T-51D "Sentinel" Trainer

[K5054NZ]

BAZZAAAAAAAAAAA!
What's happening? Update please?

[John Howling Mouse]

Stabilizer is going very well.  Lots of puttying and sanding to go, though.

Tailfin is also under the putty-sand-repeat cycles but is not looking very good at the moment.  

And I discovered why this latest batch of masking tape was on sale: it's junk!  

Normally, I use strips of masking tape adjacent to puttying-sanding areas to reduce the inadvertent damage to surface details during the puttying-sanding process.

In getting wet, this latest masking tape has left a miserable, hard-to-remove adhesive residue everywhere.  

Shoulda stuck with genuine 3M product!

[Leigh]

Simple question WHY?
Not trying to be a smart arse but why go to all the effort of resin casting. I can understand the reasoning for weapons, wheels etc that you might use over and over again but are you gonna use this cowl on other projects? If not then wouldn't it just be easier to make it out of styrene stock instead of balsa and be done with it? Genuine question as I'm appproaching the the stage where I'm thinking of trying my hand at my own castings.

Tape residue will probably come of with a q-tip and some alcohol or acetone.

[rallymodeller]

JHM, check at your local PartSource (and I know there is at least one in yer neck of the woods) for Goof-Off. We sell it at our store, got a bottle meself.

[John Howling Mouse]

Yep, I have used Goof Off ™ before for this.  It works very well but can also have a very nasty reaction with plastic and/or fillers sometimes, though.  Don't know why, doesn't happen all the time but I seldom risk it anymore.  I should give the alcohol tip a try, though.  Less risky (I hope).

As for the cowl molding question: yeah, I've got at least two more of these to do:
In addition to the Sentinel Trainer, there will be a full-blown COIN version (with full-length tail) and a NASA black/white version.

I also plan on using the extended cowl on regular mustangs for a different look (want to see if any JMN notices the difference).

Cutting a subject in the midst of a taper on a compound curve in order to insert an extension block is not as easy as it may seem (at least not for me!).

By the time I had tapered the MDF gap-filling block between the fore and aft edges of the separation cut on the Mustang kit's fuselage, I realized "I don't want to ever have to do that again!" and knew I should make a mold for quick resin copies.  If I hadn't done a few really dumb things and the mold release agent had worked as it should have, this would have been an easy one-part mold.

But complications are what make me weave rhythmically in my bed in the middle of the night quietly chanting the mantra "Models are fun, models are fun" repeatedly.    

[proditor]

Every time I check one of your threads I'm just floored at your skill.  As the young'ins around here say, "You got mad skillz dawg!"  Seriously, we need a jaw drop smiley for your stuff.  The t-tail looks amazing btw.  Heck, all of your models look amazing!

[Leigh]

Every time I check one of your threads I'm just floored at your skill.  As the young'ins around here say, "You got mad skillz dawg!"  Seriously, we need a jaw drop smiley for your stuff.  The t-tail looks amazing btw.  Heck, all of your models look amazing!

Hell they'd look really amazing if he ever got one painted


Just teasing Baz, hoping it will keep you nudged into production. So in another thread you mentioned Milliput was just two part plumbers epoxy. Could you expand on this, I'm a plumber and have only ever used epoxy once and that stuff seemed to harden like steel. Is this the same stuff? seems like it would be a bitch to sand down.

[cthulhu77]

agree with the "jaw dropping" smilie...we need it for these builds !!!
     great molding pics.

   Milliput doesn't achieve the same level of hardness as the clear or silver epoxies, but it sure is easier to level before it completely dries !!

[John Howling Mouse]

Every time I check one of your threads I'm just floored at your skill.  As the young'ins around here say, "You got mad skillz dawg!"  Seriously, we need a jaw drop smiley for your stuff.  The t-tail looks amazing btw.  Heck, all of your models look amazing!

Hell they'd look really amazing if he ever got one painted


Just teasing Baz, hoping it will keep you nudged into production. So in another thread you mentioned Milliput was just two part plumbers epoxy. Could you expand on this, I'm a plumber and have only ever used epoxy once and that stuff seemed to harden like steel. Is this the same stuff? seems like it would be a bitch to sand down.

Hey, I got this one painted (just never put on the landing gear or took off the canopy's masking----I think there's actually a cockpit in there somewhere   ).

Yep, the plumber's epoxy does harden to "steel" practically.  But so does Milliput.
I took a hammer to a chunk of hardened Milliput once.  It didn't even crack.
I smooth it to shape with a wetted finger (no, not spit) while it's still setting and sand it before it cures completely.  Very, very strong stuff!

[John Howling Mouse]

I call these pics "tailyuck" 1 and 2:





Stabilizer is made up of four main parts and a bunch of little filler bits of styrene:



Underside (or is it the top?)

[K5054NZ]

As always Bazza, good to see some progres..

[John Howling Mouse]

Here they both are, primed and ready for paint:

[Eddie M.]

That Sabre jet is a knock out! Good to see your birds wearing their primer. B)
Have you decided on a color for your Morsair?
  Eddie

[John Howling Mouse]

That Sabre jet is a knock out! Good to see your birds wearing their primer. B)
Have you decided on a color for your Morsair?
  Eddie

I keep picturing the Morsair in a tan-on-brown mud-mover camo...maybe with a camo grey underside???

[Brian da Basher]

I keep picturing the Morsair in a tan-on-brown mud-mover camo...maybe with a camo grey underside???

That works for me John! It sounds close to that U.S. Marine ground attack camo I was talking about earlier.

Brian da Basher