Minicraft 1/144 Iron Maiden 757

[LSP_Kevin]

3 hours ago, LSP_Ray said:

Why are decals always a battle in one way or another??

 

That's certainly the case for me!

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

1 hour ago, Out2gtcha said:

If it's not one thing it's the next thing........

 

Never much cared for decals after finding a cutter, but in some cases like this, the cutting masks is simply not possible.

 

With the way the decals fit I personally might have cut some of the decal off at at base of the fin at an angle (wedge shape) with more off of the front and tried to lie up the trailing edge.....and then maybe just added to/fudged the leading edge of the fin to fit the decal.

I'm probably not as concerned with accuracy as some in this type of situation.

 

For me, the design is too iconic to butcher that way, even though I'm sure most people wouldn't notice. Instead, I've come up with a plan to use these decals on the Welsh 757 kit. Basically, I'm going to make a template of the Welsh tail profile and scan it into the computer. Then I'm going to take the hi-res scan that I've already done of the decals, and manipulate the tail design to fit the Welsh tail. If it doesn't look too distorted, then I'll print them out on some decal paper and use those instead. The quality will be slightly lower, but I think I'll get away with it. This is one of the reasons that I try to always take a scan of any kit's decals before I start it.

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Oh, and for anyone wondering why I don't just take the "scan and reprint" approach and use it on this build, it's because the V1 decals I already have already fit the Minicraft kit much better, which means they wouldn't fit any other 757 kit anyway - including the Welsh one. And I'm not buying another Minicraft kit to use them on! Best to use them here, where I'm hoping they'll give me no trouble. And if the original decals don't work out for the Welsh kit, I'll just choose another livery from somewhere, and try to find the Zvezda kit for another go - though the only set available for that kit is from PAS-DECALS, which like Zvezda, is a Russian company. Not only does this make them hard to find, but also leaves me feeling conflicted.

 

Anyway, that's a story for another day!

 

Kev

[The Madhatter]

I know I'm a bit late to the party here Kev - sorry. You have done a heck of a lot of work on this already, so it would be a shame to bin it because of the tail. So, why not 3D print one in the correct shape? (IF you have access to a 3D printer). Or scratch build a tail yourself using sheet styrene in the correct shape? You wouldn't have to worry too much about panel lines as the decals will hide any issues there and @ 1/144 scale, panel lines would be barely visible anyways.

[LSP_Kevin]

2 hours ago, The Madhatter said:

I know I'm a bit late to the party here Kev - sorry. You have done a heck of a lot of work on this already, so it would be a shame to bin it because of the tail. So, why not 3D print one in the correct shape? (IF you have access to a 3D printer). Or scratch build a tail yourself using sheet styrene in the correct shape? You wouldn't have to worry too much about panel lines as the decals will hide any issues there and @ 1/144 scale, panel lines would be barely visible anyways.

 

I thought about modifying the tail to suit the decals, but I've since found an alternative set of decals in my stash that fit the existing tail pretty well. I'll be using the first set on a Welsh Models 757 kit instead, but will scan/modify/reprint the tail decals, rather than modify the tail.

 

Kev

[Derek B]

I would be interested in your assessment of the Welsh Models kit Kev, just as a comparison of its accuracy compared to the Minicraft kit.

 

Cheers

 

Derek

[Smeds]

The "Eddie" decal looks like it just needs slightly rotating forwards - top of fin forward, front lower fin down.   

[LSP_Kevin]

8 hours ago, Smeds said:

The "Eddie" decal looks like it just needs slightly rotating forwards - top of fin forward, front lower fin down.   

 

Sadly it's not quite that simple. While this would align most of the top section, a significant portion of the bottom forward section would then sweep down onto the fuselage. This could simply be trimmed away, but it would butcher the overall design, which I don't want to do. I've got them sorted for the Welsh kit now, while the V1 decals will work here without modification.

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

9 hours ago, Derek B said:

I would be interested in your assessment of the Welsh Models kit Kev, just as a comparison of its accuracy compared to the Minicraft kit.

 

Cheers

 

Derek

 

Well Derek, you know I'm not that much of an accuracy nut. Plus, I don't have a great eye for shapes. But the tail does strike me as being a tad anaemic. That could just be an impression based on looking at the Minicraft tail for too long, however, rather than the real thing! It does look like a challenging build, though. I might start a new build thread for it soon, as it seems like I might have started it already without meaning to!

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Most of my recent attention has been on the Welsh kit, and I've almost got it caught up to this one. However, I'm now waiting on Bra.Z engines and wheels for that build, so I thought I'd return to this one and kick it along a bit further. I took the RB211 engines that my friend Ray Seppala sent me, thinned out the intakes a little, and then installed them onto the wings. This was followed by a light coat of primer to see where things were at:

 

 

It actually doesn't look too bad! Earlier, I'd used Tamiya epoxy putty to blend in the forward wing roots and make them look like some semblance of the real thing. Still a bit of work to do there, however:

 

 

FWIW, the Welsh kit needs some major help in this area too.

 

The other thing that this kit is infamous for, is the upward rake of the engines once installed:

 

 

I've read about various ways to fix this - most of them prior to installation, but I felt I needed to install them first, so I could assess the problem properly, and correct it against some fixed datum points. It actually doesn't look too bad at first glance, but the giveaway is that the fronts of the engine intakes are perpendicular to the ground, whereas they should be sloping rearward from top to bottom. My plan is to make strategic cuts to the pylon just forward of the wing leading edge, and then shim them with styrene stock.

 

Wish me luck!

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Well, I'd hoped that I could report back with glowing news about progress with this one - particularly regarding a successful fix for the engine angles. But it turns out that my decision to do it after installation was not the best one, and there's a reason most people attend to it first. For a start, the wing root on the inboard side of each engine is in the way of making a clean cut where I wanted it to go, so this was a bit of a struggle. I also had to cut much further into the pylon than I wanted to in order to elicit any movement from it. But I got there in the end, shimmed the gap with styrene, and bogged it all up with Milliput:

 

 

Or so I thought! A couple of minutes into sanding back the Milliput, this happened:

 

 

At least the other side survived! That's enough to ruin your best pair of undies.

 

So after some swearing and half a tube of CA, I managed to get it back in place:

 

 

I also think it's now pointing a little high again, but better than OOB. I guess I'm just going to have to treat this area as fragile from now on. Hopefully that mess will clean up OK. Stay tuned to find out!

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Engine repairs completed, though I might still need to do some work around the pylon/engine interfaces:

 

 

Creeping ever closer to the painting stage! Got some Flying Colors coroguard decals to assist:

 

 

There are two sets included, so it'll be interesting to see if they'll also fit the Welsh Models kit. I'll probably scan them and then do a test print on plain paper to check the fit first.

 

Kev

[LSP_Ron]

There is some real modeling!

[LSP_Kevin]

1 hour ago, LSP_Ron said:

There is some real modeling!

 

Thanks, Ron. That's Minicraft for you!

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

A quick update, as this build finally makes it to the painting stage! SMS Light Grey on the wings and tailplanes:

 

 

The strong studio lights make it look basically white, but it should have enough contrast with the white on the fuselage when it goes down - which will happen after the silver bits!

 

Kev