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SBD-3 Guadalcanal done, done and..


Woody V

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On 7/12/2020 at 2:44 PM, Archer Fine Transfers said:

Been a while but I finally have something to show, and some of you may have seen this coming…. Rivets.

 

I spent about 9 months developing rivets for this kit, not just rows, but pre-arranged rivet “skins” - individual rivet decals that fit each panel. One of the reasons it took so long is that when started I didn’t know what I knew when I finished. This is a monumental undertaking. Then when it was finally time to package it all up and price it out, I wondered if anyone would pay over $200 to rivet one of these kits. Yes, you read that right…. $200.

 

The only excuse I have is that these resin rivet sheets are priced based on size, and the SBD is covered almost entirely with brazier head rivets - and this isn’t a small model. All told this kit nearly fills an 11x17” (A3) sheet. Then everything has to be priced so we can still make something after dealer discount.

 

So I’m conflicted and asking for opinions. Would you pay $200 to completely rivet your model? Should I release them as a Limited Edition? Should I just pass the dealer discount onto retail customers and not offer them to dealers? Have I lost my mind? I really hate to have wasted all that time for nothing.

 

Regardless, I got the fuselage buttoned up, gloss coated and one side of the fuselage riveted.

 

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Thanks for looking.

 

If you do end up offering that rivet skin set, I would buy one.  I would say it all comes down to how accurate you want the model.  Those that love the kit and know how much effort, time and money would go into just putting together rivet decals or other methods know that that final amount you would sell these for is almost on par if not a better deal.  I haven't done much with mine due to slight intimidation of piecing together all those rivets.

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8 hours ago, Brett M said:

it might just be the angle of the last picture, but are there rivets on that left lower access panel?

 

Yea, but those will probably be deleted in the production release. I've had to make so many minor tweaks that I have to get another kit to check my work. BTW, I looked through my files and I started development back in March of 2019. Never having done anything this complicated I created some problems for myself early on that haunted me throughout development. 

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8 hours ago, nichenson said:

 

If you do end up offering that rivet skin set, I would buy one.  I would say it all comes down to how accurate you want the model.  Those that love the kit and know how much effort, time and money would go into just putting together rivet decals or other methods know that that final amount you would sell these for is almost on par if not a better deal.  I haven't done much with mine due to slight intimidation of piecing together all those rivets.

 

This will be offered, as is. It's definitely not for everyone, just top tier builders.

 

I had considered offering this with things like wing tips, access panels, etc. as pre-arranged panels and then just sheets of straight, individual runs of rivets to get the price down, but it would take months of mind-numbing tedium to go about it that way. I did a quick estimate, and just on the top of the outboard part of one wing there is 160 inches of straight line rivets. It's too bad the program I use can't tell me how many individual rivets there are, but a good guess would be 30,000 on the wings alone, top and bottom.

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3 hours ago, D.B. Andrus said:

30,000 rivets for wings alone. That's impressive.

Cheers,

Damian

 

And that's easy part.

 

I use Illustrator to do this and each one of those rivets is an individual object, mostly grouped into strings but still individually selectable. Example: Let's say I need to move one of those rivets closer or farther away. Now I have uneven spacing, and to fix that I have to select the whole string and space them evenly, but that's just a click. I must have done that a thousand times. It's a mind numbing exercise in tedium - and with my OCD.... I was considering the Avenger next but the hell with that!

 

BTW, I got the struts... really nice and the stainless oleo is amazing. No bother trying to mask it off if you use lacquer. Just wash it off with a brush. 

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It's funny, I just bought the FW-190 rivet set and was going to email you and ask you to do a set for the SBD but you beat me to it. And yes, I'll pay $200 for the set, too.

I've riveted the 1/18 TBF-1 (still have the bottom wings to do). I've spent about $200 thus far. I'd be up for a 1/32 set for the Trumpeter kit.

 

How about a set for the FLY Wessex (or at least a set from the cockpit to the tail, for those of us wanting to do an H-34 conversion)?

 

Thank You for your continued support of our need for decent surface textures.

 

Regards,

Stephen

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Archer Fine Transfers said:

.....

 

BTW, I got the struts... really nice and the stainless oleo is amazing. No bother trying to mask it off if you use lacquer. Just wash it off with a brush. 


I just sprayed the gear and masked......should have thought about just cleaning the paint off with thinner!

 

Working on the dive flaps for my 5 right now.....they have the largest sprue gate I’ve ever seen. It’s interesting to make sure the edges stat straight...ugh. 

