Wilhelm Hipperts Jasta 74 "Mimmi"

[modelingbob]

Ultra Gloss is hard to find already in my neck of the woods, so I can only imagine how difficult it may be to find in the future. I've been experimenting with clear glosses and have returned to my old cheap standby, Future. Thin it 50:50 with MR Color Leveling Thinner and it behaves completely differently and turns into an acrylic lacquer that levels even better than Ultra Gloss. Tamiya X-22 Clear thinned with Mr Color Thinner is also very good. I looked into the MRP clears, but the price scared me off. 

<<<Not sure what Ill be moving to after the MM stuff goes away.....................Im thinking of exploring some of MRPs cellulose based clears.>>> 

[Joel_W]

I hope that is the case!!!

I called Rustolium a couple times and so did another gent on here, and although I didn't get through, he did and said they were discontinuing the whole line.

 

I sincerely hope that you are right. MM has been deleting several colors that don't sell (camouflage gray is a prime example) for awhile now. I hope they are just pushing forward with more individual color deletions instead of deleting the whole line.

Ive used Model Master since I was a kid.

Brian,

  I sure hope not. 

Joel

[LSP_Kevin]

^^^^^^^^^^   THIS EXACTLY   ^^^^^^^^^^^

 

Mr. Leveling Thinner is my friend. I use it everywhere and for anything. I don't quite go 50%, but I'm sure it's because of the weather differences between regions, but it truly makes Future a completely different animal.

 

I'll have to give this a try, but I have to say, based on my past experiences with floor polish, I'm sceptical!

 

Kev

[Out2gtcha]

I'll have to give this a try, but I have to say, based on my past experiences with floor polish, I'm sceptical!

 

Kev

Me too! But I'll give it a shot

[modelingbob]

As the old commercial jingle goes, "try it you'll like it"!!!

Or as Madeline Kahn quipped in Blazing Saddles ........ "It's Twue, it's twue"!!!!

Future thinned with MR Color Leveling Thinner works better than any other gloss coat for me. I hope it does for you also. 

[Joel_W]

  Interesting as I've given up on just about every clear gloss out there except Testors Glosscoat. I kind of liked the Winsor & Newton Acrylic clear but they do take days to dry, and sometimes longer.  I've used Pledge/Future thinned with Windex with mixed results so I stopped using it.  But I'll give it a test with Tamiya Yellow cap and see how it behaves.

 

Joel

[Out2gtcha]

I have to admit, adding the Mr leveling to it would have to make a BIG change in the way Future acts for me personally. If Im honest.............I HATE FUTURE FOR CLEAR.  Ill give it another shot with the Mr leveling in it, but NOT on an actual model.  Future at this point is strictly reserved for dipping canopies in, as Future has ruined WAY too many model finishes of mine to trust it on an actual model at this point. 

 

Also, for me personally no amount of anything added to Future is going to change the fact that it is acrylic based, and the same still applies for it getting possibly effected by any cellulouse based product you would put over the top, so that eliminates any enamel washes, lacquer top coats, and even some decals setting solutions, as some of those definitely will mar Future in the right situations.

 

Even if it looked as as good as decanted Ultra Gloss, in the end its still Future and susceptible to the same environmental issues as any Future is, so it will likely never ever be my go-to even with the Mr Leveling in it, as I use a LOT of cellulose based stuff, like washes, paints and oil weathering. 

Edited July 8, 2017 by Out2gtcha

[Guest Peterpools]

Hi Brian

Back and catching up as so much as gone on the forum in the month I was AWOL.

I just finished reading your build from day one through today and am as always in awe of of work. Enjoying every step and knowing NO AM would need to be bent a bit.

Looking jusy fantastic

Keep 'em coming

Peter

[Joel_W]

   I'm pretty sure I mentioned this before, but using Tamiya X-22 as my clearcoat, and a black enamel pin wash, I rubbed right through one spot on the wing with a damp Qtip using Testors Red can Universal Thinner. Sand, reprimed, and repainted. Then sealed with Glosscoat. No issues with any Mineral Spirit thinner. 

 

Joel

[clarkis]

Hi Brian - just got caught up on this awesome build! I wanted to ask you a few questions about your Silhouette Portrait...I have one and I am about ready to try it out but my research has raised some issues that you apparently did not encounter - or, if you did, you found a solution...In short, other Portrait users I've read about encounter issues with the cutter blade not cutting a straight or accurate line - even using the vector software.

Did you encounter any inaccuracies in cutting the Oramask 810? Judging from the stars you cut out for the LG wheel hubs, they look pretty accurate to me. I could not detect any issues with the checker board masks, either...

I guess what I want to know is if there were any issues you encountered cutting those masks and what you did to mitigate the issue...Again, spot on modelling! 

Clark

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks guys!  I have actually been working on the D.VII.................just no pics yet!!  Ill correct that today though. Ive got all the lozenge decals on, and the crosses as well. Just a few more touchups to go, then I can print out the "Mimmie" mask.

 

 

 

Hi Brian - just got caught up on this awesome build! I wanted to ask you a few questions about your Silhouette Portrait...I have one and I am about ready to try it out but my research has raised some issues that you apparently did not encounter - or, if you did, you found a solution...In short, other Portrait users I've read about encounter issues with the cutter blade not cutting a straight or accurate line - even using the vector software.

Did you encounter any inaccuracies in cutting the Oramask 810? Judging from the stars you cut out for the LG wheel hubs, they look pretty accurate to me. I could not detect any issues with the checker board masks, either...

I guess what I want to know is if there were any issues you encountered cutting those masks and what you did to mitigate the issue...Again, spot on modelling! 

