Revell 1/72 C-54 Skymaster Completed.

  Nice job on that tiny little IP. Looking forward to more

Boy does that kit have a lot of parts.  I watched Toshi build his and will watch yours as well.  There is just something about this kit that intrigues me.  Your coming along great.  

Funny thing about small lost parts, they always are found by kids or cats, the latter usually in somewhat wet and altered state than what you would use it for.  

Hello!

Lookin' good - that sure is the kit to go to, when you want to practice involved builds! I have one in stash, hope to build it some day...

scott - I believe it would be prfectly practical to train a cat to retrieve parts from the carpet monster. Wonder when somebody is going to tray this at last!

Good luck with your builds and have a nice day

Paweł

scottrc, it does have a lot of parts.  Probably more than any other kit I've done, aside from maybe the pair of P-39's, but that was two aircraft!  I was on my hands and knees searching around for that part, and couldn't find it.  Usually if I show her what it is I'm looking for she'll find it for me.  She hates looking for her own stuff, but is more than happy to look for tiny model pieces! 

Pawel, It is definitly an involved build!  It's taken me part of the morning, and almost all of the afternoon to get all the seats painted!

It's starting to look like something now!  Got all the seats painted and installed.  I think the worst part was painting the nets.  It was time consuming to get the paint in every nook and cranny.

Half way there with the seats! Lol.

One half installed.

All seats in! Woo hoo, lol.

Inner fuselage on.

This is all I will ever see of the seats........

Cockpit in place.

So far I am through step 26 I believe.  Next up is painting the landing gear, installing some windows, and closing up the fuselage.  I should be able to get some more done tonight after dinner. 

Great job, Keyda! I think I will just send all of my kits to you and let you build them for me. Great work on all of that un-SEE-able interior! 

You're doing a fantastic job on this build.  I think the hardest part for me was the masking of the NMF and the other colors.

Toshi

Devil Dawg

Great job, Keyda! I think I will just send all of my kits to you and let you build them for me. Great work on all of that un-SEE-able interior! 

 

Thank you!  Lol, my lightning fast building will be slowing down.  It's finally starting to get nice outside!  So I won't be in the house as much.

Went back to the bench after dinner.  Got some more painting done.

Fuselage halves glued together.

Front landing gear.  Waiting until after I paint the exterior to glue them in place. 

Will hopefully have some time tomorrow morning after house cleaning.  Afternoon is pretty well booked.  Pick up kiddo from school, take our Golden Retriever pup Kraven to the vet, cook dinner, and I'm hoping, and crossing my fingers the C-130's do drills tomorrow evening.  I haven't seen them fly in a month. 

What paint scheme will you be doing?  The one on the box?  

Toshi

Toshi

What paint scheme will you be doing?  The one on the box?  

Toshi

 

Yep.  I'm already stressing about it, lol.  But I need to start tackling tougher paint schemes.  I'm going to have to get a bottle of the model master aluminum paint in enamel.  I have acrylic, but I always seem to have issues when I try to AB acrylics, lol.  I have a 1/72 "Fat Albert" in the stash and I figured this would be good practice.

Looks good!

Wow, talk about patience, you surely have that after seeing the paint job on the seats. I call that "tediocraty"  Looks like a very good job so far and keep up the good work on this cool kit.

So upon removing the tape that was holding the 2 fuselage halves together I made a disapointing discovery.  I had added some pennies, and putty in between the floor and inside of the fuselage.  I've done this before, and have not had any issues, so I have no idea why I had a problem this time.  It damaged the plastic pretty badly, made it rather mushy, and soft.   

It's hard to see in the pic, but the area is very soft.  I don't think it's going to re-harden at this point, the plastic is cold.

I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to go about fixing it.  I thought about cutting the bad section out, but I don't think I would ever be able to make it look right.  I might just put a layer of putty(not the same one I used for the weight of course!) over it to help strengthen it a bit.  At least it's on the underside and it won't really be noticed when it's on display. 

Only thing I can think of is maybe some glue got in there and reacted with the putty, or this model just happens to made from a different plastic than the rest I've worked with, and it reacted with the putty.  It was Squadron products white putty.  I've switched to perfect plastic putty for seam work, so I was using the old putty to add weight so it didn't just get chucked in the garbage. 

I'm enjoying following your build.

What kind of putty did you use where the styrene became soft? I think I have an old tube of Tamiya putty somewhere but I'll probably just toss it when I come across it. I've been using PPP for a while now and find it's the cat's meow (or the cat's pajamas or whatever grandfatherly expression you prefer ). I think it's great stuff.

As far as getting outdoors is concerned, I'm sure itching to do more hiking. It's been a really dismal spring here in the northwest with the exception of a few days I could count on one hand. I sure get your wanting to get outside.

1943Mike

I'm enjoying following your build.

What kind of putty did you use where the styrene became soft? I think I have an old tube of Tamiya putty somewhere but I'll probably just toss it when I come across it. I've been using PPP for a while now and find it's the cat's meow (or the cat's pajamas or whatever grandfatherly expression you prefer ). I think it's great stuff.

As far as getting outdoors is concerned, I'm sure itching to do more hiking. It's been a really dismal spring here in the northwest with the exception of a few days I could count on one hand. I sure get your wanting to get outside.

 

 

It was Squadron products white putty.  Lesson learned there.  I won't be using it again.  As long as the worst of the damage is over, and it doesn't get any worse( I don't think it will at this point, it's been well over 12 hours since I put it in there) I should be able to put some putty over it and be ok. 

Hello!

