2014 BRAILLE SCALE (UPDATE)

@Josiah - 1/72 scale weapons are my downfall - well done on yours! I find it so tedious trying to mask and paint them. Can't wait to see the Alpha with it's first coat.

@Theuns - looking good from here - new toolings don't always = great fit, though most of the new Airfix's have been looking good. To be honest, i've never come across one kit that had a perfect fitting canopy.

I still need to sand around the canopy area, strange that the fit for a new tool kit was not so good.....maybe just me that stuffed it up lol.

Wingroots and nose ring also needed some attention with the tamiya putty  :-)

Here's a small update on the alpha jet...

Obviously I have some touch up work to do on the cluster bombs...

And here's the plane as it is now...I have a bit more sanding to do and then it's ready for the top paints...

Theuns - 3rd is still an excellent result, well done!!

The Sabre was not a win LOL, only placed 3'rd ;-)

Theuns

Thanks all, finished painting the bombs...need to do some research as to the color of the drop tanks. Will hopefully get it painted up by the end of the week.

Dang Ernest! Aside from the road wheels and the unsanded parts on the sprue, you can't tell that's a small stug, great job along with the sherman, I can't wait to see paint on these bad boys.

Theuns - sorry I missed the last part on your post!  Congratulations on the win!

Updates on the Sherman and StuG!

I finally fixed (to some extent) the HVVS suspension on the Sherman.  At least the bogie assemblies are now locked in place and don't wobble around anymore! and they're mostly all flush with the ground. With that done I could focus on the small details.  First I needed to sand many parts down to a more scale thickness.  In the photos below you can see one of each example has been thinned down and the other hasn't:

Headlight guards

Hatch periscope guards

Tail light guards.

Most of the details have been added.  The rest will be installed just before painting.  The white upright plates on the rear deck are the engine door rests.  The kit parts were deformed so I made new ones from card stock.

The StuG.

I really like how they did the roadwheels.  Very easy to clean up and best of all, you can leave them on the sprue to paint!  Bottom set is untouched, the top two have had the nodules removed, seams cleaned up and masked for painting.  (BTW. the bottom set is from another Dragon Pz. IV kit I have in the stash.  I just used it for this photo....the kit only comes with two sets of roadwheels)

The roadwheel centers are cleverly molded....use the attached post during painting and simply trim away when ready to glue to the roadwheel!

As with the Sherman, most of the small details have been added, including all the fender parts. 

With the fender parts now installed, I proceeded to fill all the little mounting holes under the fenders.

Its PINNED!!  hehe!  I took your advice and used pins to create the track sag.  .016 dia brass rod was used.  Final adjustments will be made later, but I think it looks pretty good.

Almost ready for paint!

Paint this weekend.......??

Theuns

On a side note, my little Canadair CL-13 Sabre Mk6 I completed for this GB took a 3'rd place in 1/72 Jets at our SA IPMS nationals this weekend, I am really pleased with that :-)

Theuns

totally cool. congrats on the win.

nice work everyone. as i await my 2nd SS-25 i think i will grab a smaller build.

@Josiah - thanks for the compliments! It was an enjoyable little build, but for canopy masking. I was not much of a fan of WWII navy planes, but after building that one, i definitely want to pick a 1/48 version.

Looking forward to your next Alpha Jet update. Once priming is done - that's when the real fun begins!!

@Rob - yeah, i think airbrushing that scheme on the Tony is out of the question - hence the reason i'm going to give it a shot via brush painting. Also, i just want to test my brush painting skills too. I won't be able to achieve the nice feathered edges, but might be able to do a misting overcoat of silver to make them appear feathered - we'll see how i go 

@Bufflehead - i was wondering what might have happened to you - looking forward to your update. Thanks for the comments!

The Dragon mold is a little soft with a fair bit of flash on the Tony, but i'm going to expend my energies in the paint scheme more than trying to fix/correct anything on the kit. 

