GusMac

Funny, but.....

Glad to hear you all came through unscathed Ernie although some of that damage is just frightening. As Dennis says it makes you kind of glad for our 'meh' weather here in the UK - no extremes just beige.

Thanks fellas. Edinburgh was nice but we interviewed 22 candidates over 2 and a half days, so hectic and a bit of a brain fry. Still had a nice walk around in the sun and a few nice beers with some old friends, so not too shabby. And this being Scotland it then poured down with rain on the last day! Sorry to hear about the reason for your wife's trip Carl. Didn't make it as far as Wonderland this time but it's usually on my list any time I'm there. Our daughter has just moved there so I'm hoping that's an excuse to up the frequency of my trips.

Had a week away in Edinburgh for work last week, so zero bench time but finally got the decals finished and sealed in today. Made one slightly unfortunate discovery in that the decals really don't like Mr Mark Softer. The numbers on the wings weren't settling down as I liked with the Microsol so I tried the Mr Mark but it left some nasty discoloured patches which thankfully have faded with further applications of Microsol and then the gloss coat. I'm just hoping they don't reappear with the flat coat but we'll have to wait and see. Panel line wash and weathering next up.

Looking good. The part count is impressive - even the Lego Bionicles my son played with didn't have that many pieces! The chains are a nifty touch.

I've bought the Sidewinders and Sparrows for my Viggen build and they do look excellent. As you say, the stencils look a little intimidating though.

The weathering just keeps getting better and better. You also have a decent selection of malts for paint stands! 😁

First decals on. As expected with Cartograph printed ones, they went on nicely and seem to be reacting well to Microsol. I'll have a better idea in the morning but I'm happy with this start.

Looking great Ron and those logs are awesome. The crepe paper is such a great idea.

Brilliant, thanks Peter. That's just what I was hoping to hear. Finished all the touch-ups and detail painting tonight, so gloss coat is next.

Just about done on the touch-ups and other detail painting. Next step will be the gloss coat, so question for those who are regular MRP users - is it safe to use Tamiya X22 thinned with Mr Levelling as a gloss coat over MRP?

As requested a couple of quick pics of the black detail on the leading edges, apologies for the quality of the pics. I also got the gear bays masked off and have laid down a light grey on the bottom of the wing section. That will then be masked off and the walls sprayed in dark green. The fuselage section will be aluminium but they won't be seen as the inner doors are shut with the gear down.

Fun hour and a bit at the bench tonight - 55 minutes of masking, 2 minutes of airbrush work and 10 minutes of clean up! 🤪 BUT the wings and canards now have their black edges. I'll get started on the gear bays tomorrow and after they're done it's just the underside touch-ups and we're onto a gloss coat and decals.

That's a rather large hairball in the spray booth!

Top surface touch-ups done and the purple laid down on the tail. Next is the black for the tip of the tail and the nose, then I can flip it and do the wheel wells, repair the canard and do any underside touch-ups.

Rob, I'm going to do the version with the cartoon of Hagar the Horrible on the tail, so it's going to be painted bright purple. I always loved the cartoon books of Hagar as a kid so thought I'd do it as a memorial.

Another interesting choice Kriss. Definitely looks like something someone has put together after a rummage in the spares box.

Thanks all. After a bit of reflection I think I'll try and just mask and airbrush the touch-ups as it's probably most likely to give a consistent result and I'll have to mask the tail, nose and gear bays anyway. Might as well keep Tamiya's profits up with lots more tape! 😄

Seriously, here are the results There are a few areas that have a little paint lift and seepage under the masks, so some touch-ups required but less than I'd feared. Also managed to knock one of the canard flaps off but that will actually make one of the touch-ups simpler, so always a silver lining as they say. One question for those with more experience of MRP - is it possible to brush paint with it? Given the consistency I suspect not but I just thought I'd ask as a couple of the repairs could be done with a small brush rather than having to airbrush whole sections again and the prospect of more masking!

We have a result... Big pile of masking tape! Ha Ha 😆

Quiet day in the house today as everyone recovers from yesterday's wedding and the weather was lousy, so I got plenty of time and peace to get stuck into this. First, the Dark Green on the remaining airframe. Then, on with the next, and thankfully final, layer of masks. Never felt so much like I was wallpapering a model! Fit was problematic in areas over the spine, so a bit of improvisation was employed. I think the reality is that no two airframes had exactly the same cammo pattern, so I'm claiming artistic licence! Then finally on with the black. Have definitely enjoyed using the MRP for this as I'm sure it would have been harder getting everything thinned to the correct proportions with other varieties. The clean up of the airbrush is also very simple which is an additional bonus. This is now sitting for everything to to fully cure and I'll start the unveiling tomorrow night. There are bound to be some touch-ups required but hopefully not too many.

At least with the way it's bent it'll pull back to the centre line. Might have been harder if both halves had been bent the same direction. Still a pain though...

Great finish Peter. Really nice job on the paintwork and stencilling

Got the Tan masked, so it's on to painting the Dark Green next. Got a family wedding next couple of days but hopefully I might get at it on Sunday.

And now the Tan is on. Pretty quick as it's by far the smallest area of all the colours. Hopefully get it masked up later.