US CARRIER AVIATION GROUP BUILD 2013

checkmateking02

I probably should have noted to be careful with the cotton ball around any masking, as in around cockpits, etc.  Fibers like to stick to them, and Murphy will tell you:  they will stick and be invisible until after you've painted them permanently into the finish.

I just started painting on a Devastator, and used a small paintbrush around the greenhouse--then the cotton ball on the rest.  Didn't see any stuck fibers, but at this point, they might just not be showing themselves.

Thanks for that tip, CMK. Will try to remember that, makes a lot of sense.

This Dauntless is looking very good, Eagle.  I'm feeling motivated to start one--but those holes!!!  My fingers feel tired just looking at what you accomplished.

By the way, can you tell me what size drill you used?

Good looking Skyhawk, Stu.

Greg

CMK, thanks for that! I buy that stuff by the gallon, great to know!

And the cotton ball idea. I couldn't get past a paper towel and that just didn't seem right. Cotton balls would be the ticket. It amazes me how un-creative I can be sometimes. Thanks again for the tips!!!!

 

I probably should have noted to be careful with the cotton ball around any masking, as in around cockpits, etc.  Fibers like to stick to them, and Murphy will tell you:  they will stick and be invisible until after you've painted them permanently into the finish.

I just started painting on a Devastator, and used a small paintbrush around the greenhouse--then the cotton ball on the rest.  Didn't see any stuck fibers, but at this point, they might just not be showing themselves.

Eagle, Stu....

Enjoyed the update pics. Looking good!

Clemens, hope you get your rivets squared away. Way over my head. :)

Thanks for the tip, Rex!

Looking good, Stu!

You still owe us some pics of your Hellcat... I'd love to see how it looks!

I've been closing in on painting the Skyhawk.  I was able to close all the wheel bays with little fuss and only a bit of sanding and shimming.  I did find that the rear door to the nose bay was about 2mm too short and 1mm too narrow, so plastic filled in.  I also had to add the ladder attachment the Blue's had on their Skyhawks.  I used some brass rod, a bit of plastic rod and Tamiya putty.  The Hasegawa kit does not include a pilot so I pulled one from the Academy F-4.  I had to do some surgery to make him fit into the cramped cockpit and also had to remove the instrument panel.  But since this will be a closed-canopy/ Wall mount, I'm not too concerned about cockpit details.

Clemens, modify the "gear lever knob" method.

stretch some sprue, smaller than the rivets you want

snip off a good end to start with,,,,,,,hold a match up in front of the sprue end, careful not to touch the sprue

slice off the ball end it makes, that is your new rivet,,,,,,,,snip off a clean end and repeat

I suggest doing 2, 3 or more sprue pieces in a batch, so you don't spend the rest of your life waiting for heat, but, it could go as fast as "hold it up there, put that one down, get the next,,,,,,,,etc",,,,,,,then slice each half round off and snip for the next "melt"

SchattenSpartan

Looking nice!

I have to get me some of that glow-in-the-dark silly putty, so I can also work when it's dark!

Thank you sir!  Work in the dark!  Great idea!   It works well.  With a little practice it will really come in handy.  Thanks again!

Eagle90

I definitely want to make some replacement rivets... I just can't get over the fact that I destroyed them because of my impatience when painting the model...

Another update, still just text...

I sanded the rivets down a bit and they looked horrible. I've sanded the whole surface smotth again.

As I just don't have the skill required to create rivets on the model's surface, I'll try crafting some of them and then attaching them to the model. Any tips on how to create tiny hemispheres? They are about 0.2-0.3 mm in diameter... I was thinking of taking a piece of some sort of solid material (a resin casting block for example) and drilling some tiny holes in it. Then I'd heat up some pieces of sprue (I have plenty of those lying around here already (for making antennas and stuff) and just press them againt the "mold", creating a small pin I can cut off... What do you think? Would this be practical for about 30 rivets? I'd glue them to the model using some canopy glue thinned with a bit of water (works like a charm for attaching tiny parts)

Been lurking in the shadows and there's some good work going on here.  Been in slump for a while now, but have to get going as I have to finish some a/c for our club's build for the IPMS USA Nationals.  As soon as I finish some WWI kites, I'll get started with the Tiger.  Keep up the good work guys.

