SH 1/48 SMB2 Mystere; IAI Sa'ar: Update: 9/4/24: Moving Forward

[CANicoll]

The seat is a project onto itself, nice work!!!  Macro photos of the 3D IPs are not pretty, but at least to the eye they look nice!

[Peterpools]

Thanks Chris

Finished detail painting the seat last night and she is a beauty ... spoiled for sure in using other seats down the road. Just have to be extra careful as the 3D printed seats are very delicate and break easily.

Yup, macro work and Eduard IP aren't the best of matches. I shot mine with a true macro lens: a Nikon 105 Macro and the magnification is 1:1 and it shows all the flaws of the Eduard IP finish - just no other way to do it and have something you can see in the photograph. 

 

 

[DocRob]

Nice start on the cockpit Peter and as others mentioned before the seat is a gem. I really like these high quality parts and it is demanding fun to paint them properly. Better than having to guess, where parting lines are due to soft moulding.
I wonder why Eduard could or would not solve that rasterizing prob with their IP´s. I had one, which was close to unusable, the dots were visible with the bare eye. Others are so much better, like you mentioned Quinta, but printed PE ones as well, like Yahu produces.
Cant wait to see your meticolous paint work with that four tone camo.

Cheers Rob

[CANicoll]

Peter - One question I have regarding the camo - when you use masks, how do you avoid having a raised line of paint that shows under a decal?

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow Peter, that seat is insanely good!  Like PW, I assumed when I saw it you were building in 1/32.  

Also love the color scheme you picked - will be a nice and colorful bird.  Looking forward to following along!  Hopefully Special Hobby didn't leave you with their special fit issues   At least with the two kits I built, they had such nice details that I wondered why they couldn't make the fuselage halves fit better.

[HubertB]

12 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Wow Peter, that seat is insanely good!  Like PW, I assumed when I saw it you were building in 1/32.  

Also love the color scheme you picked - will be a nice and colorful bird.  Looking forward to following along!  Hopefully Special Hobby didn't leave you with their special fit issues   At least with the two kits I built, they had such nice details that I wondered why they couldn't make the fuselage halves fit better.

I’d have been all over a 1/32 SMB-2 ! Unfortunately, it seems kit manufacturers in 1/32 have not realised France produced some aircrafts between the Spad XIII and the Mirage III (just slightly exaggerating there , as Special Hobby is the one exception )

As for Special Hobby, you see the difference between resin casting, and short-run injection molding of polystyrene … You can produce an accurate master, but converting it a mold is a mistakes-frought operation. Still, without SH, my 1/32 stash would be somewhat smaller   …

Hubert

[Landlubber Mike]

Totally agree Hubert.  I give SH a hard time, but a lot of their kits are repops of older kits so it's really not on them.  I have their Siebel Si 204D kit, and am curious as to how the fuselage fits given that I think the kit is original to SH, and not a repop.  SH also releases subjects that are rarely seen, so I'm very thankful for that as I tend to go for less modeled, quirky subjects.

[BlrwestSiR]

The seat as others have said really looks stunning. Plus the belts have a natural drape that's hard to replicate in PE, 3D decals or even the fabric/paper ones. Not to mention assembly. 

Special Hobby have made leaps and bounds in the quality of their kits in the last few years. They still have the odd fit issue from time to time but it's worlds better than they used to be. 

Edited September 3 by BlrwestSiR
Fix typo

[mark31]

great start and you doing a great job love it.

 

Mark

[Peterpools]

Thanks Rob and I'm still in disbelief on the ejection seats detail. I finished painting it today - update tomorrow and actually treated it like painting a figure on a base - just a boatload of fun and I even weathered it - now that's a first for me. 

One of the reasons I pretty much gave up on Eduard PE cockpit sets is the IP's look so bad but, in this case, there isn't any other option right now. 

Just wish 3D printing would use a material that is a bit stronger and more durable as they are so delicate. 

