LSP_Kevin Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Looking good so far, John! Kev mywifehatesmodels 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywifehatesmodels Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) Thanks, Kev! Progress is going slow. Unfortunately, things keep happening in real life that are pulling me away from this. I had a medical scare, but everything turned out to be okay, thankfully and I'm hoping to be back on this to finish it up as soon as possible. This kit has a fairly large sheet of PE parts and installing them has been taking more time that I thought. On the plus side, they've been pretty forgiving. However, I've also realized that there are a few PE parts that are apparently not present in the kit (but are shown in the instructions?) that need to be purchased separately, in the form of one of the "Part" brand PE sets. Namely, the leading edge wing slats, which were apparently present and in a fixed position on some Karas 1 aircraft. As luck would have it, the one example on the decal sheet that I will be modeling is the one that has these slats. However, rather than purchasing this additional set, I'm going to try to make the slats from sheet styrene, instead. I'm not quite to that point, yet, but it won't be long, now. John Edited October 22, 2015 by mywifehatesmodels Lars Befring and scvrobeson 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClumsyDude Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Neat work on the PE, you can't be far off primer now ... Jim mywifehatesmodels 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywifehatesmodels Posted October 22, 2015 Author Share Posted October 22, 2015 Neat work on the PE, you can't be far off primer now ... Jim Well, Jim. It's getting there, but still a ways to go. I forgot to mention the gunner's gondola for the belly. You can see it in the second picture in my last post. What? It doesn't look like a gondola? Yeah, because you have to fold the sides up into the correct shape and attach the front and back portions (with the windows), that are clear parts! FUN! I'm going to paint the interior of it, first, before folding up the sides and forming the silly thing. Once that is complete and I have it's seams fixed, I'll put on the horizontal stabs/elevators and then the rest of the PE access hatches on the bottom (most of them were left off to this point, as I didn't want to risk scraping them off by sitting the plane on it's belly). I'll be diving back into this, tomorrow. I really want this finished so that I can start on my Bf 110 build! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 Nice work so far on this one, and the PE looks like it adds a nice dimension to the kit. Really like how you're building this one John, can't wait to see it done Matt mywifehatesmodels 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywifehatesmodels Posted October 27, 2015 Author Share Posted October 27, 2015 Thanks, Matt! The belly gunner's gondola has turned out the be the biggest PITA in this kit, so far. However, considering that everything else has gone so smooth, I can't really complain too much. The necessity of folding it into shape proved to be almost impossible to get perfect (at least, for me). It may have been easier to do before painting the interior, but I'm not so sure. It was just frustrating to see this approach in tooling for what has been, to this point, an enjoyable build. The alignment with the outline of the front and rear "glass" pieces that attach to it is pretty questionable, as is the overall shape and angles of the panels once it's folded up. Just as frustrating, was that the seams, along which you are supposed to fold everything, started to break while trying to get it set up. So, I had to go back and fill some spots. Also, the mating surface of the gondola to the belly had some gaps to contend with. So, I ended up using a couple of shims cut from plastic sheet and added some filler to the seams, once it was glued in place. Here's where I'm at, now: While the rest of the putty is curing, I'll probably start working on the engine. I may start looking at the wheels/spats a little closer, as well. The "fun" part about aircraft with wheels in spats, is usually in figuring out what order to assemble and paint them. On the plus side, the spats will be the same color as the underside of the rest of the plane, so that's one less thing to have to worry about. Thanks for checking in! John Lars Befring 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywifehatesmodels Posted November 6, 2015 Author Share Posted November 6, 2015 I've been chipping away at this build, but it seems like every time I sit down at the bench, the phone rings, someone needs a ride, something in my house breaks, etc., etc.! I've doing a lot of filling and sanding. The majority of my time (when I actually could sit down at the bench!) has been spent working on the wheels and spats. I started by attaching the bases of the spats to the bottom of the wings. I'm glad I did this BEFORE painting the underside, since there are some very large gaps to fill and sanding the seams is really difficult, since there are a lot of details, including some PE parts, that are right next to them, or even going underneath the spats. I think I'm on session number three of filling/sanding this area, as I keep finding pinholes as I sand. Hopefully, my most recent round of filling will be enough to get everything ready for paint. I've also got the wheels in the spats and they are primed and ready to