- The Airfix Tribute Forum -

dancho · Posted: Thu 03 Apr 2008 19:57 pm Post subject:

More painting today. A second coat of dark sea grey and "extra dark green" as well as touch-ups to make sure the camouflage demarcation lines "flow" as they should with jaggedness.

The wheel wells and speed brake well had seams running down the middle of them. I attempted to deal with this by pouring gap filling super glue in there. Seemed to work okay, by my standards.

The only photos of these areas I could find on the internet showed a curious dark green as the interior color, so I just painted them dark green.

_________________
“Build what YOU want, the way YOU want to, and above all, have fun.”
- Al Superczynski (1947 - 2007)

Ratch · Posted: Thu 03 Apr 2008 20:23 pm Post subject:

According to Model Alliance Decals, Hu: 166 Satin Light Aircraft Grey = wheel bay interiors (but get very dirty), interiors of air brakes/speed brakes, undercarriage

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and was Jerusalem, builded here
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dancho · Posted: Thu 03 Apr 2008 21:38 pm Post subject:

Thanks. I'm googling and googling. Still haven't found a good photo of the wheel wells, but now I'm wondering about the main (aft) landing gear doors. Do they open only to allow the landing gear to extend/retract? They appear to be closed most the time (from the photos).
_________________
“Build what YOU want, the way YOU want to, and above all, have fun.”
- Al Superczynski (1947 - 2007)

dancho · Posted: Thu 03 Apr 2008 21:40 pm Post subject:

Doh! Found this. It's a museum display, so...

http://www.airliners.net/open.fil...ght=1131&sok=&photo_nr=61

and what a display!

http://www.airliners.net/open.fil...ght=668&sok=&photo_nr=299
_________________
“Build what YOU want, the way YOU want to, and above all, have fun.”
- Al Superczynski (1947 - 2007)

dancho · Posted: Fri 04 Apr 2008 10:56 am Post subject:

Found some good photos of the wheel wells.

IN THE REFERENCE SECTION OF THIS FORUM!!

ROTFL

I'm not even going to try to explain my complete and utter lack of intelligence...
_________________
“Build what YOU want, the way YOU want to, and above all, have fun.”
- Al Superczynski (1947 - 2007)

Ratch · Posted: Fri 04 Apr 2008 11:12 am Post subject:

The Boss does keep promoting the search facility

_________________
and was Jerusalem, builded here
The new No. 2
Airfix Club 500287
IPMS 10983

dancho · Posted: Fri 04 Apr 2008 16:35 pm Post subject:

I just came back from the Hobby Store where I found something grand for just $10...

THIS!!!

Now, before you get the idea that I'm going to do the sensible thing and bin (like that phrase) the Airfix kit and build this one... NO WAY. I'm going to use the ESCI decals on the Airfix kit.

Now to reveal some of the seamy underbelly (whew!) of my scale modeling. I decided to paint that tail with red and black. One coat of black does the job--but the red is going to require several coats. Here, in all its gory glory, is what one coat looks like.

I'm posting this because one of things you have to do to paint with a brush is be able to tolerate this type of thing. One must wait patiently while it dries and then re-coat.
_________________
“Build what YOU want, the way YOU want to, and above all, have fun.”
- Al Superczynski (1947 - 2007)

dancho · Posted: Fri 04 Apr 2008 17:01 pm Post subject:

And, of course, we are now moving on to Plan B-- as should have been mentioned earlier (if I neglected to mention it I apologize) wherein the paint is removed from the tail prior to repainting. After all, any fool knows that you can't just paint over a coat of Future, eh?

_________________
“Build what YOU want, the way YOU want to, and above all, have fun.”
- Al Superczynski (1947 - 2007)

farmroad38 · Posted: Fri 04 Apr 2008 19:16 pm Post subject:

Looking very good Dancho. You'll be finished yours before I've even glued my fuselage together!
_________________
Cheers,

Adrian

dancho · Posted: Fri 04 Apr 2008 20:08 pm Post subject:

I'm just going to keep posting photos until they tell me to stop.

My plan to show the painting of the tail in a "step by step" manner has fallen apart. The first, misdirected effort just involved a coat of Modelmaster Acryl Red (actually, it's Bloode Red from the MM Acryl monster painting line-- pretty hard to get. but like I said I live in a town with a lot of big hobby shops). This no worky because I put it on top of a coat of Future, which promptly rejected the foreign tissue and caused me to have to do an emergency paint-o-rectomy (see above).

Having bungled it once, I reached for the paint that you pick when you want good coverage with a bright color. TAMIYA-san!

I don't like the smell, but it's okay in small doses.

Here is a good close-up of the tail, showing the brush-marks. A healthy brush-mark is a sign of job well-done.

That was three coats of Tamiya red, for those of you keeping score at home.

The ESCI decals might distintegrate, so I gave them a coat of Liquid Decal Film. Better safe than sorry.

_________________
“Build what YOU want, the way YOU want to, and above all, have fun.”
- Al Superczynski (1947 - 2007)

dancho · Posted: Sat 05 Apr 2008 17:43 pm Post subject:

Swooosh!

The ESCI "lightning bolt" had to be fixed because the black portion was printed out of register. There is thin black line that's supposed to blend in to the black region, but it was printed so that a thin yellow line extended beyond it.

