Caerbannog Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 Looks great. Rene Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jay Chladek Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 I've been busy with other things so I haven't had the time to look over the builds. But you are doing a fantastic job man! Keep it up and don't lose sight of the finish line. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted June 19, 2014 Author Share Posted June 19, 2014 Thanks for the encouragement, Jay! I've been a bit burned out with all of the putty and sanding work, and I'm currently trying to find a LHS that carries Mr. Surfacer. Hoping that might be a solution for some of the surface issues I'm having. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spaceman Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Thanks Hotdog, no answer is also an answer. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted June 20, 2014 Author Share Posted June 20, 2014 Hello Hotdog, no reason to hang yourself, head high, you can cope also. :bandhead2:/> You work very carefully, I like that. But sorry, with your decal of the rear hatch you have made a small mistake. :rolleyes:/> The original has 10 struts, but your hatch has 12, which you should still correct, okay? :coolio:/> BTW, it would look even better if you could scratchbuild these struts and the ring from Evergreen strips, that would be perfect. :salute:/> :wave:/> Sorry spaceman, I thought I replied to this already! Thanks for pointing out my error on the hatch. My math skills have always been extremely poor! Not sure if this is a big enough error to warrant remaking the hatch though. I'll think about it. Evergreen strips might be the way to approach those details, but the micro scale of this build makes that unfeasible. The macro photos you see in my thread here make these parts appear gigantic. That hatch is really only 1/2" wide, so those evergreen strips would have to be very very thin shavings! So that's why I chose to go the decal route. I think if I did try to build them, I would use thin wire instead of styrene strip. I plan to pick back up on this build over the weekend. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted June 29, 2014 Author Share Posted June 29, 2014 DAYS 12-13 3.5 hours (35.5 hours total) Build cost to date: $76.78 In my last update, I had applied the first coat of primer and discovered that I had some more body work left to do before I could proceed with final painting. So here I go, working on the belly of the spacecraft. I had to do some work around the wings as well. Here's what she looked like just before going back into the paint booth. After a couple hours of that, I scribed whatever panel lines I had sanded over back out, and gave the model a Windex bath. I sprayed a second coat of primer and found two more spots that needed work. I quickly fixed those, gave her another bath, and applied a third coat. Here are some shots of the model as she now looks: Very happy with the results so far! With the puttying and sanding part over with, I finally have the end of this build in sight. Now begins the fun part! Tomorrow I will begin masking and applying the gloss white and flat black areas. I'm psyched about reaching this stage of the build! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
niart17 Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 Looking great Hotdog! It's gonna be great when you start getting the tiles and what-not painted on. Starting to look like a space vehicle! Bill Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted July 2, 2014 Author Share Posted July 2, 2014 (edited) DAYS 14-15 6 hours (41.5 hours total) Build cost to date: $76.78 In the above rendering of the Dream Chaser, notice how there appears to be two different surfaces of white area. I'm guessing the brighter white is a type of insulation. I decided to try and show this pattern on the surface of my model. First, I sprayed the white primered surface with Testors Dullcote to tone it down a bit. After allowing this to cure, I spent about two hours masking off the dull areas so I could apply a spray of Tamiya Pure White gloss. Here's a shot of her masked and about to be sprayed. After spraying, I allowed this to cure overnight before removing the masking. It's hard to see everything in these pics, but the results were satisfactory: There was only one issue. Paint seemed to have built up a bit too much along some of the masking lines. Any ideas on a safe way to remove these without harming the finish? I'm guessing some really fine sandpaper, but what grit? I spent two and a half more hours masking off the white areas so I can paint the flat black. But before I do that, I must apply a decal first! The idea is to spray on the flat black, and blend the decal in. But I'm not too happy with how the decal turned out. I thought the scribed landing gear details would have shown through the decal better. I soaked the decal in Solvaset, hoping that would push the decal down into the grooves, but it didn't help much. I guess I'm OK with it, I just expected better results. I could fix it by peeling the decal off and making a lighter version with fainter tile detail, but I'm ready to push forward and get this thing finished. What do you guys think? I would go ahead and spray the black tonight, but it seems all I have is a rattle can of Testors Enamel, and that won't work on these Tamiya Lacquers. So, I'll be making another trip to the hobby shop tomorrow. Edited July 2, 2014 by Hotdog Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K2Pete Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 My gawd ... this is looking great! The build up of paint can just be sanded off ... 1000 grit may do the trick but 2000 would be better. 1000 may leave some scoring. And the belly decal looks outstanding! For the Landing Gear doors, just score (cut) the decal thru around the doors and apply some more Solvaset. it'll snuggle down and be just subtle enuff. Nice job Hotdog! Pete Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted July 3, 2014 Author Share Posted July 3, 2014 (edited) Great idea, Pete! Thanks for all the helpful input. I will give those tips a try. The tiles are a bit too bold, which was a last-minute adjustment before printing on my part. I should have left them in their original, more faint, light gray. I was worried they wouldn't show up very good, so I darkened them in Illustrator before hitting the print button. Doh! I just sprayed on the Flat Black, now it's a waiting game. Tomorrow I will peel off the masking and see what I got! Edited July 3, 2014 by Hotdog Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted July 6, 2014 Author Share Posted July 6, 2014 (edited) DAYS 16-17 9.25 hours (50.75 hours total) Build cost to date: $88.78 Big update here as I race towards the finish line on this build. I purchased a Tamiya Matte Black rattle can and sprayed the black areas of the wings, nose, aft and tailfin, being careful to shield the belly tile decal from getting too much overspray. The result was much more subtle tile detail on the belly, a nice surprise! I have yet to cut around the landing gear as Pete suggested, but I will do that in the next update. I made a rookie mistake while spraying on the black: I applied too much paint trying to coat everything in one spraying. I know better than to do this! At least it's just on this one area below the starboard wing. Here I go with the brake fluid, trying to fix it. The brake fluid didn't seem to work as well with the Tamiya spray lacquer as it does with enamels and acrylics. I managed to get this far with it and then decided to go ahead with a quick touch-up spray. The result isn't perfect, but it will suffice. After that dried, I gently removed the masking. Everything turned out good! Only a few minor areas to go in and touch up on. Up until this point, I had planned to represent the windows of the Dream Chaser with a nice homemade decal. Then I got the idea to use my new Cameo cutter to make a custom window frame. Ideally, it's way too late in the game to be gluing something like this on. I know I am taking a HUGE risk of messing up the paint job. I only have one chance to get this right! The idea is to apply an all-black decal, then glue the window frame over top of it. So, as we say down south right before we do something crazy, "Hey ya'll, watch this!" I think it turned out...OK. There was some wrinkling and tearing of the decal that I had a hard time getting rid of, and I had to break out the Flat Black paint to touch it up. I think the thickness of the .010" frame throws off the scale a bit and makes the windows appear a bit oversized in the pics. I will say, it does look better in person. In hindsight, I would have made the decal that went behind the frame a dark gray instead of black. Now, on to my favorite part, applying the decals! Edited July 6, 2014 by Hotdog Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted July 6, 2014 Author Share Posted July 6, 2014 The only decal that's missing is the "Dream Chaser" logo on the nose. That's because the one I printed out was a bit too large. I'll be printing a new one tomorrow. So what's left? I still have to touch up a bit with the paint, as well as glue on the rear hatch, and do some minor weathering with pastels. I'm also creating a base for the model to stand on. I'll get to that in the next day or two. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K2Pete Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 OUT-STAND-ING! Hotdog, the belly decals do look lovely ... and the landing gear doors stand out nicely ... why bother cutting around the gear doors? They look great as is! The window detail is quite the brainwave ... this looks just right too! The masking, (especially around the little RCS thrusters below the windows) the paint, the decals look terrific! And with you using your macro camera setting, I keep forgetting just how small this is ... ! Fire a few images off to Blappy ... he'd love to see this! Thanx for posting these excellent pix! Pete Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted July 6, 2014 Author Share Posted July 6, 2014 Thanks for the kudos, Pete! The black areas around the nose RCS thrusters are actually small decals. There's no way I could have masked an oval that tiny. After the decals set, I used a needle to poke through the decal where each thruster was, and then gave 'em another drop of Solvaset. I'm going to try and finish everything today and get some final beauty shots. Then I'll send pics to Blap. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spaceman Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 (edited) Hello Hotdog, I fully agree with Pete, the belly decal with the black finish do look awesome. So similar I could imagine the Challenger's belly with STS-6, maybe a little bit darker. BTW, hindsight is always smarter, but why you have the window frame separately indicated so thick, for my taste a thin decal would have been closer to the real thing, as one can see in your first pic and in some test shots like this. Source: wikimedia.org Edited July 6, 2014 by spaceman Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted July 7, 2014 Author Share Posted July 7, 2014 Thank you, Spaceman. For some reason, I never like to represent windows with a decal only. It just seems so lazy to do it that way. I kept trying to think of how I could make the window area more interesting. I had a nice decal designed, printed and ready to apply, as I was not sure I would have the courage to go with the custom frame until the last second. I'm not sure which would have looked better, and I probably should have at least tried the decal first, but that's hindsight. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spaceman Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 Hotdog, the windows are distinctive details of a model, and they usually lie lower in the frame, that's right, but the real thing has no fitted window frames, as far as I know. Therefore I'm wondering where you are but also so in love with true to detail modeling. But ultimately you have to like your model, this is crucial, and the overall vision of your Dream Chaser is absolutely superb. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted July 8, 2014 Author Share Posted July 8, 2014 DAY 18 2 hours (52.75 hours total) Final build cost: $88.78 In the final two hours of this build, I applied the remaining decals, glued the rear hatch on, and touched up a few areas with paint. I also weathered the engines a bit, but you can't really tell in most of the photos. Here are some final beauty shots. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted July 8, 2014 Author Share Posted July 8, 2014 (edited) I built a base for this model, too. You may recognize it. It is the base from the 1:200 Snap-Tite Space Shuttle. I had to make a few modifications to make it work with the Dream Chaser. So, there you have it. 53 hours of build time, spread out over 18 days, in the span of 4 months. Thanks for watching! Edited July 8, 2014 by Hotdog Quote Link to post Share on other sites
niart17 Posted July 8, 2014 Share Posted July 8, 2014 AWESOME! Great job on a very unique and important part of space history. Very clean execution and a great display! I love the subtle shades you've put on it. Adds a lot of realism to it. BTW, I'd love to see this next to a 1/72 scale shuttle for a size comparison. Bill Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K2Pete Posted July 8, 2014 Share Posted July 8, 2014 How'd they say it in 'The Right Stuff'? ... Frikkin "A" Bubba? ... or something like that! And the Cutting Machine you used for the Window ... I'm surprised it will cut out the small ... the tiny, windows? Or-r-r did you have to use an X-acto knife for that? This build Hotdog, is top drawer! Way to go! Pete Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ralf Posted July 8, 2014 Share Posted July 8, 2014 Great work. I really like the result. A very unique model. Great job! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted July 8, 2014 Author Share Posted July 8, 2014 Pete, the cutting machine did a great job cutting the exact shape of the windows. All I did was take the decal I drew in Illustrator and put it in the Cameo cutter program. It even engraved the little rivets around the windows, although it's hard to make them out in the photos. The rivet detail probably should have been made a little larger, and I meant to do a silver wash before gluing the frame to the body to make them stand out a bit more. Oops! I guess I got carried away in all the excitement. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 Hotdog, I haven't check in this section in a while and wish I had. You did an OUTSTANDING job on this build! The windows, tile decals... everything turned out perfect. Mike. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted July 26, 2014 Author Share Posted July 26, 2014 Thank you, Mike! Your opinion means a lot to me. You should join in on this build. I miss seeing your work! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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