avatar_SebastianP

Evil kit, evil paint, evil bloody scalpel blades

Started by SebastianP, August 26, 2006, 10:02:39 AM

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SebastianP

I'm building an 1/48 Raptor again, after swearing off the entire scale after my last attempt, and it's naturally not going where I want it to. I've gotten the dratted thing looking *too* metallic, which is hilarious (since everyone else paints theirs flat...) and since the seams I thought I'd done a good job camouflaging show up like beacons under the nearly NMF finish, I'm considering stripping the damned thing and doing something else with it. Also, since one of my major difficulties with the beast is the color white (as in bomb bays and gear wells), I got a slight brainstorm - white overall, ghost gray dielectric/RAM surfaces, red-orange tails and wing panels, and Test Pilot school markings...

Too bad I don't have any markings for it, though, because it would have been awesome, IMHO.

Another idea also based on white, which I *do* have decals for (Hasegawa F/A-18B), is white with dark blue stripe and NASA decals. Not sure how I'd align the stripe though...

Anyone else have any ideas for what I can do with my Raptor - remember I don't have all that much in the way of decals to choose from in this scale any more...

SP

Hobbes

For wheel wells etc. I usually cheat by using Humbrol 196, a very light gray with much better coverage than white.  

dragon

If it is that much of a pain, go from "What-If?" to "What-the-heck?": South East Asia Camouflage with US Air Force markings and call it an "Aggressor" aircraft for RED FLAG at NELLIS AFB say 5 years from now. B)

or

Give it USAF THUNDERBIRDS markings! B)  
"As long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway, why not get the benefits of it?  It liberates you from convention."- from the novel WICKED by Gregory Maguire.
  
"I must really be crazy to be in a looney bin like this" - Jack Nicholson in the movie ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST

SebastianP

I've actually learned rather a lot already from messing with this thing, and may actually strip it just to redo the original scheme in a slightly better rendition...

I'm a little bummed about putty in general - I tried Italeri once upon a time, and it got all crumbly on me while applying it, and then it ate my kit when I wasn't looking. I tried Milliput, and ended up with bone hard white residue in all my panel lines, which was actually harder than the plastic so I went from recessed panel lines to raised(!). Then I tried thick superglue, which takes forever since it dries so thin and is so easy to misapply (and then it hardens where it shouldn't and you have to chisel all of it away, or you end up with a very large and strange-looking finger ornament).

My latest adventure is Vallejo putty, which at least goes where I want it without fuss, but then it never stays put, since it doesn't bite into the plastic at all. I can fill deep cracks without a trace, but try fixing a piddling shallow sinkmark or Dog forbid a groove, and every time I sand it takes away the putty, too. Where's my hopping mad smiley when I need it?

On the paint front, the kit as is was painted with a mix of Humbrol Metalcote Matt Aluminum and Gunmetal for the base color, and some Gunmetal/Flat Black mix for the camo color. This turned out to be actually polishable - which rocks, and means I can try the original camo again using a mix of Humbrol 145 and the metal colors instead. I'll need to pick up some more oven cleaner though, I think - I actually used up my last Mr Muscle on my oven...

SP

SebastianP

Slight update: There is no longer any paint on my kit, or at least it's not enough to be actually called "painted" by any stretch of the imagination. Yowza, that stuff was sensitive to the white spirits I use for thinner... I tried daubing on a little with a wad of TP, and the paint just came off - future or no future. I used up perhaps 5 cc of white spirits and a sponge to clean the gunk off, while rinsing it in the tub. (Also discovered that my bathroom drain was nearly clogged, and I can't get to the wad of gunk that is the main culprit - icky, icky business...)

For some reason, the kit came partly apart when I was messing with it - I think the thinner weakens the plastic or the glue welds, since it comes apart mostly along the glue seams. Thankfully the top bits stuck together, and will hopefully continue to do so.

I'll do some experiments with mixing flat and metalcote paint tomorrow on my test article, and see what happens - I think I need to dispose of the sponge now, since my head is starting to spin from that stuff...

SP

Hobbes

It's the metalcote that makes it so easily removable, I think. It's rather more fragile than Humbrol's other paints.  

