Global Scale Modeller

Hello everybody

I finally decided to put my next build on the forum. My Hellcat finish, I started right away the kit as the temperature here is bad. Feels like autumn here ! So I decided to go with the camouflage scheme over the metal finish. It will be my first metal finish plane ever.

So I started the cockpit. This build is going much more out of the box. But decided to scratch build a few items to add details to the cockpit. It's hard to find good reference pictures of this plane so I decided to use the aires kit as a reference. But when I decided to add details I had already painted a metal finish for the future weathering.

So here's where I'm at for the moment

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So as you can see in the above picture, I added a brass rod and 2 lead wires. On the right, using my reference picture, I took a Cooper wire and rolled around it a 0,2 mm lead wire
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

The other side of the fuselage :
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

On the top left a lead wire again. For the hose thing, I used the same technique as before. I took a stainless steel rod and roll the lead wire around it.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

First attempt at that kind of scratchbuilding and I think it came out pretty good. May be a bit out of scale ... let me know

As for the bundle of wires, I used a fishing line. Roll them together and put CA glue and then used EZ Line for the attachments
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Also my first attempt at that kind of scratcbuilding. Again, I think it's look pretty good and a bit out of scale but not that much !

In good Tamiya fashion, the kit has not seatbelts. But having spent a lot of money recently on kits, vacation and house renovations I didn't want to buy any extras for the kit. So ! Again a first ! I decided to attempt my first scratch building of seatbelts !!
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I used a kind of foil paper from a coffee bag and copper wire. With a riveting tool I did the holes. And masking tape for the strap to attach the belt. For my first it look good I think. Had small problems with the folding of the foil paper. Next time I think I'll use masking tape instead. Let me know again what you think.

So next up will be the painting of the cockpit and details
Take care everyone

Work continued today on the cockpit. Painting time. My goal is to attempt a weathering using worn effect fluid from AK, again a first for me. Used it before but only on small areas. So That's why you saw in the previous post the metal finish painted inside the cockpit.

Having stumble on information about the plane, I've read that Tamiya Desert Yellow callout is wrong. That the plane interior was actually the Japanese gray-green or even grey but would fadeout in kind of tan tone. Is it true or accurate ? I don't know and don't care but that's what I decided to attempt. I first sprayed the Worn Effect on the metal finish. Had real problem spraying that. Anyone have a suggestion for needle size or air pressure ??

When that was done, I sprayed a thin coat of desert yellow.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Let that dry then another spraying session with AK's Worn effect fluid then thin coats of IJN gray-green

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Altought I attempted thin coats with quite diluted paint, it still cover too much of the desert yellow to my liking. Will see later when I try to activate the worn effect fluid how it works.

Then continued on to the subassemblies of the cockpit. No fit issues.....aaaahhh Tamiya
First one done, painted and weathered by activating the the Worn Effect

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I've achieved what I wanted too so pretty happy with it. I'll had a few scratches later before closing everything up.

Thanks for watching or even better commenting.

Take care everyone

You got a good start and the worn effect looks really good!

Joe said it but that's a great start and the wear & tear looks really effective.

Nice work adding detail to the cockpit too - and thanks for sharing the techniques you've used

Tomcat64 wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 2:36 pm Joe said it but that's a great start and the wear & tear looks really effective.

Nice work adding detail to the cockpit too - and thanks for sharing the techniques you've used

Thank you and It's a pleasure ! But small disclosure... I've used a technique I saw on Will Patison youtube channel for the wiring but the rest is mine
And realize last night that even if I used the AIRES kit as a reference it's all wrong !! I finally found decent pictures of the cockpit last night and details are all wrong. But too bad ! I won't change anything and adds details and a good look to everything.

Off to a great start and hopefully a sign of things to come, very nice weathering and cockpit detailing.

Hello eveyrone,
yesterday being a very slow day at work , I continued working on my Tony. Have to take advantage of working from home with the damn pandemic !

