1/32 P-38L "Kicked Up A Notch". Jan 15/16: FINISHED!

[Out2gtcha]

Have you ever tried Westleys Black Magic Bleche Wite?  (and yes its spelled like that) Its a chemical cleaning agent a lot of guys used for cleaning white wall tires back in the day..............Black Magic bought out Westleys who made it previously.

 

 

I picked the tip of scrubbing, then soaking resin parts in Bleche Wite overnight to remove the most stubborn of silicone and mold release agents from a gentleman who used to work in Hollywood as a major box office prop guy, and he indicted it work REALLY well, and that a lot of special effect guys in the industry used it to remove mold release from their silicone mask and special effects molds.

 

I have used it on every single resin build I have made, and it really does work a treat. If mold release agent or left over silicone is your issue this will take care of it. 

Edited December 4, 2015 by Out2gtcha

[chuck540z3]

Thanks for the tips guys!  I solved my problem, in the simplest of ways.  Details soon.

[ChuckT]

Looking forward to it!

[FunkyZeit]

Sharp!

 

I'm glad you're going light weather, I find that polished alum doesn't really get dirty - at least not on the cargo planes at work.

 

Justin

[ChuckT]

Hey Chuck, you mentioned that it takes about a week for the Tamiya clear to fully dry.

 

What's your method for determining if a paint has fully dried?

 

I'm doing some experiments with various clears and would love to kow how to properly check if they too are dried fully.

 

Thanks, Chuck.

[chuck540z3]

Hey Chuck, you mentioned that it takes about a week for the Tamiya clear to fully dry.

 

What's your method for determining if a paint has fully dried?

 

I'm doing some experiments with various clears and would love to kow how to properly check if they too are dried fully.

 

Thanks, Chuck.

 

The Tamiya Lacquers?  They only take about 2-3 days to dry.  With Krylon, it's at least a week, because it's really an enamel that needs to cure..

 

To answer your "dry" question, that is a hit and miss moving target depending on temperature, humidity and type of paint.  "Dry" to me means that there is no tackiness whatsoever and you can handle it with bare hands without leaving fingerprints.  For example, after I spray the Tamiya lacquer, I can touch it with my bare hands in 10 minutes without leaving a mark.  If I handle it, I WILL leave a mark, so I wait at least a day before doing so.  Krylon is the same, except it takes 2-3 times longer.

 

 

 

 

A mini-update and thanks for the tips guys.  Next time I deal with resin so thin, I'll try some of your cleaners.

 

Anyway, the props are fixed.  As mentioned earlier, every time I tried to paint them, paint would be repelled from the tips and edges of the prop blade due to something still on the resin, despite all my attempts to remove same.  As I sprayed on the black lacquer, the tips would cover nicely, then about 30-40 seconds later, the paint would retreat to the sides of several trouble spots.  With each successive attempt to paint them after sanding, it occurred to me that if I could get the fast drying lacquer to dry even faster, the paint wouldn't get a chance to pull away from the resin.  Using an old trick that is fairly routine for me at most of my painting sessions, I used a small space heater that I have handy beside the paint booth to dry the props.  I overloaded each prop blade with sprayed paint, then moved it close to the space heater, which blows a warm but not too hot breeze. Within 15-20 seconds, the lacquer had set, with no dimpling due to paint adhesion issues.  Once the paint had dried for a day, I sanded the props once more with 2000# sandpaper and applied another coat.  They look really nice and smooth now.

 

 

 

 

With that out of the way, it was now time to paint the nose cones of the props in a bright red.  This is generally the color of red I'm looking for, despite variations of lighting and white balance:

 

 

 

 

Since the entire model is already painted gloss black, I painted the nose cones black as well, to make sure they would look the same red as the rest of the model.  With a black background, you need a red that is really bright to offset the dark primer coat.  Normally I would use Model Master enamels, but I am so impressed with the Tamiya TS line of lacquers, I went with TS-8, "Italian Red".  Since the nose cones come in two parts, I decided to use the kit props as painting holders, which worked out really well.  Note how much brighter it is in the bottle compared to the nose cones.

 

 

 

 

A close-up, showing all the rivet detail I did many months ago when fitting each nose cone to each engine nacelle, with one specific to the left and one to the right.  The nose cones are a bit too big, so they need to be sanded down quite a bit.  The fit doesn't look that good, because it is just held together with tape from behind.  Unfortunately the Photobucket photo-shrinking has pixelated this pic a bit, because it really is totally smooth with no flaws.

 

 

 

 

Note the pebbling on the kit prop with no sanding.  Every part in this kit looks like that unless you do.

 

 

 

That's it for now boys.  I'll be painted Alclad Aluminum on the model soon.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited December 6, 2015 by chuck540z3

[ChuckT]

Looks great (and thanks for the answers),

Chuck.

[Guest Peterpools]

Chuck

Way to go. Fantastic solution to the prop problem - they look literally brilliant. Hubs look so good with the Tamiya Italian red lacquer almost as good as it does on a Ferrari.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

[chuck540z3]

Quick update boys.  I'm painting final colors now!  

