ScottsGT

Just dropped off by the big brown toy box.

Still confused about John having a SOD. He builds so fast, he’s a machine. Good to see some human in him! id never attempt at playing chess with him. But then again, it’s been so long I forgot how to play.

Wow! Talk about being nervous about saving a part that cannot be replaced. My Cougar canopy was the first I have ever dipped in future and could not believe the difference it made. Although it is quite dusty here

Untaped and a few parts added. antenna in front of the football is just a dry fit. Should have dry fit these before paint since I discovered the layout of the two holes are too close for both to fit correctly. Had to shorten the tab on the football and slot the opening a little.

Thanks Hubert. I’ll give that a try.

I know that name. I read his book on the 1911 and built this for my Dad using parts from an old Colt he had with a bad frame. it was a Caspian frame I had made with his initials DOB as the SN. Jerry knew his stuff. Since Dad passed I got this one back and it’s now sporting a set of real ivory grips.

John, you’re absolutely correct. I have experimented around with yellows in the past and had a surprising discovery. I cannot take credit for it since it was on another modeling website. I read it and had that “Idontbelieveit” reaction. But a white base under yellow actually came out a shade darker than a light gray base. I took a sheet of plastic and painted one half gray, other half white. Using Tamiya yellow rattle cans, painted the panel. There was an obvious difference and I even scratched off the yellow on one side to make sure I didn’t turn the test panel upside down during painting. I keep a few cans of Tamiya white primer just for those times I have to paint something white. I need to use them up and just buy the bottle of white primer. FWIW, I hate spraying white. Hardest thing I ever painted was a white VW. Can’t tell shadows from light areas. You learn to trust your spray patterns quickly or live with removing runs in the finished product We use to match the primer under paint on cars too when I first got in the business since red oxide primer use to be a big thing on ‘60 and ‘70’s cars. But hey, that white VW turned out great. This was around 1986. It’s a digital pic of an old Polaroid photo.

Yep. It’s what we did back in the autobody days when we would shoot lacquer paints. We actually went a step further by spraying the blend area with straight thinner before paint to soften up the surrounding original paint. After spot painting was done we would blend the edges again with straight thinner to “melt” the new into the old. Leveling thinner is a slower drying thinner that lets the paint sit on the surface longer while still wet. Solids fall to the bottom and the clear carriers rise to the top for a deeper gloss. It will also melt in any dry edges like I had doing my touch ups 3 hours later. Paint was still soft enough to not need the pre spray of thinner. Think of it as Micro-Sol on decals. I have not tried it yet on something like a SEA camo job, but it will make the color transitions much smoother. Best tip I can give is to have great lighting and watch the spray pattern as it hits the model and make sure you don’t get too carried away because thinner runs very easy. You’ve got to find that happy place between dry and too wet, oh crap it’s running. The tops of my wings were actually puddled up between all the rivet details until it started absorbing and then evaporating. Another tip is if you are using a paint booth that draws fresh air across the model is to leave the fan on a few minutes to evacuate the fumes, but then turn it off and let the rest of the solvents slowly evaporate from the surface. Slower the better. I had to pile on a LOT of paint to get the full coverage of yellow. In all honesty I should have broken this job up over two days to let the first 5 coats cure all the way before piling more on. Back in the day we had issues with “solvent popping” which was something that happened a few weeks after the car left the shop. You would get little blisters about 1/16” popping up and eventually coming off leaving a freckled appearance where you could see the primer below. It’s a sign that the job was rushed by piling the paint on too fast. Remember hearing the old show car stories of “48 coats of hand rubbed lacquer”? What was being done was 2 or 3 coats of lacquer was applied. Car sat over night and was wet sanded very lightly the next morning and two or three more coats applied and sat over night for the same thing to happen the next day. Plenty of time for solvents to escape and surface smoothed out again for more build up. I’m very curious to see if I have similar issues with all the paint I had to put on this Texan. Probably not since it won’t be out in the hot sun and elements like a car is

Looks like it’s time to section the bottom of that canopy. Oh boy. Figure this out so I don’t have to when I build mine.

Happy Birthday you two!

No bayo lug. All early parts it looks like. This one is going to my son out in Colorado that’s in the Army. I have an old mix master Blue Sky Import Winchester I picked up probably 20 years ago. It’s extremely reliable and fun to shoot. I snagged that one for $350. These things are $1300 and up now. I should have stocked up before Band of Brothers came out.

Yea, about that perfect yellow…. Let it dry about 3 hours and took a real close look. Lots of light spots. Just got finished re-spraying those areas and a good spray of Mr Hobby leveling thinner to blend things together. looks a bit better now.

While this is one of my hobbies, I just picked this one up. A pristine early WWII Winchester M1 carbine. The bluing is excellent. Came from a life long collector selling off to move to the beach.

Oh, and only one cat hair in the whole paint job. Thought it would be fine, but he had to come down and see what I was up to. He’s like Pigpen off Charley Brown but with his hair and not dirt. He kept wanting up in my lap all morning while I was trying to spray. I just realized this is day 20 on this project and I have the paint on it. That’s a friggin’ record for me. No where near John’s speed, but a record for me none the less. And that’s taking time out for boating, spending time with the wife, home projects, etc.

First coat. Let the fun begin. Hmmm…. Can’t hold it by the tail since it needs to be yaller too! Trusty old mic gooseneck to the rescue and all done!

Well it’s a great day to be inside painting. We’re having a heatwave and todays high hit a record 98. Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be 77. I started out with my secrete weapon to combat this hairy monster…. Endust. This stuff is great for eliminating static on models before painting.

That kind of haul would require a divorce attorney in one of those boxes for me.

Good luck with surgery! And now back to our normally scheduled program. Hot off the front porch!

A little gray primer to hide the black since it’s going yellow. All the flaps and details added and ready for paint Got to go put the old truck in the shop for possible transmission issues so spraying is put off until tomorrow.

The missing 1% was redoing all the rivets I sanded off. Rosie to the rescue! This tool is a lifesaver!

I realized last night I haven’t been keeping up with this thread. Got the surface 99% ready for paint so I sprayed on the flat black for the wing walks and glare shield. taped off those areas.

Awesome! A great break from serious modeling. I also built the Ming Santa Tank. My grand daughter saw it, thought it was a toy (she was 3 at the time) and went into hysterical crying because she couldn’t play with it.

Love it. I’ve got a few of the Revell Deal’s Wheels kits like the 109, spitfire and I’ve built the triplane already. I also bought the Ming Kids B-17. Group build time!

Ughhh… 212’ of driveway and parking pad pressure washed today. Yea, I’m a hurting puppy right now.

FWIW, I was just over on the ARC website and looking at the Sponsors forums. Place is like a ghost town. Zacto hasn’t checked in since Nov. 19, 2021. Although his web page has a banner up saying that both him and his wife have covid and they are temporary closed. Not sure how long this has been up, I hope all is well with them. GT Resin’s Gary hasn’t been around since March 21st. (I did see something online, but not going to discuss it openly out of respect for Gary and his family) Starting to wonder if the covid pandemic has taken the wind out of these cottage industry folks in our hobby.