GazzaS

That is brilliant work, Hubert! Let me know when you make a Roland D.II... I'll be in for a brace of them.

Beautiful result on that engine deck! I love the alu blast panels.

In my thoughts and prayers, buddy!

Kai, Thank you! In this video you'll see a guy working with hammers and dollies. When you foil, you'll be using a wooden coffee stirrer in place of a hammer, and the model is your dolly. The important thing to watch is how the metal reacts to his hammering. Like him, you work from the center (for us, center of each panel) and circle your way outwards. Unlike him, we cannot anneal our aluminum. It's too thin and fragile. So, when we reach the limitations of the aluminum molecules, the aluminum will crack or tear. Enjoy!

A Tamiya Corsair on the SOD? JohnB will be mortified! Sorry about your weather.

Well, space is limited, so my models are on a slow rotation that ends up in the waste basket. But I've jealously held on to my foiled kits except for the B-29. And all of my online pictures went away with photobucket and the other now defunct server. So I took a fresh picture of my remaining three. The Ki-44 and P-47 are both supposed to look somewhat oxidized. The N1K1 was painted a homemade version of Kawanishi green over foil... And masked. the underside is still NMF. As for time... the P-47 was my first, and I worked a couple hours here and there over two weeks to get the foiling done. The next model, the N1K1 was finished much faster as I now had muscle memory and understood how and why metal reacts to the stretching and shrinking process. I just looked at the WIP thread for my 104 (the pictures have disappeared). It took me 5 days to foil... bearing in mind I have a full time job. I am also a fidgety person. I often leave the bench to do other things. So, I can't really give you a perfect estimate of how long the process takes. If you're serious about shaping metal, the same principals apply to making a suit of armor as well as foiling a model. There is a useful video on Vimeo of a metalsmith taking a flat sheet of brass and turning it into a three dimensional shape. If you want, I can link it for you. It isn't a short video.

Hi Kai, That model is the Italeri 1/32 scale 104A/C. The panel lines are a bit wide...but otherwise, nice kit. It takes up a lot of space... but cost less than $2.00 to foil. Stimmt! I did use the egg shell method for the engine area. It's a messy process. I use the cheapest, bargain basement foil I can find. Good foil is too thick. This foil is polished, and laid in panels. I use aluminum polish bought from a car parts store. Many panels are laid in different directions. You can score the foil with steel wool to get variation. But polishing reverses your effect. It had an almost mirror surface before I applied decals and Future. This is the glue: The other kits I've foiled are: Hasegawa 1/48 P-47 razorback, 1/48 scale Tamiya N1K1 Shiden, 1/48 scale Arii Ki-44 Shoki, and the big Monogram 1/48 scale B-29.... so that actually makes the Starfighter the fifth. I have a Tamiya MiG 15bis in 1/48 scale in the stash, too. Foil has changed my modelling life. I once swore I would never build another NMF model until I found a way that wasn't painted.

Welcome back, Peter! I''m so glad to see you again!

Glad to see you, Bill! That engine looks fantastic!

Thank you, fellas!

Hi KStadt, Peter's model sure looks great! I hadn't seen it before. This Starfighter was my fourth foiled model. It's a few years old, and showing signs of being moved around too much. Missing Pitot tube. Missing ventral fin. And worst of all, the original photos taken in bright sunshine under azure skies are in an old computer, or lost when the old file server went defunct. So, I took some pics today though the skies are gray. Someday they'll make a way to simulate afterburner flames. And thousands of jet modellers will rejoice.

Kstadt, I think it looks great! Just saying... if you like 104's.... You might as well build another and pull out all of the stops. From your post, I get the feeling that you think it is easy to ruin a model with the foiling process. I can tell you that you cannot ruin a model while foiling. The cement is non-solvent and water soluble. Clean up of dried cement is accomplished with rubbing alcohol. If you don't like a panel, you just peel, or in the worst case, sand the foil off. It's a process to learn... but you will never be less than thrilled with the result. Gaz

Thank you for your answers, fellas. I'm not really confident of adding chips with a brush. Maybe I need more practice.... but if kind of goes against my feeling that chipping is removing. sometimes my painted chips get too big or look too round. I haven't been overly successful with hairspray. I just feel I have too little control over how that hairspray comes out. Like I just did the propeller on my fw 190 this AM... and I can see texture from the hairspray. I'm going to have to invest in some chipping fluid, I think. I've done a little sponge chipping, and sometimes it comes out alright. I actually think this has a lot more uses... For instance, I've tried speckling on a few aircraft builds, and think some of the spots look out of scale. But I am weathering some tires right now...again on my FW190... whre I used the sponge method with oil paints to try to get that look of tires that have been over various surfaces and are no longer just black on the contact areas.

Harv, What is that stainless steel circle with holes on the right? Gaz

That is a perfect recommendation.

So... since you like 104's... I think you should do the German NMF Starfighter with the Italeri kit in Foil. It would be a a true eye catcher.

I'm still trying to find my way regarding chipping... I'd like to know what method you guys prefer to use.

That looks great, Carl! Love the way the forward light guards came out. Pieces like that always give me trouble.

That's really amazing work and patience!

Thank you, Kstadt. This photo is my inspiration at the moment: Unfortunately, those small doors are a bone of contention right now. On the A-1, they should be open when the gear are down. On the rest of the versions, they should be closed as you see on the build. So, I'm left with the option of doing an A-2 or an A-3.... or cutting the closed doors off. None of which I really want to do. I may just leave them the way they are, build it as an A-1... and play dumb if anyone calls me out.

Thank you, Rob! I hope the LG come out as I hope.

Thank you, my friend!

Well.... after many hours of surface work, I'm ready to proceed. Finally covered with a layer of MRP fine gray primer which I then wet sanded with 6,000 grit. To align everything up top, things down below were lined up less perfectly and you can see how some of the lines aren't perfectly straight. But the joints are smooth.... well...relatively. With a kit like this, you hafta take your wins when they come. This is some of my best rescribing work to date. But it still ain't factory beautiful. The main seam along the wingroot has been left filled for now. I just cannot get my fingers into place to scribe neatly no matter what kind of straight-edge I employ. I've done OK with the horizontal stabilizers and elevators. I'm still debating how to place a tail-light. I masked the canopy parts this morning and added a back-plate to the rear of the windscreens. I also reduced the locating parts on the wonderfully modifiable Synthetic Ordinance Works landing gear legs. So, this will be an entire new thing for me. I am going to try to attach the landing gear covers through the same bolt holes as used on the real machine. Except I'll be using copper wire instead of bolts. The ABS plastic of the LG cuts and drills beautifully. I've used black CA to join all of the parts as well as masking the stainless steel oleos. Happy Modelling! Gaz

My old man would love that truck model! I think it looks excellent, too... though I'm not so keen on trucks as the olds man.

That dude looks awesome!