dnl42

I can absolutely hear your ex honey's admonition to not mess up. Do you know the difference between TINS and "Once upon a time"? A fairy tale starts with "Once upon a time." A sea story starts with TINS.

Equally important, clear coating protects the decals. I install the LG and other sticking-out bits after I've applied the clear coat. I will spot apply clear coat to deal with any unintended shiny spots.

I wonder if there's an age issue here? I built their 1/48 MiG-21MF with the Polish AF 45 Year Anniversary scheme. Per ScaleMates, it's a 2011 boxing. The decals, some of which were quite large, went on beautifully! I used MSI Micro Set and Micro Sol.

My future wife learned English from that show when she emigrated to the US. As she's now a retired rocket scientist, that's quite a positive statement.

One practice I've developed is make sure the airbrush is atomizing well before I pour in the paint. I'll drop 3-5 drops of thinner in the airbrush; I then start with air (no paint) and then slowing pull back on the trigger, increasing the fluid flow. This does 2 things: 1) makes sure there's nothing wrong with the airbrush (clogs, misalignment, &etc), and B) makes sure there's compatible thinner in the brush. Once I load the paint, I'll give a quick full-flow blast of paint. All of this helps ensure there are no surprises when I start spraying.

Congratulations! You've chosen the best paint! Mr Color is my primary paint, by a very large margin. I just posted my airbrushing method in another thread: To answer your other questions. Lacquer only needs to dry. It doesn't need to cure, as enamel does. Parts can be handled relatively quickly, should be no longer than 10m unless you're putting on too heavy a coat. For non-gloss wet coats, 5m is about right. As noted in the above, I mask in 30m to 1h. If I'm misting another color, say for shading where no masking is needed, I'll do that in 10m--about the

I do indeed suggest you try. Painting has a strong user-specific aspect to it. For example, I've never gotten anything but a lousy result from Future, so I never use the stuff. Others get brilliant results. Having written that, I get excellent results from Mr Color paints, so my suggestion is their Gloss Black, C2. But, to reinforce my point, Mr Color demand good airbrushing skills to achieve their absolutely amazing results. The cowling is Mr Color gloss red with gloss clear. The rest of the airframe is MSI Micro Satin

Another fun project to follow! @ST0RM, you can indeed pulse the LEDs with a microcontroller, such as these sold my Sparkfun. Of course, if you're going to go this route, spin the prop and correlate its speed with the exhaust LED flashing rates.

Funny, he distinctly said "chin" and labeled the video with the same word. As you point out, however, chine is indeed the correct word. Similarly, he spoke and labeled the video with "thread" instead of the expected "tread".

Good find!

That may be something you did, or perhaps not. Doesn't matter though. It looks like the canopy is a simple curve. Is that correct? If so, perhaps you could cut a rectangular piece of clear plastic and glue it in place?. You'd only have painted frames unless you tried some decal paper strips or some such.

I have one pin vise that has such a feature. It's from General Hardware, that brand of small tools you find in hardware stores and lumber yards. While the feature is nice, the pin vise itself it only OK. I keep a needle in it and use it as a pin punch and for curve scribing.

Wow, that kit is requiring some serious modeling skills, which you're clearing bringing to bear. Bravo!

Dang! I primarily use the small end. Holds my #80 bit just fine.

Starrett are indeed outstanding pin vises. I have this Walthers double-ended pin vise. It has a good feel and it very well balanced.

Excellent work on this! I'm glad you're pointing out what can be done with the kit and moderate corrections. While I greatly admire and appreciate the full-blown corrections, improving the kit is more in my skillset.

A Mar 30 order from Czechia finally got to me on May 12. The shipper was very responsive to email.

Some more info on painting solvent paints (including Tamiya acrylic, which is IPA soluble). Prepare surface as smooth as possible. Polishing pads help here. Make sure there are no foreign substances on the model. I always wipe the model with 91% Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) before painting. Thin the paint with the manuf's thinner until you've verified others work as well. For my preferred Mr Color, I use Mr Color Leveling Thinner (MLT). I use MLT for Colourcoat paints too, as I know it works well. Thin to the consistency of 1% milk. Try to thin only the paint you'll need f

My suggestion is buy the best airbrush you can afford, not the cheapest you can find. The flaws in a cheap airbrush impeded learning proper technique and seeing improvements as you learn. Don's Airbrush Tips has some great info. Make sure spare parts are readily available; I always have a spare needle and nozzle on-hand. Once you do choose and buy an airbrush, practice on various surfaces including some cheap kits. A flat piece of cardboard is great for learning basic skills, but at some point you need to learn to move around the complex surfaces of a model.

That's a great looking vehicle!

I was fairly well stocked, so only went to Sprue, Ebay, and RPD for very specific things I also made sure I bought multiple kits from each of the two nearby LHS last weekend. Not that I needed the kits, but I wanted to do my part to keep their doors open.

Nice work! That was a good kit to build.

Plastic glues are indeed useless. CA, epoxy, and acrylic glues are all usable. I use epoxy for resin-resin bonds. CA and epoxy for most resin-plastic and metal-plastic bonds. I prefer acrylic glues, like Gator Grip and Formula 560 Canopy Glue for surface to surface metal-plastic bonds. The reason is to avoid bond failure due to the different thermal expansion rates of metals and plastic. CA glue is weakest in shear strength, with the result that surface to surface joints are more likely to fail because of thermally induced stresses. Acrylic glue

I rescribe straight lines using either a Bare Metal Panel Scriber or JLC saw. For curves, I'll use a sharpened pin in a pin vise against a template.

Nice work!!!