AIRCRAFT - Battle of Britain Group Build (Jan 1st 2005 - May 31st 2005)

I used 1/3 sheet of fail just trying to get the stuff to lay down in the lines of the canopy of this Ju87... I might finishs it except for the canopy and order the canopy mask set for it and do it later... still time in the NA GB for that...

but I can see it is a charm and for a typical canopy it would be a godsend!!! even those difficult pacific AC from the US and Japan... (and their 100 braces in the canopy)

QUOTE: Originally posted by KJ200 Tweety Might have to give BMF a try. I even partly unpicked the masking on the cockpit of my MS406 for the NAGB to check for similar marks, but no sign?????? Karl

I think you'll be surprised about how clean the result is after using BMF Karl.

It takes a little practice to handle, seeing as it is a bunch thinner than tape, but after that you'll be masking the most complex curves etc with foil, places where tape simply refuses to function.

I usually have 3 or 4 coats of paint and then Future on my kits, and the foil comes up dead easy, and leaves a crisp line like you wouldn't beleive.
You can lay it on in strips, or as a complete panel.
And 1 sheet of foil lasts a LONG time.

I've completed 8 kits, and have used 1/3 of a sheet of foil, I just love the stuff.!!!!!!!!

Darren - cool! I thought about doing a dio with my Quad tractor and artillery piece.
Maybe I will go get that set soon, I think I saw it at the LHS.

Tom I know how you feel doing multiple builds at once, as of last week I had five on the go at once. I've now put cut that back to one at a time because Jules is spot on in saying I wasn't seeing any progress in anything despite all the time I was spending on them.

BTW, I picked up a handy little accessory from Tamiya at Great Models the other day, a 1/48 fuel drum, jerry can and gear set. It is mainly designed for their 1/48 armor range but a couple of fuel drums should look good in the little NA dio I want to do.

Cheers
Darren

concentrate on one kit Tom and you will find it's a huge releif to just get one out of the way
BTW your lucky your kits weren't messed up, I've had a coupleof damaged kits thanks to the Wife

[b]Progress Report::::::::::::::::::::Heaps happening on this little Emil Upper colours tonight then future, should be finished in a week..............

cool, good to know Jules.,.. tomorrow is the day... I will finish one of the three tomorrow maybe two... but the Zero is closest to finished (with only about 3 or 4 hours into it) The P-47 I have about 10 hrs into and about 10 hrs to go so I might just give that one another coat of Alclad and concentrate on what is finishable...

The Ju87 might be finished if I can use the Tamiya tape like Rick mentioned.... otherwise I might switch to the Martlet for stress relief!!! I bac ked myself into a corner again with multiple builds progressing at once.. (last night my wife came in and threw a load of laundry on top of my couch in the modelling room.. talk about take my breath away!!! There were 3 models 1/2 finished under paper towels to protect from dust, sitting on that couch!!! I nearly died till I verified their safety!)

Tom I have the old tamiya 1/48 zero and i have already started masking the canopy, the raised canopy framing on that kit is perfect for BMF masking

Agreed - I started trying it on my ju87 with the impossibly shallow indentions for the braces and on the larger areas was able to get it to work flawlessly despite the limitations.. I may have to post a pic so you can see what little I had to work with...

the next Zero or He111 canopy I come up against I will just sneer and break out the BMF...

Karl Tweets put me onto the BMF canopy masking thing a while back and IMHO it's the best way to go without resorting to express masks and it takes no where near as much time as using tape

Tweety Might have to give BMF a try.

I even partly unpicked the masking on the cockpit of my MS406 for the NAGB to check for similar marks, but no sign??????

Karl

QUOTE: Originally posted by KJ200 Tweety I read a while back about Futuring after masking to prevent bleed through of the top colours. Not sure I'll be doing that in future, no pun intended.........honest Karl

Ahhhhhhhh.
Yeah, ok, with masking tapes etc you can get bleed through.

Thats why I use foil, no bleed through, and I have never had a cleaner canopy line.

to tape!!!!

Well tonight i'll mask the 109 so it's ready for the first of the upper colours tommorow, thata after i get the kids to bed, the missus is out so it's just me the kids and "Kremps" but she will be busy honing her billiard ball breaking skills, so after the little ones are in bed i should have a good couple of hours to mask it all up

Tweety I read a while back about Futuring after masking to prevent bleed through of the top colours.

Not sure I'll be doing that in future, no pun intended.........honest

Karl

Good luck Jay!!! You've gone the distance with this model, time to show it who is boss!

Jay, glad to hear the decals arrived safely. Hope they work better than the last batch.

Regards, Rick

Rick, Thanks for the decals! I never expected the whole kit decal sheet (minus the black anit-skid strips). I spent last night taking the old decals off. It left a crap load of sticky stuff underneath that I couldn't remove easily so I had to use some finger nail polish to remove the future, that worked really well. I'll have to reapply the future tonight, then get your decals put on, this time, very carefully and not overloading it with setting solution.

I also put on (with Micro set) the custom RAF code 'J' of the 'YO*J' (for the fourth time). I had printed off some more and did two coats of the decal sealer this time and tried cutting it with a new no.11 blade instead of my disecting scissors. This morning I went downstairs to take a look at it... awesome! I just wish my hand was a little steadier as some of the straight cuts weren't all that straight, it kind of gives it a "field applied" look.

Jules, nice looking 109!, I almost kinda wish I had done one, almost.