Still at the cockpit stage. The sidewalls being painted last time, I finished painting the small details. Then I activated the Worn Effect Fluid with water and it came out great again.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Did the same for the seat
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And finishing assembling the main part of the console that I showed last time

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Next up was dry fitting the fuselage and doing it again with the cockpit in. Because the instructions shows you to glue the fuselage together with the engine in, then pushing the cockpit assembly in from underneath. At first step of dry fitting you see again how good Tamiya kits are. The fit is perfect ! Not like Eduard who should focus more on that issue and put less details I think sometimes. But all that said, I knew I would have issues because of the details I added on the sidewalls....

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
You can see on the next picture one of the problems I created by adding details
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So add to mark with a sharpie all the places I needed to cut everything so it would fit. The circles show what as been removed of my detailing work
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

After they were no more issues for closing the cockpit so everything was glued together and the same for the wings and let dry until next time (surely today as again it will be a really slow day at work )

But there's one thing missing !! My damn belts !!!! As I showed in the last post, I made them with copper wire and kind of aluminum foil from the wrapping of a coffee bag. I have trouble painting them. The paint, whatever I do, won't stick to it (Vallejo model color). As soon as I touch them a bit hard, or worst, try putting a wash on (tamiya panel line or AK's wash), most of the paint comes off. I had put metal primer on it and it was worst. Tried Ultimate primer and it was a bit better but only the primer truly stayed on. Tried Tamiya primer, it was better but again... So I think my solution would be either doing it again with Tamiya's primer and using the Vallejo's awful wash. Or buying the nearest color possible from Tamiya Lacquer range at my hobby store.
Anyone as other suggestions ?
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Thanks for watching ! And take care !

Kevthemodeller wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 3:27 pm Off to a great start and hopefully a sign of things to come, very nice weathering and cockpit detailing.

Thank you Kev !! But I'm at the easy part for now ! Never did a metal finish before and the camouflage will be a real test of skills and patience !

More superb detailing and weathering

It's just such a shame most of it won't be seen once the fuselage is assembled This is always been a conflict for me, especially when buying PE etc. An up detailing can easily cost more than the kit with very high proportion of it not able to seen once built.

Kevthemodeller wrote: Fri Sep 03, 2021 8:09 am More superb detailing and weathering

It's just such a shame most of it won't be seen once the fuselage is assembled This is always been a conflict for me, especially when buying PE etc. An up detailing can easily cost more than the kit with very high proportion of it not able to seen once built.

Thank you Kev. Really appreciated. It's true what you say. It's only my 3rd built that I add details. The first one I knew it wouldn't show but was more for practice. The last one my Hellcat in the building thread, I put a lot and realize in the end, as you said, that it's didn't show, even with an open canopy. So for now on, I decided to see how much would show first and if the canopy is going to be open or close. For this plane, when looking at it, I thought it would show being a larger cockpit and canopy. And I was right, as it is now close. Picture coming later. But in the end, it's fun to do (add the details) and is rewarding. And will be good for me once I decide to do 1/32 plane one day.

More nice progress on this one Francis - just a shame you had to remove some of it to get it to all fit together though.

You & Kev are right about the decision as to how much extra detail to try and cram into areas that won't be seen - I think most of us have been there with interior details at some point or other.

Not really sure what to suggest about the belts though, is there some way you could maybe remake them using masking tape or won't that be thick enough?

I find paint doesn't adhere well to metal even using the proper primers. I was going to try gundamn marker pens, but haven't had the opp yet. Excellent scratch building skills and a very nice build.



Ps....sandpapering the surface helps, but difficult with such small pieces.

Small update of what I was able to do yesterday. My work day wasn't as slow as I expected so didn't do much except on my lunch time and in the evening.

I had to take care of the damn belts as nothing was really working. As digger said it's the kind metallic wrapping that causes the problem. So I decided to not put a wash on (it was mostly to show the riveting for the holes in the belt). Only painted no effect. Still looks good to me and even better then PE belts.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

The real solutions would have been do start over as Tomcat said, and to do them with masking tape folded over. Next time !

