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Tamiya 1/32 P-51D - first LSP build with lots of little firsts - FINISHED


Sepp

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Small update:

 

I've been playing with another new toy this week (namely, a Silhouette Cameo 3), turning the intended 2D camouflage pattern into 3D-friendly masks and seeing how it handles various masking media. Still requires some tweaking but getting there with the help of a Revel -D5, which is also serving as a paint mule as I experiment with pre-shading, mottling and generally learning how to paint with an airbrush.

 

KiyDPL.jpg

 

7DJHAL.jpg

I'm impressed with the Cameo's capabilities - it handles the sharp corners on the ermine tails nicely, but the carrier sheet is waaaay to sticky out of the box - they really need to sort that out.

 

More later!

Edited by Sepp
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On 5/22/2019 at 6:32 AM, Sepp said:

I'm impressed with the Cameo's capabilities - it handles the sharp corners on the ermine tails nicely, but the carrier sheet is waaaay to sticky out of the box - they really need to sort that out.

 

More later!

 

Great job with the decals!  What did you use to draw them?  The cutting mat is too sticky!  I read to dab a t-shirt on it to make it less sticky.  It worked well for me although I may have done it too much as it's not so sticky anymore.

 

Bryan

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I just keep that cover sheet in place on the cutting mat and tape down my masking material to that, using the grid lines to line up everything nicely still. Its far too sticky, I damaged or distorted several of my first attempts at markings and masks trying to remove them from the cutting mat. I just secure the paper or Oramask in place with some 6mm Tamiya tape around the edges, of course ensuring its sitting flush and tight on the cutting mat to ensure everything is cut correctly and to size. I couldn't manage to detack that cutting mat, even tried leaving it without the cover sheet for a few days to 'dry out' but it still remains super sticky to this day. 

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13 hours ago, cbc4447 said:

following! I'm just getting started back in the hobby as well! the last kit I built was a Revell 1/48 b17 back in high school.  

Firstly, welcome to the Forum cbc, hope we hear and see more from you on your own stuff!

 

Sepp, I had early problems with the overly sticky cutting mat but it's fine now - from memory I detacked it by placing the palm of my hand on it a few times. Your screen print looks very professional!! 

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8 hours ago, Durangokid said:

 

Great job with the decals!  What did you use to draw them?  The cutting mat is too sticky!  I read to dab a t-shirt on it to make it less sticky.  It worked well for me although I may have done it too much as it's not so sticky anymore.

 

Bryan

 

Thanks, Bryan :) 

 

I use Inkscape 0.48 - it's also what i used to draw the profile in the original post.  I would jump to the newer version but they changed the native resolution so anything imported from 0.48 suffers a scaling error. I have lots of line art aircraft and vehicles done, and I really cannot face having to rescale every single one. The newer version can perform some really neat tricks, but good ol' forty-eight is (currently) good enough for what I do.

 

I've also done the T-shirt thing but man, does it make a mess of the surface, and it's still really too sticky for fragile media like frisket.   For that, I think I'll use the method suggested by Ade Rowlands.

 

John

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Hey John, thanks for the info.  I just started using Inkscape and it has been fairly easy to figure out but I still have a long way to go.  I've been having a problem when sending my file over to the silhouette software that maybe you can help me with.  I save my drawing as a  DXF file and load that into the silhouette software.  The silhouette brings up the drawing just fine except it doesn't keep the scale.  For example, a number that I drew at a half inch ends up being 2 inches in the silhouette studio.  Do you know why that would happen?

 

Sorry if I'm taking you off topic...

 

Bryan

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18 hours ago, Durangokid said:

Hey John, thanks for the info.  I just started using Inkscape and it has been fairly easy to figure out but I still have a long way to go.  I've been having a problem when sending my file over to the silhouette software that maybe you can help me with.  I save my drawing as a  DXF file and load that into the silhouette software.  The silhouette brings up the drawing just fine except it doesn't keep the scale.  For example, a number that I drew at a half inch ends up being 2 inches in the silhouette studio.  Do you know why that would happen?

 

Sorry if I'm taking you off topic...

 

Bryan

 

Hi Bryan,

 

I've found saving outlines as .png files (Inkscape: [select object] File>Export Bitmap) then dragging them into Studio (I use my desktop as a scratchpad, and drag drectly from there) and using Tracing Tool>Trace Outline has worked best.  The national markings, diamonds and camo slices were all done that way and all seem pretty much bang on scale.  Doesn't seem to be any distortion either, as the circles have all come out, well, circular :)

 

The exception was trying to get Studio to trace a shape with intersecting lines like this (thin lines, hopefully you'll be able to see them):

1nSkXO.png

 

Studio appears to want to create an edge on both sides of the wavy line, no matter which option one chooses.    Even splitting the figure into a box and separate line, the line still gets an edge all round, rather than being translated to a single cut... one option would be to draw the shapes in Studio, convert to paths and combine. I opted for the easier "change what I was going to do", as you'll see below :P

 

As for scaling - it might be a resolution issue.  Inkscape is not hugely brilliant at recognising "native" scale. It seems to use pixels and resolution to determine size.  That's why I'm drawing to scale and exporting as a .png. The exported bitmap is what it is, the resolution issue doesn't occur.