Karl, I noticed the Mr. Mark Softer is a strong one, It kind of ate through some of the future in spots. I'll have to be careful with it, thanks for the warning.

I can see a light at the end of the tunnel!... no... wait, it may be a train!!

Karl why do you Future AFTER masking???

I Future my canopies, apply BMF, spray as required, then finish with a custom Future /Tamiya flat base coat, then remove the BMF mask.

I'm having a little trouble working your way out

Karl - good luck! I never tried futuring over a masked canopy, but good luck to you!!!

Jules The 109 looks great.

The AM masks for the Hasa Stuka will fit the Revell kit as they are one and the same.

That is one canopy I wouldn't want to mask

Darson How come a kit from a company in Germany costs less than one from a company in Japan, which is far closer to the land of Oz????? Especially when they are the same kit!

Jay Go easy with the Mr Mark Softer, as it is vicious! I found the Mr Mark Setter does a better job on it's own, not only setting the decal, but softening it as well.

Progress update

Canopy not going well..............

......I masked both the fixed and sliding portions of the canopy, only to find that when I removed the tape, I was left with dry crystaline marks on the canopy. Now I had this with the PZL P24G I did last year, and I don't understand why.

I always dip the canopies in Future and allow to harden for 48 hours before masking with thin strips of Tamiya tape. I then burnish the edges with a tooth pick, before applying another coat of Future to seal everything. It looks like this coat of Future is leaching through the tape.

End result, I've had to polish out the marks on the fixed portion of the canopy, and binned the sliding vac form section. Now need to order myself a new vac forma canopy.

Other than that, the rest of the build should be complete this weekend.

Karl

Thanks fellas but the pics don't really do it justice, they're kinda grainy.......
Anyway i should be finished in 2 weeks at the most

Jules - looks great!!! and ditto on what Darren said... only mine look like I tied the airbrush to Rudy's nose and let him do it...

Nice progress on your 109 Jules, it looks great so far. You must have a really steady hand to get your pre-shades looking so straight, mine always looks like an octopus dipped in paint has crawled across my kit.

Cheers
Darren

Looks great Jules. Should be another great little Emil.

Regards, Rick

Ahhh Darren & Tom Thats the reason i stopped work on my Stuka, The bloody canopy, it is nye impossible to mask with BMF and i think the only AM masks are for the Has kit....

Anyways here are some progress pics of the 109......

The first one shows the preshade, it's shiny because i preshaded with Gunze acrylic RLM 66 and used MM enamel for the RLM 65 for the undersurface, i wasn't sure how the paints would react so i gave it a coat of Future as a barrier between the acrylic and enamel paint....


The next 2 show it with the RLM 65 on and the RLM 04 nose and rudder...





Now for the upper colours, hopefully i'll have them on by the end of the weekend, just need to go to the LHS and pick up some more Tamiya tape

Not much progress lately, The weather here has been really nice lately and I've been trying to get yard work done. This weekend though, I plan on getting the last little bits done. It is pretty much: finish the decaling (still waiting on Ricks mail), recoating with future, weathering and then the dullcoat and lastly the canopy and wires. So close yet so far!

I've made a little more progress on my 109E. I've primed using Tamiya aerosol white primer, for the first time, andits good stuff. A little more expensive that the automotive primer I usually use, but it goes on just as well.
At first glance I thought it had primed up OK, just a couple of minor touch ups. THen I looked again, and the wing roots need some serious work. This is going to take a night or to to get right.
On a brighter note, the Spitfire is coming along well at this point.

Darren - I usually go to Chris' shop on my lunchbreak, as I work near Brandon Park and can drive down Springvale Rd. I live at Langwarrin, which is approximately 2 light years the other side of Alpha Centauri, so I usually can't make it on weekends.
Cheers
Tony Mollica

Tom, I think very thin strips of Tamiya tape, carefully positioned, is the best way to go. At least that's the way I choose to do mine.

Regards, Rick

Darren - that looks to be the exact same kit I have with a few very minor variations... the decals came with several decal strips for placing inside the canopy but they would be the wrong color for my bird.. I need to sit back and analyze this a bit.. I know there is a way to paint them... and honestly if it comes to it I will hand paint it a millimeter at a time if need be... it really shocked me the BMF didnt work.. maybe I need to get a down home single edge razor blade and tackle it with this... it would be thin and sharp enough to handle the small lines...

Tom I don't own the kit myself unfortunately, I'm just going from what I have read online. The reason I would pick up the Revell AG over the Hase kit is if I was to buy one it would come down purely to price. The Hase kit retails here for about $60AUS while the Revell offering of the exact same kit retails for about $30AUS.
I know what you mean about shallow of fine frames BTW, they might be to scale but they are murder to paint. Have you thought about painting bare decal film and cutting it into strips, or perhaps an AM pre-cut mask?

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal3/2701-2800/Gal2795_Ju-87_delPino/gal2795.htm

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Fea1/701-800/Fea766_Ju-87_Williamson/fea766.htm

Cheers
Darren

hmmm hows the canopy look on that one Darren? I am currently doing a Ju87 R2 for the N Africa build and although there are different planes you can build it as, the markings on the canopy are VERY fine... so fine in fact I can barely get them cut with a new #11 using BMF for the masking... I may end up holding on the kit until I can get it right.. I hate to think of doing it the way my dad did and painting them on..


hmmm... no.. I was thinking about a liquid mask but the problem would be the same... the lines are so close and so shallow the knife blade has nowhere to follow...