Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Excellent stuff Andy.
**** DONE 1/48 Tamiya Me 262 A-2 Heavy Hitters Group Build
- Thread starter Crimea_River
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- Thread starter
- #182
Crimea_River
Marshal
No real update and no pics. I've been feeling crappy all week and stayed home from work. Did a bit of masking on the canopy but found that feeling crappy also translated to indifference also so I wasn't as diligent on quality. Best set this aside for a bit.
I also went and glued the gun bays shut. The kit has optional covers, open or closed, and I opted to go with the closed look. This area just didn't seem that interesting with two of the 4 guns missing so I decided it wasn't woth detailing the various lines and wires. It just looked too empty.
Now when I look at it the model I am seeing all kinds of fit issues - probably magnified by my sh!tty attitude. I'll let it sit till the weekend and maybe give it a thin coat of RLM 76 to see what needs to be fixed. Maybe some pics then.
I also went and glued the gun bays shut. The kit has optional covers, open or closed, and I opted to go with the closed look. This area just didn't seem that interesting with two of the 4 guns missing so I decided it wasn't woth detailing the various lines and wires. It just looked too empty.
Now when I look at it the model I am seeing all kinds of fit issues - probably magnified by my sh!tty attitude. I'll let it sit till the weekend and maybe give it a thin coat of RLM 76 to see what needs to be fixed. Maybe some pics then.
vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
Dam dude, hope you get to feeling better.
Heinz
Captain
Hope you feel better man!
109ROAMING
2nd Lieutenant
- Thread starter
- #187
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks all!
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Hope you're better soon mate. I know the feeling - I'm on the mend, but haven't got any motivation, and when I do try, it seems a struggle to do anything without messing it up. So, leave it until the time's right is exactly what I'm doing.
B-17engineer
Colonel
Hope you're better soon!!
- Thread starter
- #190
Crimea_River
Marshal
OK, back in the saddle and feeling better. Thanks for all your good wishes.
The weather outside is frightful..... Snow and high winds started at 8:30am Mountain Time and still going now as of 5:30pm. Perfect day for cozying up to the workbench!
I did a fair amount of surface prep and masking as shown in the pics below. Photo 1 shows an overall shot. As stated before, the gun bay panels are glued in the closed position and some gap filling was needed. Canopies are masked and glued in place. The rear piece was put on with white carpenter's glue and the fit leaves a bit to be desired - more later.I didn't point out in earlier posts that the rudder was installed with a slight crank to starboard.
Photo 2 shows the underside. The landing gear doors are temporarily glued on with tiny drops of carpenter's glue for msking the wheel wells. This is so they can be easily removed later. The center doors could not be put on because of the hinge protrusions so I used masking tape, cut to fit. The same method was used for the nose gear. You can just see that the gun camera lens on the tip of the nose was filled in - this was faired over on the A-2.
Photo 3 is a close-up of the cockpit area. The front section is a clear piece that forms part of the fuselage and fits quite well. A bit of filler was needed but not much. The rear piece was a different story. It's narrower than the fuselage and I didn't want to risk breaking it to make it fit and I didn't want to use CA glue to hold it in place with tension in it. I've fogged the clear parts this way before and didn't want to go there again. So that left making the fuselage fit the clear part and I used my Dremel tool to shave material off the fuelage to make the pieces mate better.
At this point, I decided to spray a very thin coat of white over the whole model since the tip of the nose and tail are white anyway. This would better reveal more areas that needed surface work. Photo 4 shows the result and a little more putty already applied in some areas.
So now I have a question. Although I've modeled for many years, I've just started seriously using an airbrush over the last 3 years. I have a Paasche VL and a compressor with a water trap and 0-40psi regulator. My first two projects with this brush were done with Modelmaster oils and I liked the results but hated the smell and the mess of cleaning with thinners. So I've decided to switch to acrylics (Polly Scale) and have struggled so far. The coat above was done with the paint thinned 50/50 with distilled water at about 10psi. Although not a disaster, I felt the paint was too thin as several areas developed runs quite easily. When I did my Bf-110 prime coat (separate thread) a couple of months back, I thinned the paint only about 10 to 20% but the brush kept clogging. So it seems the happy place is somewhere between 20 and 50%. Any recommendations/experiences to share for airbrushing Polly Scale acrylics? The squiggles on the chosen scheme are beginning to look ominous!
The weather outside is frightful..... Snow and high winds started at 8:30am Mountain Time and still going now as of 5:30pm. Perfect day for cozying up to the workbench!