In the mean time, the wings were glued together. And tanks to Tamiya the fit is perfect.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

You can also see the closed fuselage in the background with the cockpit in. Had more trouble there even after removing my details. The fit is so tight. The top front joint needed filling even before the cockpit was in... and putting it in made it pop open. Glued it back together again. Had to filling jobs to do on the underside but not because of bad fit but because how I had removed the pins. They were filled and sanded. Still work to do on the top one. You can all see it in the next pictures ; and have a great view of the closed cockpit.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Also not shown in the pictures, I've assembled the drop tanks. Have to buy the color for them today. And painted and assembled the air intake. Glued it to the fuselage. So today, pretty occupied with my real work and have to take care of the joint on the top...
Have a great weekend everyone !

Goood update I'm enjoying all the detailing you have decided to do. It's coming up a treat.

So not much going on this weekend with the current project... Saturday was a beautiful hot and sunny day. So being on the last stretch of summer here I decided to spent the day outside with my son playing and swimming in the pool that was a nice 86 F And today, being an awful day temperature wise, I spent most day again playing with my son and doing school lessons.

Between all that did a few things... I prepared all the small bits for the upcoming priming session and continued working on my ugly seam on top. At the first spot check with primer I saw that I hadn't solve the problem. I think the main cause is my filling gap talent And it was my first time trying to fill a gap with CA glue. Although I like the method. So I worked on it again...

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Did a second spot check after that and still had problem. Did a third and hope the fourth later tonight is going to be the good one !

Had to fill the sink marks and the wheels covers
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

While preparing the small pieces for priming, I had the idea of may be priming and painting the plane separately of the tail section.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

That way I could may be save time on painting and masking, and not have the chance to ruin the metallic finish... What do you think ? when looking at the instructions and the kit, they should be easy to put in after the painting without having a chance to leave glue marks on the finish paint. And I'm also aiming at painting the blue stripe on the fuselage, in that way the masking for that part should be easier I think.

Garion77 wrote: Fri Sep 03, 2021 11:34 am And will be good for me once I decide to do 1/32 plane one day.

Me likewise, I've got a good few 1/32 in my stash. The other problem with moving to this scale is where do I display them hence they're all still in the stash

Kevthemodeller wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 8:11 am

Garion77 wrote: Fri Sep 03, 2021 11:34 am And will be good for me once I decide to do 1/32 plane one day.

Me likewise, I've got a good few 1/32 in my stash. The other problem with moving to this scale is where do I display them hence they're all still in the stash

I have the same problem as you ! I'm lucky to have a big room for modeling (20 x 10)... but have limited space to display the finished models as the room is shared with 3 kids They all have their painting/coloring/ crafts tables ; there's a corner for my son's toys and 3 bookcases for a few modeling supplies but mostly for my girlfriend's books as she is a literature teacher

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I have a small wood glass cabinet in the far corner to put them in and it's almost full... so I'm searching for a solution at the moment and where to put it before I start a next project after my Ki-64

Garion77 wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 1:03 pm

Kevthemodeller wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 8:11 am

Garion77 wrote: Fri Sep 03, 2021 11:34 am And will be good for me once I decide to do 1/32 plane one day.

Me likewise, I've got a good few 1/32 in my stash. The other problem with moving to this scale is where do I display them hence they're all still in the stash

I have the same problem as you ! I'm lucky to have a big room for modeling (20 x 10)... but have limited space to display the finished models as the room is shared with 3 kids They all have their painting/coloring/ crafts tables ; there's a corner for my son's toys and 3 bookcases for a few modeling supplies but mostly for my girlfriend's books as she is a literature teacher

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I have a small wood glass cabinet in the far corner to put them in and it's almost full... so I'm searching for a solution at the moment and where to put it before I start a next project after my Ki-64

Opp for a huge island display case right up the middle. Big enough for a full size armored train ....
It's a great space you have. Walls big enough for some impressive shelving. I'm almost all shelved in

digger303 wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 2:12 pm

Garion77 wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 1:03 pm

Kevthemodeller wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 8:11 am

Me likewise, I've got a good few 1/32 in my stash. The other problem with moving to this scale is where do I display them hence they're all still in the stash

