Urashiman

Was a busy building day today. the VF-22 is nearing the finish line. the vf-19 got the main color, the f-14 got some masking and details. and a little horror story about me destroying my plamax vf-1… this morning I looked at the minmay decal on the vf-1 and was unhappy with it. I decided it would be best to take it off, and print my own with better quality. Sounds easy but… it was not. printed decal versus the low quality chinese one. And guess what? It didn’t wanna come off, so I had to scratch the decal off…. I hat to paint it again. rescribing… No decal on it yet, but soon. Needs to cure first.

Progress!!! because I don‘t like large decals, I masked the VF-22. How to make easy masks? Tape the decal sheet to a clear piece and have fun. Then peel it off and stick it to the plane. I did some progress on the F14 too (seen in the back here. And I worked on the vf-1… The chinese reprinted decal sheet is good for the small decals, but the large one are hardcore. It took me literally one hour to apply Minmay, as the decal was super thick and sturdy. will do the rest tomorrow and then the vf-1 will be finished. After that I will get the vf-22 and F-14 done. Then the VF-19.

Yeah, that is exactly what they do. I didn’t want the seams, so I went the c-clamp route.

I think your second option there would work well, as the underside would be covered by the engine bay/legs. So drilling the hole from the buttom of the fuselage could work.

Yeah, the 1/72 one. I really like it. The only downside is how the wings are working. The Hasegawa kit has this pin like setup where you can stick the wings onto the fuselage later. The plamax kit has a bad solution. Just two pylons you stick the wings on and then close the fuselage. What to do about it? 1. Live with it and close the fuselage after painting everything. 2. C-Clamp trick. Enforce the bearing at the end of the wing and cut off a piece, so you have a c-clamp, which you can snap onto the pylons in the fuselage. The Plamax kit looks a bit more bulkier than the Hasegawa kit as well. I will compare it to my Kakizaki VF-1 once the Plamax thing is done.

Finally, some time again and I finished the X-29. the plamax vf-1 made much progress today as well. masking stuff everywhere! Maybe I can get it done tomorrow, but lets see. I need to finish up the VF-22, VF-19 and F-14 as well. The most annoying thing will be the Decals on the VF-1, as I am going for the Minmay 2009 scheme.

I think there are VT-1's in stock at HLJ. They are harder to get by.

Get a VT-1 and a VF-1 Gerwalk and mash 'em together

Ah weird ... I haven't seen that. Thanks!

where does it say that?

no worries, silly wifes are the best! Watch out for the non-silly ones. They tells you to sell your stach or throw it out and want you to quit your hobby,

I am only seeing this now, but the Luca fighter nose package design is very funny XD

Thanks man! This is actually my second go at the X-29. I build one around 1999ish already. It got destroyed several times by my siblings and I had to glue to together again, but it never was the same again, as the glue I used yellowed in the sun, so the seams could be seen. The kit was a horrible build anyway, so I gave it to once of my nieces as she liked the plane. The one I build right now is my replacement.

Okay ... I think I saved it. I spend an hour in PS, scanned the instructions, then I redrawed the GRUMMAN X-29 logo and tweaked here and there. Then I did the first testprint on standard 90g paper. The size is correct and it looks detailed enough. Time to rub off the old decal with solvent (IPA and decal softener). As good as new, I guess. Then I printed to the transfersheet and cutted out the decal, putting it into warm water to detach. Et voila! It worked! The gloss will be matching after coating the modelkit. MUAHAHAHAHAHAH!

careful with the papercuts man

No worries, I have decal transfer sheets for toner based printers. I’ll just scan it off the instructions and work it in PS then print it.

@electric indigo that looks awesome. I‘ve been making progress on the X-29. I hate super large decals. If they didn’t came off the transfer sheet in some space they just rip apart. Got some cracks in this already, but was able to fix with tamiya mark fit super strong. Except for this piece of #$&@!? of a water decal. It just crumpled up under my thumb when applying decals to the other side. I either have to print a new one and apply that or will draw on the letters by hand. Not happy man! Absolutely not happy!

Depends on the primer. If you use Tamiya spray can primer, just once will do. alclad primer can be okay after one coat. revell primer needs two coats. not sure about other primers.

Nah, I left it untouched in the box.

Some progress on the x-29. I airbrushed the black stuff on the nose and the engine exhaust. next step: decals :S after that, I‘ll apply a coat and do panel lining and weathering.

I let I cure for 48 hours. I noticed, when doing it to short after applying the color or the coat, the color rubs off.

I used humbrol satin coat. Didn’t rub off, and decals weren’t harmed.

I just tried it with Mr.Color thinner. Seems to work without rubbing off the enamel color, so that would be my way to go from now on

usually I use oil colors as well, and then rub it off with a cloth, dipped into turpentine. I have the tamiya panel line color now and look for ways to remove excess color.

I was wondering - how do you wash off the "chicken pox"?