Landlubber Mike
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Everything posted by Landlubber Mike
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While waiting on paint to dry on other projects, I picked this one back up. I was stuck for a while in trying to figure out how to soften the demarcation between the gull gray and the insignia white. Eventually I tried using blue tack and spraying diluted paint at an angle, but I wasn't too satisfied with how that came out. So, I tried the sponge technique of almost dry brushing using a tiny bit of sponge in between a pair of tweezers, and blotted it down along the long. That worked much better, and so after some touch ups, I sprayed a gloss clear coat and then applied the decals. The decals are from the Wolfpack wing fold set, and they went down really nicely with really no trace of silvering. I did goof and put the propeller decals on the wrong side of the propeller, so had to use the kit decals. The kit decals had a very thick carrier film, which took a while to settle down with Micro Set and Micro Sol. I'm glad I had the Wolfpack decals as I have a feeling it would have been a real pain to try and get the larger decals down if I was stuck with the kit decals. One thing I'm kicking myself on is that I cut out the cowl panel that had the cat insignia for VC-12. Pretty funny insignia, though not particularly family friendly. I was originally thinking about making a diorama out of this one and having a mechanic removing one of the panels, but now now I'm leaning towards just finishing it and moving on to something else. So, I might see if I can attach at least one of the panels to the model. It might take a little creativity as the holes I cut are a touch big, so I might need a filler strip, etc. Hopefully something works out. Next up is another gloss coat, then I will work on panel lines, shading, breaking up the solid colors, etc. I don't think I'll weather this all that much, but might dirty it up a touch. Since it was on a carrier, these planes were generally kept in pretty nice condition. Thanks for looking in!
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Thanks for posting that Craig. The 1/700 destroyer I finished earlier this year was a Pit Road kit and Five Star upgrade set. I thought both were really nice. The good thing about the Pontos set is that it's all in one, so hopefully you don't have to remove too many kit details to accommodate the PE. By the way, you inspired me on the Flyhawk kits - I ended up adding the 1/700 Flyhawk Lutzow and Bismarck kits to the stash, and also ordered the Trumpeter Roma with Flyhawk upgrade set.
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Hey Craig, nice to see you starting this kit. I considered buying it but have the Fujimi kit with Flyhawk, Infini and Shipyard Works add-ons. Maybe I’ll build the Musashi.
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Hey Alan, thank you. In the past, I mostly used toothpicks with a bit of blue tack on the tip. Found that tricky to hold the part and then as you say, having to pick out stray blue tack after isn’t much fun. The hole drilling approach and the approach of just using CA glue on the tip of a toothpick is so much easier.
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Eh, Lou, I find it just easier to take swigs from the bottle. Thanks for the nice words!
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Thanks guys! And Craig, yes, that was a lot of work! The 29 ammo containers took a surprising amount of time. It was tricky to get the folds perfect, so I found myself first trying to bend them into shape, then applying CA while using tweezers to get the corners tighter. Invariably there were gaps, so then there was another round of applying medium CA to fill gaps. Many hours of work! They do look a tad nicer than the kit ones, so not all was lost. I bought some resin ones to try out on my next builds.
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I managed to finish what I think should be all the sub-assemblies i wanted to build off the model. Lots of details with the Infini upgrade set. The Hasegawa kit is actually really well done, but Infini really kicks it up a couple of levels with their detail set. I primed them all in black using Mr. Finisher 1500 from the airbrush (thanks @CDW for the recommendation!), and should be able to paint and start assembling later this week. Should come together fairly quickly after these are painted. Here are some pics: Masts (using blue-tack). I find blue-tack on a small item like a plastic shot glass help keep the part stable while adding PE to it): Single AA guns and some kind of tower: Davits and random plastic pieces that will be added to the model. Infini did a really nice job on the davits, giving turned brass pedestals that the PE tops pop right into for the smaller davits: Double and triple AA guns, along with 29 ammo boxes (using painters tape because these items had flat bottoms and the painter's tape has just enough adhesion to keep these parts secure while airbrushing): The big guns - here you can see how I use toothpicks to serve as little stands for the guns for ease of painting. For the guns, I drilled a small hole in the bottom and stuck a toothpick into it. This helps to reach the entire gun in one painting session, and the hole the bottom won't be seen. For the other piece in the pictures, which is the back part of the main funnel, I just used CA to glue a toothpick into the bottom (again, that won't be seen). Just thought I'd pass along some techniques that I've found to be helpful. Thanks for looking in!
