Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[Thom]

9 hours ago, SteveTheFish said:

Yeah, the proportions on Breetai's flagship are off. I'd think the model would need to be longer or something. It's too brick-ish and needs to be tapered. 

There is a resin model of it that I would love to get that looks proportionally correct and awesome!

@pengbuzz Looking great! Nice to see a full crew in there. Dom is going to look fine back there 'in the pit.' As to the missing feet... I have no answer, though I can promise* there is no fetish involved!😊

Thom

 

 

*In truth, I can make no promises...

Edited March 7 by Thom

[pengbuzz]

4 hours ago, Thom said:

There is a resin model of it that I would love to get that looks proportionally correct and awesome!

@pengbuzz Looking great! Nice to see a full crew in there. Dom is going to look fine back there 'in the pit.' As to the missing feet... I have no answer, though I can promise* there is no fetish involved!😊

Thom

 

 

*In truth, I can make no promises...

rofl!🤣

[electric indigo]

Thunderjaw progress

 

[Thom]

Nice bit of intricate masking going on there, @electric indigo.

[Big s]

2 hours ago, electric indigo said:

Thunderjaw progress

 

Can’t wait to see how this turns out. It looks like a very interesting kit.

[derex3592]

Academy 1/72 Superhornet UPDATE.. Finally! .... Aftermarket resin pilots are painted, decaled up with some leftover micro decals from other kits for helmet markings and in the plane with no trimming required!. First Flory's grime wash is down and drying.... Stay tuned! 

[SteveTheFish]

For the Hasegawa P-38, you attach the nacelles to the underside of the wingspan/cockpit and then the underside of the wings. The connection between the engine nacelles and the top part isn't very good. It will require a lot of filing. The nose requires a lot of weight to keep it from becoming a tail sitter. 35g!

[pengbuzz]

1 hour ago, SteveTheFish said:

For the Hasegawa P-38, you attach the nacelles to the underside of the wingspan/cockpit and then the underside of the wings. The connection between the engine nacelles and the top part isn't very good. It will require a lot of filing. The nose requires a lot of weight to keep it from becoming a tail sitter. 35g!

With that kind of weight, you might want to check to see if there are any cast metal landing gear struts for your model. I found a set of 1/48 that should work for you:

https://www.hlj.com/1-48-scale-p-38-landing-gear-for-hasegawa-sac48031

Edited March 11 by pengbuzz

[MechTech]

@pengbuzz FUNNY with the jellybeans! Your making great progress with the pilots and cockpit!

@electric indigo The usual clean and smooth paint finish!

@derex3592 Those pilots will make a nice touch when its all done.

@SteveTheFish I've heard guys complain about that kit's fit and the wings not taking the right shape or angle without a lot of help and a jig. It's a big point of contention with judges at model shows. You can have an awesome finish, but if they don't have the right angles, it puts you in a lower category. I hope it works out for you! - MT

[pengbuzz]

7 hours ago, MechTech said:

@pengbuzz FUNNY with the jellybeans! Your making great progress with the pilots and cockpit!

Thanks MT!! I have several update pics to post later tonight (have to go do laundry).

[Big s]

10 hours ago, MechTech said:

I've heard guys complain about that kit's fit and the wings not taking the right shape or angle without a lot of help and a jig. It's a big point of contention with judges at model shows. You can have an awesome finish, but if they don't have the right angles, it puts you in a lower category. I hope it works out for you! - MT

That’s one thing that really sucks about real world modeling in competition. People get so nitpicky about everything while in the sci fi category someone could just snap a gundam kit together and it has a chance of winning or at least placing if they just put decals on it. There are more people that put mods into their gundams though lately and sometimes those really do get recognized, but at least there’s nobody trying to say that panel line wasn’t in the anime 

[SteveTheFish]

12 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

With that kind of weight, you might want to check to see if there are any cast metal landing gear struts for your model. I found a set of 1/48 that should work for you:

https://www.hlj.com/1-48-scale-p-38-landing-gear-for-hasegawa-sac48031

Thanks! Yes, I hadn't thought about it sagging under the weight. Incidentally, I happen to have an HLJ coupon for my recent birthday I can use on it. Thanks for the tip!

[pengbuzz]

UPDATE:

As promised (albeit a bit late; had a couple of incidents today that shook me badly), pics of my current progress:

Found out the tailboom (the two "winglets") were too small; when I tried to carefully cut them off, the section of the tail shattered. I managed to repair it and fill it in; that took a lot of work! I didn't get any pics of the in-progress repair, but the new tailbooms are in place and the missing section is repaired (next batch of photos will show the restored area).

Anyways, on to the crew:

I sanded and filed down the figures Thom sent me (thanks again Thom! ) to make them more closely resemble Hawk and Caitlin (I gave Caitlin a bit more slender and graceful figure and made her a little shorter than Hawk). Santini got made even pudgier and all three were primed and painted. I did up a basic EDCC, but I'm not going to try hyper-detailing it (as most of it wouldn't be seen anyways).

