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Trumpeter F4F-3 build with rivets FINISHED!


Woody V

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15 hours ago, jumpjack said:

HTBH $10 p&p is presently not too big a hit in the UK, our internal minimums can easily be half of that. Where things get expensive is when items are intercepted by Customs- that automatically doubles p&p costs through 'handling charges'.

 

Every retail order we ship internationally is valued at $7.90.

Dealer orders are different depending on how "nice" they are. :P

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Hi Woody

 

My comment was aimed at what can happen at our end-  if goods are subject to a UK customs check they are then automatically subject to a Post Office 'handling charge' of £14, whether or not any extra duty is due. In my experience this may apply to any declared value and is frankly a lottery - and a nice little earner if you are cynically inclined.

In due course I'm sure Theresa and Donald will get things sorted (LOL).

 

Keep up the good work

 

Les

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2 hours ago, jumpjack said:

Hi Woody

 

My comment was aimed at what can happen at our end-  if goods are subject to a UK customs check they are then automatically subject to a Post Office 'handling charge' of £14, whether or not any extra duty is due. In my experience this may apply to any declared value and is frankly a lottery - and a nice little earner if you are cynically inclined.

In due course I'm sure Theresa and Donald will get things sorted (LOL).

 

Keep up the good work

 

Les

I wasn't aware of that. I once shipped a small retail order right after shipping a dealer order and forgot to change the declared value and the poor guy had to go to the Post Office to pick it up and they told him he had to pay something like £120, but he was cool about it so we just reshipped it..... and we're still waiting for the original to be returned. 

All this talk about a Global Economy and this is what it's like in the real world.

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  • 2 weeks later...

TIP TIME:
I noticed that my seams were looking a bit “iffy” so I used some Mr. Surfacer 500 to finish the job. This gives me the opportunity to mention a little trick I learned painting cars called a “guide coat”. Not sure if you’ve ever heard of it, or used it, but the concept is pretty simple and virtually eliminates the possibility of not thoroughly sanding the filler or missing low spots.

 

168829740.jpg

Highly diluted black acrylic brushed over the filler.

 

168829741.jpg

All traces of black are gone indicating no low spots. Low spots (if any) will appear black in need of more filler there.

 

Moving right along at a snail’s pace. I only get about 5 hours a week to work on this. 

 

Remember when I said I have to buy two kits to finish one? Well, here’s a classic example. I was making pretty good progress with the riveting on the bottom of the fuselage and then pulled a stupid maneuver and glued this thing (in the red square) on without looking at the instructions carefully. So I had to cut it off and fix that mess.

 

While we’re on this photo, there are two panels on the lower fuselage with engraved outlines that are barely visible before sanding and after sanding they will need to be re-scribed, something I’m not very good at so I wimped out and stuck on some of our Surface Detail access panels on instead. We’ve been selling these things for a long time but they don’t really work very well on curved surfaces and they’re way too thick so I’m not recommending them until we come up with something thinner/better.

 

168829742.jpg

Photo of rivets and access panels looking good and then WHAM - dumbass maneuver and precious time wasted fixing it.

 

In the photo below, notice that the only rivets lost in the course of fixing my blunder were sanded off and you can see the partially sanded ones at the edge of the row, reassuring you that they don’t come off during handling. I used a sharpened piece of square styrene stock (inset) to scrape off the ruined rivets so as not to mar the surface, and then spliced in the replacements.

 

168829743.jpg

View of repair and partially sanded rivets.

 

Applying the rivets over the fuselage spine is a bit tricky because it’s a compound curve and if you try to do one continuous row over it you’re going to have some difficulty with it buckling because the decal film doesn’t stretch. I tried using a little setting solution to soften the film but that just made a mess trying to keep the rivets in a line. Best way around this compound curve issue is to do each side separately, splicing at the top.

 

168829745.jpg

Rvets applied to right side of fuselage spine before applying setting solution. 

 

The other mistake I made was not following the instructions and installing the landing gear strut assembly too soon. To avoid breaking it off during the riveting process rigged up some foam blocks held on with rubber bands to keep the LG from touching the bench. At this point I’m about 95% finished with the riveting.

 

168829746.jpg

Top of fuselage riveted.

 

Another “mistake” I made was not installing the tail wheel assembly, but if I had to do it over again I’d slot out the retainers inside the fuselage where to tail wheel gear pins fit so I could slide the assembly in and forward into the retainers after the fuselage haves are joined. The tail wheel assembly is quite fragile so be careful…. but you already knew that.

 

168829747.jpg

Bottom of fuselage riveted.

 

That’s all for today folks. 

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Neat!  I have used your products on just about all my models and the added detail is always eye catching and well worth it.  With all these rivets, this should look spectacular when done!  One tip, which you have discovered, is to make sure all seams are filled and smoothed out before you apply the decal rivets.  FWIW, I also apply a good Future/Pledge coat to the rivets before painting, to smooth out the decal film edges.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

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11 hours ago, chuck540z3 said:

 FWIW, I also apply a good Future/Pledge coat to the rivets before painting, to smooth out the decal film edges.

 

 

Hi Chuck,

 

Using liberal amounts of setting solution will smooth out the edge of the decal film. Setting solutions (Micro Sol, Solvaset, Mr. MarkSofter) are solvents which turns the decal film into a jelly-like consistency that bonds the decal film to the surface. You can see how this works by taking a piece of dry clear decal film and dipping it into a setting solution. It will dissolve and if you put it on something and let it dry you will get a hardened drop of clear lacquer, which is what the film is, nothing more than clear lacquer. 

 

I've even read somewhere, where a guy airbrushes lacquer thinner over decals to accomplish the same result. Although I've never tried that, it makes sense. Unlike acrylic or enamel, dry lacquer can be "re-wet" with lacquer thinner. Setting solutions, however are not as "hot" as lacquer thinner, but essentially they accomplish the same thing.

FWIW, you can download our PDF manual for applying our rivets which shows that the edge of the decal film won't show even if you do not use any setting solutions. CLICK HERE to download the manual.

 

Regards,

Woody

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26 minutes ago, themongoose said:

This build has been really timely for me, glad you are going into so much detail. Betwwen reading your instructions and following this thread my first attempt at rivets, hinges, dzus fittings is going well. Thanks!

 

Man, I just checked out your builds and I'm VERY impressed. That P-38 is just beautiful! 

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