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Re the decal set, I'd say bypass the dealers and go direct to the customers. I can see someone who really wants to go whole hog picking up the set. I haven' t yet attempted riveting, probably never will, I'm having enough fun trying to master the preshade/post shade/black basing techniques. But the work put out by people who do rivet is impressive to say the least. Positive raised rivets for aircraft that have them is a great idea. Your SBD is going to be a beaut when it's done.

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  • 4 months later...

I’m finally back at work on this. All this Covid fallout (good and bad), restructuring Archer and a “heart attack” that never really happened has eaten up all of my time, but hopefully I’ll be making routine updates until this build is finished. Not much to show today, just finished painting small parts.
 

171375778.jpg

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4 hours ago, Archer Fine Transfers said:

I’m finally back at work on this. All this Covid fallout (good and bad), restructuring Archer and a “heart attack” that never really happened has eaten up all of my time, but hopefully I’ll be making routine updates until this build is finished. Not much to show today, just finished painting small parts.
 

171375778.jpg

 Yes! Progress again.  Good to see you got some beach time, Woody!

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  • 4 weeks later...

WHY EVERYTHING TAKES FOREVER AROUND HERE, Part 27

(Or the world’s longest canopy masking post)

 

One of the most difficult things in model building is getting your mojo back after shelving your project for months. Combine that with one of my least favorite things to do, masking canopies and store-bought canopy masks apparently made from recycled inner tubes and another tale of woe will emerge.

 

WEEK 1

The last canopy I masked was my Wildcat but with only two pieces and only painting the outside was pretty easy. I cut thin strips of Tamiya masking tape for that one so I figured I’d do the same on this build, just paint the outside. Here’s where I started and then I decided I’d use some pre-cut masks from a vendor who will remain nameless to do the inside. I didn’t like this at all. The pieces don’t really fit and this material doesn’t conform to compound surfaces.

 

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My first attempt doing the outside wasn’t exactly inspiring and my boxing glove hands didn’t help either.

 

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In order to get the inside pieces to even come close I cut it in half, but that wasn’t enough. The contour of the edges don’t fit very well so now I’m back to thinking I’ll just do the outside with my own masks traced from the store-bought sheet.

 

Another problem I have with one-piece masks is that I can never seem to get all four sides lined up so to overcome that I cut my masks in half so I only have to deal with lining up two edges.

 

171442498.jpg

 

That worked out pretty good, so I figured I’d tackle the inside too. But me being me I decided I’d make my own masks, kind of like a universal canopy masking sheet which actually didn’t turn out too bad. It’s just a bunch of little squares, some strips and triangular pieces, using Tamiya masking sheets.

 

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Start in the corners.

 

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Then some strips to finish the sides.

 

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Then fill in with more tape.

 

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It gets a little complicated on parts that don’t have square corners and that’s where the triangular pieces come into play. It may not look very elegant, but it’s something I can accomplish with my limited finger mobility. The clear parts are covered and the framework isn’t.

 

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Inside of the windscreen done.

 

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Everything appeared ready for paint. I never used the rubber tires that come in the kit so I figured I’d try it this time while I had all the paint stuff out.

 

WEEK 2

 

171448145.jpg

I started on the inside and that went okay, or so I though. Then I did the outside but didn’t get any pictures.

 

BUT THEN…

 

I’m removing the masks and BOOM…. Much to my amazement I discovered that I forgot to mask one of the panels on one piece, and if that wasn’t bad enough I didn’t notice it when I was painting.

 

171448146.jpg

So, instead of being done I had to fix this blunder.

 

171448147.jpg

Using Mr. Color lacquer thinner and a cotton bud, I started washing off the paint….

 

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…. re-masked and repainted.

 

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

 

At this point I stopped taking photos, but the story doesn’t end here. I discovered that some of the thinner got on the outside and that had to be touched up, and when I pulled the masking off the inside I found that some of the thinner had gotten under the mask leaving a paint stain on one of the clear panels. I tried to clean that off with IPA (why?, I have no idea) only to discover that IPA removed the Future leaving an un-fixable mess, so I completely stripped everything off and repainted it again. (Insert foul language here.)

 

In the end it worked out.

171448149.jpg

 

Lessons learned:

1. You can use Mr. Color lacquer thinner to remove lacquer paint without damaging styrene.

2. IPA removes Future.

3. Painting the inside of canopies is a questionable practice for me.

4. It’s not easy posting here with a cat sleeping on your lap.

 

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures. 

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