Hi Everyone!

Well after some long hours at my job, I finally got to spend an evening at the workbench!   

I started back on the fuselage getting it ready to button it up.  The instructions that came with the Eduard Brassin exhaust showed that I needed to cut off 7mm from the fuselage shown here (I marked it with a Sharpie):

I cut it with my Dremel using a plastic cutting bit.  Here it is after the cut:

The next thing I worked on was fitting the mechanical up latch inside the fuselage.  Here it is after I was done.  (It is currently being held in place by tape.):

Tomorrow night is my local chapter IPMS meeting.  Always a good time.  And I have this weekend off from work!   

Ken 

Ken, glad you got some time away from work. I hope you have fun at your meeting!

I've debated going to one of the meetings here, but several things hold me back. I'm not good in groups, speaking in front of groups, meeting strangers, etc.

Today was no picnic as I went in to have my CT scan AND an MRI. I wasn't aware that they were to do both. I guess one is good for bones and the other shows soft tissue. Makes me think the hand specialist sees more going on there than just a possible fracture. The worse part was having to lay in that tube, on my chest, with my hand held out in front of me. I wasn't allowed to move for 25 minutes while the machine did its job. When I got up, my still injured ribs were so sore, I could barely breathe! I also didn't know they stick needles in the joint to inject fluid and dyes!

I was told that it can take as long as 8 weeks for ribs to heal and it feels like it's going to take every single one of those 8 weeks, or 56 days, or 1344 hours, or...ok I stop! Ok, it's going to take the whole time for me to feel better it seems!

I almost feel bad that the company is having to shell out all this money. I said almost! The discomfort and lack of sleep I have had for the last month erases any remaining guilt.

On to lighter things, just been working on getting an overcoat on the Growler.

Gloss overcoats have always been my weakness. No mater where I set the pressure, how much I thin, or how far away I spray, I always get pebble finishes that I have to sand down and polish. I've tried Future and I suck even worse with it.

Odd...suddenly I get this weird image where my badge used to be.... Must have been an Imageshack issue all along.

Only a short time at the bench. I resprayed the right LEX as there was a small defect I had to fix. I thinned with lacquer thinner to give the paint a better chance to stick to the Gloss coat already sprayed there. I made a bad discovery though: even though I was trying to be careful, enough over spray was able to creep in and mist over all the darker areas, plus I left a line on the sill:

I can probably fix the sill and I'm thinking that if I do a dry-brush with some black, it will fix a lot of the grey. (Wonder if I can dry brush my hair and eliminate some grey?

Ken: The PE replacement latch looks so much better than the little plastic knob that comes molded on the kit. And though the overtime looks nice on the check gee sometimes you just need a day off!

Jim: I know what you mean about glosses I've had a devil of a time getting anything without orange peel. The only thing I've ever been able to spray in gloss is MM black for a NM undercoat.  I'm not sure about drybrushing the black but hey- it's worth a shot.

Remind me never to get into an accident like you, gosh that sounds like a pain in the rump but hey what are you going to do??? Again I hope you feel better soon, and glad you do have something to at least partly take your mind off things.

I had a little trepidation about going to my first IPMS meeting too but it's just a bunch of model geeks like us. And you can just hit one meeting and if you don't like it not go back. After I joined our club I wonder why the heck it took me so long to give it a chance.

jimbot58

Ken, glad you got some time away from work. I hope you have fun at your meeting!

I've debated going to one of the meetings here, but several things hold me back. I'm not good in groups, speaking in front of groups, meeting strangers, etc.

Today was no picnic as I went in to have my CT scan AND an MRI. I wasn't aware that they were to do both. I guess one is good for bones and the other shows soft tissue. Makes me think the hand specialist sees more going on there than just a possible fracture. The worse part was having to lay in that tube, on my chest, with my hand held out in front of me. I wasn't allowed to move for 25 minutes while the machine did its job. When I got up, my still injured ribs were so sore, I could barely breathe! I also didn't know they stick needles in the joint to inject fluid and dyes!

I was told that it can take as long as 8 weeks for ribs to heal and it feels like it's going to take every single one of those 8 weeks, or 56 days, or 1344 hours, or...ok I stop! Ok, it's going to take the whole time for me to feel better it seems!

