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Slow Progress but progress none the less. The wings went on very well but there is an area in the underside forward wing root and gear bay that needs addressing. There is a gap in the forward gear-bay bulkhead. There was a discussion in the Jet Forums with Raymond of Kinetic on this topic and the short answer is compromises must always be made in model-kit designs. My response is that if you had to make compromises in a kit, this is probably the place to do it. I just wish there were some good aftermarket inserts to address this area.

My solution is to plug the gap with some styrene stock strips I have laying around. Just forward of this in the wing root there is a bit of a gap which I used Mr Surfacer to fill and a Alcohol soaked Q-Tip to wipe most the excess away.

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After "plug"

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I should mention Gear Bays are not my favorite area to detail on a kit. I find that after I finish the kit that I typically NEVER look inside these areas again! So I usually go with the stock kit bays, paint them white, add a wash, than button them up and call it a day. In this case I will be using aftermarket metal landing gear for both strength and weight. I sometimes add hydraulic lines which are visible down the gear leg and will spend some extra time painting the tire and hub as these are usually very visible.

Edited by toadwbg
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Canopy: I had heard dissent about the Kinetic 2-piece canopy and gotten some tips elsewhere at ARC. Seen here I tacked the two halves together over the fuselage and applied very tiny amounts of Tamiya liquid cement with a brush.

This thing is Fragile! Cutting it off the Sprues required great care.

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Edited by toadwbg
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OK- putting together the front windscreen now and it is not as much fun, confirming some of the complaints I've read elsewhere.

There is a triangular section on in the aft of the windscreen that is molded to one half but likely due to molding tolerances and acting like a flange off the main body of the part, probably cools differently off the mold and thus bends away. Not good engineering. :bandhead2: I'm going to try to just glue (liquid cement) this triangular flange portion tonight and bend the rest of the 2 halves into shape tomorrow and report back.

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327B2773-2AF8-45B5-82DC-6A7DF32E1293-9151-00000AE9E4702ECC.jpg

I'm not liking this front windscreen at all but I will get the job done. Seen here I have tacked the 2 halves into place and sorta "bent" it wider to fit the fuselage. Similar to the main canopy, I applied Tamiya thin cement carefully along the seam but there was a resulting gap at the bottom where I added a styrene shim.

Upon further review I also see a lack of symmetry between the right and left windshield transparency (these are sorta shaped like cartoon character eyes). There is a textured frame and they do not have an identical mirror image profile <_< . Careful masking and painting should hide most of this I hope.

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I've been doing a lot of studying about the airframe and detail differences between an Alpha and Epsilon model lately. One are I found was the panel lines on the nose. The kit also has a separate nose cone, but the joint should not show on the nose. So I've spent some time filling/sanding/priming to get it smooth as a baby's bottom.

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Since my particular airframe will have this painted random tan, it needs to look almost flawless as the color will not hide any imperfections. I'll be using an old bottle of Testor's MM Random Tan Acrylic for the job.

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Also shown is the canopy masked with Eduard's masks. I think these are about a must for those irregular shaped panels. I noted on an earlier update that Kinetic's front windscreen half window panes (the forward ones that look like cartoon eyes) are not quite symmetric. Well the Eduard masks follow this lack of symmetry <_< . I was hoping a mirror-image mask set could help hide this irregularity but I guess not. Maybe it wont' be that noticeable on the final product?

Or maybe someone can tell me that the windows are not symmetric (mirror image) on the real thing?

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ohhhh that rear canopy is a pain! There is a long seam between the halves which and maybe 3mm total clearance to the transparency (clear portions). A slip of your liquid cement and you've marred your canopy. Worse, the bond along this line is weak at best. I used tape to hold the halves together while bonding and clamps on the ends of the part. But this alone isn't enough TWICE I snapped the halves back apart!

Shown here is the Eduard canopy masks- highly recommended as they will also help protect against marring the canopy during bonding. Of course you could try using an adhesive like Elmer's white glue but that won't have the strength needed. I'm not brave enough to use superglue due to risk of fogging.

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Take 3, I inserted rear bulkhead (unnumbered in the instructions), which will help reinforce the joint a lot. The instructions would have you put this on in step 3 DON'T DO THAT as it belongs to the canopy and is needed to successfully assemble. I added additional styrene strip reinforcement as well shown below:

D5876555-7499-4434-9B68-7023846F24E3-13746-00001077F90F5378.jpg

Assembly of the bulkhead is still difficult. I used Blue-Tack to temporarily hold them in place.