The reaction you are seing is the solvent migrated from the putty to the fuselage parts. I'd say tossing that putty would be a serious mistake, because the reaction like this talls you the putty has a solvent in it that's perfectly compatible with the kit's plastic, and that means very good adhesion and even shrinkage - those are good signs. What was probably your mistake was that you used too much of the stuff in one place - that's never a god thing to do with any putty. For applications like that you're much better off using some kind of two-component compound, some epoxy glue or milliput. With two component compounds you have to watch for heat generation, though.

Now your fuselage will be all right after the solvent evaporates - and that will take some time, maybe even three or four days, but the plastic will be hard again. Try to keep it in shape until then, and when it gets hard again you can putty it and sand smooth. OK, it's a setback, but I believe you can still save this one. Good luck and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel

Hello!

The reaction you are seing is the solvent migrated from the putty to the fuselage parts. I'd say tossing that putty would be a serious mistake, because the reaction like this talls you the putty has a solvent in it that's perfectly compatible with the kit's plastic, and that means very good adhesion and even shrinkage - those are good signs. What was probably your mistake was that you used too much of the stuff in one place - that's never a god thing to do with any putty. For applications like that you're much better off using some kind of two-component compound, some epoxy glue or milliput. With two component compounds you have to watch for heat generation, though.

Now your fuselage will be all right after the solvent evaporates - and that will take some time, maybe even three or four days, but the plastic will be hard again. Try to keep it in shape until then, and when it gets hard again you can putty it and sand smooth. OK, it's a setback, but I believe you can still save this one. Good luck and have a nice day

Paweł

 

Thanks for the tip!  Live and learn right?!  I haven't touched the fuselage much, been working on the wings, so it's ok for the moment.  I'll leave it alone for a few days before I try fixing it. 

I'll back what Pawel has said. The putty is working as designed. You just have too much of it in one spot. Same thing would happen with Squadron Green as well.

I haven't had this issue with the Bondo spot glazing putty, but its not made for model building and has different properties.

Looks like this one is on hold.

M. Brindos

I'll back what Pawel has said. The putty is working as designed. You just have too much of it in one spot. Same thing would happen with Squadron Green as well.

I haven't had this issue with the Bondo spot glazing putty, but its not made for model building and has different properties.

Looks like this one is on hold.

 

Yep, my mistake.  I won't be doing that again.  I did manage to get the wings on.  But it will probably sit for the next few days as it's supposed to be nice out, and I have some things that need to be done. 

Been picking at the C-54 here and there the past few days. 

Main wings on

Horizontal, and vertical stabs on.  They even move.

Engines on, masked off the windscreen, and all other windows.  Added some putty in places

Now I'm at the part that I don't have any paitence for.....putty and sand, putty and sand.  I have a lot of work a head of me to try and fix the boo boo I made underneath.  Hopefully I can get it looking halfway decent.

Keyda, safe things to use for large areas like that are Milliput or Aves Epoxysculpt.  They cure with very little heat and contain no solvents for plastic.  The really neat thing is you can shape them like clay, using a wet finger or spatula, as water is a solvent for them in the uncured state.

I have the upmost confidence in you in that you will be able to overcome the issue at hand.  Everything else looks fantastic, great job Keyda81!

Toshi

I have some Apoxie sculpt for my taxidermy work!  Now why didn't I think of that!  I won't be making the same mistake again, that's for sure.

Thanks Toshi!  I will just have to take my time, and if I get impaitent I'll have to just walk away for a bit.  It's one of my downfalls, lol.

Keyda,

Glad to see this build moving along, and at a very quick pace.  Like everyone else is saying, that deformation should buff out fine.  To fill really deep depressions or to build up an area, I have used balsa wood glued down and sanded to shape, then put a coat of auto glazing putty to seal it.  

This model has movable control surfces?  i got to get me this kit someday.

You say you do taxidermy?  That explains you quick grasp and skill of building plastic models.  

Yep, vertical and horizontals move, as well as the verticals on the outer portion of the main wings.  This kit also has a lot of options.  You can pick between flaps extended or retracted, along with the usual gear up or down.  It is a very involved kit. 

Yep taxidermy is another hobby of mine.  Haven't done anything in a while though.  I seem to bounce from one hobby and back.  Haven't bounced back to it yet. Still stuck on models, lol.

7474

I like your work, and are sounding like me, I seem to learn things the hard way. You'll recover and it'll turn out fantastic.

 

Thanks, and yes always the hard way it seems!

Got in a little bit of time this morning.  Looks like I will be spending most of my free time working on this, the weather is horrible for quite a while.  Rain, and barely 50 degrees. 

Flaps installed.

Once I mask everything off I'm going to throw a coat of primer on.  Hopefully it will make it a bit easier for me to see the areas that still need more work. 

You're doing a fine job on this big bird.

Did that soft spot on the underside ever dry and firm back up?

Greg

You're doing a fine job on this big bird.

Did that soft spot on the underside ever dry and firm back up?

 

Thank you!  For the most part it did firm back up.  It took a few layers of putty to get it back level with the rest of the fuselage, but it's not looking as bad as I thought it would.  The issue I'm going to have is trying to rescribe the panel lines.  Something I haven't ventured into doing yet. 

Got a coat of primer on her, and boy did that help with showing me where I needed to sand, or add more putty.  Did one round of sanding and added a tad bit more putty around the windscreen.  I still have some more to do, but I'm feeling a bit better about it now, doesn't look as horrible as I thought it would. 

Still some more work to be done in the damaged area, but it still looks much better than I thought it would.

Keyda...great work!  This is one nice kit and you are doing it justice!  And I like your adapt and overcome attitude.