Here's the challenge.  After a primer coat of Tamiya Gloss Black lacquer, I want to paint 4 main colors:

1)  Alclad Chrome

2)  Alclad Aluminum

3)  Tamiya Italian Red lacquer

4)  Tamiya Olive Drab lacquer


The first paint, Alclad Chrome, is a high shine Alclad paint that is alcohol based and does not mask very well without peeling- at least until it has a good coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss.  To get all these paint colors on with as little drama as possible, I plan on painting the Chrome color last, so that I don't have to mask it- or at least not right away.  First step is to mask off those areas that will wind up in a bit of a duller aluminum color, so I use thin masking tape to demarcate where this paint will go.  With thin tape used first, you can more easily lay down a straight or curved line and you can burnish the edges to avoid paint leakage underneath.





Here's a tip.  I used to cut thin strips of Tamiya tape to accomplish this task until I stumbled upon this great 1 mm tape from Sprue Bros.  With this tape, there is no need to cut tape any more and one roll lasts forever.





Next, regular masking tape of all widths and sizes.  Total coverage of areas that are not to be painted Aluminum is not that critical at this stage, because they will be painted with other colors later.  A good example is the top of the nose in front of the windscreen.  This will all be Olive Drab sonner or later.





The results.  All masking tape was removed to allow proper drying.  Some of those fuzzy edges are due to the Aluminum getting into some panel lines, but not all.  The edges are actually very clean and sharp.

 

Looks like I missed removing some masking tape at the bottom of the side windows....




Underneath, trying to replicate the exact paint pattern as "Marge"....





This looks so cool, I was tempted to just leave the colors as is!





As with the rest of this model, I am going to try the Tamiya Olive Drab lacquer rather than using the Model Master enamel equivalent, so I decanted a jar on the left.  When I was spraying it, I saw a distinctive red pigment coming out of the spray can along with the green.  When it settled, it was mostly red.  What!?  The "Camel Yellow" on the right will be used on the prop tips later.  At least it looks yellow to begin with....





At first I thought that I must have somehow contaminated the green paint with red.  Did I decant the green with the same tube as the Italian Red?  The answer is no, but after checking some RGB color charts, the answer is clear.  Olive Drab has lots of red in it.  Who knew?  Here it is with the bottle shaken a bit.  Much better....





If there was ever a good case to make sure you shake up your spray cans before you use them, this is it.  If you don't in this case, you might be spraying either red or lime green!


Next up.  Red (real Italian this time) and Drab Green, along with some contrasting Alclad lacquers here and there.


Cheers,
Chuck

Edited December 11, 2015 by chuck540z3

[JayW]

Hey Chuck - fabulous work. I have a suggestion. The panels surrounding the superchargers are made of steel for obvious reasons and have a different (I think darker) color to them. All pictures I have seen of that area of the booms show a different shade. I am not talking about the exhaust stains which are further aft on the booms. I am not sure if the steel sheet extended forward to the scoops. Perhaps some others in the audience will know. Keep up the great work on Marge!

[chuck540z3]

Hey Chuck - fabulous work. I have a suggestion. The panels surrounding the superchargers are made of steel for obvious reasons and have a different (I think darker) color to them. All pictures I have seen of that area of the booms show a different shade. I am not talking about the exhaust stains which are further aft on the booms. I am not sure if the steel sheet extended forward to the scoops. Perhaps some others in the audience will know. Keep up the great work on Marge!

 

Thanks Jay.  That is exactly what I was going to do, aft of the aluminum I have there right now (do you see that straight edge?).  This aluminum at the front is the mirror image of the Olive Drab that will be painted on the inboard side.  Everything back of that will be Steel- or at least that is how Marge is painted at the museum.

Edited December 11, 2015 by chuck540z3

[leoasman]

Absolutely beautiful! I wish I could get a finish that smooth and perfect!

[BiggTim]

I'll have you know, Chuck and Harvey, that you just cost me bunch of my early Christmas cash! After watching your build, and seeing the nice props and hinges and such you guys have used, I gave up my pipe dreams of scratching it all and just ordered that stuff in favor of actually finishing this dang thing at some point. Thanks a lot.

[FunkyZeit]

Sweet chuck!

 

Justin

[chuck540z3]

Thanks guys.  I appreciate your kind comments.  This update will let the pictures do all the talking.  As mentioned earlier, the Alclad Chrome I plan on using does not take to masking tape very well, so I need to paint all the areas that can be masked first.  First, masking tape is applied around those areas that won't be Chrome





To avoid over-spray, I throw a kitchen garbagte bag over the model, then cut out those areas that need to be painted, followed by more masking tape. Tamiya Italian Red lacquer was sprayed first.......





Then I sprayed Tamiya Olive Drab.  I just LOVE these paints!  So smooth and they dry in seconds.  Note the over-spray dust from the red, which would get on the model without the bag.





Interim results....





As mentioned earlier, the edges of the Aluminum are not as rough as they look in this pic.  What you see is Aluminum in the panel line, which makes it pop.  Masking off that red nose was a bear!











I used Alclad Stainless Steel for the panels around the Turbo/Supercharger.








And last, I used Tamiya Camel Yellow for the prop tips.  Getting the demarcation line that straight without a ridge is tough!







That's it for now boys.  I won't have another update until after Xmas, so Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Edited December 20, 2015 by chuck540z3