The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Trim not! Trim not!

PM sent

OK Bruce , I'm still here, I've been extra tired but now I have finished my shift and have done a little each night, but just haven't posted. So here's where I'm up to, got the spotlight and small inner aerial sorted out on the correct sides. Got the struts almost perfect but as you can see from the pic, the right one is bowed just a frag. Aaaaarrrrhhhh and the decals, what can I say any hint's, or scrub em off and put German decals on it ?

The struts don't look so bad now, Steve. You do well to save the pitot until the last thing, as, being a sticky-out thing, it sticks out a lot. You could replace that missing aerial with a piece of stretched sprue, although fine strip is more representative of the real thing.

What did you do to the decals?!?

Here's what I did...

1 - One coat of Klear to the model and let it dry. (Any gloss finish should do).
2 - Decals applied, individually, onto wet Klear.

All decals settled, with no curling, although if they had, I would've probably applied more Klear. Prior to this, I was concerned as I remembered Academy decals to allegedly be on the thick and stiff side of stiff and thick.

3 - Touched up the edges of the rudder.
4 - Humbrol Mattcote applied.
5 - Nice cup of tea and a sit down.

Perhaps you could start with No.5
Regards,
Bruce

I tried to speed up the process buy eliminating a procedure. Me, smart man here, thought he might be able to lay the decals on a wet patch of Mr softner TO dodge puting a gloss clear coat on. WRONG WRONG WRONG, any hint's?


PS I won't do that again.

Assuming the decals are non-removeable, I'd flood their behinds with Klear.
Assuming you don't have such a product available, (and being aware of just how cheap the Academy kit is), I think I'd buy another to do in a German scheme and apply all of those lessons learned from this build.

Regards,
Bruce

I managed to remove the decals, they have left a carrier film ring on the wings and fuselage. I have found a set of Belgium decals that are a frag bigger so a Belgium Criquet here we come.
Got the legs and wheels all fitted up and it went together well. I'll gloss coat it tomorrow and then put the decals on.





I'm almost there.

1 - One coat of Klear to the model and let it dry. (Any gloss finish should do).
2 - Decals applied, individually, onto wet Klear.

All decals settled, with no curling, although if they had, I would've probably applied more Klear. Prior to this, I was concerned as I remembered Academy decals to allegedly be on the thick and stiff side of stiff and thick.

3 - Touched up the edges of the rudder.
4 - Humbrol Mattcote applied.
5 - Nice cup of tea and a sit down.

Bruce I'm surprised you didn't have, 6 Open another kit

Nax wrote:

1 - One coat of Klear to the model and let it dry. (Any gloss finish should do).
2 - Decals applied, individually, onto wet Klear.

All decals settled, with no curling, although if they had, I would've probably applied more Klear. Prior to this, I was concerned as I remembered Academy decals to allegedly be on the thick and stiff side of stiff and thick.

3 - Touched up the edges of the rudder.
4 - Humbrol Mattcote applied.
5 - Nice cup of tea and a sit down.

Bruce I'm surprised you didn't have, 6 Open another kit

I was trying to be gentle.

OK I'm all done, with Belgium decals. Pretty happy overall, frustrated with the main struts (still not 100% to me) and the decals, partly my fault for not gloss coating first.After the window masks came off my predictions of fogging were correct and it looks like all of them not just the windscreen coped it.
Don't know if I want to do another shared build, with two boys under seven, and working 12 hours a day seven on seven off, I felt like I was under a bit of pressure to get it finished in the two week slot I allocated.
Why does my Tamiya clear coat wrinkle up on small parts of the paint work here and there? Am I putting it on to thick? is my surface contaminated?

Here she is.

Good save with the Belgian scheme...looks convincing enough...and kudos for sticking with it, in spite of your difficulties. The finished model really does look good and, of course, that lovely base works its magic again.

I'm unfamiliar with Tamiya clear coats, but most fail to perform as they should if they are not mixed, stirred, shaken, stirred, mixed, etc., properly and if they are applied too thickly and/or allowed to pool. I'm guessing the Tamiya stuff is more readily available, your neck of the planet and, should you get the opportunity, the Humbrol Mattcote is recommended.

One point on your self-imposed deadline...self-imposed flexibility is important and I definitely got the impression you were rushing things at some stages. Sometimes, it's better to tidy things up and walk away from the model for a few days. When (and if) you come back to it, you have a different perspective. (See my Pegasus Albatros DVa build, for example).

As far as 'official' deadlines go, we're currently working on the 'one calendar month after the host completes' -target. I appreciate that I am not the slowest of builders and that my rate is determined by a host of factors, so a month longer, for others to complete a kit, seems a fair shot.

As far as lessons learned for myself, I'm thinking that a greater use of PM's might be useful. It can't be helpful when one modeller appears to breeze through stages another finds troublesome, especially under public gaze.

Thanks for joining me with this kit and I'd be happy to dance again in the future.

Regards,
Bruce

PS I'll keep this thread open until after the weekend, to allow any comments to be received.

It might have been the pooling effect, I did get some pools going from the rattle can, I should have decanted to the airbrush.
I'm happy with the out come, and was enjoying it more when it started to come together in the strut area. Call me mad but I do want to reduce my stash and the main reason I joined this build was to get a NON Airfix or Revell kit off the shelf. I only want Airfix or Revell in my stash, I like red and blue.

If you didn't mention the light and the aerial I would have been lazy and left them in the wrong spot so thanks for that.

I would probably do another "shared build" with a months time frame, that would make it less stressful for me.

Glad you like it.

Haha great whiffery! But anyway, I know that the decals of Academy aren't the best to work with. I had the same with my example and after a lot off cursing my german decals were on. Now some years later they are starting to peel off... Bummer.

Anyway, well done!

did_nev wrote:Now some years later they are starting to peel off... Bummer.

Anyway, well done!

It's NOT whiffery...it's REAL!

I always try to remember to apply a final sealing-in coat of something, post-decalling. Stops the decals drying up and flaking off.

Regards,
Bruce