I have the same problem as you ! I'm lucky to have a big room for modeling (20 x 10)... but have limited space to display the finished models as the room is shared with 3 kids They all have their painting/coloring/ crafts tables ; there's a corner for my son's toys and 3 bookcases for a few modeling supplies but mostly for my girlfriend's books as she is a literature teacher

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I have a small wood glass cabinet in the far corner to put them in and it's almost full... so I'm searching for a solution at the moment and where to put it before I start a next project after my Ki-64

Opp for a huge island display case right up the middle. Big enough for a full size armored train ....
It's a great space you have. Walls big enough for some impressive shelving. I'm almost all shelved in

I would love huge island display case in the middle !! but as I said, my son has his toy corner, not shown in the previous picture. But you can see it here :

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

But as he's getting older, this will slowly disappear. Same thing for the crafts tables. So I will have more space in few years. But during the pandemic, my girlfriend and one of the girls started a new hobby...sewing for making clothing. So I'll have to rearrange the space for a sewing machine and table but still will have more space for me. And need it because I would like to purchase a bench vent in a near future because I started using a bit of lacquer paint.

Here's a closeup of my work area.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

To describe it a bit you can see I have a few hobby zone modules. I love them even it was an investment for me ; but it was worth it as I have a small desk and not lot of storage options. So I have the tools/paintbrush module that is useful but hard to see the brush you need it in it. I have the bottle module that I put my washes in. And drawers for sanding sheet, masking tape, putties and other stuff. Also have the sprue module that I actually put my sanding sponge in.
I made the shelf for the paint bottles. Added 2 shelves for lots of different stuffs : pictures of my son and deceased father, paw mark of my deceased dog, bottles I don't use much at the back, drawing or crafts my son made when younger, other bottles of products I use more at the front that I didn't have any more space for.
I have a cabinet to the left where I put my extra cleaners and thinners, a few kits and stuff I don't know where to put.
I have to drawers unit with tools, scratch building stuff, oil paints, cutting mat, respirator and cleaning airbrush stuff.
And one of my more useful storage solutions is the IKEA panel on the wall with different hooks and pots. I put my sanders, masking tapes I use the more, tweezers and other stuffs.

And here's the small display case I have
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
As I said, you can see all the bookshelves with all the books we have... and we have like 6 more bigger than that elsewhere in the house... I read a lot and as I said my girlfriend is a French literature teacher. You can also see a few kits I have in my stash on top of them.

superb build. the detailing and weathering is brilliant. well done.

Hello everybody
Need help... Tamiya's instruction paint calls out to use enamel paint for the camouflage scheme over the mettalic finish...anyone knows why it's specified that way ? I'll probably use acrylic anyway as I already have the color for it, with leveling thinner.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Really small update today... as not much thing was done not having lots of free time on my hands and still thinking on how I'm going to tackle the NMF, painting of details and weathering.

All the small parts were primed with Ultimate black. Love that primer !

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Did some riveting on the landing gear covers to add a bit of eye catching details.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Also, to prepare for the priming of the main body, I had to take care of the canopies part. I've decided to have the plane with the canopy open, so I'm going to use the "closed version" one for the painting instead of masking the cockpit. But while cleaning the parts, my sander accidentally went to the center of the window

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So it was all masked up, sanded and polished.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
As this was my first attempt at that type of correction I was pretty happy with the result.

Also had the idea to paint the interiors of the canopy parts. So I copied the masks with a tracing paper sheet, the put on masking tape and cut everything up.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

But the result wasn't convincing....
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

The cut mask to apply well inside and don't cover all of the needed section. I'll have to try again, or find a new way to do it or paint it the usual way.

So a small and boring update as I said... but a good way to wish everyone a great weekend !

Small , but still a significant step that needs to be done.

Good morning all ! Well, yesterday, after posting in the thread and watching the US open to see our Canadian Felix Auger get is ass kicked , I kicked my own ass to sit at the bench and work a bit on my Tony as I know I won't have much time this weekend because of work to do around the house (mainly big repairs on the pool deck).

