Minicraft 1/144 Iron Maiden 757

[LSP_Kevin]

So I bought (and used) some Coroguard decals from Flying Colors Decals for this build, but with some trepidation. You see, I'd used them before on a 767 build:

 

 

I had some serious trouble with them on that build, as not only did they react really badly to Microsol by permanently crinkling such that I had to sand them down and apply a second set, and then sand those down again, but they also wrinkled under every clear coat I put over them!

 

Well, sadly, it seems I'm having the same experience this again, despite the more than 10 year gap between builds. I'll take some photos when the decals have settled down as much as they're going to, but at this stage I think I'll be stripping them off, and masking and painting the Coroguard.

 

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

OK, I did my best to capture the issue in a photo:

 

 

They're like that all the way along both wings. They reacted badly to Microsol, and these wrinkles are still there more than a day later, and even after trying other decal setting solutions. The uppers aren't in great shape either, and haven't even had any Microsol yet.

 

I'll strip them off and mask and paint them (the lower ones are out of position anyway). Quite bummed about this, as it was all going quite well until this point. But then, it isn't really one of my builds until something like this happens...

 

Kev

[Out2gtcha]

Well that sucks........it's always  a bummer to have to do crap like that.

 

Probably won't be using their decals again I assume 

[LSP_Kevin]

7 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Probably won't be using their decals again I assume 

 

That's for sure!

 

Kev

[chrish]

Decals!

I hate em, I have a real fear, dread, trepidation and panicky phobia of decals having been burnt by crappy decals on so many occasions.

of all the decals I’ve tried the only ones I’ve not had any issues with are V-1 decals, Arctic decals and most Trumpeter decals… they can be the wrong color, size, or unreadable but, lay down nicely.

off the soap box now…

Great work on this build…other than those damned coroguard decals 

 

[LSP_Kevin]

1 hour ago, chrish said:

of all the decals I’ve tried the only ones I’ve not had any issues with are V-1 decals, Arctic decals and most Trumpeter decals

 

Interestingly, the Ed Force One decals are from V1, and despite being laser printed, they performed beautifully. The FCD Coroguard decals, on the other hand, are screen-printed, but don't settle down by themselves, and react badly to having anything applied over the top of them! It's going to be a lot of work to get those Coroguard decals off and mask and respray them, but it's not worth trying resurrect them at this stage. I did that with the 767 build, and while that worked out OK, it's really not the way to go here. I do have a plan, and the only uncertainty in my mind is what colour to paint them. Might have to do some tests on a mule first.

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Happily, the FCD Coroguard decals came off without much trouble at all:

 

 

 

The next step is to give the entire model a couple of liberal gloss coats to protect the existing decals and paint work, and then it's on to some tedious masking...

 

Stay tuned!

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

The next step was to protect the decals and existing paint work with a couple of heavy gloss coats:

 

 

I used Alclad's Aqua Gloss, which I generally reserve for those occasions where I'm concerned that a solvent-based clear coat might affect the decals - which is the case whenever they're laser-printed, like here. I'll leave this for at least 48 hours now, before going anywhere near it with masking tape!

 

I've also discovered some errors and omissions, some of which I also plan to attend to. The most visible one is that I got the colour of the engine pylons wrong. I assumed they'd be white like the engines themselves, but they are in fact the same light grey as the wings, so I'll be attempting to correct that, at least.

 

Might get a chance to do a bit more work on the Welsh kit now. At least I know not to bother with the Corogard decals!

 

Kev

[Rick K]

On 3/27/2024 at 6:45 AM, LSP_Kevin said:

OK, I did my best to capture the issue in a photo:

 

 

They're like that all the way along both wings. They reacted badly to Microsol, and these wrinkles are still there more than a day later, and even after trying other decal setting solutions. The uppers aren't in great shape either, and haven't even had any Microsol yet.

 

I'll strip them off and mask and paint them (the lower ones are out of position anyway). Quite bummed about this, as it was all going quite well until this point. But then, it isn't really one of my builds until something like this happens...

 

Kev

Dang Kev. Sorry to see this.  Everything is going well until the decals.  I just hate when you get to the decal stage the the decals behave poorly.  Been there too many times.  You got this for a successful fix.

[LSP_Kevin]

OK, back to this one now! I've just finished masking and painting the Coroguard panels on the upper wings and tailplanes:

 

 

I used SMS Dark Gull Gray here, which turned out to be a pretty good match for the decals, though a tad lighter. Still have to do the lower surfaces, which will be an altogether more complicated process. Wish me luck!

 

Oh, I elected not to repaint the engine pylons in light grey, as I realised after starting the masking job that it was going to be a lot more difficult than I thought, and really not worth the bother.

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Oh man, that was a nightmare! But I'm pleased to say that masking and painting the lower surface Coroguard panels is now done.

 

 

It's far from perfect, but will certainly do as a shelf-sitter. Once I've dealt with a bit of overspray, it'll be on to the final stages of completion.

 

Kev

[TankBuster]

Looking fantastic, all that work is paying off. Cheers.

[LSP_Kevin]

Man, this thing is really crawling towards the finish line! Originally I'd hoped to have it done by the end of March, but here we are nearly two weeks later, and I'm still trying to nudge it across the line. I've finally got it up on its legs, but can't for the life of me work out how to attach the y-shaped support struts to the main landing gear. Doesn't seem to work whatever way I go about it, and the instructions are no help at all.

 

 

 

Here's what the Minicraft instructions give you:

 

 

After examining some photos and renders of the real thing, it's clear that Minicraft has this whole arrangement backasswards, and it's nothing like the real thing.

 

 

That's just not achievable using the kit parts, so I just fudged it as best I could:

 

 

Stuff like this is a good reason to do airliners wheels-up!

 

Kev

 

[LSP_Ray]

Looking at your pic of the real thing, it looks like whoever drew the instructions got the set upside down. 

[LSP_Kevin]

1 minute ago, LSP_Ray said:

Looking at your pic of the real thing, it looks like whoever drew the instructions got the set upside down. 

 

Yeah, but the parts are like that also! Minicraft tooled the whole thing backwards and upside down, and then drew the instructions to (kind of) match.

 

Kev