Narses2's Blog - or what I'm slowly making progress on

[NARSES2]

Anyway the Beaufighter has got to the point of getting her transfers. I reached the point where the Law of Diminishing Returns kicked in. This for me when building a model is when the build becomes hard work and not enjoyable. I know there are a couple of really tiny areas where I should re-mask and re-paint, but they are miniscule and to me it's just not worth it. Sorry if it offends but it's a hobby not life it'self.

The Hein has had her underside painted. I again had trouble with the Tamiya paint, it seemed to be drying almost on the brush  I ended up thinning the stuff in its pot with Tamiya's thinner and that made it far better. Still not great but better.

I did learn one thing yesterday. I tried to model whilst listening to Palace on the radio  Lets just say the Beaufighter nearly went for it's maiden flight  Won't be doing that again.

[NARSES2]

I've been finding that with a few of these eastern European manufacturers.

When the then Czechoslovakia was joining the E.U. I was at a meeting in Prague and referred to Eastern Europe. I was very quickly shown a map and it was pointed out how much of the then Czechoslovakia was farther west then a chunk of Germany. They were being serious as well. I always used the term "Central Europe" after that 

[kitnut617]

The AZ Attacker, like their Spiteful and Seafang, used the CMR kits as masters.  And the latter were pretty awful kits.

I've got the Spiteful and Seafang, what's also really odd about them is the Spiteful is smaller than the Seafang, I think it's about 1/75 scale. When comparing the Seafang with one of the latest Airfix Spitfires, they're very close ---

[NARSES2]

Bit of a medical week which has slowed but progress but have made some on all current projects. Even had a look see for my next builds 

The main progress has been on the Beaufighter which now has all its transfers. Took a while as there were a fair few stencils. For once I actually used all of them  I think it's because I tackled it in 4 stages and the bonus is that because of the scheme they are quite visable.

Got me thinking about stencils as I normally only use the more obvious ones and I started to think that some day soon one of the major Far Eastern producers will advertise a kit "with full internal detail inc. full stencil data"  For all I know one may already do that, but I was just remembering when putting transfers on a model involved 6 to 10 pieces and took all of 20 mins. 

[PR19_Kit]

Goodness knows how  many the forthcoming Airfix Phantom will have. 

[NARSES2]

I've seen the placement sheet and the number looks incredible 

The Japanese Phantoms always seem to have more then any other nation's to me. Probably just the scheme but they always look like flying billboards.

[Thorvic]

Having seen a FAA Phantom still in its original scheme you can see that every panel virtually has a stencil on it in one form or another. It makes the repainted one look slightly odd as they only put the minimal stencils on when they repainted the aircraft from its RAF ADV scheme to 892 FAA scheme.

(they should ask Airfix to scale up the stencil sheet to 1/1 scale to print out and apply to the real aircraft  )

[PR19_Kit]

Perhaps the Japanese Phantoms have the stencilling in English and Kanji too? Double the number! 

[NARSES2]

Slow progress continues.

The Beaufighter has had some coast of satin varnish and her masking removed. I took a more traditional approach with the canopies on this one in that I masked them, using an Eduard sheet I found I had, and then fitting them and then painting them when I did the fuselage. Not bad results but unless I have or get an Eduard sheet I will stick with my painted masking tape method. I'm absolutely useless at masking canopies, don't know why but I just am 

The Hein has had her uppers painted and the masking for the yellow leading edges removed. Come out o.k. 

Both of these are now on finals, but the finals for the Beau' will take a while I think.

The Claude has been primed and still needs some more p.s.r.

The Attacker needs some work on a wing root so as the wing is a tad deeper than the root I've used some thin micro strip which I've moulded (using liquid glue) into the root and will sand this to fair them together over the weekend hopefully.

Decided my next project will be twin engined, real world and quite large. So I've got my Airfix Whitley out. This was my free kit for completing their totally boring market research lately. It was more like a physiological test for the modeler than more usual p.r. and is 30mins of my life I'll never get back 

[TheChronicOne]

I have 30 minutes to burn from time to time! Where I can sign up for the boring market research?     (kidding, mainly, ..probably not even available to us in the States) 

DEFINITELY with you on masking canopies. I'd rather have slightly squiggly lines (even if after toothpicks) than try to mask. I don't see how people have the patience and stamina to mask certain things. Eduard masks look like treasure with sun beams coming off and harp music being strummed by an angel. Glad to hear you say they work well.. I like first hand info. I'm going to be using some on a couple kits myself I've been wondering.

[NARSES2]

I still have a slight problem even with Eduard masks but that's purely down to my current eye problem. It causes me to misalign things slightly, but they are still good.

My preferred method is to use strips of painted masking tape. I have tape down to 0.5mm in width which I paint in the desired colour then measure and place on the canopy as frames. Coat of Klear and it works for me  The most used widths I find are 0.5mm and 0.75mm.

[Gondor]

Perhaps the Japanese Phantoms have the stencilling in English and Kanji too? Double the number! 

Have you seen them on their aggressor F-15's! They aggressor paint finish is applied around such things as stencils so you have lots of little areas of grey with the stencils on them surrounded by the new colours. Must be a nightmare for the paint shop to mask up!   

Masking canopies has got nothing on those guys.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Perhaps the Japanese Phantoms have the stencilling in English and Kanji too? Double the number! 

Have you seen them on their aggressor F-15's! They aggressor paint finish is applied around such things as stencils so you have lots of little areas of grey with the stencils on them surrounded by the new colours. Must be a nightmare for the paint shop to mask up!   

Masking canopies has got nothing on those guys.

I bet they get a good discount on Tamiya tape, but maybe they have to buy it 1 foot wide rolls? 

[NARSES2]

I bet they get a good discount on Tamiya tape, but maybe they have to buy it 1 foot wide rolls? 

Doubt it. Military and Health Service seem to pay three times as much as the standard price for most normal items  At least in the U.K. I've seen some invoices 

[NARSES2]

Made good progress on the Beaufighter yesterday. Got a solid three hours in, a good stint for me, instead of listening to the pure purgatory that is Palace  A lot of the parts are almost click fit and don't need glue, especially when you can't get them apart after a test fit 

Had a bit of a problem with the undercarriage and, no, it wasn't your fault Nick  On the first one I built I followed the instructions with no problem. On this one I thought it would be easier painting wise to deviate slightly. Well it was when it came to painting, but as for fitting the undercarriage at the end of the build ? In all honesty the problem was mainly caused by my current hand-eye* coordination problems. Got there in the end but it is slightly misaligned. Still live and learn and I now know for the next one. Should finish her this week.

The Hein should get her transfers in the next day or so, but I'm a little busy until the middle of the week so may not finish her this week.

The Claude has had some Mr Surfacer 500 over the last p.s.r. stage and the Attackers wing root is awaiting sanding pads.

* I'm just going to have to deal with this as it's with me for good I think. The eye is healing very slowly according to the quacks, but I can't say I've noticed. It's better when I'm relaxed as the hand doesn't shake then, if wound up then it does a bit  Sometimes it's actually better to work with the dodgy eye closed, especially for close up work, my brain seems to cope with that far better than with a half good eye  I did chat with the specialist about it and he did explain it to me, but at the end of the day it's a case of just dealing with it. I have had to change the way I work slightly and will probably continue to do so. The difficult thing has been learning to accept that I can't do some things as well as I used to be able to do. Another "major" problem is that when at shows I'm having some difficulty seeing under the table sales whilst standing up, need knee pads I suppose  Still life goes on and most importantly it's still enjoyable