XS-Models Hughes H-1

[Daywalker]

Cheers Kev!

 

No, I make sure to get as smooth of a surface as possible before spraying the Gloss black, then spray the Alclad right on top of it. A few of the Alclad colors will attack the Tamiya paints, the only one I know for certain will is their "chrome" color. I would definitely test it before painting a model, just to be sure. I have used airframe aluminum, white aluminum, stainless steel, and jet exhaust directly on the Tamiya paints with no adverse effects.

[LSP_Kevin]

Cheers Kev!

 

No, I make sure to get as smooth of a surface as possible before spraying the Gloss black, then spray the Alclad right on top of it. A few of the Alclad colors will attack the Tamiya paints, the only one I know for certain will is their "chrome" color. I would definitely test it before painting a model, just to be sure. I have used airframe aluminum, white aluminum, stainless steel, and jet exhaust directly on the Tamiya paints with no adverse effects.

 

Thanks Frank, good info! Always good to have options, and this sounds like a good one.

 

Kev

[geedubelyer]

This tutorial and explanation of your procedures is very timely Kev,thanks for making the effort to detail each step. I may use Alclad II for the BMF on my current build which makes this most useful.

FWIW, I think you've achieved an extremely convincing look on both the top and underside surfaces of the mule.In the second photo of the finished paintwork that you posted above, the wingtip looks particularly metallic. I look forward to seeing how the polished aluminium looks.

Keep up the cracking work.

 

Cheers.

[LSP_Kevin]

Well, after that longish segue through the land of Alclad, I've finally come back to actually building the model. And in typical fashion, screwed it up. Not irretrievably mind, but in that annoying way that seems to afflict every model I build.

Firstly, I didn't think carefully enough about the assembly sequence regarding the fuselage and tail planes, and ended up with a crooked rudder and large gaps at the tail plane joints:





It's mainly because I glued the rudder in last, but in joining the fuselage together, the slot in the fuselage for the large tab at the bottom of the rudder was too narrow. I should have fixed the rudder and tail planes in first, and then worked my way up the fuselage. I'm not sure if it would have fixed the crooked rudder though, as I'm not exactly sure where the source of the problem is. Oh well!

Back with more tales of woe soon.

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

The next issue I had was caused by trying to remove some excess material from the mating faces of the fuselage halves. There was some left over casting material that looked like some flat styrene sheet, almost like a vacform kit. You can still see traces of it in the photo below:



In attempting to sand it off however, I didn't realise that my sanding stick wasn't perpendicular, and produced this effect:



Now, at this end it doesn't matter much, but where it has caused me trouble is with the two halves of the backing plate for the IP. They not only give you something to attach the IP too, but also help give the fuselage the correct width. But of course, I had sanded them at a severe angle, so when I joined the fuselage halves, this caused the fuselage to be too narrow. I only realised what I had done when I tried to insert the finished IP and found it was now too wide by a considerable margin! D'oh!

In the end I cut a wedge of resin from one of the casting blocks and forced it between the two halves of the backing plate, which is just noticeable in the photo below:



It didn't correct the problem completely, but by scribing a small trough into the fuselage sides, and allowing the IP to sit slightly lower than actual, I was able to get it in:



I still need to spread the forward fuselage slightly now, otherwise I'm going to have a monster step where the wings join.

Anyway, gotta fly to work now, so I'll continue this later.

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

While I had the CA out, I decided to glue the wings together. This, thankfully, went well enough:

 

 

Fit and finish is far from perfect though:

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's also a major step to deal with at the tail end:

 

 

It's fair to say that my own ineptitude has caused all the fuselage problems (including that it curves slightly to port now), and a more careful approach would have yielded a much better result. Nothing that can't be fixed though! I have grave misgivings about being able to render a surface suitable for Alclad from here however!

 

Thanks as always for looking in!

 

Kev

[Daywalker]

Looks like you are going to give the filler industry a reasonable amount of cash on this one. Despite the difficulties ahead, I know you will persevere!

 

Cheers Kev!

[LSP_Kevin]

Looks like you are going to give the filler industry a reasonable amount of cash on this one. Despite the difficulties ahead, I know you will persevere!

 

Cheers Kev!

 

Thanks Frank. Nice to have you following along.

 

A question for you guys though: I'm wondering if dunking the fin in really hot water will allow me to make it a little more upright. It's a solid piece of resin, and to be honest I'm not sure if the resin is bent or I glued it in crooked. What I suspect has actually happened is that, due to my misaligning the fuselage slightly, there's now a lateral mismatch in height between the two halves, and this is causing the fin to 'list', as it's not seated in a completely horizontal fashion.

