ALF18 Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 10 hours ago, Geoff M said: Thanks for the lesson in foiling. Looking good. Geoff M Thanks, Geoff. I am not an expert, but I've learned a few things from previous mistakes. I'm starting with this big Sabre, because I want to apply further lessons learned to the next big Sabre, which will be a tribute to a fallen relative of a good friend: AX_365. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Geoff M Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 I like foiling, it is kind of relaxing. I just recently started making my own foil. Now I have an unlimited supply. Geoff M Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 Now for the challenge of the nose section. I cut a piece a bit too large, and roughly tacked it in place with my fingers and fingernails. My main goal at first is to expose the panel lines, so I know where to burnish it down, and what to trim off. If you look carefully here, you'll see I've cut some small slits in the foil that projects beyond the intake lip. One is at the top left (by the panel line for the black area on top of the nose), and the other slit is to the right of it. The idea is that these slits allow me to bend the foil down into the intake. Any splay of the foil is far less evident inside, and it will not affect the shape on the outside of the intake. I start to fold the foil into the intake. I trim carefully along the panel lines surrounding the black, and here's what it ends up looking like. Underneath, I covered the whole panel with the two lights, then cut around the edges of the transparencies and removed the foil. Another view of the nose. A couple mistakes show here. First, above the gun panel, there is a small fold visible going up to the left. That was a crinkle in the foil. I thought it would burnish out, but no amount of pressure and rubbing will fix it (that's what SHE said...). Sorry. The Michael line from The Office just leapt out at me. Another mistake, easily corrected, is the scraping off of the paint on the panel. I had a hard time removing that foil, because I had mistakenly burnished it down at first, making it super sticky. I can easily repaint that panel. If I really cared about the finish, I would simply remove the crinkled panel and replace it with a new piece. Again, using a generous amount of foil, I have tacked down a piece using my fingers. Better to use too much, than to have the foil end just short of a panel line (like you can see at the top right of the photo, just below the windscreen). Some chopping and burnishing, and voila. The small grain you can see in this high-resolution photo is the glue. If it is not perfectly uniform, it leaves small surface anomalies like this. At even 1 foot, it doesn't show much. Since the shape of the rudder had actually struck me as odd, I took Mike's advice and chopped it a bit, using an Exacto blade. I don't have a proper file, so I just did some sculpting with the blade. It may not be perfect, but it's a bit thinner and more like a real Sabre rudder. I may further refine the shape, but it's better than before. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 Stupid wrinkles! Making good progress my friend. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Neo Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 Great start on the foil. For some wrincles you can actually sand them down using a nail file. Also nail polishing sticks are super usefully when foiling. Here is a great article Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted February 24 Author Share Posted February 24 On 2/22/2021 at 11:24 AM, AX 365 said: Stupid wrinkles! Making good progress my friend. Thanks, Mike. Trying to build up motivation to redo that one panel, or at least try Neo's tip. 19 hours ago, Neo said: Great start on the foil. For some wrincles you can actually sand them down using a nail file. Also nail polishing sticks are super usefully when foiling. Here is a great article That's a great article. That guy certainly knows what he's doing. Makes me feel like the amateur I am! 🙂 ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 That is coming along nice! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 15 Author Share Posted March 15 I've had my head down, working hard on this project. The last weekend in February, we went to Montreal to stay in a hotel overnight. No option to stay in one of our kids' apartments due to COVID. Big day on the Saturday - my daughter tried on multiple wedding dresses, and chose one she loves. My wife was privileged to be able to sit in the store with her, our son's girlfriend, and my daughter's best friend. Masks all around, but a great event anyway. It allowed me to think about what all men think about... what's the next step in working on the model? Mega progress being made on the foiling. Pretty hard to tell that the underside is a horrible patchwork of different shapes. No photographic close-ups! The rudder and top of the tail were a bit of a challenge, but I learned from the wingtips. I did the gear doors and speed brakes with bits that were left over, whenever it made sense. The insides of the gear doors and speed brakes were simply painted with Tamiya silver. I didn't want to try foiling into all the crevasses on the insides. Coming along nicely. The kit has a great way of doing the nosewheel door in the front. It comes ready to glue flat for closed position, but with a little creasing and bending it can be made to have the open-doors shape shown here. I also love the way Italeri has made the tires separate from the wheel hubs. Makes painting super simple, and looks nicer than when I paint and repaint around the tire/hub when it's one piece. The tank pylons. I used a strip of foil that was excess from another panel, and positioned the foil so that the front and back of the pylon would have folded-over foil, up to the panel line on the back, and along the rest on the front. A little top and bottom trimming, then I'll fold the rest over from the front toward the back. Here's the end result. Much easier to foil when not installed on the wing first. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 15 Author Share Posted March 15 Pylon glued in place. I used CA glue for any part that had foil on its mating surface. Next, the external tanks. I used the Bare Metal Foil product for these, because it's thinner and easier to shape around a curved nose. I made small incisions at the lower front (this is a top-down look). The idea was to have the joins under the tank where they are less visible. Curved nose section first, then the easy cylindrical centre part. I alternated painting parts of the details inside the speed brake wells and on the seat. While the acrylic paint dried, I worked on the foil, then did a different paint colour, then back to foiling while it dried. Given that The Huff was black inside the cockpit, I decided to paint the back part of the canopy interior black. I used a metallic silver pen to do the canopy frames. You can see the seat's headrest behind the canopy. The Cartograf decals were a joy to apply. No cracking, and well-sized, even the complex large yellow bands and the tail checkers. No, I did NOT consider masking and painting the yellow bands. Remember, the whole reason I'm foiling and building a lot of natural metal finish aircraft lately is that we're renting an apartment, and I have no airbrush. The resin seat adds a great touch of detail. I had no idea of the colours, so I just used my imagination. The silver bits are done with the same metallic silver pen. I touched up the canopy sills with more black after I saw them in close-up. A little Timmy's coffee, and some peanuts (which the dog likes too) to keep the afternoon motivation up. I'm calling this one done. It's now on my shelf. I think the next build will probably be a Canadian Sabre, same scale: AX 365. Thanks for following along folks. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Very nice work, my friend. The resin seat makes the cockpit pop. You definitely have more patience than I do when it comes to applying the metal foil. A worthy addition to your collection. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mr.Happy Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 ALF18, Exquisite work with that foil technique. Nice job Alf! Mr.Happy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 15 Author Share Posted March 15 3 hours ago, AX 365 said: Very nice work, my friend. The resin seat makes the cockpit pop. You definitely have more patience than I do when it comes to applying the metal foil. A worthy addition to your collection. Thanks Mike! I'm hoping that I will be able to properly honour the legacy of AX 365 with my next one. One day you'll be able to see this and that one in person. 1 hour ago, Mr.Happy said: ALF18, Exquisite work with that foil technique. Nice job Alf! Mr.Happy Thanks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K5054NZ Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 ALF18, thank you for sharing the whole foiling process in such detail. I have a 1/48 Airfix Fury biplane that's been waiting for me to gather the courage to try foiling the nose - this thread will be immensely helpful, thank you! The biggest worry I have with doing a foiled model is the decals. Is silvering a problem? Do you use any setting solutions? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 15 Author Share Posted March 15 55 minutes ago, K5054NZ said: ALF18, thank you for sharing the whole foiling process in such detail. I have a 1/48 Airfix Fury biplane that's been waiting for me to gather the courage to try foiling the nose - this thread will be immensely helpful, thank you! The biggest worry I have with doing a foiled model is the decals. Is silvering a problem? Do you use any setting solutions? I encourage you also to look at the link that Neo shared. That's a very clear explanation that I also used as guidance. For sure curves like a nose or an external fuel tank are hard to do. I didn't talk about how I did the decals. I've tried various approaches with foil finishes over the years, including some fancy spray-on clear coats. What I have settled on is to do like I do for many regular finishes. I apply what used to be Future floor wax (it's now called Pledge in North America - not sure what brand name it goes by in Kiwi Land) before and after decalling. The foil finish is already quite glossy, but the Pledge acts as a sealant for some of the seams, especially underneath where the overlap happens on my models. At the same time, it makes for an even more glossy finish that means decals rarely suffer from silvering. On this model, there is one fuel cap decal that silvered a bit - I simply used my micro sol and micro set solutions on them, and the problem was solved. I also do a final Pledge coat over top, to hold the decals securely in place, and avoid them coming off eventually as they dry out. The Pledge coats do not seem to affect the lustre of the surfaces, nor do they make it look more toy-like. I also use a bit of Windex in my Pledge to break the surface tension a little (just a few small sprays stirred into it). I brush the Pledge on, because it self-levels nicely. If you're concerned about the finished product, perhaps you can try it out on a cheap throw-away model first? Given the low cost of kitchen foil, it's not like you're going through expensive Bare Metal Foil sheets to learn. Good luck with yours! ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K5054NZ Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 23 hours ago, ALF18 said: Good luck with yours! ALF Thanks for the info and advice! Future was available here as Klear for some time then vanished - I have a small amount left from my 2008 bottle! - and there is debate as to whether an equivalent is on our shelves again. I'll bookmark that link too. I expect to refer to that and this thread a lot! I have a few candidates for trials and my wife already knows foil is more likely to be used for models than cooking! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 1 hour ago, K5054NZ said: Thanks for the info and advice! Future was available here as Klear for some time then vanished - I have a small amount left from my 2008 bottle! - and there is debate as to whether an equivalent is on our shelves again. I'll bookmark that link too. I expect to refer to that and this thread a lot! I have a few candidates for trials and my wife already knows foil is more likely to be used for models than cooking! If ever SWMBO squawks about such things, I remind her that while I'm foiling I'm not doing (pick one) any of the following: (fill in any activities she DEFINITELY won't approve of here). 🙂 17 hours ago, karl h said: i like it! Thanks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Neo Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 Wow she came out great ALF. Glad the link i shared helped you out. Congrats on your daughter getting married!! They grow up so fast right!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 Hey! Those are not maple leaves on that great looking model! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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