This was remedied using very thin strips of black decal, taken recklessly from the walkways on a perfectly good set of F-100D decals that had two sets of walkways. If I ever build a THIRD Super Sabre, I'll regret this...

_________________
“Build what YOU want, the way YOU want to, and above all, have fun.”
- Al Superczynski (1947 - 2007)

dancho · Posted: Sun 06 Apr 2008 21:12 pm Post subject:

Slowly adding some decals. Looks about the same so I won't post a photo. The ESCI decals do not work well with Micro-Sol, so I'm now using Future as a "decal setting solution." It's a new thing for me, but it's no working too badly on these.

The Airfix decals were yellowed and off-register. One or the other I could deal with, but not both. I went to Ye Olde Hobby Store looking for a replacement set and ended up with the entire ESCI kit!

Anyway, it's coming along. I am getting worse and worse about reading the instructions as I get older. I'm not saying that old people think that they know everything. I know better than that! I wasn't born yesterday!

I just assemble the parts I like and then paint it and add the "hanging off bits" (undercarriage, antennae, wings) as required.
_________________
“Build what YOU want, the way YOU want to, and above all, have fun.”
- Al Superczynski (1947 - 2007)

Ratch · Posted: Mon 07 Apr 2008 13:14 pm Post subject:

Nice work

_________________
and was Jerusalem, builded here
The new No. 2
Airfix Club 500287
IPMS 10983

dancho · Posted: Tue 08 Apr 2008 14:57 pm Post subject:

The ESCI decals are superior to the Airfix ones--but just barely. It's been a struggle to apply these things. They don't stick and actually curl up as they dry. Just awful. Fortunately, I learned on this forum how to glue them down with Future (Klear) and that's what I'm doing.

Here are some shots of the work in progress.

I had a devil of a time figuring out how to glue in the nozzles after I had long since lost track of the part numbers.

I suppose it's correct.

I consider myself more of a painter than a builder. So the painting drives the building, rather the other way around. Once the landing gear was already installed, I painted it and then it looked way too fresh and shiny so I added a black wash and messed around with it. At least it looks dirtier now.

I now realize that this model looks like it's sitting on top of a toilet tank. I assure you that this is not true. It's...some other thing. Not a toilet tank. Something entirely different.

_________________
“Build what YOU want, the way YOU want to, and above all, have fun.”
- Al Superczynski (1947 - 2007)

dancho · Posted: Tue 08 Apr 2008 19:13 pm Post subject:

Getting very close now....

Having spent a few hours locked in mortal combat with a whole slew of itsy bitsy pieces and trying to apply the last few itsy bitsy decals I have decided to call it a day and give it a chance to dry. Tomorrow will be a final coat of clear (matte or semi-gloss? Decisions, decisions.)
_________________
“Build what YOU want, the way YOU want to, and above all, have fun.”
- Al Superczynski (1947 - 2007)

dancho · Posted: Wed 09 Apr 2008 12:27 pm Post subject:

I've noticed that on my model, the aft main landing gear doesn't reach the ground. It's about 1mm up in the air, since the wingtip gear hold that plane up a bit too high. I'm not going to fix this on mine, but anyone building a GR.3 might want to install the wingtip gear first, then attach the middle gear to make sure that all the wheels touch the ground.
_________________
“Build what YOU want, the way YOU want to, and above all, have fun.”
- Al Superczynski (1947 - 2007)

dancho · Posted: Wed 09 Apr 2008 14:36 pm Post subject:

Well, look who finally showed up! The crew chief!

Unfortunately, not the REGULAR crew chief!

Anyway, this is the model after having been declared officially "finished" as part of this group build. The final semi-matte coat is a mix of good old Future and good old Tamiya Flat Base. It's not dead-flat, but that wouldn't be authentic for this plane.

The figure is from the ESCI kit. The decals are from the same source, and they were absolute bears to apply. But, I got most of them on there somehow. I think I may have put the wrong warning on the nose--I did exactly the same thing on my RCAF Sabre so I guess this is becoming my signature move.

I did not install any ordinance or stores--just the pylons, having removed the "pins" that help you glue on the bombs. The underwing stores included in the Airfix kit are, um, lacking a certain something. The ESCI stores are excellent, but I just didn't feel like installing them (yet). As far as the laser guided bombs are concerned (see above)-- I can't find them! They are lost somewhere in my stash, and so I'm going to have to reveal that yes, my stash might be a tad bit larger than it needs to be...

Finally, I'll mention that teeny little white stripe around the canopy. That's supposed to represent a sealant that "glues" the canopy to the frame (in addition to some bolts). It looks impressive but it's just some tiny strips of white decal material, applied with the use of paintbrush to coax it into place.

MORE PHOTOS IN THE GALLERY!
_________________
“Build what YOU want, the way YOU want to, and above all, have fun.”
- Al Superczynski (1947 - 2007)

farmroad38 · Posted: Wed 09 Apr 2008 15:14 pm Post subject:

Very nice build Dancho - the decals may have been a pain to apply, but they certainly look the part

_________________
Cheers,

Adrian

Ratch · Posted: Wed 09 Apr 2008 18:03 pm Post subject:

Well done Dancho, first past the post, and a little cracker to boot

_________________
and was Jerusalem, builded here
The new No. 2
Airfix Club 500287
IPMS 10983

Broom2003 · Posted: Wed 09 Apr 2008 20:01 pm Post subject:

Smashing Harrier Dancho, nice finish on the paint there.
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