 

[Peterpools]

Chris

I rarely use masks but when I do, I make sure my first glossy clear cote is thick enough I can wet sand it and there isn't a lip to show through the decals. 

 

[Peterpools]

Thanks Mike, to be honest, I'm still blown away by the seats detail but what really impressed me is how beautifully crisp the details were when I photographed it and ran it through Photoshop. The ejection seat could pass easily for any scale - it's that good. I finished painting and lightly weathering it, this morning (update tomorrow) and the details come shinning though but painting the small details is still an effort as when I came back down to reality, it's still 1/48 scale and very small. 

Surely am looking forward to doing the freehand cammo as IAI have some incredible paint schemes.

Right with you about SH having fit issues and some mighty strange part fit. I've been spending a lot of time trying to get four fuselage access panels to fit and SH must have spent countless nights figuring out the hardest way to do it with the worst possible fit.

The fuselage is basically three separate parts: two sides and a bottom pan and the fit is, well let's say an SH specialty - just no reason at all to mold it this way. 

Even CMK reinvented the wheel with some of its 3D parts ... when all they had to do was duplicate the injected part and add the details - nope, they redesigned the part. 

Oh what fun.

 

 

[Peterpools]

Hubert agreed and just wish SH would have designed their kits, even being limited run, a bit more traditionally. Still, they have filled a huge gap and for that, we have to say: Thank You.

 

[Peterpools]

Carl

Agree 100% and the kit does have its fit issues but it's the only game in town.

While CMK had produced some brilliant 3D details for the kit, , I don't understand why they had to redesign parts and just couldn't use the SH part and add the details as resin AM companies seem to do.

All in all the kit is still wonderful and fills a huge gap in that era.

 

.

[Peterpools]

Thanks Mark, greatly appreciated. Always nice to learn new techniques and to use new products as it keeps the hobby fresh and moving forward. 

 

[PanzerWomble]

21 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Thanks John, much appreciated. I'm 100% spoiled by the seat and now, I'll be looking for 3D printed seats whenever possible.

 

Sadly I've been using more and more aftermaket bang seats for much the same reason . 

[Landlubber Mike]

1 hour ago, Peterpools said:

Right with you about SH having fit issues and some mighty strange part fit. I've been spending a lot of time trying to get four fuselage access panels to fit and SH must have spent countless nights figuring out the hardest way to do it with the worst possible fit.

The fuselage is basically three separate parts: two sides and a bottom pan and the fit is, well let's say an SH specialty - just no reason at all to mold it this way. 

Sounds like good ol' SH to me!  You have to wonder if the designers actually build the models sometimes.  But, after a little love, the kits go together fine.  Good luck!

[Peterpools]

PW, Same here but some of the newer ones are pretty good: Tamiya and GWH come to mind.

 

[Peterpools]

Thanks Mike - surely sounds as if the case. Just seems they look at ways to add parts when a single molding would do and then those parts have all sorts of fit issues.

 

[CANicoll]

I only have two 1/32 SH kits, one is the P-39 which I built and didn't have any real issues with it - the other is the Tempest which I will get around to.

But I'm scarred for life by KittyHawk and their P-39Q kit.  The most expensive kit I've ever had to bin.   I bought it a couple of years after it came out, and had to completely trash the entire nose armament after spending a huge amount of time detailing it - the fuselage simply would NOT close unless I butchered it to the point where it made no sense to have it in there.  Second major problem is that NONE of the panels (wing, fuselage, etc) would fit into their openings.  Nearly all of them were at least 1-2mm too small in each direction.  Peter, I think when we were on the other site you talked me down off the ledge a few times... 

I even spoke to the Kittyhawk folks when they exhibited at my local club's annual show, and they blew me off saying it was one of their earlier kits 'so you had to expect some issues'.  They are still selling that kit for nearly $90 retail.  Ugh.

So for me, SH is not so bad and I understand KH actually has some nice kits now.  But I just can't bring myself to pick one up.

I know you, however, will work your magic on this build.  Can't wait!

