zaxos345 Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 Brian, awesome just awesome, Spectacular build, well done sir :bow: John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 Brian Awesome progress on the Strafer. Enjoying every minute and update as you work your way through the project. How do you get use to dealing with the uncertainties of the weather and tornadoes? I don't know if I couod do it. Keep 'em coming :popcorn: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 Wow.... This build is really, really great Brian. All of the pieces seem to be falling into place on it. Quick question, are you finding the wings to be an extremely tight fit? I can get mine to click in place, but taking them back off seems to require power tools. Or did you modify their mounts in some way to make it easier? Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic C.D. Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Owww Yesss, so cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 Brian, awesome just awesome, Spectacular build, well done sir :bow: John Thanks John! Kind of you to say Brian Awesome progress on the Strafer. Enjoying every minute and update as you work your way through the project. How do you get use to dealing with the uncertainties of the weather and tornadoes? I don't know if I couod do it. Keep 'em coming :popcorn: Thanks Peter.............Yeah its wierd but no more so than I would think living on the coast in the path of a large hurricane. Tornados are more powerful overall but are so much shorter lived, and smaller in coverage area, its easier to get complacent and think "it wont ever hit us". In fact the last few days/weeks/years in OK & MO have proven that to be false. Wow.... This build is really, really great Brian. All of the pieces seem to be falling into place on it. Quick question, are you finding the wings to be an extremely tight fit? I can get mine to click in place, but taking them back off seems to require power tools. Or did you modify their mounts in some way to make it easier? Matt Thanks Matt..............and yeah they are VERY tight. As a matter of fact I have popped a couple of seems getting them on and off. I have tried to limit the amount of times I put the wings on and off. Hard to do at times, as sometimes (like for adjusting the gear legs that need to go on before attaching the wings) its necessary for assembly. Owww Yesss, so cool! Thanks Nic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Thanks Matt..............and yeah they are VERY tight. As a matter of fact I have popped a couple of seems getting them on and off. I have tried to limit the amount of times I put the wings on and off. Hard to do at times, as sometimes (like for adjusting the gear legs that need to go on before attaching the wings) its necessary for assembly. Dang, I was hoping you had figured out some kind of system for getting the wings on and off. I'm thinking about Dremeling the tabs off of the fuselage piece, but I don't know if that will make the wings super floppy. Since I don't have the amount of shelf space you do, I want to make my wings removable so i can actually store it somewhere once it's done. Anyway, I really like the work you're doing on your build. And it's great that you were able to get a kit to do a review build, that will be cool to see done and published. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 Dang, I was hoping you had figured out some kind of system for getting the wings on and off. I'm thinking about Dremeling the tabs off of the fuselage piece, but I don't know if that will make the wings super floppy. Since I don't have the amount of shelf space you do, I want to make my wings removable so i can actually store it somewhere once it's done. Anyway, I really like the work you're doing on your build. And it's great that you were able to get a kit to do a review build, that will be cool to see done and published. Matt Nope, no secret sorry. I might think twice about Dremeling them off completely. What I might do, is think about taking some of the plastic off of some of the rear tabs on the inside. I dont mean removing the tab, just scraping or sanding it down slightly on the fuse, so the wings are not SO tight. Im also thinking that once I get a layer of foil on the shoulder section of the fuse tabs, it will be even harder to fit, so Im thinking about even using some Vaseline and lubing up the shoulder section to make things slide easier. To that end Vaseline will not effect foil, but its obviously a different story if your painting your model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 That's a smart idea. I might try sanding down the rear tabs in order to make it fit a bit better. It fits great, it's just so tight that I don't think I'd be able to remove the wings without causing some damage to the internal detail. can't wait to see your build with the foil on it. They always look cool like that. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted June 10, 2013 Author Share Posted June 10, 2013 Mornin ladies and germs! It’s been a bit of more scarce and scattered updates on the big lady as of late. Its party because of that thing called life that seems to interrupt our hobby and partly because I’m at one of those stages of the build where it’s just SUPER tedious…………………AKA scribing, sanding and filling………………..and on this big girl there is a LOT of it!!! It’s not the kit, it’s just the nature of the beast when you want things smooth, and detail naturally gets sanded away. There is just a lot of plastic, and a lot of joints to smooth out. Things can get overwhelming quick. I'm just trying to get this stuff over-with as this stage is CRUCIAL to getting a good looking foil finish. Im hoping to get the big Lady wrapped up soon so I can move onto doing a build review of her for PCM and HKM. Thanks once again to Ken and the team at PCM for the build review sample. First thing I noticed initially when starting the kit was the fabric