djcook Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Good afternoon all, I am in the middle of building Tamiya's 1/48 F4F-4 and I must say that it really has been a lot of fun up to this point. I have loots of build pictures and will start posting them in order this evening. Right now I have kind of hit a stumbling block and I was hoping that someone out there might be able to point me in the right direction. When I put the wing sections together I decided to drill out the molded gun barrels in hopes of installing small rods to simulate the gun barrels. Problem is that to date I have not been able to locate anything that looks realistic. Has anyone ever used small tubing to replicate before and if so what did you use and where did you get it? Thanks a ton for looking and I hope to read your comments soon. Dj PS: I'll post progress pictures this evening. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
polo1112 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Thank You; Can't wait to see them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
djcook Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 So here is the first installment. Here are few pictures of the cockpit. Not my best work but I am not to disappointed in how it came out. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
happy1 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 dj go Spruebothers.com you can order Micro brass tubing or Nichole silver tubing get the slide fit package either brass or silver. Master Model makes fifty cal machine gun barrels in 1/48 scale that are just fabulous. Paul Quote Link to post Share on other sites
djcook Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 (edited) Here I have the fuselage put together and as you can see I had some pretty bad seams. I really like to build Tamiya kits and usually don't have these kids of issues. Time to break out the Mr. Surfacer and start filling! You'll also notice that I taped off where I would be sanding to try and minimize the damage to the raised rivet detail. Edited February 25, 2015 by djcook Quote Link to post Share on other sites
djcook Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 Here I have all the seams filled and sanded. Like I stated before I tried to minimize the raised surface detail as much as I could but I still lost several raised rivets. Archer Decals to the rescue! Here I have replaced the rivets along the wing butt and aft of the cockpit. Next I tackled the belly. Once you shoot a coat of primer it's almost like new!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
djcook Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 Next came the pre-shading followed by a little color. Top Pre-shaded Bottom Pre-shaded Top painted and subtle highlights added Bottom painted and the pre-shading really shows through! Next I did the walkways. You also notice that I had a incident with the antenna. I had to sand that area down and re-attach but it's now as good as new. This brings me to where I ma now. This is the ugliest gap I have seen. I told myself that it would be noticed because the canopy would help hide it but I juts could get past knowing it was there so last night I started filling it in. I'll post more pictures once I get it sanded down and re-painted. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
djcook Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 Paul, Thanks for that information!!! I will be there tonight and placing my order! dj go Spruebothers.com you can order Micro brass tubing or Nichole silver tubing get the slide fit package either brass or silver. Master Model makes fifty cal machine gun barrels in 1/48 scale that are just fabulous. Paul Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jennings Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Has anyone ever used small tubing to replicate before and if so what did you use and where did you get it? Befriend someone who works in health care :) Needles ranging from 25 gauge (a little over 0.5mm) up through 14 (a little over 2mm) gauge are commonly used. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
happy1 Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 (edited) dj you could avoided losing any detail by sanding, I use Mister surfacer to fill wing roots,I apply it with a brush in the gap wait a few minutes then use a Q-tip with Isopropyl Alcohol 91% works best to remove the excess Mr Surfacer, No sanding no detail loss. I've been using this procedure for about 5-6 years saves on a lot of extra work. Paul Edited February 26, 2015 by happy1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
djcook Posted February 26, 2015 Author Share Posted February 26, 2015 dj you could avoided losing any detail by sanding, I use Mister surfacer to fill wing roots,I apply it with a brush in the gap wait a few minutes then use a Q-tip with Isopropyl Alcohol 91% works best to remove the excess Mr Surfacer, No sanding no detail loss. I doing this for about 5-6 years saves on a lot of extra work. Paul I'll be 100% honest, the wings were in such bad shape from the glue I tried to use that I almost threw the kit out and started over. I thought about it for a few days and decided I would try and salvage the thing so what you are seeing is my attempt to fix and experiment with new techniques in the process. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
happy1 Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 (edited) Befriend someone who works in health care :)/>/> Needles ranging from 25 gauge (a little over 0.5mm) up through 14 (a little over 2mm) gauge are commonly used. dj you can also buy hypo needles from www.cmlsupply.com they make excellent machine gun barrels. Paul Edited February 26, 2015 by happy1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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