Woody V

Not sure what MA aluminum is, but back in the day Model Master metallics had the same issue. The problem is that there is so little binder in the paint the metallic particles come off easily. Back then, people were resorting to wet facial tissue to mask it. If there is metallic coming up with the clear, the problem is the metallic paint and not the clear. You might want to try some clear lacquer. If MA is lacquer based, clear lacquer might just penetrate it enough to lock the metallic down. Personally, I use AK Xtreme metallics and find they are much less prone to lifting if you put them down wet, but that's just me.

Winner winner chicken dinner! Def going to give it a go. Only problem is that I just tossed about 6 feet of that insulation. Thanks, Chuck

Whew, I'm glad it's not just me. The only real blunder on Trumpeter's part I've encountered so far. The nose cowl is tricky too but an easy fix. What's your next project?

Thanks man, appreciate it.

It's time I finally broke down and got one of them fancy stands to hold my model while working on it. I've seen wooden ones and plexiglass ones being used but I haven't seen any for sale anywhere.

True, but they don't have either of the products mentioned above

PROGRESS!.... Well, sort of Hoping to get re-enthused about this build, I cleaned up my modeling room. Luckily for me I have no desire to build a 1/32 B-17. BTW, fruit flies love Future. Back to this mess. There are times when good enough just isn’t good enough, and since I pulled the masking off before I picked out the details and didn’t overcoat with satin clear I stripped the paint off the canopy and repainted it. Since I discovered that IPA dissolves Future I dropped the parts in a jar full of it and set it aside for a couple days. The IPA dissolves the Future and the paint just lifts off. This time I didn’t bother painting the inside, just put down the interior green first. Also gloss coated and put a wash in the recessed rivets. As of this posting I haven’t satin coated it yet, I’ll do that when I’m ready to do more painting. Moving on to more details I decided to add lenses to the telescopic bomb sight. First I drilled out the ends and fly some miracle I actually got the holes in the center. Burrs left over from the drilling were cleaned off with some Extra Thin. After painting and a little dry brushing I punched out some clear disks from .007 clear sheet. I’ve never liked the way clear lenses look when done with clear paint - they never look flat so I do it this way. I used thickened Future to glue the disk. Thickened Future can be made by putting some in a jar and waiting for it to get about the consistency of syrup. Light reflection off the finished flat lens looks like a lens instead of a puddle of clear paint. Then I decided that the compass needed a decal upgrade and since none is provided I made one and printed it out on white decal film with my 600 dpi HP color laser printer. Making decals like this is pretty simple if you can create the artwork. Just print and shoot a wet coat of rattle can clear lacquer to seal the toner and acts like a lens. BTW, it’s .090” x .060” but I extended the black out past that and added trim marks. Then I sliced through the film at the trim marks and slid the decal in position. A drop of setting solution and done. Based on photos I found the details are yellow like the decal. Moving on to the last major part of the build I attached the engine assembly which was pretty uneventful after dry fitting. If you build one of these, don’t attach the engine to the firewall like it says in the instructions. It’s just too much hassle working around it trying not to mess up your wiring. There’s a lot of dry fitting required to get the bulkhead properly aligned with the fuselage. Another reason not to attach the engine early is dealing with these cowl panels. They fit against the firewall perfectly but not so much the fuselage. The bottom fits fine, but not the sides. I know it’s not me because everything up to this point fits as it should because the part that goes on top of this lines up perfectly on the fuselage. The shape is simply wrong. This is very discouraging to get this far into the build only to have this mess. There is no easy fix for this. If the top of this cowling doesn’t line up with the top of the fuselage the part that goes between the fuselage halves won’t fit so I did this to line them up and glued. Oh well, moving right along. That's it for today. Now I have to fit the nose cowl which is shaping up to be another challenge.

Unfortunately, they don't ship to the US.

NICE! Bookmarked that site for future reference.

I thought I read somewhere of a place that sells tiny springs, but a quick search comes up dry. Anyone know about these?

I've had this thing for a while but never liked the way it turned my paint into froth. By accident I found the speed can be controlled but it's nearly impossible because the switch goes from off to warp speed way too easily. After playing around with holding it a certain way to get more control I came up with this solution. If you press the switch just in front of the alligator clip you have a lot of control over the speed. Not very elegant, but it works.

Been looking for jars like this but the ones I've found don't seal well enough to keep lacquer thinner from evaporating. Just ordered and I hope these work.

AK interactive RC255 Light Gray

Not that this is the cause of your problem, but Mr. Mark Setter is supposed to go under the decal. Rule-ofThumb: Any decal prep solution with "set" in the name goes where you intend to "set" the decal.

Aw, come on Pete, where's your sense of adventure? You could probably knock that out in a couple minutes.... LOL!

