**** DONE: GB-56 1/48 P-47D - Thunderbolts and Lightnings

[Vic Balshaw]

Your spot on as usual Terry.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Totalize]

Nice stuff Terry!

 

[Crimea_River]

Liking that Terry!

 

[fubar57]

Agreed

 

[Airframes]

Thanks very much chaps.

I'm not very happy with the prop, or more correctly, the prop decals. I might put this aside, clean it and remove the decals later, and use it on another build, with different decals.
I have a spare prop from a Monogram bubbletop, so I may use this instead. The Monogram kit will be built as a RAF example, which had the Curtiss Electric prop, and I have spares for these.
I'm still stiff and aching, but I hope to get a bit more done later tonight.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far Terry!

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Hugh.

A bit frustrated at the moment. I spent around two hours last night, attempting to get a decent matt clear coat on the prop ( and some other "test" surfaces) without any luck. I used my new bottle of Vallejo, a brand which has always worked fine whether brushed or airbrushed, and again it dried gloss. I then tried two other brands, one of which dried semi gloss, and other, although it dried matt, had a chalky appearance.
I'm thinking that the new bottle of Vallejo, being 500ml as opposed to my earlier 60ml bottle, has settled in storage since I bought it some time ago.
I did give it a vigorous shake, and poured a little into a plastic shot glass and gave that a good stir, but I think it needs a really good stir, either in the bottle ( a bit difficult), or maybe decant a decent amount, stir that, and pour some into the smaller bottle.
I'll try this, but rather than get bogged down with what I hope is a minor problem, I'll leave this for now and move on to the decals, which i hope to start this evening.

 

[T Bolt]

Good fix on the axel Terry. Hope you get the matt finish sorted out.

 

[Crimea_River]

I can offer no advice on the clear coat Terry but sense that adding more and more coats might do more harm than good.

 

[Airframes]

I agree Andy. I'll be testing on a "hack" model, used for paint testing. Once I get the required results, I'll then either use a spare prop, or clean off the varnish from the existing prop and start over.
I forgot to mention the the varnish was brushed onto the prop, which normally works well, and this was done to see if it did dry matt, as the anti-glare panel will need to be matt coated once the nose art decals are in place, and I'd intended to do this using a paint brush, rather than risk overspray onto the NMF ( masking at that stage would very likely damage the decals and the metal finish).
However, if the clear coat persists in drying gloss when brushed, but works as intended when sprayed, then I'll just have to use the smaller needle and nozzle on the airbrush, and be extremely careful when spraying.

 

[fubar57]

I'm using Microscale Micro Flat now but its hard for me to get. This is the flattest of all my flat coats

 

[Airframes]

I've heard that's good Geo, but hard to find here, and also in fairly small bottles.
Karl told me about the Vallejo matt clear a few years ago, and I've been using it ever since without problems, so I'm hoping this is just a temporary glitch, and probably down to me being too damned stiff and painful to give the bottle a really good shake and then stir.
I'll see what happens when I'm able to try it in the airbrush, as per my usual method.

 

[fubar57]

Ever thought about getting one of these Terry, nail polish shaker

​

Also sold as a tattoo ink shaker

 

[Airframes]

Don't think the bottle would fit in that clamp - it's a 500ml capacity, 2.5 inch diameter and 8 inches tall, and weighs a bit too !

 

[fubar57]

Ah, you've got the bigger Vallejo bottle. I have the paint bottle size

 

[Airframes]

Yep, my original paint bottle sized Vallejo (60ml) was running low, so I got the 500 ml for the cost of about two of the 60ml.
Seemed to make sense to me ...................

 

[fubar57]

That it does. I have two large bottles of primer, one grey and one white

 

[Airframes]

Success !!!

I'd left the 500ml Vallejo bottle standing upside down since last night, in order to let the matting agent "fall" into the medium.
I poured some of this into the virtually empty 60ml bottle, gave it good shake (or as best as I could with my stiff, painful hands), then gave it a thorough stir for a couple of minutes.
Tried it on the "hack", un-thinned, using a paint brush, and it dried matt within a a minute or two, and no clouding or chalky appearance.
I'm back in business !!!

The bad news is, my hands, wrists and upper arms are now so stiff and painful, i don't want to attempt anything approaching delicate work tonight, so the decals will have to wait until tomorrow, when I hope things will have improved, if I can get some decent kip.

 

[Snautzer01]

flattest of all my flat coats

Do love thise sentence. Speccially when adressing Airframes