Clark

 

 

Thanks Clark!  No, I have not had that issue. AAMOF, its worked flawlessly from day 1, with the very first cutter settings I made (set at a "1" on the blade currently, the shallowest setting possible)

 

I have heard stories of other users having issues with Oramask and having it shrink up, or change shape over the years if stored, but I have not run into that either. I started off with a big roll of Oramask 810 and its performed flawlessly so far, from everything from a 72" Mopar tripple stripe for my 1:1 Jeep, to those tiny stars on the D.VII wheels that are about 1 - 2 mm tall  I havnt looked back.   

 

 

But to answer your question directly Clark, no I have not run into any issues with the cutter not cutting straight to true.  I also have NEVER used the supplied cutting mat, and have always fed my material directly into the machine, and it seems to hold really tight and true (like to the point of not being able to move the material by hand after the cutter has sucked it up to cutting position. 

[Out2gtcha]

Brian, I'm not sure if you have them r not, but if the masks don't work for the Mimmie", I do have that particular Pheon set just in case. But I think your masks are going to work swimmingly.

Personally, I'd be concerned about using masks over decals. That's why I didn't use masks for the wing roundels on the wings for the Felix.....

 

 

So far so good Ernst. But yes, ME TOO.   Its quite scary, but the Avaittic stuff seems to be stuck down really good after some Solvaset and 36 hours or so drying time. Luckily, the Oramask stuff seems to have some quite predictable tackiness/stickiness to it, and its normally not super duper sticky, and doesnt seem to really have quite the tack that say rice paper has, but I have yet to replace the white portion of the mask, and weed out and shoot the black part..................then the REALLY scary part; taking the paint mask off!

I also used as LITTLE surround on the Mimmi mask as I could, so there was as little Oramask touching the decal as I could possibly allow, and still get the Mimmi portion to get burnished down. Along with that, I used low tack post-it-notes for the surrounding masking around the paint mask itself, so Im hoping all of that combines to help keep the decals stuck down, and the paint mask release as it should.

 

I got the mask printed out on the Silhouette cutter but it was too wide, so had to make some alterations............

 

After getting the dimensions correct, I applied the masks last night and shot the white portion of "Mimmi".     I actually did take some pics, but have not uploaded to my SmugMug site yet.

 

 

Pics soon!! 

Edited July 10, 2017 by Out2gtcha

[Out2gtcha]

I had originally tried masking my upper roundels, but even though I had cleared, sanded, cleared, applied decals, set them down with solvaset, and recleared again, despite resucing the tackiness of the decals, the underlying linen effects decals showed that tell tale sign of debonding when I lifted the masks off. Not everywhere mind you, just in a few spots.

 

So I recovered those areas and used the kit roundels. To me, the roundels are the weakest part of my build.

I'm hoping against hope that will not be the case here.

I'm hoping the slightly lower tac of the Oramask will allow things income off cleanly, but only time will tell.

 

I just need to upload my pics from last night to SmugMug, and I'll jave some progress pics up here in a few!

[Out2gtcha]

Ok, so here we go..............

 

 

Found a few things out here. Least of all is Id definitely use a lighter color for the pre-shade next time, as I had no CLUE how see-through the Aviattic decals actually were, and the pre-shade came out WAY too dark for my tastes. Karim was correct, they are in fact VERY stretchy, and seem quite resilient, but tend to stretch and deform after a dousing of Solvaset if you try to mess with them.

 

The installation is no where NEAR perfect, and there are still touch-ups to do, like painting the access hatches and hinges, but overall Im ok with how the lozenge decals turned out. I then moved on to the cross decals. I figured out I didnt need the clear coat over the Aviattic decals after putting in on the lower wing, I did away with it on the upper, and just applied the decals straight to the semi-gloss sheen lozenge decals.

 

Again, it looks like a fairly crappy job to me, but its acceptable for my first time out, and will be better once touch-ups are completed along with flat coat and weathering:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The decals including the crosses did settle down acceptably in the end, but hard to see what things actually look like with it being so glossy still
Im planning on a VERY diluted overcoat of Tamiya Buff to even things out a little and take some of the starkness away from the crosses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, I prepped the "Mimmi" Mask, and applied it tenderly to the top wing after everything had dried for 2 or 3 days. I used low tack post-it-notes for the outter masking to minimize the chance of any painters style tape sticking and lifting the lozenge decals:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I sprayed the white last night before leaving for Iron Maiden, and i hit it with a bunch of super thin coats until I could no longer see the lozenge pattern. Drying done now, Im planning on re-applying the white parts of the paint mask, and weeding out the black outline and shooting that tonight. 

I hope I can remove the masking tonight, but may wait until tomorrow, as Im not sure one extra day at this point would make a difference.  

 

Here's hoping for a free and clean release!!!

[karimb]

SUPERB Brian!

The aviattic decals look great, i am still impressed every time i use Richard's 'fabric' decals they add so much to a build and honestly really make the fabric areas look like fabric. Don't worry about the preshading showing through as. A translucent coat of buff helps tone everything down, or oil dot fading would also work a treat and color modulate the whole area too if you like using oils for filters and weathering. This way you can also blend in the mimmi mask. Take yoir time removing the mask but fingers crossed with the solvaset and the aviattic decals you shouldn't get any underlying lift.

Just got back layed the last decal on the top middle wing on the AEG so you can say we are all knee deep in decaling except for Ernie who's always miles ahead of everyone, God bless him.

Enjoy watching Bruce and the band tonight! Haven't managed to get a chance to attend a maiden concert although been trying for years now :'(

 

Karim

Edited July 10, 2017 by karimb