Treehugger's 1:32 Viggen (JET MADS second batch run), resin/3d printed parts, slow build.

[Treehugger]

I'll try find some more clear photo and see if I can at least go up to a 1 mm Ø drill bit. The perforations looks larger in the photo I think, but photos can be deceptive, something I learned making scale drawing of the German WW2 Dora Railway cannon, huge deceptive distortions around the center of photos. After a year working on it, I ended up figuring out just how the big carriage looks like on the sides and all.  Any semblance to correct proportions with the Hobby Boss Dora kit in 1:72 compared to the real thing seen in photos, is apparently imaginary, most of the kit it is just wrong.

 

I thought I had bought Copper metall polishing powder from Uschi, but I see now I bought "metal paste". So I will sand the bottom air brakes and eventually apply the copper powder, ofc, I also have some unused Tamiya weathering metal colors I could maybe try.

Edited August 22, 2022 by Treehugger

[spyrosjzmichos]

Really appreciate your methodical approach!

Will be following with interest!

[Treehugger]

Glad you people like it.

 

I just noticed that the four fins for the bottom fuel tank, has the wrong call out in the build guide. Not found on D sprue (no D sprue exist), but apparently found on the C sprue, two for C6 and two for C7 (the two pairs are a little different).

 

Being picky, it sort of looks line one of the "cylindrical" panel lines is not entirely symmetric around the tank, but I don't want to fix it.

 

I reshaped the butt end of the fuel tank, to make the convex shape more symmetric all around.

 

By first having added a place of sheet styrene to each side of the two fuel tank halves, I can use regular Tamiya Extra Thin cement to comfortably glue the two tank halves together without stressing using any cyanoacrylate which would have gone hard too quickly. Using the regular plastic glue allows me to wiggle the parts into position for a whole minute at least.

 

I sat outside in the sun in fresh air and gently sanded the two halves, with 400 grit sanding sticks, into a garbage bin, wearing a FFP2 dust mask.

 

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Edited August 23, 2022 by Treehugger

[Treehugger]

The "Master Tools" chisel tools are really nice. I have a few of them. Having these makes it trivial to clean the resin cavity seen below.

With this tool you can cut sideways and also straight down, getting into places where you can't easily get with a sharp blade. You can also scrape plastic with these.

 

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Edited August 23, 2022 by Treehugger

[LSP_Kevin]

Yeah, I'm a fan of those chisels, too.

 

Kev

[Treehugger]

The trick using diluted Vallejo putty works very nice. In addition to fill in tiny gaps seen after the 3D printing process, you also get to highlight where the area is having this "printed pattern", so you can more easily see it later when going over with a sanding stick.

 

Dry fitting the parts now, I think these four exhaust points has to be glued onto the model, AFTER having glued the large resin parts together, as the seam is too close to these four 3D printed parts, might as well add them later and now now early on.

 

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15

 

Correction: I meant to say that, in the bottom photo here showing the cockpit, the resin panel part, has a gap/space behind it, between the 3D printed resin panel and the resin cast back wall.
 

I never really liked having models with an open cockpit, although unsure, I suspect I will want to keep the canopy parts closed in the end, seeing how nice the two large clear parts go nicely together (what it looked like anyway). Still, I will do what I can to smoothen the surfaces inside the cockpit.

Edited August 28, 2022 by Treehugger

[Treehugger]

Note: If anyone want to try using Vallejo acrylic putty, even if diluted, it goes hard once the water evaporate, leaving some putty left on the surface. Problem then is that the resin is probably softer than the putty, so one should be careful sanding with a sponge recklessly, as it might sand off more resin than putty. I would suggest, removing excess putty, with gentle cutting with a very sharp blade, removing tops, and also just shaving off putty without scratching any resin surface or edge nearby. Then, after having removed most of any excess putty, you can start sanding the putty. It is best to use a more coarse sanding sponge, and if you use "fine" grade, it will take forever to grind away the Vallejo acylic putty in my experience.

 

The best way to fill in a cavity with Vallejo putty, is to use the putty as is, without trying to dilute it, then make an "ice cream top" over the cavity, that prevents visible shrinking, and then you just cut off the top once it starts drying, then after drying some more, you can sand over the cavity.

 

Vallejo putty can also be used to rehape parts, where resin is missing, but the thinner the putty edge is, the more likely it will remain a little soft and can easily break.

 

Warning: Do NOT add pure Vallejo putty all over your model, thinking you can just sand off this "acrylic" putty with ease. The putty has to be added and removed in some sensible manner.

 

Edited August 28, 2022 by Treehugger

[Treehugger]

I am sort of just fiddling with various stuff re. the kit parts at this point. I don't like stressing with details or things that require constant concentration, because of the high risk of making mistakes. Better to go for simple fixes and simple methods instead of doing whatever I first think might be a good idea. Better work smart imo than just compulsively try finish some tedious or difficult task.

 

I am reminded of the first time I bought Eduard resin. The 1:48 Sidewinder missiles resin parts were visibly bent, not a pretty sight. After some time, it became clear that I could just dunk the long missiles in boiling hot water to let the resin straighten itself out. Somebody called this as if the resin had "memory". Anyway it worked, so the Eduard resin missiles looked ok after all.

 

I have ordered some Eduard 1:32 Aim-9 and Aim-7 resin missiles, oh I wonder if they will be straight right out of the box, or not.  I wonder what color the missiles are supposed to be. I have found NO photos of the silvery Viggen jets with any weapons on the pylons, so I am thinking any missiles would be the green (Vallejo 71.137 US light green?) or perhaps white. I saw one photo of a Viggen online with apparently both white and green colored Sidewinders. No idea what color trainer missies have.