PS: my LHS has just started stocking Tasca kits, including various Shermans. Here in Australia, they'er only a few $ more expensive than the Tamiya and Dragons. My birthday is coming up in 3 weeks, guess what i'll be treating myself to 

Guys I'm back!  I was out of town for a week and a half on business and resumed working on the Sherman and StuG this weekend.  But first I need to get caught up here:

deattilio - man that P-51 came out great!  Love the faded OD paint job and excellent work on the stripes.  Top Notch dude!

Josiah - love all the work you're doing on the Alpha!  The cockpit details, filling and sanding, seams...whew!  That's some hard work for a little jet!!  Can't wait to see some paint on it!

Chris - 1st)  I was amazed at the stencil work you did on the A7!  Sorry it didn't work out for you, but an outstanding attempt nonetheless!  2nd) Gotta love the F4U!!  It came out great and the antenna wire looks fine to me! 3rd) A Tony!  We don't often see those being built!  I'm eager to see how this Dragon kit will come out!  Are you going to do that camo job shown on the box?  That's gotta be a real chore to do in 1/72!

I'll have an update tomorrow on the Sherman and StuG!  Suffice it to say that both are coming along well and painting should commence this weekend, if not earlier!

Wow, lots of action going on here:

Chris - great job on the Corsair (who doesn't love a gorgeous Corsair ). That Japanese fighter is going to be a challenge to airbrush, eh?

Theuns - no doubt that that Sabre placed!! Very good news, two enthusiastic thumbs up !!!!!

Josiah - A7 looking awesome...keep at 'er!

Got the alpha jet primed...and did some more sanding. Got a few small things to do and then it'l be ready to paint!

Chris that's a beautiful corsair!! Definitely one to be proud of!

Hi all. I have almost completed the filling and sanding on my EE lightning. I was a little "dissapointed" by this kit from Airfix, the surface detail is really nicem the decals look good on the paperm but the fit is slightly less good than on a few of their other "shake n' bake" new kits.

Nothing to bad, but for the price I would have liked to hav a better model. Could it be thatI am just "full of it".....yes maybe  LOL.

On a side note, my little Canadair CL-13 Sabre Mk6 I completed for this GB took a 3'rd place in 1/72 Jets at our SA IPMS nationals this weekend, I am really pleased with that :-)

Theuns

Now that i've got one down, i'd like to put my hand up for another.

The A-7 is still on the bench and i stripped off the poor stenciling last night. I'll be resorting to the decals instead i've decided.

However, along side that, i'd like to nominate myself for this:

Dragon's 1/72 Ki61-1 Hein (Tony). I plan on trying to hand paint the green splotching with a paint brush - again, a technique i've never done and a skill i'd like to develop.

Cover Art:

One one sprue for this build!!! (Plus a clear parts sprue).

Some nicely molded details in the 'pit:

Wheel wells are a bit disappointing though:

Note: - kit comes with normal and compressed tyres:

Howdy All!

Over the weekend i managed to get some decent bench time in and am calling my F4U-1 DONE!!! (For the purposes of this GB).

I tend to be one of these people who will now toy with weathering and really use the model as more of test bed to try and perfect my weathering/pastel brushing etc. Given it may take some months to do, i'll post now as done.

This is the first time i've actually attempted to install an antenna wire - i used a piece of my fiance's hair for it. It did have nice tension...until i jagged it when photographing. I may pull it off and re-do, or even see how thin i can get a piece of sprue and use that.

Again, that will be part of my "testing" for this build.

thanks Wayne!

Rob Sherman

Wayne...what do you mean by "i use testors silver to check seams, wash off and redo as needed" ? Are you talking about Testors enamels, or Testors MM acrylics? Why do you do this...very interested in what you have going on here...Cheers...

it's cheap testors silver enamel in the old when we were kids bottles. after putty and sanding, paint the seam area with the silver paint. it will show all flaws. you can sand the area but if you need to apply putty use paint remover and dry the area and reapply. redo until the seam is good. when satisfied wash it up before priming.

