1to1scale

Yes, I have gone back to working on a larger scale, this time it’s academy’s 1/35 AH-1Z Viper. I sat down this morning at 8:30 with a sealed and bagged kit, 6 hours later I have a mostly assembled (in subassemblies) kit. I have a few more things I can put together before I lay down some paint and get the interior detailed. As the interior is all black, it will be relatively easy. I will use a few shades to give it a little variance and I still have to figure out seat belts, but this thing is not going to take long. Much of that time was spent sanding burrs and about a dozen ejector pin marks off, none required filler, just sanding. A little CA was required to fill a sink Mark in the landing skid, but I’m happy to say this kit is almost to Tamiya quality, not quite, but close. Ejector pin marks in the armor cockpit plating were the biggest culprits. So far, so good.

Update: after the started sanding the seams the other day, it became apparent the the underside was going to require heavy amounts of filler. I slathered on the filler and am now waiting for a week to let it dry and shrink, before I get back to it. meanwhile.... I hear another helicopter calling my name, what could it be?

I have nothing good to say about this little lump of dog turd, 1960’s molds, crappy everything kit. Well, I do have one good thing to say “it’s finally finished!”

Shill bidding is a dangerous game if you are a seller, pros will ever do it because it will get you an instant lifetime ban from selling. Usually, it’s the “once in a while” seller that does this. It can be hard to track if they have a friend do it that lives elsewhere. They usually start an auction for $1.00 to have the lowest auction fees, then get nervous When it does not get any good bids and have someone, like a friend, throw in their “reserve” bid. What I don’t like is when people take advantage of the proxy bid system and put on bids to bring yours up, I believed i had this happen To me before.

I learned a quick way to improve a figures face is to use a thin brown wash, helps bring out the wrinkles, lines, and shadows. It’s my crutch when I make a good figure look bad. I suck at figure painting, so much so, I actually signed up for a figure painting class this fall from a master painter. I actually think your Mig turned out great, I would have given up on the canopy seals, but I admire that you went for it,

These look pretty good to me, I have used their pilot and seat combos a few times. My pilot looked like Putin.

Somebody will pay for this blunder with their head. A few thousand tons of this stuff stored for six year in an important port warehouse, next to the country’s Primary grain cache, in a highly populated area was simply idiotic. They had six years to move or dispose of it. If anything, it could have been used for food production or sold.

I agree, I recently won a great deal on a Trumpeter SU-25. Here is what I did. 1. I researched the off eBay selling prices and found that the cheapest I could buy it for was $130 + $16 shipping, this was an exceptionally good price for online as they were about $30 less than anyone else on eBay or retailer. Don’t forget to factor in taxes and shipping. 2. I found a couple different eBay auctions on two that were at The $50 point, so I made my plan of attack. One ended at 4:00 on Saturday and the other on Sunday. So I set a bid on the Saturday one, I figured the best I could buy it for was $146, so I figured for the auction, I would be willing to pay $125 shipped price. The auction was at $57 currently. Shipping was $18, so I put in my bid of $125-18=$107. I used the proxy bidder system built within eBay, so as soon as I put in bid of $107, it shot up to $76 as me being the high bidder. This meant that the previous bidders only bid up to $75, the system automatically set my bid as $1 above the highest bid. 3. As the week went along, my bid stayed steady, then I was unable to watch the end Saturday. When I checked back, the item was sold to another bidder for $129, as this was what I could buy one online for, I was not sad. I now turned my attention to the other one ending Sunday, it was still at $50, so I did the exact same bid and my bid shot up to $62, as I input my maximum, I left it alone. Sunday I logged in to check on it 5 min before the end of the auction and I saw my bid had gone up to $87, someone put in 4 bids a few hours ago, but must have got discouraged by my instant higher bids. I expected to have it go higher, so I left it alone and watched, knowing I was comfortable with. I ended up with it for $105, far less than I was prepared to pay, so what did I do? Yup, you guessed it, bought loads of AM for it! 4. One final note, ask yourself what is it REALLY worth to you when setting the maximum bid. About a year ago, I was bidding on a Hobbycraft A-36 Apache, but gave up at $105. Now, later, I have not seen one for sale again, and may never get another chance. So in hindsight, I would have paid double.

More clamps than open heart surgery.

After waiting for nearly a month, i resigned myself to the fact that the decals i ordered for this were lost in the mail. I finally got the another set of decals ordered, and guess what...both turned up the same day.

I just read that article and was truly shocked, but this wasn’t the first time, it’s happened in China and a few years ago in TX. The question to ask is why did they store the stuff in a densely populated area.

I have always planned to do a dirty Hellenic bird, I’m just waiting for the right time.

That’s awesome! I love a happy ending.

I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but related. Gaz, I have used all three major brands, microset/sol Is pretty mild stuff, it’s usually the first level and works well with good quality decals, but not strong enough to do damage to most finishes. However, there are exceptions. I have heard that AK real colors paint will stain from decal solvents, even weak ones. Future, Klear, Johnson’s, etc, I had heard of what happened here before. Earlier I could not remember the name of the acid in decal solutions, but now do. Acetic acid is the main component in vinegar (4%) and various decal solutions, it’s acidic, but not terribly corrosive in normal concentrations. Ammonia is the opposite, it’s an alkali, if you mix the two together, you get a neutral. Since both are corrosive, they can both affect paint and clears if they are not resilient to them. 1. Microset or sol, relatively mild, good for thin and fragile decals. 2. Mr Mark, definitely stronger than micro, I had really thin old decals start to melt with this stuff, but it’s my go to for HGW. 3. Solvaset, stronger yet, but still safe. now for some not so gentile solutions 4. Tamiya Laquer Thinner, getting dangerous, but good for melting silvering away, but can cause thinner decals to wrinkle permanently. 5. Tamiya Extra Thin, work very well for silvered decals. But very risky, last resort before a repaint.

Here is what I would try if it was my model. I have been down this road with six models And I feel your pain. 1. Set it out in the sun for 30-60 minutes and see if there is any change, it may need a little more intense drying, a hair dryer on low might work too. (This worked on my P-51) 2. Spray on a little more diluted clear, see if it re-activates the underlying clear. (Worked on my BF-109) 3. Sand around the decal with fine 2000 sandpaper to get down to the paint, then re-clear. (This worked on my A-7) If it doesn’t work, cry a little. Go pick up a dog toy or stuffed animal and punch or strangle it. Regain your composure, accept that you might need to do some more heavy duty repairs. 4. Try cleaning it with some acrylic airbrush cleaner that is mild, like Madea Airbrush cleaner. Put a little on a cotton swab and rub the area. (On my Mig 15, I was able to remove stuff on top of and some of the clear) 5. Next step is diluted alcohol. (Stripped my Corsair before repainting) 6. Try Windex (diluted ammonia) and be careful where it goes. (Nuclear option, will remove clear, possibly paint too, depending on type, dryness, and thinner in the paint. You might get lucky with lacquer) 7. Lastly, strip the clear off the tail face with 91% iso alcohol. (My f-15 gunze paint wasn’t affected. Will probably strip most anything else except well dried lacquer) 8. Testors decal and paint stripper or oven cleaner, then Repaint.