Migina 1 - profile by Arc3371

[BlackOps]

Weaver, this just looks so right! 

[Weaver]

Decisions, decisions... The decals are beautiful, and on test have proved FAR too translucent to go over a variably dark grey background, AND my only tin of spray varnish just died  .

So, options are:

1. Reprint the decals on white transfer paper and then go in search of matt varnish on a Sunday (and then try to cut the ****ing things out accurately,

or

2. Mask and paint white bits on the model to act as a background for the translucent decals....


Hmmmmm 

[Weaver]

Managed to get some more matt varnish and had a brainwave: I'm printing the decals on white paper with a grey background that kinds matches where they go on the model, so if I do have to cut a little wide, the extra will still blend in. 

Soooo I've just had 97 goes at getting the shades of grey right, because my printer, inevitably, doesn't produce the same hue as the screen......

[Weaver]

Here's some pics of the stripey tail and the Metalcote Steel underside (think the Humbrol code's 28003, but don't hold me to that):



Always difficult to photograph shiny things, and these were real quick and dirty....



I made a bit of a hash of this, to be honest. Since you have to polish the metalcoat to get the shine, I thought I'd better lay it on thick so that it didn't wear through, so I did the normal trick and painted with the gunk off the stirring stick. BIG mistake: this stuff is gooeyer than normal Humbrol and dries VERY quickly, so it ended up looking more like plaster than paint: I had to flat it off with 1500 grade wet'n'dry to get a flat enough surface to polish.... However, since these plates are there to protect the airframe from the jetwash, I dare say they wouldn't be exactly pristine on the real thing....

[sotoolslinger]

It looks very cool though. I have the same problem with my computer and it also doesn't accurately show what size the decal will print

[Weaver]

Yeah, and when I switched to Best Photo mode to print the actual decals, the colours changed again. In retrospect, the same shift would probably have made the original test colours right....

However, time is too short to care, so those ARE the decals that are going on. It mostly won't make much difference: my concern was that they have a very thin black border, and if I tried to cut right up to it and accidentally cut it off, it would be really conspicuous. However, with a grey background, I can cut JUST outside it, and I wander a little, the excess will blend into the background grey. Maybe.

Oh well, lessons learned 93.6 - do test prints in the same mode as final prints..... 

As regards sizing, I have the same problem, so I do a black and white size-test before anything else.

[Mossie]

Looking good!  Could you double up the decals, i.e. one on top of another?  Should reduce the transparency, the step shouldn't be too bad?

[Weaver]

Looking good!  Could you double up the decals, i.e. one on top of another?  Should reduce the transparency, the step shouldn't be too bad?

Had a go at that on a test piece: it didn't seem to make much difference, and the decals seemed to stick together really quickly, before I could getthem lined up properly. Anyway, I've done the white paper thang now.

[Weaver]

Had a blazingly successful evening, and short of decals, it's almost finished!

Weapons. Left to right, 2 x armour-piercing bombs on a scratch-built carrier, two rocket pods, and three anti-personnel bombs also on a scratch-built carrier. Yes I have noticed that one of the rocket warheads has "blobbed" - 'twill be fixed shortly (scarily, I'm spotting things on the photos that I've missed IRL!)




Case in point: I've just noticed a flaw in the paint on the pilot's face:



I ummed and arrrred for ages about the stand, because the only place you can really attach it is right where I want a decal. Eventually, I came up with this:



The stand is actually from a KP kit, chosen because it resembles a section of the "facetted" star in the PRGM flag. The two rods go into these holes in the bottom, which will let it bank to each side with NO chance of it falling off. The two holes should vanish quite well in the middle of a decal.



Think that last picture shows off the metalcoat better than the others, actually. The plane's currently suspended like that because, with heart firmly clamped in mouth, I took the Dremel to the nose and cut a forward camera port with a cylindrical diamond engraver and then filled it with black paint, which must not sag until dry. Once dry, it'll get a blob of Clearfix in it.

What I havn't photographed, because it's currently swathed in masking tape, is the canopy. Once I'd painted the anti-glare panel on, I decided that the front canopy frames really needed to be black. Much fun.....

[Sauragnmon]

Looking very good, Weaver... the base join is definately of merit with the pin joins, allows you to remove it for transport if necessary.  Also an interesting choice of warload, but hey, it's what if for a reason!

[Weaver]

Currently 1.00am Monday morning, and I'm having an Official Stop-Fiddling-Before-You-Screw-It-Up-Break.....

Lower-surface roundels are on...  Whether they'll stay on, is another matter.......

[sotoolslinger]

Beauty , go to sleep ,you still got 2 days. I will never finish mine

[Weaver]

You WILL finish your's Ron - maybe not in time for the GB, but you WILL finish it! 

Principal decals on top sides and looking gooooooooooooood 

Just having a "stop-messing" break while they dry. One problem: I'm not going to be able to glue the canopy on tonight, because I have yet to put the pilot and seat in, and if I put the canopy on immediately afterwards, the glue fumes will fog it......

Now going to have a head scratch over the Gina and MiG decals to see which warning notices are too small to tell they're in German/Russian/Italian.......

[Weaver]

"Oh Aye, Oh Aye, what're youse looking at comrade? D'yer want bombin'? Eh, EH? 'AVE IT!!!!!!"

[Weaver]

BE VERY AFRAID, CAPITALIST LAPDOGS OF THE SHIRE ARISTO-OPPRESSORS!
THE MIGINA IS COMING FOR YOU!