I almost feel bad that the company is having to shell out all this money. I said almost! The discomfort and lack of sleep I have had for the last month erases any remaining guilt.

On to lighter things, just been working on getting an overcoat on the Growler.

Gloss overcoats have always been my weakness. No mater where I set the pressure, how much I thin, or how far away I spray, I always get pebble finishes that I have to sand down and polish. I've tried Future and I suck even worse with it.

Hi Jim,

I am by no means a pro at airbrushes, but typically what may be causing that is you are getting too far away from the surface and the paint is drying before it hits the surface.

From my experience from painting cars, it was always a fine line between getting "runs, drips, and sags" and that perfect gloss finish.  At least with enamel.  That is one reason why some folks used to prefer lacquer.  They could always (with a lot of work) polish the gloss into the paint job when they were done.

Of course if you are going to change your technique, practice on some cardboard or scrap plastic first.  And if I remember, you are using a double action airbrush.  You want to pull back more to get more paint to air ratio.

Ken

jimbot58

Only a short time at the bench. I resprayed the right LEX as there was a small defect I had to fix. I thinned with lacquer thinner to give the paint a better chance to stick to the Gloss coat already sprayed there. I made a bad discovery though: even though I was trying to be careful, enough over spray was able to creep in and mist over all the darker areas, plus I left a line on the sill:

I can probably fix the sill and I'm thinking that if I do a dry-brush with some black, it will fix a lot of the grey. (Wonder if I can dry brush my hair and eliminate some grey?

Total bummer on the over spray Jim!  You put a lot of work into that.  But I know you can fix it.

My beard needs some "grey elimination" too!   

Ken

Gamera

Ken: The PE replacement latch looks so much better than the little plastic knob that comes molded on the kit. And though the overtime looks nice on the check gee sometimes you just need a day off!

Jim: I know what you mean about glosses I've had a devil of a time getting anything without orange peel. The only thing I've ever been able to spray in gloss is MM black for a NM undercoat.  I'm not sure about drybrushing the black but hey- it's worth a shot.

Remind me never to get into an accident like you, gosh that sounds like a pain in the rump but hey what are you going to do??? Again I hope you feel better soon, and glad you do have something to at least partly take your mind off things.

I had a little trepidation about going to my first IPMS meeting too but it's just a bunch of model geeks like us. And you can just hit one meeting and if you don't like it not go back. After I joined our club I wonder why the heck it took me so long to give it a chance.

Thank you Cliff on the compliment!  It is going to be a little tricky gluing it in but I have a plan.  I will show it tomorrow.

I wish I was getting overtime on my paycheck!  Unfortunately I am salary, so all of this "overtime" is just my time going out the window.  I am hoping to some how take a few hours back by getting off work early in the future.

Ken

Ken: Ah krap it sucks when you're salary!

Gamera

Ken: Ah krap it sucks when you're salary!

Yes, but there are times when it does have its perks.  Just like anything else.

So we had a very cool IPMS meeting tonight!  Don James, who I believe I have mentioned a few times, gave us a PowerPoint presentation on his personal involvement of the U-2 and SR-71!  Very informative!  I wish I had recorded it!  Learned a great deal about both of them.  I feel so lucky, it definitely made my whole week!

Ken

Hi Everyone,

I have more progress on the Phantom to report.  I have glued the mechanical uplink in place.  Here is how I did it.  First of all, I left the resin piece attached to it's molded block.  It was almost exactly the right width to fit inside the fuselage.  That way I could use the block to glue it to the fuselage.  Here is a picture where I had it attached with tape for test fitting:

Next I mixed up some 20 minute epoxy. I used 20 minute so I had enough time to fiddle with it to get it in just the right position. This turned out to be a really good thing because I needed that much time to get it square both horizontally and vertically.  Here is how it turned out:

It took a lot of patience to get it square like that.  Now I will let it setup overnight.  Tomorrow I will work on the front pieces.

Ken

Ken: Looks good!

The AH-64 is painted, did some pre-shading. I'll try to get some photos up soonish.

