 10 months of the year in boxes... and doesn't understand why collecting unbuilt kits is fun.

I have a Monogram B-24J kit that I picked up NIB at an antique store. It says 1977 on the decal sheet. They tried to cast the plastic in NMF and failed miserably. It's silver-ish swirled with metallic black. Brittle as hell.