A new project is on the table... A VENOMOUS VIPER...Finished!

[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.

[harv]

I do love this craft....harv 

[1to1scale]

This is the fastest building kit I have done in a long time. I think you could actually build this in a weekend without extensive weathering. If were to do a second one, build and paint the cockpit, seal up the fuselage, attach every thing that is gray, and start spraying. Use a fast drying paint like MRP, and you could do it. Three primary colors are light ghost gray, USN blue-gray, and black. A couple metal colors for exhaust and a few minor details, and red and white brush paints, and it’s done. Cartograph decals are guaranteed to work well, and quick blast with dull oat in a can, and you have a Sat/Sun build. 
 

I am going to do some more extensive weathering though, and the only aftermarket additions will be the brass mini gun barrels. I may have this done by next weekend.

[Bomber_County]

Speed building has never been my forte but this is a challenge I must have a go at, clean build.......

[1to1scale]

I finally got the cockpit painted, now just need to figure out something for belts.

[harv]

Ooo nice !.....harv 

[Fidd88]

Urgh, it's one of those noisy clattery things that shouldn't take-off, but rather, screw themselves into the ground! At commercial flight school I spent every lunchtime talking rotary principles of flight (more like "articles of faith"!) with a helicopter pilot who was attempting to lure me to the dark-side with blandishments about retreating blade stall and other gyroscopic-witchcraft.

Which just confirmed that I'd never voluntarily stand underneath one of 'em, much less get in it. Just in case it got airborne, counter to all rhyme and reason!

If it's not too late, see if you can turn it into something less heretical? 

 

[1to1scale]

4 hours ago, Fidd88 said:

Urgh, it's one of those noisy clattery things that shouldn't take-off, but rather, screw themselves into the ground! At commercial flight school I spent every lunchtime talking rotary principles of flight (more like "articles of faith"!) with a helicopter pilot who was attempting to lure me to the dark-side with blandishments about retreating blade stall and other gyroscopic-witchcraft.

Which just confirmed that I'd never voluntarily stand underneath one of 'em, much less get in it. Just in case it got airborne, counter to all rhyme and reason!

If it's not too late, see if you can turn it into something less heretical? 

 

 

4 hours ago, Fidd88 said:

Urgh, it's one of those noisy clattery things that shouldn't take-off, but rather, screw themselves into the ground! At commercial flight school I spent every lunchtime talking rotary principles of flight (more like "articles of faith"!) with a helicopter pilot who was attempting to lure me to the dark-side with blandishments about retreating blade stall and other gyroscopic-witchcraft.

Which just confirmed that I'd never voluntarily stand underneath one of 'em, much less get in it. Just in case it got airborne, counter to all rhyme and reason!

If it's not too late, see if you can turn it into something less heretical? 

 

Lol. This has wings!

 

Actually, during the decade I spent working with the whole OH-58D fleet, we only lost 6 pilots due to mechanical issues, which is amazing when you considered they were in combat zones flying missions and racked up a total of 850,000 combat flight hours. But, yes, I would probably shit myself if I actually had to go up it one. 

[1to1scale]

In a mere 3 hours today, I finished the cockpit, fabricated seatbelts, closed up the fuselage, and worked out a magnet system for attaching the optical ball and main rotor. This kit is awesome. I will be building another one! 

[Fidd88]

7 hours ago, 1to1scale said:

 

Lol. This has wings!

 

You see! Even the designers weren't sure it would "go up and stay there"! 

[1to1scale]

I always make work for myself. Not happy with just decals, I am painting and masking the bands. I used RLM04 for the yellow, and MRP Red Wood for the brown, followed by wrapping 2mm bands of Tamiya tape around, the hellfire are a bit more of a challenge since the bands go under the fins, luckily, the stripes trimmed to 3mm fit, and 1mm for the part with the rail. I will be painting and masking all the different metal bands as well, I already started by spraying a little burnt metal tonight, I’ll mask and move to the next color tomorrow, then do the body, followed by the thin silver bands.

 

 

This is not necessary, but I wanted to learn how to do magnets for mounting breakable pieces and ordinance, a good place to start was the rotor and optics ball, as a nice feature is that they act like a bearing.

[1to1scale]

Lots of ordinance for a little bird.

[1to1scale]

I managed to get the Helo black based and ordinance all painted today, however, shortly after this picture was taken, my compressor exploded. Before I could clean the last color used out of my airbrush, I had to do a no air cleaning on the airbrush. It’s definitely a goner, it makes noises that are not normal. I have a new one on the way overnight and should be here by 8:00 am tomorrow. To be continued...

[BlrwestSiR]

Nice progress on the model. Great idea on the magnets too.

On 8/22/2020 at 8:44 PM, 1to1scale said:

2mm bands of Tamiya tape

You may want to get Aizu tape. It's the same kabuki tape that Tamiya uses only you can get it in various widths. Anywhere from 2mm up. Might save you some time on your paint work. 

