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

[Rick Lowe]

That's a relief. 

AIUI, the layering is L-E-A;
Lacquer
Enamel
Acrylic

You can do other sequences, but it's a fraught and flukey business.

I like the art-shop acrylic varnish which goes on white and dries clear.
Gunze flat clear is also good, but can strip off some acrylics and especially Vallejo.

[Weaver]

Ouch. having had a Seahawk ruined by Humbrol enamel varnish going misty, I feel your pain.

My current theory is to never mix brands of paint, varnish and thinners. If Humbrol's thinners or varnish doesn't work with their own paint, then you've got a basis for complaint. If you're mixing brands, they you're basically doing chemistry experiments on your model...

[NARSES2]

I like the art-shop acrylic varnish which goes on white and dries clear.

Yup, I keep coming back to Winsor and Newton Galleria 

Anyway Attacker is now back to the varnish stage.

[JayBee]

I have just had a problem which may be related, but it does not concern any varnish. Instead it concerns an incompatibility between two different primers.
The first primer was Tamiya grey in a rattle can. I used this for the area round the canopy as it was the right colour for the interior. Then a few days later I used Halfords White Plastic Primer again a rattle can. For our non UK readers this is an automotive paint range. I used this because it was a plastic primer and the underside of the aircraft is going to be white.
Within a short space of time, those areas where the white primer was applied over the grey crinkled up (best term I could think of). It looked like a dried lake bed, or snakeskin, or whatever.
It is salvageable but it is a d**** nuisance.
So was it the white primer reacting to the grey by not wanting to adhere to it, or was it the grey not liking the new primer on top? I do not knoe. I have used both primers before without any problem, but never together.

[Steel Penguin]

possibly solvent from one reacting with the other, but which way round is any ones guess 

[zenrat]

I was building the Monogram 1/24 Hurst Hairy Olds.  A twin engined exhibition dragster from the sixties.
I got a good gold base of car paint, masked and painted the black sections with gloss enamel, decalled it and then had a brain fart and cleared it with Tamiya TS (lacquer) clear.
The black enamel immediately became crackle finish.
Worse thing was the impossibility of getting replacement decals without buying another kit.
I stripped it, designed and printed decals and it became a Whiff car called Swashbuckler (as it was based on an Olds Cutlass) but I was never happy with it.
And it was obviously cursed because a month or so later the clear coat on that cracked.

The moral of that story is don't put Tamiya TS clear over anything other than Tamiya TS paint.
My clear of choice over Vallejo acrylics is something called White Knight Crystal Clear Acrylic (stain or gloss) which comes in big rattle cans which I get from the DIY warehouse.

[Rick Lowe]

White Knight Crystal Clear Acrylic (stain or gloss) which comes in big rattle cans which I get from the DIY warehouse.

Would that be a Bunnings stocked line?

[zenrat]

White Knight Crystal Clear Acrylic (stain or gloss) which comes in big rattle cans which I get from the DIY warehouse.

Would that be a Bunnings stocked line?

Yes.
I didn't put Bunnings to avoid confusing our overseas subscribers.

[Rick Lowe]

White Knight Crystal Clear Acrylic (stain or gloss) which comes in big rattle cans which I get from the DIY warehouse.

Would that be a Bunnings stocked line?

Yes.
I didn't put Bunnings to avoid confusing our overseas subscribers.

Cool, thanks - guess I have some shopping to do...

[zenrat]

Satin, not stain.

Cruse that autocarrot fixture.

[NARSES2]

I didn't put Bunnings to avoid confusing our overseas subscribers.

Bunnings bought out Homebase in the UK and have been busy re-branding them as Bunnings, so it's a name know in the UK.

Anyway, call me paranoid but the Attacker has had a couple of coats of Klear before it gets it's varnish 

[zenrat]

I didn't put Bunnings to avoid confusing our overseas subscribers.

Bunnings bought out Homebase in the UK and have been busy re-branding them as Bunnings, so it's a name know in the UK...

Yes, but I doubt they sell the same brands of spray paints.  Or maybe they do?

[NARSES2]

Yes, but I doubt they sell the same brands of spray paints.  Or maybe they do?

No they don't. I checked out that particular varnish you mentioned and it wasn't on their list of brands. They don't have a full on-line listing (or not one I could find) but a quick check seemed to show it as an Southern Hemisphere only brand.

Meanwhile back at the bench. The Attacker's undersides have been varnished so getting close to the finish with this one. I've also started on my RS  Models Ki-87. Just a few sub-assemblies and a bit of pre-painting. Should really be working on my Cold War build, or at least starting it, but not quite in the mood for some reason ? 

[NARSES2]

Well the Attacker is finished  Took some time, had some problems, indeed at times I thought she was jinxed, and at the end of the day I'd probably giver her 5 out of 10. AZ kits can be a bit hit and miss. Their recent Me 109's are probably the best out there for instance but the MB5 and indeed the Attacker are definitely limited run and much more hard work. I'll get some photos done over the weekend.

I've also made more progress on the Ki-87 and so far she is going together really well. I've been building RS kits since their resin days an dthey are a company who have steadily improved the quality of their tooling's. With this one they are definitely getting towards the upper echelons of the limited run producers.

I've got a bit farther than this now but here's the sub assemblies I was working on whilst finishing the Attacker.

[NARSES2]

Progress is good with the Ki 87-I and I'm really impressed with how she's going together    The fuselage halves closed up around the cockpit and engine inserts beautifully, no problems at all which is not something that can be said for some limited run, nor mainstream kits. It's also noticeable that some of these interior bits have guides as to where they need to be fitted/glued, another step forward for RS. I've dry fitted the wings to fuselage and the fit there also looks to be good, but I'll wait until glue has been applied before confirming that as sometimes with my builds they dry fit great and then get a wiff of glue and...... 

As things stand I'll be looking for the Ki-87-II boxing RS do at MK. This was the proposed production version which had some significant changes from the I prototype which did actually fly.