What's on my desk? Part 102.
Hello and welcome!
Last week before Christmas. Time for some last-minute shopping?
First off, I'd like to give you my opening hours for the holidays:
Mondays closed, as always.
Tuesdays open 10 to 6.
Wednesdays 24 & 31 I'll be open in the morning. Closing at 13.00h.
Thursdays are Christmas and New Year's, so closed.
Friday & Saturday open from 10 to 6.
Sunday 21st, 28th and 4th open in the afternoon, 1-ish until 6-ish.
On to the models, where -to be honest- I don't have a lot to show. I have a bit of a problem with the Bergepanther. The Mud effect I used on the lower hull isn't drying. It's been over a week and the product is still sticky (and smelly)... I'll look up what I can do about this.
I haven't started on a new car commission yet, but I have my oven cleaner here and I can start stripping paint off the Ford Focus WRC rally car.
In any case, I need to finish my Buckeye this week. Deadline is December 26.
I have applied most of the decals now:
They're not bad; they come loose from the paper easily and are thin enough, but you really need to cut the carrier film closer to the print, it's sticking out at least 1 mm in all directions... I was a bit worried about the big decals on the tail. Luckily Special Hobby have divided these up so you don't have to cross a big gap. The ones on the rudder (the moving part of the vertical tail) are separate:
Some more applications of Micro Sol needed to get them to conform to the panel lines and rudder gap... And some paint corrections: that yellow curve down should transition into black.
The other side of the tail I still need to do, and the ones on the tip tanks. I really hope those work out right, because that's one big curve...
When decalling, I keep a pencil or pen handy to cross out the numbers I've already done:
Good way to keep track of what you've done already, especially with modern jets which tend to be absolutely covered in small text warnings.
I previously attached the undercarriage legs, and now I've also painted the wheels. These still need a bit of weathering:
Finally, the main gear doors near the fuselage have struts to open/close them. Here's how Special Hobby chose to provide these:
These are resin parts. And they are warped. Why these needed to be resin, I have no idea. Resin does not offer any advantage for parts this thin and frankly just makes things more difficult... I'm 99% sure I'll have to scratch-build replacements out of Albion tubing, when one of the struts breaks on the first cut to remove those pouring blocks.
One more thing: my paint finish is pretty rough, and I didn't succeed in laying down a uniform gloss coat. As a consequence, I won't use panel liner washes, but instead rely on an old method: a very sharp HB mechanical pencil.
To be continued...
See you next week!
1 comment
Hi! These Special Hobby decals are made with the same process as Eduard. This means that the film can be peeled off.
Now, regarding the wingtip tanks, if I ever build this kit again I will mask and paint the stripes, as the decals are too hard to align perfectly.