I did a fair amount of surface prep and masking as shown in the pics below. Photo 1 shows an overall shot. As stated before, the gun bay panels are glued in the closed position and some gap filling was needed. Canopies are masked and glued in place. The rear piece was put on with white carpenter's glue and the fit leaves a bit to be desired - more later.I didn't point out in earlier posts that the rudder was installed with a slight crank to starboard.
Photo 2 shows the underside. The landing gear doors are temporarily glued on with tiny drops of carpenter's glue for msking the wheel wells. This is so they can be easily removed later. The center doors could not be put on because of the hinge protrusions so I used masking tape, cut to fit. The same method was used for the nose gear. You can just see that the gun camera lens on the tip of the nose was filled in - this was faired over on the A-2.
Photo 3 is a close-up of the cockpit area. The front section is a clear piece that forms part of the fuselage and fits quite well. A bit of filler was needed but not much. The rear piece was a different story. It's narrower than the fuselage and I didn't want to risk breaking it to make it fit and I didn't want to use CA glue to hold it in place with tension in it. I've fogged the clear parts this way before and didn't want to go there again. So that left making the fuselage fit the clear part and I used my Dremel tool to shave material off the fuelage to make the pieces mate better.
At this point, I decided to spray a very thin coat of white over the whole model since the tip of the nose and tail are white anyway. This would better reveal more areas that needed surface work. Photo 4 shows the result and a little more putty already applied in some areas.
So now I have a question. Although I've modeled for many years, I've just started seriously using an airbrush over the last 3 years. I have a Paasche VL and a compressor with a water trap and 0-40psi regulator. My first two projects with this brush were done with Modelmaster oils and I liked the results but hated the smell and the mess of cleaning with thinners. So I've decided to switch to acrylics (Polly Scale) and have struggled so far. The coat above was done with the paint thinned 50/50 with distilled water at about 10psi. Although not a disaster, I felt the paint was too thin as several areas developed runs quite easily. When I did my Bf-110 prime coat (separate thread) a couple of months back, I thinned the paint only about 10 to 20% but the brush kept clogging. So it seems the happy place is somewhere between 20 and 50%. Any recommendations/experiences to share for airbrushing Polly Scale acrylics? The squiggles on the chosen scheme are beginning to look ominous!
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ozhawk40
Master Sergeant
Good going CR. I can't help on the acrylic question - I have an addiction to enamel thinners
Cheers
Peter
Cheers
Peter
kgambit
Tech Sergeant
I would recommend thinning the Polly Scale with ~30% Windex (yep, the blue stuff) and I would use a slightly higher psi. I have two Iwata Eclipses and run them at around 20 psi with a 30% windex / 70% Polly scale. I get great coverage with the paint and don't have a lot of issues with clogging. Polly scale tends to dry very fast and is therefore prone to clogging at low dilution mixes and lower pressures as you've found out.
As a fall back you could also use Model Master Acryl thinner at around the same dilution, but I much prefer the windex - for some reason the acryl thinner gives me a runnier mixture at the same % with Polly scale than the windex does - have no idea why. I would NOT use distilled water with Polly Scale acrylics - I've tried and the results were less than satisfactory. In fact, the only acrylics I've found that work well with distilled water are the Lifecolor acrylics.
- Thread starter
- #193
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks for the info Dwight! I'll try the 30 Windex/70 Paint ratio. What about fine lines like the squiggle camo? 20 psi sounds high for that?
109ROAMING
2nd Lieutenant
Looking good mate
Last edited:
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Looking good so far. Sorry, can't help with the pressure setting for acrylics, but when I use enamels for a similar job, I run at around 20 PSI, maybe a touch less, and control the flow on the trigger.
Heinz
Captain
Looking great mate!
Doin' good man... tamiya acrylics for me!
tamiya acrylics for me!kgambit
Tech Sergeant
I always have trouble getting the Polly scale to work at pressures below 15 psi no matter what I do, and even that is problematic. Not sure if it's the Polly scale or the brush that is the problem.
For finer work, I ended up customizing one of my stock Iwata airbrushes - replaced the 0.5 needle with a 0.35 needle and then added a new 0.35 nozzle cap and crown cap. That's as small as I can get with that brush.
You could always try making a mask for the squiggle pattern.
- Thread starter
- #199
Crimea_River
Marshal
Yup. I've already painted several newspapers to try it out and I expect there will be much practicing before the model gets doused!
...keep on practicing.....
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