What's on my desk? Part 103.
Good morning on the second-to-last week of the year,
I've been working hard to finish the Buckeye before the 26/12 deadline, and I've neglected my other builds in the process...
I finished decalling on Tuesday. I mentioned the wing tip tank decals last week. They worked out okay-ish.
No major issues, just a few crinkles and a small gap where the decal sides are supposed to connect (that's wing-side, so not visible here).
Still, I agree with George in the comments of the previous blog, it'd look better if you mask and airbrush...
The larger decals were full of tiny air holes and didn't conform very well to the panel lines. I decided to try and rub them in with a sharpened toothpick and discovered that Special Hobby has provided decals (like Eduard has done lately) with a carrier film that can be (very carefully!) peeled off. Like so:
With that discovery, I set out to peel off all the films on the tail markings, roundels and tip tanks. All those markings looked a lot better now. Some minor damages were repaired with paint, as well as the blue-white-blue on the base of the tail, where the decals didn't entirely match up.
This done, I turned to panel lining. I mentioned pencilling last time, because I thought my paint finish was a bit too rough and not glossy enough. In the end, I just tried washes anyway: Neutral Wash on the grey underside, Dark Wash on the camouflaged topside. Let dry for a minute, then wipe off the excess in the direction of the airflow. My gloss coat was just shiny enough to make this possible. A flat varnish will absorb the wash and make wiping it off nearly impossible.
Once done, I could finally give the plane a flat varnish.
However, there were a few places where the VMS gloss I used pooled a bit and filled in the panel lines completely. I'll have to correct this with pencils after all. I use a mechanical pencil with 2B lead (the 'B' numbers denote graphite hardness) and a bit of sandpaper to keep the tip sharp. You'll also need a ruler or something to keep your lines straight.
More on this next week.
It was also time to attach the gear wheels and doors. I'd already test-fitted the wheels before gluing the legs, so they went on without issue. The doors, however...
Special Hobby does not provide any hinges, but does have locating holes in places, so I made some rudimentary ones with Albion tubing.
Here's the nose gear. You can see tiny tubes protruding from both sides at the front:
I used these as a support for the nose gear doors. The big hole just in front of that will hold the landing light. I had to grind it out a lot to actually be able to fit the transparant piece...
For the main gear doors I also cut some tubing to size. I'll lose some detail that was provided on the resin parts, but those were completely unusable. As predicted, they broke the second I touched a knife to remove the pouring block... Here as well; no hinges. I cut and flattened a bit of tube for these:
Here they are in place:
Maybe not the greatest detail, but better than nothing... and they obviously still need to be painted.
The doors on the gear leg as well don't have any hinges or locating points. I guesstimated their position and just superglued them to the model.
Finally I painted the final cockpit parts, in particular the ejection seats:
The instruction call for green cushions, but I found a picture of a Greek Buckeye showing these were coloured grey:
(I think I found this picture on xitter somewhere; can't credit the account anymore, but the photographer apparently is Neil Dunridge).
It unfortunately also shows how poor in detail the Special Hobby kit is. You can clearly see rows of rivets everywhere...
So, here's where I am at the moment:
By the way, the ΠΑ letters on the nose stand for Polemikí Aeroporía or 'Military aviation'. You see these recurring on nearly all HAF (Hellenic Air Force) aircraft.
Still some pieces to attach in the cockpit, lightly weather the seats, some transparant pieces to glue, then remove the masking over the cockpit hood and it will be finished!
Thanks for following,
See you next week for the final blog of the year!