DocRob

Thanks Martin, interesting to see the different paintjobs on the Vympel missiles. Cheers Rob

Figure painting needs a different skillset than armor or aircraft painting and I think it's a good idea to learn some of the technics from a master. It's always better to be able to ask questions and get the tips when needed. BTW, I might have chickened out with the canopy seal problems, but the good thing with the kit is you get a second chance with the untinted canopy, it's like a safety net. Cheers Rob

Putin would have been a good outcome for my Mig, but mine look like the ones you normally see in movies about undead . Your Putin looks good by the way, I like the overall wrinkles. To my excuse I have to say, that mine had some tiny cast issues in problematic areas around the faces, which I had to hide with a bit of paint. Cheers Rob

Thanks Gus, he might look like a mutant made of Kirk Douglas and Gaz's Avatar Thanks Gaz, I hope they will look ok in the pit, but I know I can do better, sometimes it just doesn't work the way it should. I have a lot of resin and white metal figures in different scales and I will train a lot in between other builds. The hardest thing in figure painting is to get the colours prepared to a grade, thin enough to flow and to work wet in wet specially on the skin tones without being to translucent. The worst possible effect is clogging, which I had to fight with these two guys and I have no idea why. Cheers Rob

The bad Mojo continues. Today I tried my patience while painting the pilots and had lots of trouble with the paints to adhere. The resin figures were properly primed before and I used colours which are frequently on my bench. After painting and repainting and reducing some gloss and mixing colours with different thinners, to enhance the adherance, while covering well enough, this is where I am. Don't judge too harsh, these guys are small in 1/48 scale. They look better in the cockpit, but I had better results with figure painting, even in this scale. I slowly run out of patience with all the amounting last minute problems with the build. Normally I would paint strip the pilots and try again, but I will leave them as they are and will always feel bad about it Cheers Rob

Gracias Señhor, I try my best. Sounds like a cunning plan, to sand, fill, polish and whatelse on a clear part . I have had mixed results with Alclad, but masking on it never worked out. Like you say, some colours loose some of the metallic sheen and go dull and some, and Titanium is the worst, just peel, while looking at. Good to know, that your results with Vallejo Metallics were satisfying, but since they worked great for me, I will stay with AK's Xtreme Metals for now. These are definitely more durable than Alclads and have a great metallic appearance. As I never worked with Pale Burnt Metal, I hope that will not change with masking the missiles. Cheers Rob

Almost half done with the tracks Cheers Rob

I ran into some trouble lately with the Mig, namely with the canopy seals as I guessed it would happen. While removing the transfer film very carefully, I managed to rip parts of the seals apart. They are unbelievable fragile and while trying to put on some spare strips, messed up even more. The spare strips partly crumpled on the transfer foil. So in the end, the bad parts will be handpainted in the end and there will be no seals on the inside, as I used one of the inside transfers for one, I completely messed up on the outside. Maybe the normal decals would have been the better choice and if I totally mess up, I always have a second try with the non tinted version of the canopies. While always waiting for the transfers to dry, I started on the missile and painting the large ones with Alclad Titanium which looked great, but adhered so bad, that I teared most of the colour off while removing detacked Kabuki tape. I will never use Alclads again, they are so fragile, some more some less. Titanium is among the worst and yes, I primed properly. I only discovered the problem after completely masking two missiles, while correcting a misaligned tape. The middle shows the original Titanium look, the upper is stripped . After wiping off the Alclad, I sprayed the missiles with Xtreme Metal from AK. It's called Pale burnt Metal and looks Titanium like and has a nice shine. I hope it adheres better, but generally, I had some very good results with different Xtreme Metal colours and these are my go-to's for metals. Speaking about metals, I painted the burner cans with different tones of Xtreme Metals, first Jet Exhaust, then a little transparent blue in parts, then highlighting with Titanium and toning down again wit Jet Exhaust. The cans will be refined with a dark wash and maybe some pigments later. Cheers Rob

 great result on a stunning build. The contrast between the bright coloured plane and the plain coloured figures and base is enhancing the visual drama of the scene. Cheers Rob

Hehe, so true . Let's hope the canopies stay clear, when removing the transfer film and the seals stay in place. I didn't dare to use Micro Sol on the clear parts, just water and a drop of liquid soap. Cheers Rob

