Bf 109 G-2 of Johannes "Macky" Steinhoff - REVELL - 1/32

[Landrotten Highlander]

29 minutes ago, Furie said:

Hi Mike, when you talk about alcohol, you mean household fire alcohol? (methylated spirit/wood alcohol)

most likely.  Any other form of alcohol will be too weak (although there are some strong beers that alcohol will not strip stuff off a model - will not coment on stripping stuff off of people though....)

[Furie]

Well, I just prepared the canopy: sanding, I removed the small air intake on the left side of the windshield that was missing on my Bf109 while sanding it, washing with rubbing alcohol at 90°, wiping, soaking in Gauzy and putting it in a box in order to protect it from the dust while the product dries.

I'll wait about an hour and show you the result, before and after.

Edited April 29, 2023 by Furie

[LSP_Kevin]

48 minutes ago, Furie said:

Hi Mike, when you talk about alcohol, you mean household fire alcohol? (methylated spirit/wood alcohol)

 

Mike's referring to isopropyl alchohol (IPA), but the alcohol you mentioned (methylated spirits) will also work. I prefer to use Windex (ammonia-based window cleaner).

 

Kev

[Furie]

Well, I have both: IPA and methylated spirits (the kind you put in a stove to make cheese fondue!).
I didn't see any weird reaction after cleaning the windshield with methylated spirits but I prefer to ask (stupid) questions before rather than realize afterwards that I should have asked them!

 

NB : The problem is that I'm not comfortable with the translation and acronyms of specific products in English-French. 
For example, the acronyms CA, PE, IPA were like hieroglyphics for me and I had to look a lot to get the right translation! 

Edited April 29, 2023 by Furie

[Furie]

Windshield out of the box:

 

 

 

The small air intake was removed by sanding:

 

 

 

 

The Gauzy one from AK:

 

 

 

The windshield treated by Gauzy and dry.
Everything looks very good to me, no streaks, no product drips, no tint on the transparent plastic and a definite shine to boot:

 

 

 

The link to the Gauzy product: AK 893 GAUZY.pdf (ak-masters.com)

[Furie]

 

Now it's time to glue the three parts of the canopy on the fuselage.
I want to represent my Bf109 with the canopy open but for painting purposes and to get a coherent camouflage I also have to glue this part in "closed" position and once the model is finished I should take off this part and glue it in "open" position.
My question: are there any precautions to take to be able to easily remove this canopy while allowing it to remain glued during the painting process? 
Do you just put 4 small drops of white wood glue at the 4 corners to make it stay in place while being able to unglue it easily?  
Double-sided tape? 
Anything else?

Edited April 29, 2023 by Furie

[thierry laurent]

Add +/- 4mm wide masking tape strips on both internal cockpit sills, the internal edge of the windshield and the one of the fixed rear canopy. However glue only half of the width. Then add the central canopy on the remaining 2mm of visible masking tape. You can still add a little bit of white glue but if done correctly no paint should enter in the tub.

[Furie]

Ah yes, I think I understand: so when installing the central part of the canopy, it will come into contact with the 2 strips of tape at the front and rear and will thus create a watertight "seal" for the paint that will come later.

Edited April 29, 2023 by Furie

[MikeMaben]

23 hours ago, Furie said:

Hi Mike, when you talk about alcohol, you mean household fire alcohol? (methylated spirit/wood alcohol)

Yep, the common stuff you can get at any drug store.  In the U.S. the common stuff is 70% (too weak) , 91%,

99% , commonly called rubbing alcohol. I just use it pre dipping to remove skin oils. The other stuff mentioned

works fine too. Your parts came out nice

[thierry laurent]

10 hours ago, Furie said:

Ah yes, I think I understand: so when installing the central part of the canopy, it will come into contact with the 2 strips of tape at the front and rear and will thus create a watertight "seal" for the paint that will come later.

Indeed! You got it!

[Furie]

Merci pour l'astuce Thierry. 

 

Yesterday I applied the Montex masks on the 3 parts of the canopy.
It's quite easy to do despite the fact that there are no instructions included with the Montex set.
For example, there is a mask board for the canopy but it allows to make 2 canopys.
When you look at it closely, one canopy set is smaller than the other and I had to do a mask fitting test to determine which was the right size among the 2 boards... (maybe one set for the outside of the canopy and the other set for the inside of the canopy, but no precision is given).
I don't like to play guessing games, especially when it comes to something like the canopy where you can't make a mistake.
Another thing I forgot on a Bf109: on the rear fixed canopy, there is a metal element to paint (the one on top) inside the canopy and not outside.
Pictures to follow.

[thierry laurent]

5 minutes ago, Furie said:

Merci pour l'astuce Thierry. 

 

Yesterday I applied the Montex masks on the 3 parts of the canopy.
It's quite easy to do despite the fact that there are no instructions included with the Montex set.
For example, there is a mask board for the canopy but it allows to make 2 canopys.
When you look at it closely, one canopy set is smaller than the other and I had to do a mask fitting test to determine which was the right size among the 2 boards... (maybe one set for the outside of the canopy and the other set for the inside of the canopy, but no precision is given).
I don't like to play guessing games, especially when it comes to something like the canopy where you can't make a mistake.
Another thing I forgot on a Bf109: on the rear fixed canopy, there is a metal element to paint (the one on top) inside the canopy and not outside.
Pictures to follow.

De rien!

 

Actually, the Montex set has indeed masks for the internal and external sides of the canopy parts.

[Furie]

A little bit of work done, but delicate enough for me to take maximum precautions: so I used Montex masks to mask the outside of the canopy (as well as an inner element on the rear fixed part that has to be painted in RLM66).

 

 

 

With Tamiya tape I masked the inside of the middle mobile canopy.
As Thierry advised me, I put some Tamiya tape around the front and rear fixed parts to create a kind of internal mask to avoid spraying paint inside the cockpit.

I glued the front and back parts with AK "WOLVERINE" glue, wiped off the excess glue with a moistened cotton swab and let it dry.

 

 

 

I placed 2 small pieces of double-sided tape on the edge of the cockpit between the 2 parts of the canopy already glued and put in place the movable part of the canopy which is therefore kind of "glued" temporarily with this double-sided tape.
Painted with Gunze RLM66 and in the end it doesn't look too bad.

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow I'll put some acrylic putty from Deluxe materials to finalize the windshield gluing.
Then glue the wings, horizontal stab, flaps etc...

 

 

 

[MikeMaben]

Hi Denis, I'm just curious , what part of the windshield do you plan on puttying ?

The 3 seams meeting the fuselage are panel lines.

[Furie]

Hi Mike.
You're absolutely right, the 3 seams of the windshield in contact with the model are panel lines but the fit of this windshield is not exactly perfect.
I think this is due to the prep work I did long before and now I visually notice some discrepancies between this windshield and the model.

This translates into 3 seams that are a little too deep, which I'm going to mitigate (but not make disappear) with a little putty.

I'll just reduce this strong visual contrast to be able to better integrate the windshield in the model. 
I also have the small air intake on the left that I removed by sanding and that remains visible: I still have to do some work on it to make it disappear.

 

NB: I also realize that I work on my model continuously with magnifying glasses and that each small defect appears as unbearable whereas it is surely minimal and practically invisible without a magnifying glass on the eyes...
The fault of my 58 years and my presbyopia...
I would be interested to know if many participants in this forum are like me forced to work with magnifying glasses?

 

NB2 : I don't know if the word "magnifying glasses" has been correctly translated so I post a picture to be precise: