Damn, i cant even pick my nose without poking myself in the eye
6 Likes
Same. Masking tape is awesome. Even like this it was worth it. I have also read some tips about patiently sealing the tape edge with paint or varnish before going loose.
@speck the fit isn’t that bad, I still spend waaay more time painting, masking, glueing, shaking my hands and looking up images of various paint schemes of F1 from different angles than correcting the shape.
You just don’t hear as much about that part as it is fairly boring to write about: another layer,then I did a test paint, another layer, etc.
The cockpit fit was user error (back seat mounted incorrectly, did not look carefully at instructions), and I don’t think the wing’s angle will ever be perfect on any kit initially.
The gear was a pain to put in place but is actually drying up quite nicely. I added some big drops of Revell to it to make a bigger bond than the thin links I get with Tamiya. Still, I am mentally preparing for it to collapse as soon as I put the model upright tomorrow morning.
3 Likes
It did not even collapse! And despite the improvised gear strut part, it is standing pretty straight.
I know “close enough” when I see it, not going to mess up the gear over this.
Now the only big things remaining are gear well doors, decals, varnish coat and wash. Plenty of small antennae, pitot tubes, missiles, nav lights and painting mistakes to work on as well.
6 Likes
Same here. Essential tremor. Didn’t notice it until my mid to late 50’s. Don’t have it as bad as my brother though. I was talking to my doctor about it and told him that the only thing that seems to steady it is drinking a couple of pints. He said, “Then you need to drink more.”
4 Likes
My unsolicited tips on masking:
Use a toothpick to smooth over the edges to make sure they’re nice and tight to prevent seepage.
For canopies I like to cut long, thin strips of tape that I lay against the canopy frame, then fill in the rest with either rectangular patches of tape or Mr. Masking Sol R. Thinner strips are good for following the curves.
I want to get cracking on my F1CR, but the canopy piece came deformed and Heller hasn’t responded to my replacement request in over a week 
4 Likes
Thanks for the tips! Did I forget to explicitly ask? I did mean to solicit tips.
I didn’t know you can do that. How badly deformed is it?
I am probably not going to do my F1CR after this F1B. I am thinking of doing the Tornado GR.1 Desert scheme from Hasegawa.
I want to practice some more before starting the Italeri A-6E Intruder since that is mostly grey so I want to be good at washes before that. The Fujimi Sea King is too precious to me to do as a second model. Unless @speck says I should absolutely not do this kit now:
2 Likes
Massive gouge on the port side, running halfway up the canopy. I got a confirmation email after submitting the request but nothing since then 
I need a Tornado. As many times as I’ve been in model kit treasure troves in Akihabara I haven’t seen a single Tornado kit for some reason.
1 Like
Hey I built that one!
Was maybe number 2 or 3 after I started so that’s like 10 or 11 years ago. The only big problem I remember having was with the join line on the top of the fuselage and the drop tanks.
Needed to sand them a bunch to get them to disappear, then when I thought I had it I’d paint and low and behold the lines would show up again.
More than likely that was down to me just starting out rather than something wrong with the kit though. Besides that I don’t remember anything in particular to watch out for. The paint scheme is cool, and it was fun to do those big exhaust stains (I totally overdid it of course)
Now for sure I’m going to have to dig through those boxes and see if I can find it!
1 Like
That’s a fun coincidence! And good to hear it’s a good kit. I hope you can find it, would love to see it.
Your story about wing roots is getting me to rethink if I should try to fix the join on the F1B’s. I already threw a ton of putty at the problem and sanded a bit but it is stikl very visible. I’ll have a look when I get home if it can be fixed with only sanding, but I am probably better off not redoing the paint on top of the wings. The paint coat and detail can only get worse up there
I’m enjoying reading this thread as I’m re-discovering lost knowledge from when years of building model aircraft.
I think the last one I built properly was a 1:72 BBMF Lanc, 24 years ago. I built some stuff with manboy, but it was mainly built to last so he could play with, so just chucking together and painting with him.
I’ve got a 1:48 Tamiya Lanc kit pristine from 1989 that I bought with my first proper salary. Reading this thread I think it’s time she got built.
3 Likes
I wish I could find it! Thought for sure I’d at least have a picture saved somewhere but no luck.
Found this one under the packing peanuts and bubble wrap though, and as it’s somewhat Mirage-ish figured I’d post a picture.
A landing gear, canard and the canopy are at the bottom of the box somewhere, so my kid kindly offered her Kirby and Pokemon pencil case to prop things up for the photo.
Going back and redoing is tough choice! On the one hand it’s great practice, and if it turns out for the best you’ll be super satisfied. On the other like you say you might loose too much detail, snap something off while sanding, or maybe the paint in that area for whatever reason won’t look the same as the surrounding areas afterwards (that’s happened to me a few times and it’s a bummer).
I’d say if you think it’s going to really bug you in the future then give it a shot, otherwise it’s a bit risky. Good luck!
5 Likes
Wow the sand wash on that Kfir looks awesome!
Will post a picture in a bit but I am almost done with painting and gluing and I have a question:.
Do I attach missiles and pylons before or after wash and varnish?
The wash plan was first smooth the paint with high gloss from a can, then decals, fix them with more high gloss, then wash, then finally seal the wash with matt varnish.
I have read that it is good to do weathering wash before attaching pylons with missiles but isn’t it terrible to glue through 2 layers of varnish? What do the veterans think? @Clutch @speck @keets
hey thanks!
If I remember correctly it was called ‘neutral’ wash, by that company ‘Mig’. Worked well on lighter colored schemes where black might stick out too much.
As far as when to attach missiles and pylons and droptanks and stuff, I think ideally you treat all of them separately, almost like they are their own little kit, and then attach them at the end (or as close to the end as you can).
At least that’s what I would try and force myself to do when I had the patience, I had a tendency to rush through when I added them all at once, and then later when the kit was complete I’d look back and notice all kinds of stuff I missed. It’s also just harder to get at some of the pieces once on the model. For gluing I think I just used a little bit of CA? Or sometimes a tiny bit of regular modelers glue and then hoped I didn’t screw up/smear it while attaching… might explain why pieces randomly dropped off a few months later - hopefully someone else has better advice on that front!
oh and you might have experienced/thought of this already, but if you do spray the little pieces separately, make sure they are really attached to something. I remember back using spray cans setting everything up perfectly, standing back whatever distance the can said you were supposed to, aiming away and watching gear doors and the rest go flying off the table, some right into the cat’s bowl. Those cans really can blast out the paint!
1 Like
It depends on how detailed you want to be. In general, anything you can successfully paint together you can glue together. For example, if your racks and wings are the same paint, glue the racks in first and paint. Mask the gluing surfaces unless you can clean them up easily. Worst case you can glue paint to paint on a display type model if the weight is reasonable. If you did a good job of painting (degreased plastic, good smooth coat, etc), using a CA glue versus a solvent will stick things just fine for a display model. Take advantage of capillary action to just touch a brush to the joint so you don’t have shiny glue spots.
So, for a TER and a load of say M-82 snake eyes, I’d attach the rack to the plane, and paint it as it will match the fuselage/under wing. It would be painted along with the rest of the AC, assuming I’m airbrushing to so I can paint it easily on the plane. The bombs are painted in pieces (usually body and tail assembly), then glued together. Each bomb would then be CA glued to the rack.
1 Like
Attachments all at the end for me. I use little drops (like TINY–too much and you get crazing) of superglue, but I’ve been toying with the idea of using magnets…if I can find any small enough. On my next kit I won’t even attach the wings until after I paint them, which worries me slightly since Tamiya’s extra thin glue is chemically identical to their airbrush cleaner.
1 Like
Pylons, I use to do as part of the main kit, stores post paint and use a tiny amount of modellers glue.
1 Like
Thanks for the tips! Glad I asked before trying to model glue through the varnish, CA glue has been added to the box of model building supplies. I decided to attach the pylons that will be the same color as the bottom of the plane before varnish and wash, and to do the wing tips later.
I have good news and bad news: the good news is that:
- all masking tape lines that I removed since the initial sloppy result have been clean
- all gear doors fit very well, (3 per main gear) despite being unable to do a proper dry fit due to them falling in.
- I improved the look of the previous mistake of the thick uneven white painted ring near the exhaust by painting over it jn Gunmetal Grey.
- I even managed to correct the black color of the front part of the canopy to blue by painting over the lines by hand. I won’t be able to fix previous mistakes completely on this model but IMO it looks much better now.
- a mere second before pressing the button and spraying high gloss varnish on the model, I realized it probably fogs up the camopy and did a quick test on unused clear parts to confirm. Phew!
The bad news is that I got confident because of all the successes yesterday and did not do a proper test / practice round for spraying varnish in general.
The result is that the the model fell off the piece of cardboard (it bends when it gets wet) that I was holding it on into the grass, AND I think I have sprayed it way too thick. Didn’t have time to have a look in the morning so pictures of the catastrophy will be in the next post.
In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of the model from before I really messed up.
Before adding the two closed gear doors:
After:
I painted these parts aluminium while they were still in the sprue, then after gluing them in I taped the edge to be continuous with the line on the fuselage and painted the rest of the door blue.
The open doors were painted entirely in the sprue.
Here’s the model with all details except decals and stores added, just before I F-ed up:
4 Likes
A foil roasting tray fits pretty much all 1:72 scale models (a bigun like a B-52 might not), and a lot of 1:48 if you do them in pieces. No risk of things falling out, and you can use wire coat hangers, straight pins, etc and just stick them through the bottom to hold things if needed. Just a couple bucks and they last forever.
1 Like
That’s a great idea! Thanks!