ALF18 Posted March 8, 2022 Author Share Posted March 8, 2022 On 3/7/2022 at 3:57 AM, Inquisitor said: If you take decisions based on a single opinion, then you'd pass on a lot of good things. Tamiya kits, specially some of their higher end car kits have very tight tolerances. Dryfitting every thing looks nice, add a few layers of primer, paint and so on and each micrometer adds up to make things not fit. If the opinion of a single person was all that mattered then according to Doctor MIG/Dragan Cvetic the ICM MiG-25 and Zvezda Mi-24, both 1/72 scale, would be the worst fitting kits in the world. They aren't perfect and not the worst either, I've built both and as experienced modellers do, just changing the assembly order or paying attention to some parts helps solving some fit issues. The MiG-25 in both 1/48 and 1/72 the firewall that separates the front and rear fuselage has a tab that can be a problem depending on when you glue the front to rear fuselage, and even if you follow the instruction's order that tab gets in the way. The Mi-24 just gluing the front and rear of each halves separately and then gluing the whole halves solves a lot of fit problems, same with the KH Su-17 that each fuselage half was split in 3 sections. As ALF18 said and from his photos there are places where complex assemlby and small user errors add up to big fit issues. For example in this photo just the tip of Part D18 is sticking out and fouling the fit. Aha! You found my problem. My failing eyesight was at fault this time. Too late for me, but at least the filler fixed the problem. It's true that there are some very bad kits out there (the 1/48 Classic Airframes F-5A is a great example). This one is very nice, but takes a lot of effort to make sure it's perfect. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 8, 2022 Author Share Posted March 8, 2022 Starting to apply decals. Above/Below Graphics sent me a test sheet, as I mentioned, for a future release. The person who runs that company bought the rights to all of CanMilAir's decals, and has started to produce more options. He is based in Victoria, BC. One particularity of the printer he uses is that the whole sheet is printed on one carrier, so each decal must be trimmed very close to the edge. Here's how I approach that. I cut the two roundels off the main sheet, then carefully trimmed around each roundel (doesn't have to be a perfect circle, just make it smaller). Then, after dipping in water, I can remove the excess, leaving the roundels on the paper. Apologies to EMVAR for my gross thumbnail - I was eating barbecue peanuts. Decal in place. I'm finding that these decals are quite easy to work with. They don't tear or fragment, even when I didn't quite cut all the way through around one of them, I could 'recklessly' pull it away without cutting it. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Emvar Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 On 3/8/2022 at 10:45 AM, ALF18 said: Starting to apply decals. Above/Below Graphics sent me a test sheet, as I mentioned, for a future release. The person who runs that company bought the rights to all of CanMilAir's decals, and has started to produce more options. He is based in Victoria, BC. One particularity of the printer he uses is that the whole sheet is printed on one carrier, so each decal must be trimmed very close to the edge. Here's how I approach that. I cut the two roundels off the main sheet, then carefully trimmed around each roundel (doesn't have to be a perfect circle, just make it smaller). Then, after dipping in water, I can remove the excess, leaving the roundels on the paper. Apologies to EMVAR for my gross thumbnail - I was eating barbecue peanuts. Decal in place. I'm finding that these decals are quite easy to work with. They don't tear or fragment, even when I didn't quite cut all the way through around one of them, I could 'recklessly' pull it away without cutting it. ALF At least you trimmed them. 😜 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 12, 2022 Author Share Posted March 12, 2022 20 hours ago, Emvar said: At least you trimmed them. 😜 LOL! 🙂 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 12, 2022 Author Share Posted March 12, 2022 Done! Decals are superb, and I'm happy to have a 3-footer that represents an aircraft from my father's past. Thanks for coming along for the ride. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cat Barf Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 Excellent Vampire! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Emvar Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 Nice ALF! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 Good, good, going to have to do one of these. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kurnass77 Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 Nice progress my friend, I like it a lot! Gianni Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 13, 2022 Author Share Posted March 13, 2022 Thanks guys! Now to figure out what to do next... I'm leaning toward a 1/48 Airfix Mustang, with aluminum foil. Other options are a 1/48 Tropical Hurricane, or maybe an Italeri 1/32 CF-104D with aluminum foil... Mulling it over. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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