Wayne...what do you mean by "i use testors silver to check seams, wash off and redo as needed" ? Are you talking about Testors enamels, or Testors MM acrylics? Why do you do this...very interested in what you have going on here...Cheers...

cml

Good progress Josiah. The ejection handles turned out well and hold a prominent place in the 'pit.

I agree you'll have to putty those seams - my most loathed of tasked in modelling. All you can do is grit your teeth, grin and bear it. You're probably aware of this, but if you mask off either side with tape, it can help reduce the loss of panel lines etc when sanding the putty back.

i put tape down close to the seam on either side and than putty. after i have applied the putty i pull up the tape leaving a putty line. sometimes i knock that down a bit with nail polish remover before sanding. sometimes you don't need to retape before sanding if it's something smooth like a gun barrel. other times you will. i use testors silver to check seams, wash off and redo as needed. had sections of SS-25 i had to reputty. each time the area to be fixed was smaller until after the 4th when i was satisfied.

Good progress Josiah. The ejection handles turned out well and hold a prominent place in the 'pit.

I agree you'll have to putty those seams - my most loathed of tasked in modelling. All you can do is grit your teeth, grin and bear it. You're probably aware of this, but if you mask off either side with tape, it can help reduce the loss of panel lines etc when sanding the putty back.

Waynec - you make a good point. Anything like that on a plane will be done perfectly, no differences in widths etc.  

I'm thinking of one more attempt - but this time, i might do a black background, cut out individual letters to and then overspray with the topcoat, then remove the letters to see how that works.

I still don't know if i can do it perfectly, so i'm only going to do a couple of letters first and test on a plastic ice cream lid. If that doesn't work, i'll just resort to the decals.

Also, given i'll be spraying light sand over black, i'll have to add an in-between layer of light grey or something as a primer over the black i think.

Thanks Rob

Josiah, great progress...keep it up!!

Here's my update. Got the cockpit finished sans pilots (I might've lost one, hopefully not for good). Also got the fuselage halves glued together along with the bottom part of the plane. Got the wing halves glued together for each wing and I have dry fitted them numerous times to see how I'm going to do the painting process.

As you can see the fit leaves much to be desired, but I'm not one to care too much anymore. While I would like to have a great fitting kit, not much challenge is that now is there? And while it may be frustrating trying to make the gaps and seams disappear while I'm working on it, it'll be nice in the end (hopefully). So I've been trying different techniques in gap filling on this build. Practicing for the big (I like how I think 1/48 is big now) revell planes I'm building or am about to build.

Here's the test fit wings...

The gap is too big for my liking, unlike the Eurofighter I did, I shall have to putty those seams most likely. I'm pretty sure I know how I'm going to go about painting this thing process wise, but I'm going to brainstorm some more ideas before I set myself to one way.

i would right it off and try again with something easier, say arab letters and numbers or soviet slogans on KV-2 turrets. something that in real life might have been hastily hand painted. that way if a letter in the stencil is a little thinner or fatter it really could have been. i may try this on a truck. OTOH my freehand arab and hebrew letters and numbers are pretty good.

Braver than I to try it...and your results are better than mine would be as well!

Chris..yup, 'tis a tough technique.

Cheers, thanks for the support gents.

Rob - i had toyed with the idea of individual letters, but as Waynec pointed out, with the words being slanted, it would have become very difficult. The other thing, is the spacing between letters is very very narrow, so getting the spacing correct doing one at a time may have been problematic in it's own right.

Waynec - you're very correct, any slight misalignment stands out like the proverbial.

Something that I hadn't anticipated is the width difference between the pencil lead (when tracing the stencil) vs the width of a no. 11 blade.  That alone meant it was difficult to correctly guage the widths of letters.

The final drama was the spacing that needed to block out between the letters. Due to how thin it all was, i had to cut them from the stencil and just lay down the outside first.

After that, i had to then lay down the spacing and gaps between the letters.

I'll re-evaluate later in the week whether it's salvageable, or whether i spray over and use the decals.

Part of me wants it to look good with the decals, part of me wants to have it as a reminder of what i did once, so i won't give up so easily on future projects.