Phew, stenciling is mostly done. Only the weapons pylons and the missiles are missing, but this will be addressed later. After thousands of cuts, my bench looks like this and in between, I cleaned a little. It felt as if they put Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' on the plane, separated by sentences . Another Job, I was not looking forward to, is using wet transfers for the pink sealings on the canopy. Today I managed to apply the outer ones and the outcome will decide, if I do the inner ones too (the pic shows the seals still with transfer foil, which will be peeled of tomorrow.) Cheers Rob

Thanks Mike, the Fokker E.V/D.VIIII will be one of my next builds. I read your great build log and plan to use flattened brass for the struts as well, because the supplied ones look really flimsy. Other than you, I will use pre fab connectors for the tubes for soldering. I got some of the Aviattic goodies for my build and hope that the Lukgraph engine will fit under the resin hood. Your log will be a nice guideline for my build, so thanks again for the work. Cheers Rob

I feel your pain, but when put on the model, they are just great, better than all the decals I ever tried. Patience though is the key to success with these wet transfers and I'm not very good at patience. When I think about past jet builds with silvering stencils applied after many hours of good work as one of the last steps, to get an unwanted result in the end, I opt for the wet transfers and go through that pain. I always hated decaling, because of the possible fail potential towards the end of a build, but these HGW's are predictable in a way, if the surface is prepared and you follow the instructions you get what you ask for. Cheers Rob

Back to the Mig, step by step, I apply the stencils. As much as I like the results, as painful is the process. It takes even longer, then with normal decals. You have to cut every single stencil, apply it carefully with a little setting fluid, wait for some hours to remove the transfer film and clean off the glue residues with a dampened cotton swab. With the hundreds of stencils, you need some structure and discipline, not to miss a nearly invisible transfer film here, or forgot to put a stencil in the right place. The removal of the transfer film should be done very gentle, because it's easy to rip off parts of the stencil (believe me it happened to me, but I guess a heavy weathered Mig will not have factory fresh looking stencils ). I do the stenciling in sections, which is really time consuming but safer and 3/4 are done. Don't get me wrong, I'm fascinated by the product, the stencils are like matte printed onto the model, no shine, no borders, absolutely no visible thickness and no silvering. I will use wet transfers where I can in future builds and I have some sets for other planes. In the next two pics you can see the quality of the stencils vs. the very good kit decals. The blue MIG-logo is a decal and has borders and shininess, as has the red number in the next pic The grey rectangles in the first pic are wet transfers too, and they match my dark grey perfectly. Even large wet transfers like this are perfect after careful application. The chips in the middle are chips, no bubbles, because there is nothing to bubble . From far away, you obviously nearly can't see a thing of the work of hours. Cheers Rob

Some packets from Germany just arrived, the last ultimate wish I had concerning WNW kits was the Fokker D.1 and I finally managed to get one of the last and added some Gaspatch 08/15 for the Junkers and anothe Fokker. Sometimes I've to ask myself, why I haven't ordered the D.1 before . The Camel was more of an accident, just because it was there, or because my WNW stash is to biased to German planes. The reason for that is in the least a kind of nationalism, but interesting paintwork, great design and no flat rigging . I considered all the different Camels and went with the Le Rhone one, because it has a brilliant paintjob, the blue 'Suds' and will receive a Lukgraph resin engine (if it fits) and some other goodies. Last but not least, I got a T34/85 with added bedspring armor. One of those was in front of my grandparents house in the final days of WW2. It will be fitted with at least one figure in front as a little dio. Cheers Rob

Thanks Mike, I will order one and decide then where the need is the biggest. In a WNW Camel, there is a lot of cowling around, the Roden DR.1 engine doesn't look to shabby on the sprues, but the Fokker D.VIII from Micro Mir is a likely candidate. Cheers Rob

After no changes in the appearance of the cloudy surface around the decals, today I dabbed some Pledge around one of the stars with a brush and after drying, everything looks fine to me. There is still a slight difference in shinyness, but that's because the surrounding areas are airbrushed. When the stencils are finished, I seal the decals with another coat of Pledge and this will be gone. Thanks again for your encouraging help. Cheers Rob

The engine looks great, and seems to build up good. I considered buying one for my Clerget Camel or one of my Fokkers. Cheers Rob

