Minicraft 1/144 MD-80

[GMK]

Nice work, Kev. Probably doesn’t feel like it right now, but your perseverance will pay off. 

[LSP_Kevin]

40 minutes ago, GMK said:

Nice work, Kev. Probably doesn’t feel like it right now, but your perseverance will pay off. 

 

I hope so! After making that last post, I noticed that the silver on the fin was a bit lopsided, and in my attempt to fix that, I completely mucked it up! Since I used AK Interactive's Xtreme Metal Polished Aluminium, which is an enamel, I used white spirit to remove most of the offending areas, and will have to repaint it from scratch - including some of the blue on the fin. I'll do that first as part of the process of correcting the overall demarcation of the blue section, and the re-mask and re-paint the fin leading edge.

 

 

Kev

[LSP_K2]

8 hours ago, GMK said:

Nice work, Kev. Probably doesn’t feel like it right now, but your perseverance will pay off. 

 

I agree. What's sometimes needed, is a good dose of tenacity.

[LSP_Kevin]

As promised, yet more masking! My original position for the blue demarcation was too high, so I've had to lower it on both sides. It's not completely accurate, as the kit and decal guide don't seem to agree on dimensions, geometry, and placement of a few key airframe landmarks. But it's definitely better, and will look even more so with the decals on.

 

 

 

Kev

[chrish]

That’s a very pretty scheme 

[LSP_Kevin]

1 hour ago, chrish said:

That’s a very pretty scheme 

 

Thanks, Chris. I need to find a nice, mid-grey backdrop to photograph it against! Not particularly happy with either the black or the white in this instance.

 

Kev

[chrish]

7 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

 

Thanks, Chris. I need to find a nice, mid-grey backdrop to photograph it against! Not particularly happy with either the black or the white in this instance.

 

Kev

That’s understandable, my dslr camera has a fit when there’s anything white in the image background with a white subject in the foreground. It seems to wash out all the Colors. I actually had airliner cockpit pictures (with blue seats) come out with pink seats until I removed a large piece of white paper towel in the image area.  My iPhone is all I use now for in progress and completed pics. It too goes a little screwy with white in the image area but much better if the model is on the green cutting mat or dark gray or dark blue foam board

[Out2gtcha]

Looks great so far Kev

[LSP_K2]

On 5/10/2023 at 9:46 PM, LSP_Kevin said:

As promised, yet more masking! My original position for the blue demarcation was too high, so I've had to lower it on both sides. It's not completely accurate, as the kit and decal guide don't seem to agree on dimensions, geometry, and placement of a few key airframe landmarks. But it's definitely better, and will look even more so with the decals on.

 

Kev

 

I'll soon be trying to fit decals for a 737-800 onto a 737-300. I sure hope  I don't have the same issues you've had.

[LSP_Kevin]

33 minutes ago, LSP_K2 said:

 

I'll soon be trying to fit decals for a 737-800 onto a 737-300. I sure hope  I don't have the same issues you've had.

 

I haven't got as far as the decals yet. But in my case, the decal guide (and reference photos) show the blue demarcation cutting across the top of the forward port exit door, before sloping gently into the windscreen frame. This is impossible to replicate on the kit, as either the door is too low, or the cockpit windows are too high. When I lowered the demarcation to cut across the top of the door in the supposed correct position, it was already lower than the required end point on the window frame. So I had to raise it a bit to create the correct appearance. Since the slope is still barely perceptible on the model, my guess is that the kit door outline is too low, and I probably should have filled it in at the beginning of the build.

 

Kev

[LSP_Ray]

I am sure you can make it work out well, Kev. You are doing great so far.

[LSP_Kevin]

Thanks for the comments, fellas. I know it doesn't look like it, but I've actually done quite a bit of work to the MD-80 since the last update, including the red wing tips, repainting the fin leading edge, doing the engine hot ends in burnt metal, and some general touch ups here and there.

 

 

I did have a setback, however, as I've just tried to applied the gold decal stripes along the white and grey demarcation on the fuselage, but completely destroyed the first one in the attempt. I'm now going to have to mask and paint this stripe, all the way around the fuselage - just when I thought all the masking was over for this build!

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

I have to apologise for the lack of updates to this one over the last couple of weeks, as I've become quite frustrated with it, and pushed it aside for a while. I decided I really needed to push on with it this morning, but before attending to the erstwhile gold cheat line, I noticed that there was a couple of ragged spots in the blue where it meets the while, and I needed to fix that first. So I duly masked along that section and touched it up. As soon as I peeled the tape away to admire the result, a bunch more blue paint chipped away!

 

 

Keep in mind that I was masking the white and not the blue. The blue is a Mr. Color paint, thinned with Mr. Color Leveling Thinners, and has an almost latex quality about the way its sitting on the model. It doesn't appear to have bonded with the layer beneath it at all. This is really my first time using Mr. Color paints in anger, and I'm quite surprised by this behaviour. The only effective treatment for this problem is to protect it with a clear coat before doing any more work, so now I'm waiting for a heavy coat of Tamiya X-22 to cure before proceeding.

 

 

Back to the Mustang, then!

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

I think I'm going to have to re-think my plan about masking and spraying the gold cheat line. For starters, I'm too worried now that the blue paint is too fragile to take any masking - particularly around the demarcation line. But also, the gold line will be 1mm high on the model, and separates the white from the grey undersides, and even if I sit it atop the grey demarcation, I can't see a way of masking it effectively over the top of the wing roots. Technically, the demarcation should be slightly higher than that, but this would have put it too high at the nose. It was a case at the time of compromising between what the decal instructions showed, and the physical geometry of the kit itself, which didn't seem to match up.

 

Anyway, I've come to the conclusion that masking and spraying a 1mm gold cheat line all the way around the fuselage and over the wing roots will be a whole lot of work with little chance of producing an acceptable result. So I'm back to the decal idea. The problem is, I no longer have enough of the gold cheat line decal on the Hawkeye sheet to do the job. And, they have some built-in curves that don't really match my paint work. If I can't find any more, I may have to try Woody's trick, and simply airbrush some clear decal film and cut it into strips.

 

Anybody got any better ideas?

 

Kev

[AlexM]

Check this out: 1 mm gold decal stripes

https://tinwizard.de/shop/en/decals/simple-patterns/stripes-1-0-mm-assorted-colors/stripes-1-0-mm-gold-90x140-mm

 

Cheers

Alex