I started by painting the damn yellow for the propeller tips, with yellow ocher from Vallejo Had to do it over again, as it wasn't going down good on the metallic surface I had already painted for future weathering. Did I say in my previous built that I hate Vallejo paints ?? None of them react the same way and need around the same amount of thinner... I discovered it helps a bit to put a drop or two of flow improver but still hate it. I keep them, having mostly that brand, because I don't want to waste them or buy a replacement when I already have the color in hand, as I'm slowly moving away from them.

So after the debacle of the yellow, I moved on to rear of the plane, mainly the rudder and the stabilizer. Has I have decided finally to paint them separately to help with the future masking. We'll see if I regret the decision later To help with the future red, I painted them with flat white, in this case, for the first time, tamiya lacquers. Thanks to Paul video, I found right on the mixing ratio with the thinner and it went down as a charm ! But they stink as hell !! I have a respirator but no extractor

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

After that, I moved on to drop tanks. And my goal was to finish them before calling a night. They had already been primed in Ultimate black and painted on with a first coat of Vallejo red-brown. I've stumbled on information that the Japanese use that color as a primer for they drop tank.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Forgot to say, that I did a bit of damage to them prior to all that with a file. After the red brown, I put on 2 coats of AK'S Worn effect and then went on with the color XF-14 J.A. grey. Again, in the same article, that was the color for the drops tanks as well as a darker gray.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Then I started my first phase of weathering by putting on a really thinned coat of flat white and dark grey on them

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

It was then spayed again with a really thinned mix of the original color to tone it down a bit.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Now time to put the worn effect product to use.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Paint the details and put the decals on, then spayed with semi-matte varnish form Alclad

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And that was it ! Future weathering will be done with oil paints later on.
So time for me to go work on the pool deck ! have a great weekend everyone

Lovely detail weathering on the drop tanks

Kevthemodeller wrote: Mon Sep 13, 2021 8:26 am Lovely detail weathering on the drop tanks

Thank you Kev. I went lightly on them because I've read that there were taking care of contrary to other drops tanks from other countries during WWII. I'll correct the varnish because it's too glossy to my taste.

Hello,
small update as not much was done having not much time on my hand since the last update.

First off, I've painted the propellers and weathered them a bit. Same process was use as the drop tanks. I painted first a metallic color, then the called for red brown. I then added buff color to the red brown to airbrush it at located points. And then chipped the paint and added a bit more with a prismacolor pen. Was happy with how it turn out until the varnish dried up. It killed a bit of my airbrushing with the lighter color.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I'll have to come back to them by either airbrushing again or using oils. I used Allcald semi matte varnish and it's too glossy to my liking.

I also painted the landing gear struts.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Continuing on the landing gears location, I had already painted the covers and a kind of attachment I don't know the name of. Both of them would normally get decals for yellow bands but I decided to paint it and it looks pretty good to me.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I then went back to canopies. As I said in an early post, I was trying to mask the interior to paint the interior color. My first try failed so the other idea had was using small strips if masking tape and then fill the rest with a masking fluid. Again, the curves of the more complicated one made it impossible for my skills

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So, went back to use the mask on top only
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

But then a series of mistake on my side happen. First, I had left the clear sprue part in the cockpit (don't know the English word sorry) the pilots looks through when shooting. I wanted to glue it in place after the canopies in fear of knocking it off and loosing it as I did a few times before. Unfortunately for me it didn't fit !

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Had to cut it to fit in place. Also realize after gluing it that I had forgotten to clean up piece. After that I glued the front canopy in place and then realize I had forgotten to paint the back of instrument panel
On now to my last mistake. As Tamiya supplied 2 canopies depending on open or close position, I thought I could use the close one for painting as I'm planning to let it open. So I glued the front part first. When came time to glue the "close version", I saw that the fit wasn't there at all !
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
I didn't understand why at all....went back to the instructions and finally found that depending on which version you choose, you had to glue a different version of the sidewalls. So I couldn't use it and had to mask everything up

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So I'm getting near the big day ! the start of the main painting. But I'm in dilemma for the red... I made my own mix for the Japanese roundels, but don't know what to use yet for the ailerons. I think I'll go with the instruction's flat red and not use my roundel mix for it. Any suggestion ??