IMO, your first mistake was using a water based primer. My suggestion is to use a lacquer based primer thinned with hardware store thinner. Lacquer thinner for model paints is quite tame, it will not affect styrene but the common misconception is that hardware store lacquer thinner will dissolve minute surface details. This is true if you pour it on but when mixed/diluted with paint there is only enough "heat" to minutely etch the plastic to form a molecular bond between the primer and the styrene. Lacquer is also the only paint that can be re-wet. What that means is that subsequent layers will bond to previous layers by partially dissolving the previous layers and actually becoming one layer. You can prove this to yourself by letting lacquer paint dry and then adding lacquer thinner which will make it liquid again. Keeping this in mind each layer should go down wet, not just wet enough to get the paint from the airbrush to the model but wet enough to partially dissolve the previous layer. The most accepted way to paint makings is light mist coats, which will get color on the model but not actually bond to the previous layer. The best way to get the bond you want is to airbrush a wet coat of Leveling Thinner over the area, or just do the whole model. By doing this your mist coats re-wet and bond to the previously applied paint. It will also flow out overspray, but not orange peel. Lacquer has amazing properties. Learn to utilize these properties.

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.....and relaxing too. Don't forget relaxing.

WHY EVERYTHING TAKES FOREVER AROUND HERE, Part 27 (Or the world’s longest canopy masking post) One of the most difficult things in model building is getting your mojo back after shelving your project for months. Combine that with one of my least favorite things to do, masking canopies and store-bought canopy masks apparently made from recycled inner tubes and another tale of woe will emerge. WEEK 1 The last canopy I masked was my Wildcat but with only two pieces and only painting the outside was pretty easy. I cut thin strips of Tamiya masking tape for that one so I figured I’d do the same on this build, just paint the outside. Here’s where I started and then I decided I’d use some pre-cut masks from a vendor who will remain nameless to do the inside. I didn’t like this at all. The pieces don’t really fit and this material doesn’t conform to compound surfaces. My first attempt doing the outside wasn’t exactly inspiring and my boxing glove hands didn’t help either. In order to get the inside pieces to even come close I cut it in half, but that wasn’t enough. The contour of the edges don’t fit very well so now I’m back to thinking I’ll just do the outside with my own masks traced from the store-bought sheet. Another problem I have with one-piece masks is that I can never seem to get all four sides lined up so to overcome that I cut my masks in half so I only have to deal with lining up two edges. That worked out pretty good, so I figured I’d tackle the inside too. But me being me I decided I’d make my own masks, kind of like a universal canopy masking sheet which actually didn’t turn out too bad. It’s just a bunch of little squares, some strips and triangular pieces, using Tamiya masking sheets. Start in the corners. Then some strips to finish the sides. Then fill in with more tape. It gets a little complicated on parts that don’t have square corners and that’s where the triangular pieces come into play. It may not look very elegant, but it’s something I can accomplish with my limited finger mobility. The clear parts are covered and the framework isn’t. Inside of the windscreen done. Everything appeared ready for paint. I never used the rubber tires that come in the kit so I figured I’d try it this time while I had all the paint stuff out. WEEK 2 I started on the inside and that went okay, or so I though. Then I did the outside but didn’t get any pictures. BUT THEN… I’m removing the masks and BOOM…. Much to my amazement I discovered that I forgot to mask one of the panels on one piece, and if that wasn’t bad enough I didn’t notice it when I was painting. So, instead of being done I had to fix this blunder. Using Mr. Color lacquer thinner and a cotton bud, I started washing off the paint…. …. re-masked and repainted. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! At this point I stopped taking photos, but the story doesn’t end here. I discovered that some of the thinner got on the outside and that had to be touched up, and when I pulled the masking off the inside I found that some of the thinner had gotten under the mask leaving a paint stain on one of the clear panels. I tried to clean that off with IPA (why?, I have no idea) only to discover that IPA removed the Future leaving an un-fixable mess, so I completely stripped everything off and repainted it again. (Insert foul language here.) In the end it worked out. Lessons learned: 1. You can use Mr. Color lacquer thinner to remove lacquer paint without damaging styrene. 2. IPA removes Future. 3. Painting the inside of canopies is a questionable practice for me. 4. It’s not easy posting here with a cat sleeping on your lap. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures.

We've tested Future, Gloss Clear Acrylic and Alclad Aqua Gloss with our NCF Decals and the winner is Aqua Gloss..... by a mile.

Air pressure and paint viscosity are variables, the same as shutter speed and aperture in photography, so there is no "correct" air pressure for spraying paint just like there is no "correct" shutter speed when taking photographs.

Tamiya Extra Thin is a strong solvent. It bonds by melting plastic thereby "welding" two pieces together. For a long seam like a fuselage I prefer to loosely hold the halves together and apply the TET along the seam and then use tape to hold until dry. If done "just right" a small bead of the melted plastic will form along the seam. On the down side, TET is so thin that it will go between any two surfaces, including your finger and the model so you have to be extra careful how you handle the parts. TET's aggressive capillary action can be your best friend or worse enemy. My advice for you would be the same as I give anyone trying something for the first time - get any "junk kit" and experiment. You have no idea the number of modelers who destroy their build by trying something for the first time on their build. LATER EDIT: Any TET that winds up on the outside of the seam creates little-to-no affect and will disappear as you sand the seam. Of course, this doesn't apply to drops or spills, but whatever you do, do NOT touch it until it dries or you'll wind up with an embossed fingerprint on your model.

Find a sheetmetal shop that builds restaurant stuff like counter tops, vent hoods, etc. Sheetmetal should be cut with a shear.

I’m finally back at work on this. All this Covid fallout (good and bad), restructuring Archer and a “heart attack” that never really happened has eaten up all of my time, but hopefully I’ll be making routine updates until this build is finished. Not much to show today, just finished painting small parts.