Looking nice!

I have to get me some of that glow-in-the-dark silly putty, so I can also work when it's dark!

First, I'd like to say thanks to all who are on the forum.  As I read this thread, and the others I follow, it is impressive how much knowledge there is here....and how much everyone is will to share and help!  Thank you all!

Now, for the Dauntless.  My awesome wife found some Silly Putty...albeit it's glow in the dark, it works.  So I decide to touch up the Dauntless using it.  I need a little more work with it, but it does the trick for sure.  I can see this being used a lot in my future!  So on with the pics!  They are just a couple of shots showing the Silly Putty.  Thanks for checking it out!

Eagle90

I cut off the pieces of stretched sprue and it looks ok so far. Next thing I'll do is sand those new rivets down a bit, so they are less pronounced. The only problem i have is that the rivets are not evenly spaced everywhere... I'll try to post some pics tomorrow (Photobucket seems to work again)

A small update on my side. I noticed that the rivets I made using the glue-technique were not that bad. Compared to the original kit parts however, they looked somehow wrong. I removed all the rivets again and I am trying to use a different technique:

I drilled some holes where the rivets should be and glued some stretched sprue in those holes. I'll wait overnight untill everything has dried completely and I am going to cut off the sprue-rods to replicate the rivets... If that doesn't work either, I'll sand the surface smotth again and just order me a set of resin rivets (CMK sells such sets AFAIK)

Thanks for that, Rob. Much appreciated. Never thought about any of the 3 vendors you mentioned. And I will be aware (and perhaps beware) of the ultra fine tips.

Greg

That cockpit is looking good, Rob. Looks like you have a pretty good set of tweezers there. May I ask what they are and where you acquired them?

I like mine, but always on the lookout for the perfect tweezer, short of spending upwards of $50 US which I've been tempted to do a few times already. :)

Greg, I cannot recall exactly where I got that pair but some options would be McMaster Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/‎), Cole Palmer (http://www.coleparmer.com/), or Fisher Scientific (http://www.fishersci.com). 

The particular pair in that picture look like they might be a tapered fine set from McMaster Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/#tweezers/=nls1mm).  A warning about the ultra fine pairs, I recall that when I used to work with these the tips are rather fragile and can bend/break easily, so I would recommend the fine tips.  Also, the high grade steel is quite sufficient, no need to spend four to five times more for the premium Swiss grade.

That cockpit is looking good, Rob. Looks like you have a pretty good set of tweezers there. May I ask what they are and where you acquired them?

I like mine, but always on the lookout for the perfect tweezer, short of spending upwards of $50 US which I've been tempted to do a few times already. :)

Checkmate, I was thinking about your tape idea and had some reservations about the tackiness of the tape pulling the part back off.  But now I realise that this would be an excellent use for small pieces of Post-IT notes!  I already use these to hold down the parts so they dont fly away when cut from the tree, but I never thought of using them to hold the parts while I attached them!

Clemens, that seat is part of the Eduards PE set.  I am using a PE workstation from the Small Shop http://thesmallshop.com.  The one I own is the 4" Mk IV RTH Hold & Fold.  I have only used PE on this kit and previously on a Pzkw.IV Ausf.D kit, but I found the workbench makes folding and handling the PE much easier than my initial efforts to do it "freehand".

Rob, is that a PE seat? How did you fold that one up so nicely? Just curios, as I need to build one of those for my 1/32 Thunderbolt...

CMK, thanks for that! I buy that stuff by the gallon, great to know!

And the cotton ball idea. I couldn't get past a paper towel and that just didn't seem right. Cotton balls would be the ticket. It amazes me how un-creative I can be sometimes. Thanks again for the tips!!!!