 

John

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As I'm here, a tad more progress:

 

Firstly, I rehashed the camo masks.  Whilst the "full fat" versions work well on the wings, fin and tail, the fuselage is obviously a more complex shape and the meat of the masks was making laying them down problematic.  I should have realised this... 

 

New version just uses the edges - much better.  The sharp-eyed will notice each shape has a curvy and a splinter edge.  The latter is the "inside" face, i.e., towards the meat of the masked area.  I've also printed a "road map" showing the correct orientation for each piece, as some are rotated to fit the sheet.  These prevent me going potty trying to remember which way up they should go, and in which order. 

 

otL2Jb.jpg

 

Last, and by no means least from my point of view, I actually started playing with plastic.  I polished out the seam on the canopy (Tamiya... why???) , masked it up and sprayed it - black inside, dark earth outside, inner face of the frame has also had a coat of matt varnish -  and I'm quite pleased with the result.  You might spot I also removed the small bump that the HF aerial leads through ... partly to see if I could.  It only left the tiniest of scar, which isn't noticable, and what looks like a small crack on the top of the canopy in the pic below is just a reflection/artifact; the canopy is sound.

 

As I haven't yet decided whether the bird will get a matt or satin finish, I'll return to the outside of the canopy when I cross that bridge.

 

z3mZfR.jpg

 

Actually, I should confess this is the second try.  The first canopy turned out OK, too - then I thought "just one more pass with the polish"... and it cracked.  Lesson: when it's good enough, stop!

 

To prevent this one cracking I used Bluetak to make a slug for the canopy to rest on whilst polishing:

 

9ATfDE.jpg

 

"other cola-based beverages are available", lol

 

Next up: tiny brass gun barrels...

 

Sepp

 

 

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27 minutes ago, Durangokid said:

Thanks for the help John, I'll give that a try.  Nice work on the canopy!  It's nice the kit come with more than one canopy...

 

Bryan

 

Yes, indeed - very useful :)

 

Once Silhouette has traced your outline/shape, multiple paths (like the two masks for the left wing in my original attempt) can be split using Object>Release Compound Path, and individual nodes can be adjusted using the (would you believe) Edit Points tool on the left-hand side. It is a very fiddly tool to use, I find, so atm I prefer to go back to Inkscape and re-import.

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Well, after a week that I'm going to try very hard to forget, it was good to clear the mind with some more time spent on this.

 

Firstly, the moulded gun barrels (or, I suppose, more correctly muzzles) have been drilled out and replaced with the lovely Master brass set. Apologies for the poor pic.

 

WOhILG.jpg

 

Then I set about the wheel wells.  I decided that out of the box, the kit doesn't have enough parts, so I detatched the inner gear doors from the centre divider.  This made access to the side walls easier as I would be adding a few things to get the feel of lead wire, CA glue etc., and it will also help when it comes to installing a modern VHF aerial between them (as this build will represent a heritage/memorial flight bird) and when I play with bare metal foil on the scuff panels.  In the process I discovered that said CA glue is very good at sticking anything to anything else, except the two things you're actually trying to stick together (particularly if one of the unintended participants is, say, one of your own fingers)... however, eventually i arrived here:

 

xon2ns.jpg

 

Again, I'm not going overboard on it because 'how' currently trumps 'what'.

 

Finally, I couldn't resist trying out the masks to see if my intended sequence was going to work so the Revell mule was stripped down and out came the Paashe.  Don't look too closely at the finish because I barely allowed each layer to dry before moving to the next and didn't pay much attention to ensuring the masks were seated properly, because (as you can probably guess by now) the process is still more important than the finish at this stage.  The red part of the diamond was another experiment and there might yet be more of that involving Sharpies and smaller stencil masks.  I'm still heavy-handed with the airbrush but at least there are no runs, and although the wavy leading edge is not going to make it to the finish line it looks like the plan might actually work :) :

 

UyTtuU.jpg

 

The dry run has shown some improvements I can make to the markings masks to ensure proper placement and orientation but I'm happy with where things stand. 

 

Next up? Cockpit tub, I think - but for now, I can hear a cold beer or three calling!

 

Cheers,

 

Sepp

 

Edited by Sepp
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