well, its official, after nearly a years delay I quietly restarted work on this model, but have abandoned it now......its officially a write off.....
Guys, please dont laugh, but this has proven to be just a litany of errors and stuff ups, but I am more determined than ever to achieve a better outcome.
Subsequent to my el stupido mistake, I purchased a new double action airbrush, high quality but cheap as well (high quality, because my modelling mate has had great success with a copy that is gun that is exactly the same as mine). Next I purchased a replacement kit, and decided to transfer the cockpit (which I was very happy with) and some other bits that were undamaged.....I thought "how hard can this be...should be a snap!!!" yeah right....
Did all the usual pre-assembly checks, and thought the thing was okay. Base coat of white went on okay, followed by the Navy Blue lower half. Some small runs along the paint joint, but i thought no biggy can deal with that....removed the cockpit assembly from the old model, and fitted it to the new model....seemed to go in okay....glued everthing together, and applied the decals ....did all of this in a little over 24 hours.
prepared the glass cockpit canopy...again had some issues getting keeping the clear panes clear, but generally okay. Some of the cockpit struts were a bit wobbly in the paintwork...concerns starting to mount by this stage, but still believed the situation was under control...went to fit the cockpit glazing to the main assembly....disaster, in a number of areas. The canopy and the main cockpit cannot be aligned properly, not sure why....thought I could rectify this by using putty along the joins, which I managed to achieve, but the join was attrocious. Whilst handling the model, I put paw prints allover the paint work, mashed up the decals, broke one of the landing gear struts, got so Pi**ed off the thing is now in the trash . well, not exactly, but Im not going to waste any more time on this, until i work out what it is I am doing wrong
This is what I think, but advice is appreciated....in between your fits of laughter....
The starting issue is with the paint work.....the airbrush is applying the paint as I want, with no runs, but I am having trouble stopping the white and the blue bits running togeter. My operating conditions for the airbrush are paint, two parts paint to one part thinner (i am using tamiya acylic paints incidentally), operating pressure is about 15-20psi, and application distance is 12inches or so. I try not to apply paint too thickly...maybe two coats and only one run...comes up okay.....dont lose the panel details at that consistency, and no runs. I try not to handle the model for at least an hour, which may still not be long enough.
The paintwork is okay at the time of application, but I thinik I might be too impatient in handling the model after painting. I generally wait for about 12 hours, but the paintwork inevitably gets marked....how long should I be waiting??? If I dont get the section right the first time, going back to try and apply more paint to rectify the problem is a disaster, as is attempting to correct oversprays with the brush. If I try to sand that bright white finish, its a disaster....its either right the first time, or forget it. The bright blue ia also not amenable to rectification...it tends to show up every error and imperfection
The acrylics I am using are soft and porous...when I handle them twelve hours afterward.....not immediately so, but efter I have handled them, I can see stains and marks on the white paintwork....for this scheme to work, i have to work out a way to get the paint scheme right the first time, or I can forget it....so how do i prevent blurring and smudging along the paint lines. This dark blue and bright brilliant white paint scheme is much harder than i had imagined
Dont laugh, but I have purchased another copy of this model.......I dont give up easy. this is a cheaper version than the Italeri....its a ZTS 1/72 scale model. Hasnt arrived yet...will have less detail than my current versions, but i just want a model that looks even remotely okay at this stage...... This is how i propose to re-attempt this build.
I am going to have to keep everything super clean. I propose to apply the paint using the same portions, pressures and application distances as before. But how can I seal up the masking better to prevent runs. I am applying the white first, then the blue?
I am going to increase the waiting interval to 48 hours minimum and use 500w heat drying lamps to try and harden the paint work before handling. I am going to apply acrylic gloss finishes to each coat at that 48 hour point, to protect each coat, and then also again after the decals are applied. I like the brilliance of the acrylics i am achieving, in this case the shinier the better, but the paint is just so soft and susceptible to staining, oversprays and runs.
The misfit is relatively easy to fix....make sure everything fits before glueing, but it is sympotmatic of my impatiuence I guess