Greg: Don't worry, you are doing a great job on your Avenger! Your MM complaints are actually really helpful, as I learned a lot of stuff just reading everyone's replies! Gunze paints are great, but not a must-have. If you don't like using MM paints for painting the exterior of a model, just use Tamiya paints. They are almost as good as Gunze paints. You have to mix your own colors quite often though. That's the main reason why I prefer Gunze paints (they adhere a bit better to the model surface than Tamiya paints, but the difference isn't that great).

You aren't rambling Greg.  I ran a search on "Airbrushing MM Acryl vs. Tamiya" and consistently found complaints about Acryl being very fragile as well as lifting when masked.  There were recommendations to the effect that they are ok for single colour schemes, but should be avoided when using masking.  Not having used them myself, I can only go by what I am reading elsewhere.

Greg, one thing I do is wipe the whole assembly down with window cleaner (blue stuff), right before I'm ready to paint.  I dip a cotton ball in it, wipe everything, and the cleaner evaporates rapidly.

I do this almost all the time, even though I use MM and WEM enamels.

Merely another technique to file away, if you find yourself out of alcohol.

Rob, thanks for the Mega Hobby idea. Looks as if they too carry only the Gunze Mr Color line, no mention of the pure acrylic Aqueous Color line.

I am feeling a bit guilty and unsure about my MM acrylic complaints here. I want to point out that last night I sheepishly removed the masking from my TBM engine cowl front ring. Not a hint of trouble. Now then, that was my first test spraying Tamiya Acrylic (yellow), however, the primer was MM Gray Primer and it's the primer that did the biting. (though I suppose it is conceivable that the Tamiya might have worked it's way through the primer and done some biting of it's own??? I laid it on rather heavily)

I might also point out that the tape (Tamiya) has been on that cowl ring for a loooong time, and I didn't de-tack it at all and also burnished the edges rather aggressively.

My point is that my surface prep on the fuselage was worse than awful. Spent months handling it and to be honest, I almost knew I was in trouble before I started. Simply wasn't smart enough to think of an alcohol wipe down, and some light sanding.

Sorry all about the ramble, and for continuing to carry on about this. I just don't want to be responsible for giving MM a bad name here on FSM with my non-existent level of experience. Just wouldn't be right.

Having only one experience with Eduard masks, probably should keep my mouth shut, but I think they are very kit/manufacturer specific.

Edit: please note I cross-posted again, whilst Clemens, you, and CMK were all posting. Makes it look like I'm ignoring the comments of others in this case, I'm not.

Rob.H

Just to update my progress so far, here is a picture of where I am with the cockpit.  I've been adding Eduards PE details to the pilots controls.  amazingly, I have yet to lose any of these ridiculously tiny PE parts, despite three of them attempting to escape.  Other than tweezers is there a better way to handle such tiny bits?

 

You could try rolling a little bit of masking tape into a kind of cone-shape, so you have a little "point" at the end.  Then touch the point to the part, and it should stick.  Then, you position the part where you want it.

The downside is that it won't release right away, and you have to wait for the glue to dry before pulling the tape off--or use a toothpick or something to hold the part down in place, while you life the tape.

I've sometime had to use this technique with tiny ship parts.

Good luck!

Just to update my progress so far, here is a picture of where I am with the cockpit.  I've been adding Eduards PE details to the pilots controls.  amazingly, I have yet to lose any of these ridiculously tiny PE parts, despite three of them attempting to escape.  Other than tweezers is there a better way to handle such tiny bits?

The two holes I drilled out on the starboard side are where two oxygen bottles should be located.  I plan to add these using some sprue  Does anyone know what colour these would be?  They appear dark in the reference photos I have but those are B&W so that does not really help me much.

As an aside, the actual cockpit photos show that there are two t-handle switches on the innermost part of the starboard control panel that appear to be labelled "FLARE".  Anyone have any idea what these are for?  I am certain they aren't flares for heat seaking AAMs!

 P.S. Thanks for the clarification on the paints Clemens, I should pay more attention to what I am reading.  As for the GWH masks, according to the kit reviews they don't fit that well.