[1to1scale]

9 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Nice progress on the model. Great idea on the magnets too.

You may want to get Aizu tape. It's the same kabuki tape that Tamiya uses only you can get it in various widths. Anywhere from 2mm up. Might save you some time on your paint work. 

No, the best investment I ever made was infini cutting boards, I can have any size line of tape I want. 
 

https://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/infit3001v1.htm 

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, 1to1scale said:

No, the best investment I ever made was infini cutting boards, I can have any size line of tape I want. 

I have a similar one from Voyager and some others for circles, curves, rectangles and stars. As you say, one of the best investments I made, too.

Cheers Rob

[1to1scale]

1 hour ago, DocRob said:

I have a similar one from Voyager and some others for circles, curves, rectangles and stars. As you say, one of the best investments I made, too.

Cheers Rob

All I do now is just buy 18mm Tamiya tape, I cut it to size for special needs. I have found this is very useful for masking instruments and panels, I also use a set of leather punches for cutting small round circles.

[1to1scale]

Progress, cleaned up a few seams and spotted in a little more black paint.

[BlrwestSiR]

3 hours ago, 1to1scale said:

All I do now is just buy 18mm Tamiya tape, I cut it to size for special needs. I have found this is very useful for masking instruments and panels, I also use a set of leather punches for cutting small round circles.

That's a cool looking template. No wonder it's easy for you to make your own tape. 

[1to1scale]

Unfortunately, since I primed the helo, weather has been terrible, extremely high temperatures, humidity, and daily rain and thunderstorms have put a damper on my painting. My moisture filter while bravely doing its job, is no match for the weather. My airbrush sprays out water, and makes paint turn into splatter. If I spray for more than a minute, water starts to come out. And by my chosen method of blackbasing, I run at at an 80% duty cycle for more than an hour. So for now, all painting is on hold. I’m back to assembling plastic, keeping the production pipeline full. 

[SapperSix]

Absolutely fantastic work. I very much enjoy your build.      The chi certainly seems to be flowing on the build.  The cockpit was very clean and just looked right. 

Your work on the ordnance pointed out one of my building quirks.  As you painted the ordnance as so I paint my landing gear and the like.  However, I do the exact reverse on my ordnance.  I will have to revisit that.         

Your many ingenious ideas, such as the magnets, will be stolen and abused accordingly.  You really make it look easy.  In fact I think you might be on steroids and moose tranquilizers.   At least that's what I hear from the guys...

I feel your pain on the weather.  Better to wait for sure.  Hence the side projects. 

[DocRob]

12 hours ago, 1to1scale said:

My moisture filter while bravely doing its job, is no match for the weather.

I was really astonished by that, we often have up to 90% humidity and no problems while spraying. The good thing with humidity is, there is less dust in the air.

Cheers Rob

[1to1scale]

7 hours ago, DocRob said:

I was really astonished by that, we often have up to 90% humidity and no problems while spraying. The good thing with humidity is, there is less dust in the air.

Cheers Rob

Rob, I have been painting all year, and I can paint small jobs. Recently i changed my painting technique because i have been working with modern light grays for the last few aircraft. However, when my airbrush is moving air for over 45 minutes straight on one color, the compressor compresses the hot humid air, makes it more hot and humid, and just gets hotter and hotter. My last compressor literally melted. I kept smelling burning plastic, but figured it was something outside, it turned out my compressor was melting. We are due for a cool down and drop in humidity this weekend, so I plan to work on this then. And probably a few other models that need paint too. 
 

I may also employ an automotive air drier if I can get all the right fittings for it if I continue to have problems.

[BlrwestSiR]

I was having all sorts of moisture issues with my compressor as well. I added a second water trap at the connection between the airbrush and hose and that eliminated the problem for me. Haven't had any issues since and it's been 6-7 years since I did it.

[DocRob]

16 hours ago, 1to1scale said:

However, when my airbrush is moving air for over 45 minutes straight

Does your compressor has an air tank, mine (25 years old) with a tank, runs the pump only once in a while while spraying. My compressor has an water trap, were there are a few drops in after a day spraying. As I said, we have often 80-90% humidity, but the temperatures are not very high.

12 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

I was having all sorts of moisture issues with my compressor as well. I added a second water trap at the connection between the airbrush and hose and that eliminated the problem for me. Haven't had any issues since and it's been 6-7 years since I did it.

All these experiences lead me to think, that maybe some of the bad spray days, I have encountered once in a while, are connected to humidity at least in parts. I will try to look a little closer, if there is a relation. 
In my Berlin days, where the air was much drier, specially in wintertime, I had a completely different set of problems, mostly connected to dust and static.. Now my biggest problem is clogging with acrylic paints. Xtreme Metal colours though, don't have that prob.