Hawk and Caitlin:

 

Dom Santini:

 

At this point, I also began custom fabricating my own rotor blades and hub; the old ones were molded wrong, and I wanted a much more realistic set:

 

On a lark, I chucked these into my Dremel tool to see how they would spin: they did fine at lower speeds, but I ended up accidentally hitting the switch to full speed! I panicked and fumbled with the controls to get them to shut off, which gave the blades about 1-2 seconds at 35,000 RPM!!! O.o

Well....they survived, much to my amazement! Nothing flew off, shattered or even broke! Considering that the real Bell 222's top rotor RPM was 348 RPM, I think mine did quite well!

The Lady, at this current point in construction:

Still needs more work (you can see the brand-new tailplane in the back!), but she's coming along. Need to finish up the cockpit and work out the rotor mast attachment, then we'll see about sealing up the body and getting some other stuff (such as windows and windshields) done!

 

Stay tuned...

 

[Thom]

Luv it, @pengbuzz! The Lady is certainly coming together in fine fashion, and that includes the crew. Very nicely done. and I love the story about the rotor blades. Had me rolling!

[MechTech]

@Big s You should have seen the crowd at Richmond VA. They had TONS of AWESOME Gundam kits and SEVERAL categories too (I couldn't get all the photos). I think they got wise to how "easy" it is to build a Gundam kit now. It also seems that judging criteria has changed from accuracy of, "Where that panel line is" to how well it was executed. I know my club REALLY throttles back on that, especially since a lot of them were aviation career related. They could get really nit-picky, especially since companies like Trumpeter have so many errors in their kits, especially the 1/32nd ones. My guys are looking for stuff like whole greasy hand prints on Navy fighters for realism😁

It was also good to see all the youth and youngins in BIG Gundam clubs representing the hobby. Just when I thought it was getting bad for our hobby, things are brightening up!

@pengbuzz It's a good thing Ernest Borgnine is no longer with us, he might object to the extra "putty" you piled on him🤣 They look AWESOME! I also know who to go to if I need a REAL propeller made up too!😁 That is an AWESOME transformation!

Though you had issues with the boom, it might be one of those blessings in disguise kinda things. Especially getting rid of the screw holes from the toy version. - MT

 

[Rock]

[electric indigo]

I finally got the head of the Thunderjaw completed.

This is the most complex paint scheme I built in a while.

[Thom]

1 hour ago, electric indigo said:

I finally got the head of the Thunderjaw completed.

This is the most complex paint scheme I built in a while.

Looks like a beefy battleship! Nicepaint work.

[arbit]

4 hours ago, electric indigo said:

This is the most complex paint scheme I built in a while.

Don't know what it is, but looks pretty menacing.

[Bolt]

5 hours ago, electric indigo said:

I finally got the head of the Thunderjaw completed.

This is the most complex paint scheme I built in a while.

Looks awesome. Looking forward to seeing the whole shebang!

[Big s]

1 hour ago, arbit said:

Don't know what it is, but looks pretty menacing.

He’s building this guy

[SteveTheFish]

Hey guys, I'm colorblind, so a little help would be appreciated. I have my Imai/Banda Q-Rau primed and ready for painting. I was thinking of using Tamiya XF-27 Black Green for the upper arms, thighs, feet, etc and Mr. Color 135 Russian Green 1 for the body, forearms, legs, etc. Would this be appropriate? Any suggestions?

I already painted the feet and such with Mr. Color 136 Russian Green 2 (which is darker), but it's just not dark enough. That's why I was thinking of going with the Black Green color.

(And FYI since there is always somebody who doesn't know what being colorblind entails, I can see colors, but sometimes my perception of color can be a bit... slippery, if that makes sense. I have to see some colors next to other colors in order for me to realize what they are. Especially red/green/brown can be confusing to me.)

[Big s]

2 hours ago, SteveTheFish said:

Hey guys, I'm colorblind, so a little help would be appreciated. I have my Imai/Banda Q-Rau primed and ready for painting. I was thinking of using Tamiya XF-27 Black Green for the upper arms, thighs, feet, etc and Mr. Color 135 Russian Green 1 for the body, forearms, legs, etc. Would this be appropriate? Any suggestions?

I already painted the feet and such with Mr. Color 136 Russian Green 2 (which is darker), but it's just not dark enough. That's why I was thinking of going with the Black Green color.

(And FYI since there is always somebody who doesn't know what being colorblind entails, I can see colors, but sometimes my perception of color can be a bit... slippery, if that makes sense. I have to see some colors next to other colors in order for me to realize what they are. Especially red/green/brown can be confusing to me.)