Gamera

Ken: Looks good!

The AH-64 is painted, did some pre-shading. I'll try to get some photos up soonish.

Thank you Cliff!  I look forward to seeing your pictures!

Ken

Well, here she is, all shiny and ready for decaling:

She looks awesome Cliff!  Great job!      I can't wait to see it with the decals! 

Ken

Well today did not turn out how I planned!  I went to my Mom's house to do some yard work for her and got stung by something.  I am very allergic to stings.  I had to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.  I just got home about an hour ago.  I am still not feeling good, so I am going to call it a night.

Ken

Thanks Ken, and ouch! Hope you feel better tomorrow.

Wow, Ken! Hope your doing better! I know how bad insect bites and stings can be esp. to individuals such as yourself! My sister got bit by something on her thumb and before you know it, her arm swelled to twice it's normal size with red streaks running up the veins. What ever bit her was infected with something nasty and had to receive antibiotics for several days by IV - twice a day for several days! They were actually marking the progress of the infection up her arm by marking it with a Sharpie!

I got ambushed in my shed by a nest of hornets and received several stings! Although I'm not allergic, the venom from the multiple stings I received had me down with a fever for a couple of days. I still have a scar on my leg from one of the worse stings.

Nice work on the Apache Cliff! I need to get busy and finish making my Growler all shiny for it's decal treatment!

jimbot58

Wow, Ken! Hope your doing better! I know how bad insect bites and stings can be esp. to individuals such as yourself! My sister got bit by something on her thumb and before you know it, her arm swelled to twice it's normal size with red streaks running up the veins. What ever bit her was infected with something nasty and had to receive antibiotics for several days by IV - twice a day for several days! They were actually marking the progress of the infection up her arm by marking it with a Sharpie!

I got ambushed in my shed by a nest of hornets and received several stings! Although I'm not allergic, the venom from the multiple stings I received had me down with a fever for a couple of days. I still have a scar on my leg from one of the worse stings.

Nice work on the Apache Cliff! I need to get busy and finish making my Growler all shiny for it's decal treatment!

Thank you Jim and Cliff for the well wishes.

I guess if you are allergic to stings, each following sting is worse than the last one.  And this one was definitely worse.  I actually passed out in the middle of the call to 911.  I regained consciousness just before the ambulance arrived, which fortunately only took a few minutes.  I will be carrying an Epi-pen with me from now on.  That was too close.

I am still not feeling too good.  My arm is swollen to the max and hurts.  But at least the hives that covered my body are gone.

Ken

Ken, that has got to be some scarey sh*t! I'm glad your still with us. It could have been a lot worse. Take it easy and make your self well! That Phantom can wait.

Well, I see my signature badge has reappeared. I do need to upgrade it eventually.

Some time spent at the bench:

Made more of the bottom of the Growler shiny though there are not that many decals to put down there.

Also worked on doing a pinwash on some of the lines of the Tiger, and painting details.

You can see some of my steel colored paint over-flowed a bit there, I'll clean that up later. You can't believe how hard it is to keep a steady hand painting that in this scale!

A couple of questions for the armor guy.

First: could my 1/72 scale tank benefit from dot filters and how does it work? What type of paint, etc. I know there have been articles in fsm about them but never really read up on the subject.

Second question: swastikas!  With all the taboo about them, I wondered if the King T. would have actually used them. I have a AM decal sheet I've never used.

Jim

Yow Ken, I didn't realize your reaction was that intense! Glad to know you're feeling at least a little better now!

Nice work Jim. Decaling is my favorite part!

Dot filters the best I understand it is taking small dots of oil paint and applying them to the model polka-dot fashion. You then take a wide soft brush moist with thinner (not wet, moist!) and streak them down or around if on a flat surface. Then wipe the brush off and do it again till the dots are gone. It should leave just the barest tint to the surface giving you a slight colour variation across the model. I'm still not that good with this either taking it all off or leaving too much. You should probably check over on the armour section for more detail than this.

And I wouldn't worry about the swastikas. I don't think I've ever seen them on a German tank, just the German crosses. I think mostly only aircraft carried them and then only on the tail.  