B777LR

Japan, israel and south korea are possible future customers

SebastianP

I'm pretty much fresh out of any national insignia other than the US - I may be able to scrounge up a set of hi-viz Dutch roundels, but that's just so wrong for the Raptor. Everything else I've got is too small, and most of it hi-vis. If my local shops ever start stocking the smaller version again, I may end up having to put Ukrainian splinter camo and blue/yellow shoulder stripes on one, though...

SP  

John Howling Mouse

For flawless, Easy-Enough-Even-JHM-Doesn't-Mess-It-Up Putty, may I suggest Bondo's Glazing Putty?



Styrene in my blood and an impressive void in my cranium.

SebastianP

Eff. You. See. Kay. The whole damned plane popped apart at the seams, and I can't stick it together again - the glue won't take. Just as I'm ready to pronounce success in my sparkly paint endeavor, too. I am soo sick of Italeri right now...

I mixed ten or so drops of Humbrol 145 and a few drops of Metalcote Flat aluminium, and got a rather nice effect to start with. It sparkled like heck from some angles, and not at all from others, just like the real thing. Too bad the paint shade felt a little off. I mixed in more aluminium to lighten it, and it went permanently sparkly, so I put in some 127 (ghost gray) and some 130 (satin white), and I think I've gotten it now. I'm waiting for my old test kit to dry a little more so I can see what happens, but it's looking promising...

The kit itself is facing a write-off unless something drastic happens - one of the seams at the rear end had popped, so I went to glue that, and one of the intake funnels fell out. While I was attending *that*, the entire interior of one of the engines (top, bottom, sides) fell out the rear end. I'm not sure those can even be replaced without splitting the thing, and I'm just not doing that. I'm going spare, here...

Oh, and the bottom of the forward fuselage, complete with intake lips, has decided it doesn't want to stay affixed to the kit either. I hates italeri...

SP

Hobbes


SebastianP

I primarily use Revell Contacta (the applicator bottle); and Humbrol Liquid Poly brush-on cement. I think part of the problem may be the white spirits I used to wash the paint off. I think I've managed to stick it together finally through judicious use of thick CA, though - it once again looks like a Raptor. Time will tell whether it'll look any good - I do know that I was much too impatient with the dratted thing anyway. At least this one still has all its parts and doesn't have any obvious broken sections (yet)...

SP

Brian da Basher

I feel your pain, Sebastian! I've been using Squadron™ White putty for years and have had good experiences although others seem to hate the stuff.

I'm making a final cut to the rear fin & rudder on my trimotor B-47 project tonight. Perhaps a blood sacrifice from me to the modelling gods will help you.

Best of luck!

Brian da Basher

SebastianP

For a kit I thought I'd have to scrap, this thing is coming along right nicely. After waiting a few days for the paint to dry through completly, it looks rather spiffy - it shines metallically when the light catches it, but under indirect light it looks flat. Bingo. It's npt perfect, but at least it does change texture.

With bone-dry, flat paint as a base, I'm hoping the putty takes a little better. I'm also leaving it on for a lot longer - not touching the kit again until at least tomorrow - and hopefully I'll be able to sand out the damned kink, one way or the other. Also hoping the  intakes will look OK in outline when I'm done, there were some gaps after I rebuilt them. Yuck.

I kinda sorta wish I still had the ordnance from my old Italeri F-117 to use on this baby - it came with a pair of "special stores" which I'd have liked to use on the F-22. I've still got one such thing to go on a 1/72 version, but that'll have to wait until I can get my hands on one... *sigh*.

Another gripe with the kit that I don't think came up earlier: The tailhook. ARRGH. I can't install it closed, and it looks goofy with it extended (that almost never happens IRL, IIRC...) Why'd they have to include that thing?  :(  

Captain Canada

I'd put a post on Hyperscale, I'm sure somebody there would cough up the Edwards Test decals !

:cheers:

The white and red bird just sounds too good........
CANADA KICKS arse !!!!

Long Live the Commonwealth !!!
Vive les Canadiens !
Where's my beer ?