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Nice work on the guns Craig. Really impressive at that scale. The deck looks really nice as well!
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The funnels are insane! Too bad he hasn't done IJN ships in this scale. All my 1/700 kits are IJN.
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Hey Glen, looking really great! Can totally tell it's the Charles Morgan, nice job at this scale! Good luck on getting it into the bottle. If it doesn't fit, you could always find a bigger bottle. One of the side benefits of the SIB builds is you can consume the contents when looking for the right bottle
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It's a fun little kit. Two things to look out for: (1) make sure the height of the ship can clear the bottle (it's an awfully tight fit), and (2) be careful with the bowsprit and masts, which are very fragile and prone to snapping. Enjoy!
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Slow and steady progress on this. I finally have all the guns completed. Here is the sole twin AA gun, along with the four triple AA guns. These AA guns probably had close to a dozen PE pieces each. These pictures are under extreme magnification, but the detail is pretty amazing. The barrels especially have little ridges and and inset where the barrel opening is. Also finished the 14 single AA guns. Only 8 pieces on these, but they took quite some time: I'm trying to replicate oil canning effects on the hull sides, which so far isn't looking too bad, just need to clean up a few areas. Once that's in good shape, I will add the linoleum decks and structures to the hull, and then these various details. Famous last words, but it should come together fairly quickly now that a lot of these details are finished. One could probably finish this kit in a week or two if building straight from the box. With the Infini detail set, the time is multiplied probably by at least a factor of ten I would conservatively estimate.
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Putting together 1/350 and 1/700 guns using PE is a huge time suck. I decided to pick up some resin guns to try out on my future builds. You only have to use a few pieces of PE, rather than build up guns from a dozen or so parts.
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You could try using a hair dryer to soften and then reshape the part. Or put in warm/hot water and see if that works. I used a hair dryer to fix the cowl on a biplane a few months ago and it did soften the plastic to be able to reshape. Only problem was that the part was round so it was too hard to get a perfect circle. Your bend should be much easier. You also might be able to find a replacement mast in brass that would likely be in better scale. Infini makes a number of mast sets for various subjects, and then you can also get generic masts from companies like FiveStar.
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Great job! For the white railings, did you use thread? Very effective!
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On my 1/700 build, I was worried about the 2D look of the single AA guns as well, but with the folds, some paint, and in situ, they look perfect. Definitely much better than the plastic kit counterparts.
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I'm working on my triple AA guns at 1/350 scale and feel the same way even though I only have four to do. I don't think I could remain sane if I had to do 28, let alone at 1/700!
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Some colors are affected by the underlying color (primer in this case). Reds for example can look completely different if you use white, pink, or other color. Metallics usually have a gloss black undercoat to get the full effect. I think yellow might be one of those colors that could be affected. I'd probably go gray and not white or the yellow might be too bright. A lot of people use Tamiya primer, but I think I tried the white once and wasn't too happy. Probably user error on my part. This is what I use - it is really amazing stuff, and self-levels perfectly. You can sand it after spraying if there are any imperfections, and it will fill tiny gaps for a very smooth finish. You can also get Mr Surfacer in 1000 and I think 500 which progressively will fill bigger imperfections. 1500 should work well though. One thing about spraying Tamiya from rattle cans - make sure you shake the can plenty, and watch out for dried paint on the nozzle which will set onto your painting surface and cause you a lot of grief. I haven't experienced that with Mr. Surfacer, but the Tamiya rattle cans I've used seem to be more prone to this. Good idea to clean out the nozzle after spraying. Here's another option I just thought of - you can use Tamiya's Dark Yellow in the rattle can, which comes out a beige-ish color, and then add Vallejo Yellow Wash on top (the Vallejo wash comes in a plastic bottle and you can hand brush it on). It subtly changes the color as you can see on the hood in this picture, and might give you more of the ochre you are looking for. Tamiya's Camel Yellow in the rattle can will give you this color. I guess it will depend on what kind of yellow ochre you want for your model. I guess it will depend on what kind of yellow ochre you want for your model.
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Nicely done Craig. Makes you cross eyed building those doesn't it!
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