ophthoidoug

... why would you do that to me? I was starting to get a handle on my burgeoning stash of unbuilt models... Just yesterday I found myself admiring a phantom in Vietnam-era colors in an "Aces High" magazine & now this... I guess I'll just need to go buy the Tamiya kit at the weekend :-) Your satin paint finish is superb (!!) - would love to know what your finial varnish coat was (?) Best Doug

V nice indeed! Outstanding overall paint finish and just enough weathering to keep it real without being overdone. I absolutely want a jug in my collection ... waiting to see whether Tamiya brings one out next year (?) I finally broke down & had a carpenter put a wall of glass-fronted cabinets into my home office for the growing squadron of 1/32 birds. Very happy with the result & get a lot of pleasure every time I walk in and flip on the lights. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Mark The paints are all Tamiya acrylics. I'd love to have more of the Gunze acrylic range but they seem v hard to source here in the US (?)I mixed & matched until I was happy with the blue/grey color. I've learned to use a new bottle(s) of paint for each build which I think helps keep the "paint-to-oily carrier ratio" constant. In the past, when using older bottles from the paint drawer, I feel like the paint atomizes and becomes dryer & "grittier" if it comes out of an older "half-empty" bottle (?) I use future to seal everything but during the course of this build have become leery of the effect which "Mr Mark Softer" has on that surface... Microsol always seems to settle my decals nicely. I've just finished laying down some dilute grey mixes & a flat coat to blend the decals in and with the canopy masks off I'm starting pastel-weathering as well as "chipping" using a silver pencil. I've also started the fuel stains using a mixture of "underlying airbrushed streaks" & "overlying hand-brushed streaks". I've definitely changed my preference from the dark bubble-tops to the light, weathered birdcages with their wings unfolded along the way... I think when its finished it'll look good alongside Tamiya's big Mustang.

3) wrt stencils (which was the point of the original thread!), I played around a little and overall I'm luke-warm about them - I don't love them & I don't hate them. Laying down "Mr Softer" (yes that's how its spelled on my bottle) is a little risky. Its seems that my Tamiya acrylic/future floor-polish surface will tolerate just a very faint layer without reacting badly and any excess of spills result in white blotches which are not easily washed off or "glossed out" - a perfect example being the drop I spilled on the bottom of the cowl and which I had to lightly sand & re-spray. Careful removal of the carrier film worked in most cases but sometimes left a glossy patch where it had been in contact with the paint which didn't easily wash off or buff out. Work with a q-tip & a light coat of future helped in these areas. Overall I prefer working with dry-rub transfers (when I can source them) & I'm limiting the stencil data on this build because of my constant fear of screwing up the paintjob. I'm just about ready to start the long but hopefully rewarding process of paneling & weathering & planning to try out some of the techniques others have shared ...

2) wrt to national insignia, I considered using masks but the vinyl masks were a little warped against their backing sheets & I'm not sure if that would have translated to the model (?) so I went with decals (in this case Eaglecals which performed very well indeed). My word of caution is the potential difficulty of setting these down in pieces (the white bars are separate decals) which can leave the finished overall marking subtly out of position - so I'd advise wetting and placing all 3 components simultaneously so that the components can be adjusted together... Maketar masks, Eaglecal stars'n'bars, overall marking placement

Appreciate the various responses I've received. Seems others have had similar questions so I'll post my work-in-progress update & a few pics The Corsair is ahead of the Dora so its what I've played with most recently. Although its a beautiful kit I've struggled a bit with it - mostly I'm sure because of my own limited skillset. Nevertheless, my thoughts might be useful to others tacking the same issues? 1) wrt to wing-walkway-lines I initially tried to mask them after laying down the main color but found it more challenging to mask perfect "tram-lines" than I would have expected. Maketars pre-cut walkway masks come in segments which I didn't like. Ultimately I was unhappy enough with the result of my own masking that I stripped the (acrylic) paintjob with Mr thinner (dropped a couple of f-bombs along the way) & did what I probably should have done in the first place - lay down the black along with pre-shading then mask the walkways with ultra-thin strips of tape, then spray the main color (custom Tamiya mix), then pull the masking strips. I think the result is superior. Pre-shading, initial masking, beginning the painstaking stripping & the result:

I have 2 projects on the bench close to completion - a 190 & a corsair in 1/32. I've just ordered the HGW "wet transfer" stencil sets for both but have never used these products before. A quick troll around the net reveals a mixture of "they're the bees knees - check out my amazing model" & "they suck - check out my crumpled, non-detached decals with carrier film" ... Seems to be quite a bit of advice about their use, much of it conflicting. The upshot (as best as I can determine) seems to be; *gloss surface *light application of microsol *wet transfer application & (warm) water removal with paper towel *carrier film "peeling" after 3-4 hrs Can anyone who has successfully used these things please provide comments, experience or advice before I tackle them ... All feedback greatly appreciated Doug

Posting a few pics of the Meng Komet. Super quick little build (? maybe 10 days total) & one more dent in my burgeoning stash. I bought the Hasegawa kit as well but there really is no comparison - the Meng kit is far superior with (imho) just one major flaw and that's the clear parts (canopy & side windows). The canopy is designed to have the frame glued to the clear section and the side windows are molded without a frame (the frame being integrally molded into fuselage) making it very challenging to glue in the completely clear insert - just poor design and lack of modeler's perspective in my opinion. I was able to tackle these problems by using the replacement resin canopy from Hph and (carefully!) painting the edges of the side windows before using "glue stix" to gently insert them into place with micro/crystal/clear. I didn't try to model any particular aircraft, just wanted to play with the airbrush and add a 163 to my collection. Painted national insignia over Tamiya acrylic colors. Hope you like. Regards to all from a wet Southern California this morning ...

Engine looks fantastic, this kit is next in line in my stash...

great tip for Uschi "walkway" masks - just ordered some!

superb weathering, enjoyed the build thread, can I ask what glosscoat & what flatcoat you used?

In my stash & calling out to me as I watch this!!! Please share any experience/tips wrt to finishing the Ju88 fuselage (gaps, putty, re-scribing etc) Can't wait to see this build unfold...

Yeah.also just started modeling recently. I have the Hph 410 in my stash. Right now I'm working on two kits side-by-side (which is prob a bad idea but I can't help myself) - Meng's little komet & the new HK Dornier arrow (fighter version). After that, I've accumulated more aftermarket accessories for the Revel 190 than I've ever attempted. The Eduard engine is probably the nicest looking model/detail set I've seen in my life - its truly amazing. Now all I need is a little "spare" time...

OK Wouter, I started taking some aircraft out of the cabinet to photograph them in decent outdoor light (prob have around a dozen posted above) but had to stop at that point because my curious 2-year-old decided to come and help me :-) ... Anyhow, I get a huge amount of pleasure from looking at others' builds, so here are a few more of mine ... Best Doug