And I'm planning to use tamiya as-12 bare metal silver, decanted. Never use that kind of paint before and still testing stuff for future weathering. In my test, I've discovered that, without any kind of varnish, It can withstand Tamiya's accent panel, Ultimate wash, AK's white spirit and enamel thinner, Abteilung odorless thinner. But cannot with Humbrol enamel thinner. Completed destroy the paint. So it all that information I'm trying to decide which road I'm going to take with varnishes and weathering. And I have to remember in all that that I'm going to use tamiya acrylic paint with mr color leveling thinner for green camouflage. Any suggestions again ?

Hello
again a small update, and again not much going on being too occupied by work at the moment. It was primer time. I decided to use tamiya's fine grey primer with Mr. Leveling thinner, aiming to get a smoother finish for NMF. And grey because by what I've read, and pictures you can see, the metal wasn't shinny.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

But mistakes again on my side.... After finishing spraying the bottom I realized I had forgotten to take care of the seem at the front of the plane...

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And discovered, by accident, that the same seem at the end of the plane shouldn't be there... as I thought otherwise.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Nothing much to take care of but still a bummer. But the real pain in the ass was when I sprayed the top engine cowl... If you remember I had an ugly seem I had trouble with, by my own fault. I had sprayed Ultimate primer on it to check it and it seems ok. But yesterday, I accidentally put my finger there with leveling thinner on it. So I removed the primer and wipe everything up. But I think it also remove a bit of the filler I had in place...

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr



It had gave much trouble and seems it will give me more again !! On other front I still don't know about the red and the weathering process for the metallic finish. Tamiya's AS-12 seems pretty tough !! And it's exactly the sheen I'm aiming at... so I'm trying to may be avoid putting on varnish on it...

This modeling lark isn't all beer and skittles, I'm always forgetting to do something or just stuffing up in general.
However it is coming together and I'm sure you will sort it.

digger303 wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 12:49 pm This modeling lark isn't all beer and skittles, I'm always forgetting to do something or just stuffing up in general.
However it is coming together and I'm sure you will sort it.

Mmmmm. Beer.

Garion77 wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:24 am But mistakes again on my side.... After finishing spraying the bottom I realized I had forgotten to take care of the seem at the front of the plane...

And discovered, by accident, that the same seem at the end of the plane shouldn't be there... as I thought otherwise.

I'm sorry it's fighting you but at least it looks to be minor problems. Keep up the good work!

While tackling my minor seems issues, I'm still thinking on how the rest will be done on the painting and weathering side. Having done already a few tests with different thinners, washes and enamel products.

My main thinking is done around the camouflage mottling of the plane. I thought of gluing to piece of paper together and then cutting everything up. But realized I had picture paper for printers. So I first test piece was cut out and tested.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So first phase of the test was satisfying !
Then I wanted to paint the identification numbers on the landing gear covers. I put an acetate sheet on the decals, the masking taping and cut away the numbers

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I did a few attempts before being satisfied with one. Because cutting so small corners was difficult.
Before painting them, I tested that I could remove the paint with tamiya's thinner without damaging the Bare Metal silver. And it was ok. So on with the paint !

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I was really unhappy with the result ! So it needs to be remove !

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

But how the f... ?!?! Even if I had tested removing it on a separate plastic sheet, this time it removed the paint !! I then decided to let go of the idea of painting it until I thought about using the same paper as the camouflage mask. It was testing time again ! For the camouflage mask and the markings ! Everything was scanned and printed on the photo paper.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
As you can see on the left, I printed it on the wrong side of the paper but it doesn't matter as I'm using this paper only for it's thickness and sturdiness.

Again, I few attempts were done for the markings when on my last one, it was ok to me.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Only a few touch up with a paintbrush may be.

Now on to the camouflage mask !! I cut out a small section of the rear of the plane, and kept an unused part as an handle. And cut the mottling out.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Hold it in place with the plane to see if it fits ok
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
And tested painting with it on a test plastic sheet
And works good to me !

It will take a long time to cut everything up but will still take less time then spraying it free hand. And will help to avoid mistakes I think... I'll do another test with one of the wings and spraying it again on a test sheet before making a final decisions.