 

So, my gut feeling is there's really no bent resin for hot water to fix (and visually it looks pretty straight), but would it still be worth trying it to correct its overall orientation? Or would I just make it worse?

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

So, my gut feeling is there's really no bent resin for hot water to fix (and visually it looks pretty straight), but would it still be worth trying it to correct its overall orientation? Or would I just make it worse?

 

Anything thoughts on this guys? I'm probably going to give it a go anyway, but I wanted to give you guys a chance to stop me if it's clearly a stupid idea (like I ever get those, right?).

 

Kev

[Supermario]

Hi Kev'

 

If you ask…

 

I would not take the risk to go that way !

 

OK, it might work… but I fear the force you will apply on the fin and it's attachement will just split the fuse !

 

I would try whether weaken the fin at it's base with a few cuts on it's "leaning" side, bend it back to vertical and glue it back at the base if it did not broke off.

 

The other, even less risky for the fuse : cut the fin away, flatten a bit the bases (fuse and fin). Glue back a tab to the fin, redo the appropriate "opening" in the fuse and throw this stuff again together !

It will take you what ? 20 minutes... ok 30...

 

I tried once to "hot bend" resin parts on the MC72… a complete failure ! (except if I was looking for breaking the parts…)

 

 

...

 

 

 

I also dare to come back on your painting process :

 

The blotchy apearance of Alclade means you're sparying it "too wet" !

(not sure you say it this way in English…?)

 

When you apply it, it has to be very thin layers!!

it should almost look dry a few seconds after the paint touched the support !

 

 

Now looking to your prep, to this pix :

 

(...)

 

In any case, I decided to polish it out, but that's where things went a bit wrong. I only used the finer half of the Micromesh pads, as it seemed a bit redundant to go all the way back to the coarsest grit. I still managed to sand through the black in several places though, and these showed through the Alclad as blotchy patches.

 

 

(...)

 

It looks OK to me !

But at that point I would say : sand it smooth !!!

Micromesh won't help here.

Clean water, #1200 or #1500 sand paper and sand smoothly, slowly in round moves.

Nothing more !

 

Then a few light coats of Alclad and the result will apear quickly.

[bdthoresen]

Yeah Kev, I agree with SuperMario, I would make some razor saw cuts through the vertical fin deep enough to try and straighten it up, then use some spare styrene to pack in the gaps with superglue, and sand them flush. I would try not to cut all the way through, but merely make some channels on the inner side of the bend, and work from there. As far as the gaps on the fuselage to horizontal joint, I would use some Milliput sculpted down to the contour you need, then finish sand.

Had this kit at one time. Love to give it a go.....After I finish the Boomerang of course......But the 1/1 restoration I am working on takes up all my time!

Looking good. Keep it up.

THOR

[LSP_Kevin]

Thanks guys. Still mulling my options on the tail. I'm not sure a partial cut will be sufficient to allow it to straighten, as it's a solid chunk of resin, and the locating tab in the fuselage is pretty hefty too. It's interesting that you guys don't advise cutting it off completely, as that was my first thought! Cut it off, drill and pin it for strength, and then use epoxy glue (rather than CA) to put it back nice and straight. Andreas advised that I use CA for the build (I was originally planning to use Araldite), but I'm kind of regretting it now, as it doesn't give me enough time to work the parts into correct alignment once they're brought together.

 

My bottle of Alclad Polished Aluminum arrived yesterday, so I'm looking forward to taking it for a spin. Might have to get hold of a different gloss black paint than Humbrol's though.

 

Kev

[Mr Smith]

Hello Kevin,

 

A hard job for this plane! I follow your build!

 

JL

[Out2gtcha]

Might have to get hold of a different gloss black paint than Humbrol's though.

 

 

 

Lookin good K1. Too bad you guys cant find MM gloss black down under very easy............stuff works brilliant under Alclad, and dries rock solid.

[LSP_Kevin]

 

Lookin good K1. Too bad you guys cant find MM gloss black down under very easy............stuff works brilliant under Alclad, and dries rock solid.

 

Thanks Brian. I'm probably going to try some Alclad's own stuff, though it's hardly the cheapest stuff going. Not sure whether to get the standard gloss black base, or the one that's also a filler (sorry, can't remember what each is called exactly - should look it up I guess).

 

Kev