Man that looks superb so far! I really like your multi tone panels and rivet effects! 

stikpusher

 Man that looks superb so far! I really like your multi tone panels and rivet effects! 

 

I bought a rivet tool and have been practicing with it. One immediate problem is that the wheel wobbles- it needs some field mods. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but the sequence is to imprint the "rivet" depressions into the bare plastic, correct?

The Revell plastic in my kit seems very hard and doesn't take much of a depression. And the rivet tool wheel is photoetched stainless- I'm having difficulty getting rid of the attachment points and if I don't they will show up every 10 rivets or so.

I bought Dymo tape to use as a straight edge, but this particular batch is maddening getting the backing to peel off.

You seem an expert; any advice or solutions to any of the above whining would be most welcome.

Really great model.

I use the rivet tool on the foil, not the plastic. I'll get back with you tomorrow to explain how I did the rivets.

The foil looks absolutely AMAZING!!!

Your friend Toshi

Following

GMorrison

 

You seem an expert; any advice or solutions to any of the above whining would be most welcome.

Really great model.

 

This has been a wonderful tutorial post.  I look forward to trying this someday.

Okay, onto the decals.

The decals that are provided with the kit are really BORING!!!!! I mean really, Monogram could have provided something more interesting. So, I looked on the Internet and decided to base my model on this airplane. I think the colors will go well with the naturl metal finish.

I found a decal set from kit's world. The large decal comes in multiple pieces which will make it easier to apply. However, I will need to use the national ensignia from the Monogram decal set.

The question is, do I start with the tail, or the front. After a little goofing around it became obvious that I needed to start at the front. I have never used kit's world decals before. OMG are they thick!!! I have never used decals this thick before. However, the thickness allowed me to slide the decals around with out tearing them. A lot of decal solvent made the decals settle down. On the flip side, the Monogrtam national ensignia was super thin and easy to rip.

Even though the decals are real thick, the carrier film is crystal clear.

Look at the area around the letters: "The Dragon and his tail". The carrier film is invisible. Best decals ever.

That looks amazing.

Yep, those are super high quality decals.

Very nice build and your thread is written well. I am following this one to completion.

v/r,

Ben

Stunning!!!  I’m absolutely blown away by the design and your artistic your artistic talent.  

Your freind, Toshi

I did my 1/72 B-24 in those markings, sure catches the eye. What's kind of neat is that the opposite side is very bland, so I used to display it with the bland side out and when people would comment, "nice model, but eh," I'd turn it around...

WillysMB

I did my 1/72 B-24 in those markings, sure catches the eye. What's kind of neat is that the opposite side is very bland, so I used to display it with the bland side out and when people would comment, "nice model, but eh," I'd turn it around...

 

This is the opposite side of the fuselage. Not much going on in the way of art work.

The final piece of art work is the tail:

A lot of decal solvent was needed to make the striped decal on the rudder settle down.

Time to paint the canopy and the turrets.

I used a mask set from Eduards. IMHO, that is the only way to mask the clear parts. I used my trusty paper stump to smooth out the masks. I also used blue tape to mask the back side of the canopy. The first time that I used Eduard's masks a number of years ago I forgot to mask the backside of the canopy. What a mess. I won't forget masking the back again.

I have no words....except WOW!  That is amazing!  I tried using foil once...it wasn't pretty.  You on the other hand, again, wow!  That is beautiful work!

Thank's everyone for the very kind words.

John

The canopy came out nice:

Now I have a real mess on my hands!!!! 

I misunderstood the Eduard instructions. As you can see there are large areas on the front and rear turrets that I did not mask. Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can remove this paint? The paint is Tamyia TS30 Silver Leaf.

If you've coated the clear part with "Future", and this is one reason I do; you can either soak the entire piece in ammonia to strip the whole thing, or work at the painted area with a Q tip soaked in same.

Hi ;

 I don't remember , But didn't Monogram do the plane with those Decals ? Seems to me they did ,

Nope, did not do the Future thing. That sounds like a good idea. Maybe next time. However, I do have an idea that I need to try.

A question- what is the best sequence for getting from the entire foil sheet on backing to the little piece stuck on the model?

Do you cut out the piece, including backing, from the sheet?

Or do you carefully cut the foil but not the backing?

Do you hold the piece with tweezers?

Using a metal straight edge, I cut the foil but not the backing. Then I use my hobby knife to lift one corner of the foil. then I use my finger and thumb to lift the foil from the backing sheet. I have found that I heve better control with my fingers instead of tweezers. Next I place the foil onto the model. Remember, your knife and fingers must be clean. Any kind of fuzz or grit is a no no.

Is this your first model that will be finished in foil? It takes a little while to get the knack of it. However, anyone with a steady hand and patience can do it. Every model that you foil will be better than the previous one.

Yes, and thanks. I have done a fair amount of gold leaf work, I am sure it's different because in leafing the sizing is applied to the surface and allowed to semi dry.

I think if I start on the undersides of the horizontal stabilizers, and then wings, I should learn before too long.

There is another problem that needs to be resolved while I think about removing the paint on the turrets.

This problem happened early on in the build, but I never got around to fixing it. Due to a Monogram engineering issue, it is really easy to accidently push the prop shafts into the engines, never to be seen again (yellow arrows).

The instructions call for not glueing the prop shafts to the back of the engines. The problem is that the stem (blue arrow) is not large enough to prevent the shaft from getting pushed into the engine. After loosing two shafts I glued the remaining two in place.

What makes the solution more difficult to reslove is that the prop shaft has two diffetent diameters. I chucked a plastic rod into my drill and used a file to reduce the diameter of the rod. Kind of like a make shift lathe.

The final result is shown above. The larger diameter fits into the engine and the smaller diameter fits into the prop.

Problem solved.

Well, I figured a way to remove the paint from the two turrets.

Whenever I made a mistake painting a model part I have always used Purple Power to remove paint. Just drop the part in container of PP and in a couple of hours the paint just peels away.

I can't just drop the turrets into a container of PP because that would remove all of the paint and get into the inside of the turret. So I cut a paper towel into small strips and placed the paper on top of the paint that I wanted to remove. I soaked the paper in PP and waited a couple of hours. Every 15 minutes I put more PP onto the paper.

A tooth pick was trimmed  into the shape of a chisel. After the paper was removed I scraped away the softened paint. 

Before and after shots. Problem solved.