Have a great weekend everyone !

Nice idea! Good luck.

More lovely work there mate, I'm always finding something I've missed

Kevthemodeller wrote: Mon Sep 20, 2021 8:11 am More lovely work there mate, I'm always finding something I've missed

Thank you Kev ! keep safe

Really really small update as not much is not going on again. To much work and the weekend was so beautiful were I'm from that we were outside all along hiking, cycling and enjoying the last days of the pool with a nice 84 F

In the mean time, I had time to finish the marking on wheels covers. But not with small misfortune again. While placing and aligning my homemade mask this happen...

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Easy fix but still....

Ready to paint !
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And the result with a bit of weathering.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And the plane has receive the first coat of Tamiya's AS-12 Bare metal silver. No pictures at this time.

Hello everyone !

after a week without any updates I'm back. But it doesn't mean I wasn't working on the current project ! As I was in the painting process, I took my time with the Bare-Metal Silver and letting it dry correctly before moving on it.

While that was going on, I finished my homemade painting mask for the camouflage

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

After the paint was really dry, I went on with masking different panels and using different metallic tones to vary the look a bit.

The result is really great, to me. And really subtle with one of the shade.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

For the paints I used.... the all plane is with Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver on Tamiya's Fine surface grey primer. This paint is hard stuff !!! Tougher then AlClad. To bad they don't have many colors. For the other colors, I've used only Alclad. Dull aluminium on the ailerons. Dark aluminium and white aluminium on a few selected panels. The white aluminum is the subtle one. It shows more with direct light. So pretty happy with myself and the result, being the first NMF I do.

Next on, will be a lot of masking again to paint the Japanese Roundels and finish the tail section with the same red. I'll may be try painting the thin red demarcations lines instead of using the decals...will see. For the roundels, I'm going to try to use again my Olfa circle cutter but I never manage to do a good job with that... if it doesn't work I'll use instead my british roundels from marketar. I'm sure one is going to be the right size ! Next update may be in a while as I'm starting tomorrow small renovations outdoor. Have to redo part of the balcony and all the stairs.

It looks very nice! The masks had to have taken a lot of time to make.

BigWall wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 5:25 pm It looks very nice! The masks had to have taken a lot of time to make.

It did took a lot of time ! Around 5 hours I think. But I think it's time well spent ! it would have taken me much more time to airbrush free hand the camouflage pattern and that away I'm avoiding mistakes too like spatter or spiderweb.

Very impressed with the masks They look like bought ones Coudn't you do the same for the roundels ? I am assuming you have one of those silhouette machines.
Looking forward to the unmasking

digger303 wrote: Wed Sep 29, 2021 12:50 am Very impressed with the masks They look like bought ones Coudn't you do the same for the roundels ? I am assuming you have one of those silhouette machines.
Looking forward to the unmasking

Hi Digger ! Actually I had tested them earlier in the thread. They are cut free hand with a tamiya designer knife. You have to go lightly and let the blade do the work. And hold it gently so that it moves easily in your hand. I scanned the tamiya instructions on paper photo to have a sturdier surface that does not absorb the paint.

As for the roundel, it's the paper his too thick to proceed the same way ; and I tried it free hand or with a circle stencil and it didn't work. But yesterday evening I had time to give a try again with the olfactory circle cutter and went pretty well. So the paint was all masked up and painted with flat white as a start. But I should have use a white primer instead because the white comes out pretty grey because of the NMF.... and know don't know what to do with it... if I put the primer on it's another layer of paint and the risk of having a ridge when I remove the mask. If I don't put it the outer white circle on the side won't come out right and the red will vary in tone a bit compare to what I already painted on the ailerons.

Will see later when the suns come up ! 6 am presently and pretty dark outside. And I have stairs to build today ! Take care

Hello everyone

so work continued slowly on the Tony...being on vacation this week for house renovations I still had a bit of time on the hand to work on the Japanese roundels.

Main current work is on the balcony in our backward as they weren't build correctly by the last owner. They were sinking slowly and had a slope of one inch and half on the distance of one stair !!