surfaces. They (compared to the 1:1) are way, WAY overdone. In order to correct this, I layered on several layers of Tamiya fine primer, let dry…………..sanding………………….more primer………….let dry………………sanding, until I got to a point where I just shot on some dull aluminum and called it good. Its not perfect, but the under stated nature of the real fabric surfaces is NOT captured by the OOB parts. You can see how HKM depicted the OOB fabric covered surfaces: Here are my modified parts, with the one on the right having received a coat of flat to depict the flat and worn look over most all of the natural metal and painted surfaces of the 345th strafers based in the humid sun baked Philippines – Its kind of a crappy pic, but you can see here overall the effect on the painted surfaces I modified. The effect of the subdued fabric surfaces is even more evident in person, as the pics don’t really give the full effect. I'm much more pleased with this, (as imperfect as they are) than the overdone side of things – After sanding smoothing, priming and painting the flying surfaces, I got to work on re-scribing detail and panel/rivet lines lost on the wings from smoothing in the wig nav lights. I then painted the white tips – My NEXT project after that was the one I had been dreading for quite a while, and that’s sanding, smoothing and re-scribing the fuselage. The gun bays were a total PITA, but got them knocked out, sanded flush and all the pertinent rivets put back as best I could. This was no job like Peter did on his Sea Fury, but its about as good as I'm getting. Harder to tell in pics without highlighting the rivets but was out of gas by the time I took these and couldn’t be bothered. The rest of the fuselage, wings and the two power eggs are also complete. This whole process took the better part of two weekends at the speed I move. The fuse still looks scared up, but its not, its just the white filler standing out on some places that needed it – Lastly, after finishing off the re-scribing on the two power eggs, I masked off the front cowl rings, to get the insignia yellow painted on both. The two power pods will both have all of their side cowling panels foiled – Hopefully, after hashing out some more minor things like getting the cowl flap pushrod assemblies figured out, and getting some finish sanding and riveting done Ill actually be READY TO FOIL!!!! YAY! It will be about #$@*ing time too. I'm ready to get back to something on this build I enjoy doing. Rainer Hoffmann 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 I got the cowl rings cleared, and have just now gotten a start on finishing the canopy that I chopped some erroneous windscreen braces out of. I also got a good start on the gun sight, with some of the Profimodeler PE and resin, along with some of my own additions................ Im hoping to have the wind screen fixed and interior painted before the weekend so I can get started on the foiling!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radial Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Excellent work going on here! Especially looking forward to the foiling process as I've been experimenting with foil in for the last 8 mos. I have followed yours and Foilers tutorials. You guys make it look easy....it ain't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 (edited) Thanks Radial. Considering some of the outstanding builds of yours (the Waco comes to mind instantly) Id say taking any model up to your standard ain't easy. Yeah, Ive been experimenting with how to lay the foil down myself. The airbrush technique does work, but its spotty. I think in part its due to the properties of the glue itself going through the air brush. Im still experimenting withe the bondo filler applicator method too. I have found for spraying through the airbrush I find a ratio of slightly more than 50% foil glue to water seems to keep the mixture from shedding off the foil as easy. I also found that restricting the airflow while shooting the mix is critical (I use an AM tail section to my airbrush to dial in how much spray comes out) Im going to do some more experimentation with shooting the foil glue and water mix through the brush for the Lady..............and see if I can refine the process so the layer comes down as one, like a paint layer, instead of occasionally pooling. The OTHER issue with the airbrush method, is if you get enough of the mix flowing out, sometimes it pools...........if you restrict it more to get a smoother layer, then you really dont have enough of a layer of the glue mix down to make the foil stick well enough. More experimentation to come on that front........... Ive got to get the canopy knocked out in order to start the foiling process; or at least Id like to. Thats the super cool part about foling an airfram like the built em in the factory; you can foil just certain sections and leave others unfoiled..........and if you dont like it, just remove it and do it over! Cheers, Edited June 11, 2013 by Out2gtcha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironwing Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Brian, Your outdoing yourself here. Marvelous attention to detail and a tutorial to match. Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.Wolf Grant Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 I've just given over a large percentage of my day reading through your thread Brian .... it was certainly worth it!!! Great build sir, great build. More to learn for me I think! Grant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Looks pretty great Brian. I like the re-scribing and riveting you're doing to make it all look right. The little splashes of color will also quite help. Quick question for you though, does your windscreen come with the extra cross-brace in front of the pilot? The bomber kit doesn't have it, and I need to add it to my kit. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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