Fleet Air Arm Group Build

Hey Darren, I've had the same thing happen. What I will do is just start applying water to it until it starts to move around freely and then wick it away and press the decal down when I know it's in the right postition. It's difficult to tell that it's out of position from the pics, but what is noticable are the invasion stripes underneath it. Those are always a tricky call, because there's no sure-fire way of determining just how opaque or translucent a decal is until it's applied.

Still looks good, though. That's a complicated paint scheme with a lot of markings, made even more difficult with the addition of the invasion stripes, but you're doing a fine job with it!

....and the Corsair should look fine after it's painted.

...and to answer your origional question.....yes, I've had plenty of those days, too. The trick is to see them coming and just walk away from the workbench to leave it for another day...it works for me.

Ever had one of those days?

Yeah...........thats what has happened to me. I got the decals on the Hellcat and the port side codes and roundrel look like they have been put on by a 3 yr old! Its all one decal and it stuck to the surface of the model like superglue before I could position it properly.

In the end, this is the best I could do........

As for the Corsair, this is how she looks right now. I am not happy with  the wing attachment, but its about as good as I'm going to get it.  I'm hoping  paint and carefull weathering will hide my sins!

Hi Everyone,

quick update from me, I still have not finished the decals on the Hellcat due to discovering a last-minute painting error, so paint/drying/gloss/drying has slowed me down there.

As for the Corsair......... Putting the wings on in the unfolded position has been quite the challenge. I am still sanding a bit at a time in or to save a s much detail as possible, and it is starting to look "OK". I will get some pics up later on today if all goes to plan.

See you later,

Well lads here we are for another fine Monday morning back at work , I hope everybody had a great weekend and got in lots of bench time.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) the weather was fantastic here over the weekend so not much building for me but I did manage to progress the Seafire and the Gannet a little.

Frank I hope you've found a resolution to your clear coat problem.  There's nothing more soul destroying than having a kit go bad at the last step.

Cheers

Hey Roger-

here's one for you

Hope you are well mate,

Hey all, and happy weekend! Just stopping in to say hey to all of y'all!

Now whos got the bottle?

Roy,

Thanks for the info!  As I recall, the gloss coat did have a slight tackiness when I held my fingers to it for awhile, guess I just thought that I had some stray thinner on them or something.  Looks like my problem was much more serious- prolly an uncured glosscoat.  I'm gonna play with it later this weekend whenever I get a day off, hopefully Sunday.  I'll post how it turns out.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Frank,

I was doing some reading the other night and came across something that relates to your cracked paint.  Paint cracks when coats of paint shrink at different rates as they cure. Paints that are especially prone to this condition would be gloss acrylics.  It also stated that incompatible paint, thinners, poor paint adhesion, or a formula of paint that doesn't allow the paint to flex.  It said that this may show up a day or two later.  It also said that the only cure would be to remove the finish and start over.  I hope this helps.

Roy

TANGO 1 wrote:

Frank, I honestly don't know what to tell you mate, thats a tough break. I recon the gloss coat is the culprit but the only cure that I know is to strip the thing down and start again. Get some oven cleaner and smear it all over the plastic, then place it in a sealed carrier bag and leave it overnight. Next day wash everything off with some water. Its a messy job-but it works. Hope this helps somehow.

Thanks Darren.  I think I'm gonna try a few more light coats of flat this weekend, and hope that works.  If it doesn't, then gonna try sanding it down.  If THAT doesn't work, well, I'm still working on plan C.

Gentlemen........

its the weekend!

Have a good one fella's

Frank,

I honestly don't know what to tell you mate, thats a tough break. I recon the gloss coat is the culprit but the only cure that I know is to strip the thing down and start again.

Get some oven cleaner and smear it all over the plastic, then place it in a sealed carrier bag and leave it overnight. Next day wash everything off with some water. Its a messy job-but it works.

Hope this helps somehow. 

I don't use Gunze paints, but the spider web cracking you describe is almost always associated with a gloss paint.  Sounds like the clear coat of Gunze was the culprit.  No easy way to fix it I fear.  Best to strip it & try again.

Regards,  Rick

Wow, Frank....that bites. Short of stripping it down and starting again, I'm kinda stumped. If the paint is cracked underneath, that may be your only recourse other than somehow masking the decals and painting it again, clear-coating it with Future this time, and then hitting it one more time with the PS flat. Either way, I'm afraid it could wind up to be a lot of work. Hopefully someone has a better solution to what happened.

I have a question for you guys,

Tonight, I was putting the flat coat on my Zero, and ran into a little problem.  The problem is, it looks like thousands of little cracks all over it.  I used the PollyScale flat, and have used it before with no problem.  I painted it with Gunze acrylics, ussed Gunze clear as a gloss, put on my decals, gave it a wash, let it dry for three days, and tonight- BOOM!  Diaster.

I think I may have put it on a little thick, using my new Badger 350 airbrush.  That 'brush can squirt out a lot of paint!  I tried laying on several light coats after it, but it doesn't seem to help.  Has anyone run into this problem?  Not sure what to do at this point to fix it.  Hopefully, someone has an idea.

Hello to all!  You guys have been busy.  I have been slowly removing the rudder, flaps, and elevators on my Corsair.  I only get to work maybe an hour or two a week  As some of you may know my in-laws are coming to visit from Germany next week (for a month)   Which in my case, means even less time to work on my group build.  I will be back within a month and I hope to dedicate more time to the build. 