 

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Edited August 28, 2022 by Treehugger

[Treehugger]

I think there are two things with this kit that will be very difficult to work with:

 

1) The fitting of the two large air intakes by the cockpit.

2) This seat harness shown below.

 

It sort of looks like the whole harness object, is a little too tall for the seat. Hopefully, by cutting and sanding, it will fit a lot better into the chair, but this isn't easy. There is a harness buckle that is supposed to connect to the seat at the top, and I have yet to correct that. It is as if JETMADS maybe used two different moulds for the seat and the harness parts, however they are both on the B sprue. :|
 

Detaching this harness part from the sprue was easy, though one smalle side harness part cracked off. The safest option is probably using a photo etch saw, but I have so far been using the best Tamiya side cutter for this, nice sharp and thin.

 

Other parts for the ejection chair has so far not been added. I will paint them separately and just glue them on after that I think for serveral parts.

 

More work is required to make the seat harness fit the seat/ejection seat.

 

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Edited September 1, 2022 by Treehugger

[themongoose]

Hmmm, with them being resin i wonder if it was due to different shrink rates since the belts are really thin compared to the seat? All in all it looks like you’re on it though!

[Treehugger]

I think I fixed the seat harness. I had to shorten the straps vertically and I think I managed to hide the short bit.

 

It isn't clear to me if the ejection seat area, is generally light gray, or, bare aluminium. I think I might go for light gray, unless someone protests.

 

The ejection seat has buttresses on the sides. Six of them. I know I can glue on two of the largest ones before I  place the ejection seat into the cockpit, so that is nice if I can just airbrush it all, without fiddling with the tiny pieces afterwards. Will have to check if the four other parts can be glued onto the ejection seat beforehand.

 

I have worked the huge 3D printed rear part, and drilled out some holes and enhancing the detailing. The kit afaik, has a too small part in one place where I tried to drill the largest holes, at the top by the thruster exhaust area, and it will be replaced with a bit of styrene.

 

I just realized that I have some tiny cracks around a few places by the drilled holes. I think this is because I jumped to a too large drill bit, so best to gently drill out the holes, instead of trying to going for the largest drill bit at first. I drill such holes manually. I can probably try clean this up with some tiny amount of sprue goo. Sprue goo doesn't really stick to resin, but it does stay there if you don't knock it off.

 

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In other news, I tested my new DSPIAE paint mixer. It seems to work nicely for my Vallejo 60 ml and 200 ml primer bottles. This thingy uses electromagnetism to rotate a metal bar dropped inside the bottle of paint. Doesn't work with metal balls though. Powered, by a power brick that I pretty much never use otherwise.

Edited September 4, 2022 by Treehugger

[Treehugger]

Question: For a bare metal JA-37 Viggen, presumably an earlier jet, what color would the missiles have?

 

I guess, maybe both the "Aim-7" and "Aim-9" missiles would be greeen, but I am not sure. The Sidewinders seem to have some steel colored parts. Presumably, the decals for Swedish missiles might be different from standard Sidewinders and Sparrows.

 

I am also not sure what color the wheel wells for a bare metal Viggen would be, if aluminum, olive drab, or maybe light gray. For the camo Viggen, there is apparently a mix of olive drab and some other color I think.

 

 

Edited September 4, 2022 by Treehugger

[Treehugger]

This fit was a little mysterious, but it turns out, you really have to remove excess resin here. It looks like, from photo, that the two parts are supposed to be flush. Requiring some putty later on, but trivial. I tried to clean up the 3D printed part by scraping the surfaces and thinning the edges a little.

 

Edit: I thought at first this was an JA-37, I see now that it is NOT an extended fuselage, instead here the canards ends where the wing root begins. Apparently the AJ-37 (photo) had some additional detail just behind the nose wheel well, which I guess isn't on the later JA-37.

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Edited September 9, 2022 by Treehugger

[scvrobeson]

Great problem solving on the vent there. Really enjoying these builds of the Viggen

 

 

Mat 

[Treehugger]

This evening I had the most fun airbrushing session that I ever had. No tip dry, not a hint at clogging.

 

My 60 ml Vallejo Gray primer even dated back to before 2019, and it worked nicely, but ofc, I always sift my primer paint. Dried flakes of paint, seem to find its way from the primer paint bottle and into my nozzle if I don't sift my primer paint.

 

It seems conclusive now, that adding Vallejo 'thinner', is causing lots of tip dry and *maybe* frequent clogging in my airbrush, or rather, not using thinner without a good reason, keeps my airbrush working with no issues.  I also learned to clean the needle canal where paint might seep in, a place I never really cleaned. I suppose, it is entirely possible that the dirty needle canal, was always causing mysterious clogging issues, but I do think the thinner is to blame. I also finally bought some Tamiya cleaning brushes, one that can really get into the needle canal. One large cleaning brush, and one thin cleaning brush. I do clean the needle every now and then with a tiny brush and some cleaner liquid in a tiny glass jar, but tip dry is so much less now.

 

I have also solved my typical issue of using Vallejo airbrush cleaner liquid, directly from the big bottle. Instead, I use a tiny squeeze bottle, to get to dispense individual drops of liquid without the waste that comes from all the dripping off the big original airbrush cleaner bottle.

 

Eventually, I hope to start using my 0.5 needle/nozzle Iwata HP-CS Eclipse, in additional to my 0.35 needle/nozzle setup. I have no idea if paint flow will improve by going up a size, or if I am forced to also increase my PSI if switching from a 0.35 to a 0.5 needle/nozzle.

 

Edited September 4, 2022 by Treehugger