Most pictures have shown a dark grey in the upper arms, upper legs, feet, cannons and side armor at the thighs and arm guns for Miria’s colors rather than green. But I’m not particularly a color snob

I attached a pic with the animation colors, not sure if it’s easier to see than the box art for you. I’ve known colorblind folk and sometimes it can be tricky communicating colors

Edited March 14 by Big s

[SteveTheFish]

5 hours ago, Big s said:

Most pictures have shown a dark grey in the upper arms, upper legs, feet, cannons and side armor at the thighs and arm guns for Miria’s colors rather than green. But I’m not particularly a color snob

I attached a pic with the animation colors, not sure if it’s easier to see than the box art for you. I’ve known colorblind folk and sometimes it can be tricky communicating colors

That looks good to me! I'd say using German Gray for those dark parts would be good. Thanks! The Imai/Bandai instruction booklet color choices suck. It suggests using purple for what looks like very light gray to me. I think I might try switching to Mr. Color 66 Bright Green for the main body color after all.

[Big s]

5 minutes ago, SteveTheFish said:

That looks good to me! I'd say using German Gray for those dark parts would be good. Thanks! The Imai/Bandai instruction booklet color choices suck. It suggests using purple for what looks like very light gray to me. I think I might try switching to Mr. Color 66 Bright Green for the main body color after all.

The purple may have been suggested since depending on the picture, the light grey can have a slight blueish or purplish hue. But only very slightly. The one I posted earlier just looks like very light grey.

[SteveTheFish]

Yes, it looks like that to me.

So the order of the pewter (?) landing gears for the P-38 Lightning. Am I supposed to prep this somehow, or just apply some metal primer and just paint it? Do I need to soak these in lacquer thinner or something first?

[Big s]

1 hour ago, SteveTheFish said:

Yes, it looks like that to me.

So the order of the pewter (?) landing gears for the P-38 Lightning. Am I supposed to prep this somehow, or just apply some metal primer and just paint it? Do I need to soak these in lacquer thinner or something first?

With pewter, you can just go with a basic primer, but a metal primer might help more. I used to do pewter parts and they really didn’t need much other than the basics

[pengbuzz]

6 hours ago, SteveTheFish said:

Yes, it looks like that to me.

So the order of the pewter (?) landing gears for the P-38 Lightning. Am I supposed to prep this somehow, or just apply some metal primer and just paint it? Do I need to soak these in lacquer thinner or something first?

I would probably clean them in dish detergent or something to remove any oils from the manufacturing process.

[wm cheng]

Hey @SteveTheFish DO NOT USE lacquer thinner straight on the model, it will eat into the plastic.  Sometimes people use lacquer thinner as liquid cement. 

[Urashiman]

39 minutes ago, wm cheng said:

Hey @SteveTheFish DO NOT USE lacquer thinner straight on the model, it will eat into the plastic.  Sometimes people use lacquer thinner as liquid cement. 

That's how my dad used to glue his models.

[Big s]

38 minutes ago, wm cheng said:

Hey @SteveTheFish DO NOT USE lacquer thinner straight on the model, it will eat into the plastic.  Sometimes people use lacquer thinner as liquid cement. 

I think he’s talking about pewter metal parts. Although soaking in thinner probably isn’t necessary.

[pengbuzz]

Also: do not use Dijon Mustard on the model; it will stain the plastic and smell weird.

Don't ask me how I know this; just take my word for it.

[Big s]

16 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Also: do not use Dijon Mustard on the model; it will stain the plastic and smell weird.

Don't ask me how I know this; just take my word for it.

But what if you’re trying to realistically weather a build fighters kit?

They’re technically 1/1 scale models of models built by slobs.

[Thom]

32 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Also: do not use Dijon Mustard on the model; it will stain the plastic and smell weird.

Don't ask me how I know this; just take my word for it.

Wait... what..?

[Thom]

Finally got back to working on the Me-410. My mojo took a dump and I haven't touched it for two weeks. But now there is a model show coming up next month in 'my area,' and I want to bring it and a couple others.

The clear glazings were bathed in Future and set aside to dry,

 

Despite the cover, some debris still managed to get onto the drying Future, necessitating a Windex wash to clean it off and do it over again - TWICE!!

 

While that was drying, I took a razor saw to the wings and cut into the radiator flaps to bend them further open and I cut off the solid wing tip lights. They will be replaced with clear plexi.

 

And then I started putting on the glazings. I used a scalpel to scrape off the Future for a plastic to plastic join and then lightly applied TET. Capillary action drew it into the seam. And then I started fitting the long canopy sections - before realizing I still needed to add some framing and the gun controls inside!

Lesson; do not get ahead of thyself!

So, here is how she sits now.

Once all the canopy parts are in place, I'll start working the seams around the fuse - and hope to not get any sanding dust inside! There are a couple of gaping holes to plug up...

Thom