[Peterpools]

Hi Chris

Pretty sure I do remember that episode on the old forum and those KH kits were poorly design for sure. I remember not to meany years ago having the same experiences with the KH P-39 and after struggling with adding a number of the Eduard PE sets, the KH fit issues just multiplied. Yup, same result as you - a binned KH kit.

Their rep's terrible response at your clubs' show, just goes to show how bad their care and concern was for their customers, and which had to be one of the factors that they went under.

Still plugging away and hoping for an update later today as I finished up adding a lot of Eduard PE to the kit with a few delicate pieces I know will some vanish before the kit is done.

  

 

[Peterpools]

MOVING FORWARD

Very carefully moving forward as I completed the front office. What seems as a simple assembly was quite finicky and very delicate, as the part fit was somewhat vague. Add on top, all the Eduard PE parts not only didn’t align that well and so easy to launch PE pieces into space, never to be seen again. Lady Luck was riding with me as my copilot and for the very first time, not a single PE part was lost to the carpet monster. I’m sure there will be a good payback down the road.

I spent nearly a full day painting the ejection seat using the instructions as my color guide. For such small parts, a good quality brush is more then a luxury but rather a necessity. I was so glad I still have my ‘Winsor and Newton, Series 7, Kolinsky Red Sable brushes for the delicate painting but time and use has taken its toll. I bought a set of three nearly Fifthteen years ago for close to $40 and it’s time to replace them. I use them almost every day so they owe me nothing. But when I looked at the cost of replacing them, I fell right off my chair: anywhere from $75-$100 for a set of three and I’m on still on the hunt.

For the time being, the front office is done and time to move onto the next stage of the build. As thorough as the instructions are, there is no mention of where and how much nose weight needs to be added?

Photos show I still need to do a bit of touchup work on the ejection seat which hopefully should go rather quickly.

I wasn’t sure of which CCA glue to use for the 3D printed parts and went with the ones I normally use for PE and it seemed to work well.

Working on the fuselage interior assemblies went together with no issues. There were four small fuselage access panels and the fit was just terribly and required a lot of fussing and test fitting to even come close.

Fingers crossed there aren’t many of alignment issues as I close up the fuselage, which is a three part affair.

Pic shows a bit of touchup work is needed.

Eduard PE parts have been glued on and once paint should look mighty good.

Weapons of choice for 3D printed parts and PE. 

Working on the interior parts and no issues at all so far. 

Three part fuselage assembly - but why?

 

 

 

[PanzerWomble]

Wowsers , that cockpit has turned out very well, the seat in color is drop dead gorgeous . 

Done by Saturday then Peter ?

[Peterpools]

Thanks PW, very much appreciated but I don't think I'll be done my Saturday - just can't work at the pace you and John do. 

[HubertB]

Nice work on the pit, Peter.

To answer your question of why 3 parts for the fuselage, the answer is in the way they look, and as posted on your picture. The shape of the MLG well, with its « ears » at the front, and narrower at the wing root than at the centerline, would have implied a slide mold to mold only two fuselage halves, with a slide that would go up during the injection process, then down to be able to eject the two fuselage halves from the mold.

The problem is a slide mold implies a special stainless steel alloy and super-precise milling. Which is incompatible with the short-run production approach of SH, with a different, softer, alloy, far more economical to produce (but the mold is far less durable).

I’m with you on the cost of high quality sable brushes. I have a few of them, and boy they are not cheap. About 10 days ago, Kevin posted a tip about using « nail-art » brushes. True, they are not sable, but synthetic, but, if you look on sites like Amazon, you can get find offers for those for a few $. I bought four sets, so 20 brushes overall, for 38 Euro.
Now, if people can paint the fine details they achieve on nails, I thought that these brushes could probably be useful for modelling. And, at a few dollars for a set of brushes, you don’t really care if they don’t last years like fine sable brushes. I have not tried mine yet, but Chris has.

Keep it coming 

Hubert