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So I removed everything, planted new post to go below frost (more then 4 feet here) and will lift up the structure of the stairs on them and put new wood in.

When not working on that major project, I was able to finish the roundels. Everything was masked off. Put some color variation in first using a mottling of very light gray, insignia white and pure red. On the panels lines I used Dull Red.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

As you can see, the last picture isn't that great ! but I like what I did. You can also see that the sides one aren't done because I had forgotten to paint the outer circle (white). You can also see that I painted the top with rubber black, preshaded with flat black. All that on top of AK worn effect fluid to chip it a bit later.

But the main thing that made me advance slowly, mainly today as I had planned to work on it most of the day was a surprise that I received from my dear girlfriend... my Christmas gift in advance as she said...

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

A brand new puppy !!! I was so surprised and so happy !! As a few know, I lost my Bernese mountain dog in January and it was pretty hard for me. She was a pillar in my life when I had nothing and really tough times and was alone. So to have a new one is a big step for me as Cléo meant so much to me... Know I have to find a name !

Have a great weekend everyone !

Nice pup, I'm sure he will be a loyal friend too.
Plane looks a mess atm, but I bet when the tape comes off and you chip back the black it'll look great.
A good week end project rebuilding those steps. I like those sort of projects nice and simple and straight forward.
Mondays update should be good on all fronts.

Congratulations on finding a new friend! That's great news.

I had to rebuild the stairs on our house as well. I hope it goes easy for you.

The plane is looking great!

Oh what a sweetie
SO happy for you guys. I totally understand changing breeds
The Bernese wait was a good year and a half and why we ended up with a two+half yr old rescue

A beautiful kit and a nice puppy, what else?

A very nice dog the golden retrievers a great family dog.
How did you get on with re mastering the steps ?

the stairs were finally much more work than expected. I put a 6X6 post at the horizontal on top of the pillars that were installed using the brackets for it (you see one of the three on the pictures). The problem was the big slope I had on the stairs ! All the deck and patio is crap ! Was not made properly by the previous owner ! Under the brackets, they're is telescopic screw to adjust the height. So we started lifting the stairs with a jack and realize the slope was so big that the screws weren't long enough !!!! Thank god, the family friend helping me is a construction contractor ! So we were able to make something out of it with more wood then expected ! The other problem we had, and realize that what cause the sinking of the stairs, is that the structure of the deck in front of them was attached to the stairs... so we had to remove a few planks to repair that to. All that under pouring rain !! And the day after I put back in all the stairs that were sanded and stained again ! Because I had stain everything in spring (900 sq feet in total). But as you can also see in the picture, the staining didn't came out equal and that good because the wood was such in bad shape that even with sanding the hell out of it it didn't came back to a good surface. Again, because of the previous owner who built it and didn't take care of it. Thank god the rest of the house is awesome.
boring post I know ! no work on the plane sorry

Garion77 wrote: Tue Oct 05, 2021 11:24 am the stairs were finally much more work than expected. I put a 6X6 post at the horizontal on top of the pillars that were installed using the brackets for it (you see one of the three on the pictures). The problem was the big slope I had on the stairs ! All the deck and patio is crap ! Was not made properly by the previous owner ! Under the brackets, they're is telescopic screw to adjust the height. So we started lifting the stairs with a jack and realize the slope was so big that the screws weren't long enough !!!! Thank god, the family friend helping me is a construction contractor ! So we were able to make something out of it with more wood then expected ! The other problem we had, and realize that what cause the sinking of the stairs, is that the structure of the deck in front of them was attached to the stairs... so we had to remove a few planks to repair that to. All that under pouring rain !! And the day after I put back in all the stairs that were sanded and stained again ! Because I had stain everything in spring (900 sq feet in total). But as you can also see in the picture, the staining didn't came out equal and that good because the wood was such in bad shape that even with sanding the hell out of it it didn't came back to a good surface. Again, because of the previous owner who built it and didn't take care of it. Thank god the rest of the house is awesome.
boring post I know ! no work on the plane sorry

Always the way when you come across a job that's not done the right way. All these unexpected problems rise to the surface like manure always does.