Good morning!
Spring has arrived (at least for this week), so pick up your tools, your airbrush and your models and get some building done!
The airbrush workshop on Sunday still has some spots available, so register per email if you're interested.
On to the models, then. At the moment I have 4 models going at the same time...
First off, the Ford Focus. The rear quarters of the car need to be painted red. I tried to mask the lines off using bendy tape, then tried to use the decals as a template to cut out from yellow tape, then tried to find pre-cut masks and/or new decals online... Nothing worked out to my satisfaction. The curves are just too difficult, and also I'm afraid the dividing line will show up underneath the decals.
So new plan: I'm applying the decals to the car first (they will need some retouching, because they're a bit old and break easily), then I'll spray a varnish to protect them, allowing me to mask them off directly before airbrushing the red. I hope this will turn out alright...
To be continued...
Second model: the Bloch. After assembling the entire wing/underside construction I glued it to the fuselage. Big gaps to be filled, as you can see by the white lines. I also attached the tailplanes, but I made a mistake there. There is a top and bottom for the horizontal planes, and I glued two tops and two bottoms together... Not sure if it was my fault or there was a mistake in the instructions, but if you're building this kit, pay close attention to these parts.
Ailerons and horizontal stabilisers are next, then I can make a start on the engine.
The Viggen: I've finished construction of the fuselage, wings and canards, and attached the windscreen. The canopy can't be fitted closed without cutting off location tabs, so I had to mask the cockpit and canopy separately.
The nose received a bit of lead sheet for weight, as is tradition.
While test-fitting the canopy, a minor disaster occurred: the cockpit tub broke free:
How do you fix someting like this? The fuselage is glued shut, opening it back up would destroy all the work I've put into it. Well: I drilled a hole in the nose gear bay, so I could push the cockpit back in place:
No need to fill the hole, as it will be hidden underneath the nose gear leg:
Even so, I'll have to be careful when installing the ejection seat, so this doesn't happen again...
Finally, the walls of the gear bays need to be painted in the same colour as the underside of the plane, so I masked the underside. The main gear doors close back up when the gear has cdeployed, so these doors need to be modelled in that position. Unfortunately, there are no location tabs for them closed. They need to be fitted flush but are slightly too big. I test-fitted one of them and found out it is nearly impossible to do by hand. As a solution I cut some sprue to size and glued those in as a support. You can see the two round pieces, hidden behind the corners of the bay:
Hopefully this will allow me to install the doors correctly.
Finally, model number 4. I think I featured this one before in the blog, a long time ago. So here it is: the return of the Minerva Armoured Car. CSM is re-issueing the kit, as the first edition sold out rather quickly.
I finished the engine and glued together the floor and body armour panels. I also resprayed the running boards and mudflaps:
As you can see, I had to use a bit of filler, so I masked off some parts ready for a careful respray. The inside floor I'll keep in wood effect, but the part that's protruding to the back and the sides will be chipped with the same grey-blue colour (
XF-82) as the body.
That's it for now.
See you next week!
