Gondor's Grumblings

[PR19_Kit]

Pakistani Lancaster would be interesting. What would India have got/used ? Lancaster's, Fortress's , Liberators ?

Liberators, if only because they really did. The one at Duxford is an ex-Indian Air Force Lib.

[DogfighterZen]

A short while ago I found the missing item from the G.91 

It's attached so in a while I will repaint the underside as the colour scheme will be the same as my P.177R and as that needs another coat of paint so I can paint the G.91 at the same time 

Once the painting is done I can then work on some tidying up as I can park the drying aircraft elsewhere to dry and out of the way of dust.

Gondor

How's that Gina coming along? 

[Gondor]

Needs a few bits added to it that I missed in the instructions and then those parts painted prior to moving onto the upper surfaces.

Gondor

[Go4fun]

GONDOR'S RULE OF MODEL BUILDING TIME TRAVEL: "Any part that vanishes into thin air during a build will reappear at least six months later while searching for a newly vanished part which will repeat the process".

[Gondor]

GONDOR'S RULE OF MODEL BUILDING TIME TRAVEL: "Any part that vanishes into thin air during a build will reappear at least six months later while searching for a new vanished part which will repeat the process".

Not this time. They are still on the sprue/tree 

Gondor

[Gondor]

Managed to make a mess of my PC so using my laptop 

Not a happy bunny

Gondor

[Gondor]

Had my PC back for a couple of weeks now, it's sort of back to what was normal now 

Model building has been slow, but as several are nearly finished most of what is required is painting.

Xtracolor is now not exactly my favourite paint at the moment, probably my own fault for not using primer 



This was after a couple of coats of brushed on paint so I decided to use Humbrol with the following result




Not quite a single coat as a few areas were a little patchy but nothing like the results I had with the Xtracolor 

So this one is getting there which leaves a few more aircraft to get painted and then weapons fitted etc so I will have at least one new aircraft at Perth this year.

Gondor

[NARSES2]

Yup I've found primer very necessary with Xtracolour and resin. Xtracrylic as well for that matter

[kitbasher]

Pakistani Lancaster would be interesting. What would India have got/used ? Lancaster's, Fortress's , Liberators ?

Liberators, if only because they really did. The one at Duxford is an ex-Indian Air Force Lib.

And the one at Hendon (originally Cosford)

Yup I've found primer very necessary with Xtracolour and resin. Xtracrylic as well for that matter

Being a hand brush painter I always use the nearest matt Humbrol shade as the primer for Xtracolor/Xtracrylic.  I like their finishes but always find Xtracolor/Xtracrylic semi-transparent.  I guess essentially I use them as coloured varnishes?

[The Wooksta!]

They're really meant to be sprayed, hence the patchy nature of the finish. 

[Gondor]

They're really meant to be sprayed, hence the patchy nature of the finish. 

That would explain it 

From now on I will either spray them or use them for details

Gondor

[NARSES2]

They're really meant to be sprayed, hence the patchy nature of the finish. 

Ah, the penny drops 

I knew the acrylic was (the bottle is awful for brush painters) but not the enamel

[PR19_Kit]

I've never used Xtracrylic paints, but I've got, and used, a lot of Xtracolor enamels, mostly on my airliners. I've never sprayed any of them and not had any problems with the coverage.

But, and it's a big but, they need LOTS of mixing to get the density correct, maybe 2-3 times as much as Humbrol enamels, plus they take for ever to dry so I usually give them a brushed coat of Klear, with a wide flat brush, after 5-6 hours and that does the job.

My mixing system isn't just the twirled bit of sprue though, I have a 1965 vintage slot racing motor which has a 4-5" long length of brass tubing soldered over its shaft, which has the last 1/2" bent through 90 deg. and twisted a tad so it looks like a single bladed propeller. Powered by an old model railway controller running at 9-10V and with a makeshift 'switch' on one motor brush it makes an ideal paint mixer, and it's served me well since the 70s.

You may  well ask why the paint doesn't splatter itself all over the model room, and me as well, when it's being stirred, but I have a solution for that as well. I use a dead toilet paper inner cardboard roll, chopped into three pieces, and one piece slipped over the opened paint tin so that I grasp the tin THROUGH the roll. Then any splattered paint ends up on the inside of the roll and not over the outside of me. 

[Gondor]

Some more progress over the last few days. The masking tape used for the demarcation lines between upper and lower fuselage colours on my SR.177 have been removed showing very few areas that will require touching up. Undercarriage to be attached after painting the nose wheel followed by the rear of the aircraft around the exhausts which I have decided to pain in a metal finish seeing how that's the hot end. The underside of my G.91 is finished so masking the demarcation line is next on the job list for that aircraft while my F-4M still requires work in the cockpit area before that sees any paint. I have also buttoned up my BoB spitfire which involved some scratch building as I have either misplaced part A9 or the carpet monster has claimed it. The part has been replaced with a length of wire fixed into the rear of the propeller with a shaft for the rod taken from a length of plastic tube which in turn was attached to a piece of plastic card and glued to the inside of the fuselage nose as the plastic tube was too small a diameter to fit directly into the moulded opening. Slightly fiddly but it has worked out a treat 

Gondor

[Thorvic]

Nice to hear that the MoJo is back in full flow and the work in progress shelf is getting some serious attention. Sounds like you'll have completed builds popping up here frequently in the next few weeks  .

I take it the P177 will be a 3 sqdn special with that bright green tail ?