go. That was actually quite easy and a dry fit would indicate that attaching them after painting everything, without having to do more filling and sanding, is probably going to work just fine. I decided to wait with the engine and cowl until after the primary painting stage. I think that it will be easier to work with if I do it in that order. Given that the back side of the cowl is very much in the open, I don't want to attempt trying to mask it from the rear. Thanks for checking in, John Lars Befring 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClumsyDude Posted November 6, 2015 Share Posted November 6, 2015 Wow, John, the fit on those spats looks really crude. Looks like good work blending them in though. Cheers Jim mywifehatesmodels 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywifehatesmodels Posted November 9, 2015 Author Share Posted November 9, 2015 Thanks, Jim! The spats are looking better, now. However, the hardest part, so far, has been the fixed leading edge slats, which I had to build from scratch. I finally got a version that I think is workable, but it took three attempts. The ribs on them are a bit over-scale, but that's as thin as I could cut them while keeping them reasonably straight (I didn't have any strip styrene. They're only about .5mm wide, or less and the photos make them appear much larger,but this is a rather small model). After everything was done, I shot the model with a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1000 primer. It's not perfect, but actually turned out better than I thought it would and I'm not so sure if having the PE set with the slats would have been any easier (and I would have likely only had one shot at it!). Now, I think I can finally start prepping for paint! Thanks for looking! John Lars Befring 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClumsyDude Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Great scratch work on thoe slats, John ... I don't think I could manage such good alignment of the ribs. Looking good under primer. mywifehatesmodels 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywifehatesmodels Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 Thanks, guys! I finally got to shoot some paint! I'll start on the upper surfaces, hopefully tomorrow. However, in looking ahead, I came across a somewhat confusing point. From what I've always understood, the front cowl panels on most PZL aircraft were made of copper, which usually turns brown rather quickly. However, the instructions state to use either "steel" or "rust" for the front of the cowl. Does anybody know which it should be? I've always seen them depicted as being copper/brown, but Mirage is a Polish company, so I would like to think they know their stuff. Thanks again, John Lars Befring 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Nice light blue underneath John! Can't wait to see how you tackle that elusive Polish khaki. I think I mixed it out of Tamiya Khaki and Olive Green to get the shade. Matt mywifehatesmodels 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Looks great, John! All your hard work is starting to pay off. Kev mywifehatesmodels 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywifehatesmodels Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 Thanks, guys! Nice light blue underneath John! Can't wait to see how you tackle that elusive Polish khaki. I think I mixed it out of Tamiya Khaki and Olive Green to get the shade. Matt Matt, Actually, this one will be in Romanian colors and apparently they were painted a much darker green than the usual Polish olive/khaki (even though the box art seems to show it in the lighter color). I just have to figure out exactly which paint/mix I'm going to run with. Thanks again, John scvrobeson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywifehatesmodels Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 (edited) So, I spent most of the day masking and painting again. I tested a few dark greens and decided to mix RLM 73 with RAF Dark Green, 50/50. This is what I shot the first coat with. However, it only took a few seconds of painting to realize that this was lighter than I wanted to start with. I gave all the upper surfaces a cloudy misting of this mix, then let it dry. I went back with straight RLM 73 and gave it a light coat with that, as well. I also wanted to try the salt technique, by using it to add some variation to the paint. Being that this was the first time I've ever tried this technique (and this isn't my model!), I wanted it to be as subtle as possible. So, I only applied the salt to the inboard sections of the wings, where traffic would be heaviest. Once that was dry enough to stick, I lightened the RLM 73 a bit and went to work on a little shading and gave a very light mist to the salted sections. Again, subtle was the goal and even though I accomplished that, I will still be going back over everything later on with an oil/pastel filtering session. I think it's heading in the right direction and now I'm a little more confident that I can use this same technique on my 1/32 Bf 110 build, but take it to the next level (or even a level or two beyond that!). There's still plenty of touching up to do and a lot of other parts to get ready (already started on the engine/cowl, today), but it's getting closer. Thanks for checking in and for your continued encouragement! John Edited November 12, 2015 by mywifehatesmodels Lars Befring 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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