Roy

Quick update from me......

I have completed the wing assembly on the Corsair, it was a of a job to do and I have added a little filler due to a tiny gap along the join. I have also clipped the wings at last and it went well.

Much clean up is needed along the wingfold line, so again to save the details I will take my time sanding these parts.

As for the Hellcat, progress has slowed due to my omitting some background paint for the stencils on the fuselage invasion stripes. Real easy to fix, but time consuming.

When its dry/glossed/dry again, I will be able to continue getting the decals on this one. I have also finished painting the pilot figure and started work on a display base too. I'll get some pics up when progress gets going on all this. 

Dave,

very nice work mate! That model is going to be a beauty when its done!

Leon,

you've got me there mate.....my wing went straight on with no problems. I did find that the elevators were a little tricky when fitting, I think that because the fit on this kit is so tight that it does not give much room for manovere.  I would be very careful if you use steam though, give it a bit too much and it all goes wrong.

I would geta a blade into the wing root joints as ease the airframe apart and start again. Not very nice for you as you done such a nice job on the seams, but if you are gentle enough with the plastic it shopuld not be too bad.

Whichever way you go good luck with it.

what Rick says. Looking good, guys!

Dave, I had to use the same trick on my 'canes wings, but with a slight twist. Actually had to remove a little plastic from one of the wing roots as the fit was too tight and any dihedral would disappear when they were installed. I shaved off a bit on one side, glued one side after installing them, let that set up, then taped and glued just the other side and let that one cure. Worked out fine. She's been painted and clear-coated....today the decals and the wash go on.

Leon & Frank,  Nice progress guys.

Regards,  Rick

Dave,

Sounds like quite the builder's kit!  You're making it look easy- looks great!

A short update of my two aircraft:

The Barracuda is in the process of fixing all the small things that require it prior to masking for painting.

The Firefly is in one piece. The worst part so far has just been the poor joint between wings and body. It required a fair bit of filler and some card to fill the gaps as well as heaps of carving of platic to wedge the wings in. Other than that it's a great kit. The tape in the picture below solved a lot of the gap that appeared.

Frank & Leon the progress looks excellent so far, keep the pics coming.

Thanks to everyone who is posting hints and tips on the Tamiya Corsair.  I'm filing them all away for the time I actually get around to build one of these kits.

I have actually made a little progress on the Seafire over the last couple of days with completing the sanding down of the wing attachment sections and starting construction on the cockpit.  I'll post some pics when there's something worth seeing.

Cheers 

Ok, here is where I am with my corsair. I have the fuselage glued and the upper seams all cleaned up. In the pictures, you can see a dark line; I am hoping that is paint remnant or something and not something I'll have to deal with again later. You can see I went ahead and removed the fuel cap rectangle and tried to replace it with some extra sheet plastic.

As for my wing root problem. Below are two pictures trying to illustrate the slight problem. In the top I put a yellow line along the horizontal stabilizer line and then along the wing line to show a slight drop on the (picture) right side. Then one that shows it again comparing the opening on the cowl and the wings. I think I am going to try the steaming since it is already all closed up (got your advice too late frank - thanks though). Anyone tried that before, and if so, any extra advice or anything?

Thanks.
Leon

Daywalker wrote:

Mike- Thanks Buddy!  That would be awesome!  I don't have any particular aircraft in mind, anything in the sceme sounds good to me.  PM inbound.

Got it and replied, Frank!

gwaihir wrote:

Frank and Darren, A question about your corsairs. I tried everythink I could think of to get my wing root piece to go on in a nice way, but no matter what I did it is a little off; I read a build on hyperscale where the guy mentioned he had the problem, so he steamed and readjusted one of the wings a little. Anyway, I am just wondering if you had the same problem with yours or if maybe it is just a glitch in a few or (more likely) due to some other step I screwed up slightly. Thanks - hope to get some photos to show progress and the problem tonight... Leon

Leon,

One thing I remember from the previous Tamiya Corsairs that I built was making sure to NOT glue cockpit in place, rather let it float around inside the fuse.  It won't fall out, but it will give you a little room to adjust it.  The problem is the little bulkhead attached to the rudder pedals, if it isn't perfectly lined up it will not fit into the little slot for it next to the belly window.  Try wiggling it around and side to side to see if you can get it to "click" into place.  That should help.  Wish I had thought of it before, then I coulda warned everyone about it.

darren,

The OTHER thing I now remember is attaching the outer wing panels to the center section.  It helps to add little shims inside to add gluing area between the two.  Sorry guys, shoulda mentioned it earlier.

Mike-

Thanks Buddy!  That would be awesome!  I don't have any particular aircraft in mind, anything in the sceme sounds good to me.  PM inbound.

Frank and Darren,

A question about your corsairs. I tried everythink I could think of to get my wing root piece to go on in a nice way, but no matter what I did it is a little off; I read a build on hyperscale where the guy mentioned he had the problem, so he steamed and readjusted one of the wings a little. Anyway, I am just wondering if you had the same problem with yours or if maybe it is just a glitch in a few or (more likely) due to some other step I screwed up slightly.

Thanks - hope to get some photos to show progress and the problem tonight...

Leon