After all this is finally bonded in a sturdy manner- You will still need to address the seam along the halves :bandhead2:/> I think I will have to leave the seam between the transparencies alone, too risky to touch.

Edited by toadwbg
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  • 2 weeks later...

Also shown is the canopy masked with Eduard's masks. I think these are about a must for those irregular shaped panels. I noted on an earlier update that Kinetic's front windscreen half window panes (the forward ones that look like cartoon eyes) are not quite symmetric. Well the Eduard masks follow this lack of symmetry <_</> . I was hoping a mirror-image mask set could help hide this irregularity but I guess not. Maybe it wont' be that noticeable on the final product?

Or maybe someone can tell me that the windows are not symmetric (mirror image) on the real thing?

I asked KINETIC for another canopy since I am not satisfied with the one I finished earlier. This time I am more cautious assembling them, and I found that the left and the right piece were not symmetric at all.Maybe it is the temperature problem of the manufacture cause this, and I have found the way using boiled water to fix this problem. Bad English :)

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I asked KINETIC for another canopy since I am not satisfied with the one I finished earlier. This time I am more cautious assembling them, and I found that the left and the right piece were not symmetric at all.Maybe it is the temperature problem of the manufacture cause this, and I have found the way using boiled water to fix this problem. Bad English :)/>

Your English is very good. Much better than my Chinese. I was just in China for my first time in December!

I've tried notifying Raymond who represents Kinetic on this forum topic about the canopies:

http://s362974870.onlinehome.us/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=260373

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  • 2 weeks later...

Time marches on.

Lots of touch-ups, some re-scribing of lost panel lines from so much priming. Two steps forward and one step back each time I work it seems!

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I've been doing the landing gear and other small bits. Prime white, paint white (Tamiya White + Future) and a bit of wash for the gear doors. Red Sharpie for the edges:

BD6A15CB-3640-4CF8-92C5-F03E6ADBF272-2443-000002B624627D66.jpg

Edited by toadwbg
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I don't think I've ever used so much white on one model. I have gone thru an entire can of Tamiya White primer and am now coming close to using an entire bottle of Tamyia Acrylic XF-2 Flat White! This is partially due to so much priming/spot corrections/ re-priming.

Here we are with masking on the white areas:

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My topcoat of Gull Grey will be Gunze Aqueous (Mr Hobby Color)H51. This did not spray well however so I decided to lay down a basecoat of my own mix of FS16440 Gull Grey with Tamiya, 1 part X-2 (white) to X20 (grey) I had sitting around from another project. This layed down much better and the Gunze will topcoat that now.

Here we are. You can see the color demarcation line along the sides of the back fuselage sides:

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painting some trim. Used Tamiya XF-8 for the Blue Rudder.

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I tried an old bottle of Model Master Acryl Randome Tan, but this stuff did NOT perform well. All runny.

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So I quickly wiped it off with some Simple Green and a rag than use a mix of Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow, XF-15 Flat Flesh, & XF-2 White. I am reminded again how Tamiya acrylics spray like gold compared to MM Acryl!

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Looking real good. I second your comment about Tamiya paints. I've always been a MM fan for most colors except flat white. My friend turned me on to Tamiya flat white and I never looked back, for the white that is. Still not sure if I want to go Tamiya for all colors just yet as their selection of colors doesn't always match up with the FS colors offered by MM.

Edited by wardog
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I've been doing the landing gear and other small bits. Prime white, paint white (Tamiya White + Future) and a bit of wash for the gear doors. Red Sharpie for the edges:

BD6A15CB-3640-4CF8-92C5-F03E6ADBF272-2443-000002B624627D66.jpg

Great job! The build is really moving along now :thumbsup:/> Is there any way to remove the red sharpie if you make a boo boo?

TIA

/Jesse

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Great job! The build is really moving along now :thumbsup:/>/> Is there any way to remove the red sharpie if you make a boo boo?

TIA

/Jesse

Yes actually. I coat the doors with a good hard layer of Future put on with a soft brush first. Once dry, the Red Sharpie can now be applied and whipped off easily with a little rubbing alcholhol. If you make a mistake.

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