Nice looking engine and great progress. Do the resin tires look so much better? By the time I bought my Scammell artillery tractor, I looked at the kit ones without building them up and decided against resin, because I found no information about a bulge in the tires to indicate load. The pics don't show it clearly either. I really like figures from the bodi range. These here are not specially for your purpose, but have great poses and add some drama. I got the guy with the helmet in the Hand for a future SAS dio. https://thebodi.eu/model/TB-35162/souvenir-hunters-ww-ii--desert-rat---australian- Another one, where the driver might fit with some surgery https://thebodi.eu/model/TB-35114/british-driver---tommy-western-desert-ww-ii And these two are priceless https://thebodi.eu/model/TB-35097/british-nco---scottish-highlander-western-desert-ww-ii Cheers Rob

Very beautiful Spitfire John ,I like the paintjob. Very tempted to build a XVI in 1/32 as well. Cheers Rob

Sounds a little like 'Den Teufel mit dem Beelzebub austreiben'. I know you like German sayings, but that might proof tricky to translate . Cheers Rob

Thanks for your experiences Gaz, but your idea is to use the most possible culprit to solve the problem, if I understand it right. Mr. Mark Softer is the equivalent of Micro Sol, which I suppose is responsible for the clouding. Not in the least, it's good to broaden the perspective. We work with a lot of different chemicals, so i's really helpful, to understand what happens here. I never hear about the problems concerning AK' Real Colours and decal solutions. On the Mig I have used Real Colours for the first time, so maybe my Pledge coat was not thick or dry enough and the Sol got through somehow and reacted with the colour. That would explain, why I didn't ran into this problem before. For the HGW stencils, I used only warm water with one drop of dishwasher to break the surface tension. It seemed to have worked well, but I noticed, that I had to wait the suggested drying time of at least 6 hours to not pull off the stencil, while removing the carrier film. In your great 'How -To' about HGW wet transfers you experienced faster drying times, maybe because of the use of setting solvent. I think you have a point here Graham. As I never ran into these problems before, I applied both Set and Sol in 'large' amounts, let's say little pools on the planes surface. With future (no pun intended) use of Sol, I will dab the decal only a little with the solvent and redo it as often as necessary. Your theory about the white block drying though, I believe is not applying in my case. Maybe five minutes after I applied the Sol, I saw the first clouding and immediately rinsed the said areas with tap water. By that time the Sol was not dried, so the cause of the clouding seems to be a reaction with underlying layers. Honestly, I wouldn't try the X20 on Pledge/Klear/Future, without trying on a dummy. The kit decals I've used were relatively thin and good to handle. I try to avoid the Tamiya / Hasegawa thickies where I can @ All, thank you for your great input and telling me about your experiences. In the last weeks, I had the feeling that there is not that much modelling discussion happening here. Sure it's a forum and had happened before and after a while there are new discussions, great WIP's and new faces. Your taking part in this discussion about the nightmares, decals could develop into though, showed me again, that you are a great knowingly bunch, willing to share their experiences and that makes me feel proud of you lads. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, but there is always a way, which includes the bin as ultima ratio, but that's how it is. Exactly my thoughts Steve, first some Klear onto the areas, then the heavy treatment. Cheers Rob

After running into the problem that seemingly my Micro-Sol clouded my Klear coat, I managed to get the decals on. The kit ones behave ok are thin and good to work with, but I use only the stars and some bigger markings, as I use the wonderful HGW wet transfers for the stenciling. They have no silvering, no protruding decal borders, a matte finish, which seems to be tattooed into the surface. Basically, I don't understand, why the crews couldn't learn their manuals on these modern jets, otherwise, there would be no stencils . On the Mig there are hundreds. I don't need a lot of stencils on my car or on my turntable. Luckily the worst of the decals are on the underside, so that's how the big bird looks now from far.

The sunbath was fine for me, but not for the Mig, It seems, that everything was completely dry before. Look for that stencil there, these HGW wet transfers are great, no silvering at all, no surrounding decal sheet and no reflection, even in the brightest sun. I have one set for my F4 kit, but has to check for my planned Mig-21 builds If I ever do a heavy stenciled jet again, I would look in advance if there is a set of wet transfers available, because I ever ran in trouble with decals, one way or another. Cheers Rob