Hello gang!

Ken, I hope you're doing ok? Pop in and just say hey if you can......

A sort of product review- I tried MM's 'stain' which should go on like a wash, if you read the directions. It seems like a gloss paint that has been thinned down and when applied..... it goes on like a thinned down gloss black paint. I am still leaning washes, but I don't think this stuff is very good as a wash.

I gave up on that and went back to my tried and true method- artists oil thinned with turpinoid.(A substitute for turpentine.) This is still drying-

Still looks a bit blotchy but that I can wipe away. The black seems a bit harsh to me, but I've also got some burnt umber and I think if I do a real thin wash with it, it should knock some of the edge off of that black. Keep in mind I am only applying the wash along seams and around details, not over the entire model. I also like what it did to those molded on tools. I still don't know how I am going to paint that cable or what ever that is. I suppose a hard core modeler would have sanded that off and added some thread or twine. There are still a couple of tow cables that will need to be painted and applied, plus the gun in the front, the exhaust, the hatch covers, etc.

jimbot58

Hello gang!

Ken, I hope you're doing ok? Pop in and just say hey if you can......

A sort of product review- I tried MM's 'stain' which should go on like a wash, if you read the directions. It seems like a gloss paint that has been thinned down and when applied..... it goes on like a thinned down gloss black paint. I am still leaning washes, but I don't think this stuff is very good as a wash.

I gave up on that and went back to my tried and true method- artists oil thinned with turpinoid.(A substitute for turpentine.) This is still drying-

Still looks a bit blotchy but that I can wipe away. The black seems a bit harsh to me, but I've also got some burnt umber and I think if I do a real thin wash with it, it should knock some of the edge off of that black. Keep in mind I am only applying the wash along seams and around details, not over the entire model. I also like what it did to those molded on tools. I still don't know how I am going to paint that cable or what ever that is. I suppose a hard core modeler would have sanded that off and added some thread or twine. There are still a couple of tow cables that will need to be painted and applied, plus the gun in the front, the exhaust, the hatch covers, etc.

Hi Jim,

Your tank is looking awesome man!  That wash turned out great!  Nice work!     

My arm is getting better.  It is still swollen but not as bad.  My muscles in it are weak and sore, like I just got done lifting a bunch of weight from doing a workout.  I am going to go back to work today.

Hopefully I can get some work done at the bench this evening!

Ken

Ken: Glad to hear you're feeling somewhat better.

Jim: Looks good! The burnt umber should take the edge off some, plus when you clearcoat the black should be toned down a little too. As to the cable it'd probably look fine if you just paint it a dark grey and then rub a pencil on a piece of paper to get some graphite off and then rub that with your finger on the cable to give it a slight metallic sheen.

Ken, I know you wanted some time away from work, but isn't this kind of an extreme way to go about it? Just kidding! Glad to hear your doing better! I was just concerned for you.

jimbot58

Ken, I know you wanted some time away from work, but isn't this kind of an extreme way to go about it? Just kidding! Glad to hear your doing better! I was just concerned for you.

Thank you Jim, I appreciate the concern!  We all have to look out for each other!   

Ken

Gamera

Ken: Glad to hear you're feeling somewhat better.

Jim: Looks good! The burnt umber should take the edge off some, plus when you clearcoat the black should be toned down a little too. As to the cable it'd probably look fine if you just paint it a dark grey and then rub a pencil on a piece of paper to get some graphite off and then rub that with your finger on the cable to give it a slight metallic sheen.

Thank you Cliff, I appreciate the well wishes!   

Ken

Hi Everyone!

I thought about the exhaust and how it was going to fit inside after the fuselage halves were together and so I decided to try a test fit.  I was glad I did.  It turned out that 7mm cut was not enough!  I needed to make another notch.  Here is how it turned out:

Here is what it looks like with the exhaust in place:

Tomorrow night I will work on the left side.

Ken 

Coming along nicely Ken. Having 7mm not being enough is better than it being too much. The amount of time and thought given this project and your attention to detail is very impressive. Between work, my girlfriend and just goofing around I could never pull it off. Even so, the pics and tips are great so keep 'em coming!