davec

Dan - many thanks!
 
Almost a month since last post.  I had a bunch of work things, then got COVID.  I’m bouncing back and got a few hours of work in this week.  Even with the great fit, I needed to do a little filling to fully hide seams.  Given how small the seams were, I tried Mr Surfacer 500.  I brushed it over the seam and it was really easy to sand off and fully hid the seams.  I primed the whole model, then painted the white and black undersurface which went well. 

 
I masked this whole area before painting the camouflage.  I used Tamiya masking tape for curves around the edges, then filled in with regular Tamiya paper masking tape.  I had my first problem when I tried painting the brown camouflage color.  To get the right color, I used Vallejo Model Color, thinned with Vallejo airbrush thinner. I haven't really used this paint brand before. Not sure what happened.  It seemed to go down OK, but as it dried, some of the pigment seemed to come out of solution and I got weird streaking.  I had mixed really well (I think). It dried flat, so rather than stripping, I found I had some Mr Paint of the same color on the shelf, and I painted over the whole area, which worked fine.  The Mr Paint fully covered and there was no reaction between the different paints.  I used AML masks for the camouflage pattern which were amazing.  They seemed to capture the right shape, were easy to apply, and whatever frisket material they are made out of was great – no bleeding under.
 

 
I used Tamiya paint for the green color and it went down fine.  I was really disappointed when I pulled the masking off.  The brown color (I’m presuming the Vallejo paint) bled under the vinyl masking tape in a lot of areas.  Thbere wasn't any bleeding under any of the paper tape.  I thought I had burnished the vinyl tape down pretty carefully before painting.  I spent a while masking and respraying of the white and black undersides along where the camouflage met the undersurface, and overall am mostly OK with the results.
 

I've sprayed gloss clear (tried the Tamiya X22 instead of the alclad gloss clear I had been using - it was much easier to get a good gloss coat.  Hopefully decals will go on after work tomorrow.

I've been gluing the rest of the fuselage pieces on.  After the slow pace of painting and assembling the cockpit, the rest of the model is going together quickly.  The fit is great, including the wing root.  I need to mask, paint the inside of the canopy (I got the eduard two sided mask set), and attach the canopy and I will be on to priming.  Looking at all the joints, there will be minimal filler involved, and maybe even none.

I continue to be really impressed with the kit.  I've been adding the additional fuselage pieces.  I've included pictures at each step - the engineers really gave a lot of thought to the design to avoid seams in difficult to fill places.  My favorite is the separate piece for the top, which avoids filling the usual midline seam and having to rescribe panel lines and rivets.  The only place where there is a midline seam is in the rear along the bottom.  Most joints are at panel lines and the fit is great enough that there are no gaps.  

CDW, Egilman, and Shipman - many, many thanks for the very kind comments.  I've done a little more work.  I've sprayed with clear flat and installed the rudder and canopy door.  I agree she is a beautiful airplane, although I also really like the p-38 lightning and the corsair.  I'm in the home stretch and think I can finish this weekend.  I just need to paint the green and red wing lights, install the landing gear, and a few other pieces.  The moment of truth will be pulling off the canopy masks and seeing whether I had the same bleed through that I had under some of the vinyl tape.

Work is definitely slowing now - first because of the rising demands of work, which will only mount from now until Christmas, and second because there are some key processes that I'm unsure how to effect - at this stage this is primarily the notching of the deck beams for the carlings (and the carlings for the ledges). 
 
The carlings are 6" wide and the ledges are 3 1/2" wide (1/8" and 5/64", respectively, at scale). I've just invested in a 1/8" chisel, so theoretically the notches on the beams for the carlings can be done, but how to cleanly cut out a 3 1/2" notch is driving me to distraction....I had thought of using the drill press with an appropriately sized bit to cut out an initial section that could then be squared off, but if there are other methods out there, I would love to hear about them - it's always nice to have options!
 
In the meantime, I made a template for the deck framing and can now proceed with fabricating the basic elements - carlings, ledges and the hanging and lodging knees. You'll note in the photo below that the centre line diverges from itself from fore to aft - this has been corrected, but I don't have ohoto documentation of that.....
 
There is only one image of the lower deck hanging knees in the practicum and there is no indication of whether the drawing is in scale or not, though dimensions of both the beam and hanging arms are provided. I will use these as starting points and work the knees up to fit the model as built. I noted the positions of the carlings on the deck beams using the template and then milled some wood for the upper deck clamps, which need to be tapered across their width prior to installation. I also made the pillar in the hold - the last of those elements to be made prior to lower deck framing.
 
I'm still a little cloudy on the build order here - I need to prepare the deck beams before installing them, but then I assume it's best to permanently install the deck means along with the mast step, limber boards, well, and pillar and then add the other deck framing elements from there.....though again - if there is another way (or one that those more experienced than me have) I would be interested in hearing it.
 
That's all for now - just a couple of photos for now....
hamilton
 
 

An unexpected gem and well worth the trip is located in Canton Ohio at the Blue Water Majesty Museum.  I spoke with the owner, Larry Pulka, who built all the ships from scratch and turned his former warehouse into a display of impressive and inspiring works of art.  From his model of his canoe to the model of the Frigate his passion for detail is meticulous and would be appreciated by even the casual visitor.
 
 

Progress is slowly due to off bench issues and a healthy dose of sports every day, trailrunning, surfing or swimming and mountainbiking, to get the head free.
Nonetheless, I finished the rear suspension, brakes and drive shafts. 
My normal process with MFH kits is, select parts for the next step, cleanup and drill parts, priming and finally airbrushing, before the real fun begins, assembly.
This time, it was not so much fun, unfortunately. All parts mount to the outer suspension part, which later accepts the wheel. Somehow this was impossible and I identified the drive shafts as too long. I have no idea, if this was my fault, but the main shaft leading to the differential was also to long. It needed a bit of metal surgery to get everything to fit and there are some touchups to be made.







I also started with the pedals, which means, interior is next. Of course, there will be hydraulic lines later from the pedals cylinders.





Cheers Rob

Due to illness and passing of my beloved dog, I haven´t been attending here lately. I have to get back to normal somehow and continued a bit with the Cobra, when time and mood allowed.

I added the front cooling section, a fairly large and detailed affair. After that, it was time to mount the missing parts of the front suspension and braking system.
The large venting tubes were sprayed with Tamiya LP brown metallic and then sanded over the risen parts for effect. Fit was very good, but I had to re-drill tiny PE parts again, as either the bolts (part 308) are too wide or the holes to small, annoying. Another disturbing issue is, there are wires or tubes, where there is no mention, where they lead to. You have to search the hole manual for a fit, but some are not shown. The manual of the Crocker motorcycle always stated the section of the manual, where you could see the other connecting side, but that´s not the case here.







I think long and thorough, before altering the building sequence from the manual, but decided to add the tube framing before the cooler section, to have more wiggle room. The part around the engine proved to be a bit delicate, the more complex rear part was easy in comparison. The engine and drive shaft is now permanently built in and I´m ready for the rear suspension now. The chassis is quite heavy now and I will add spacers to relieve the suspension.





Cheers Rob

Just a tiny update, while I prepare the cooler parts and some internal framework. If you wonder, why MFH kits are special, then look for this magnificently casted white metal part. genius and madness are sometime close, as you have to replicate four hose clamps from steel PE strips with the screw parts being tinies casted parts .



Cheers Rob

CDW, Egilman, and Shipman - many, many thanks for the very kind comments.  I've done a little more work.  I've sprayed with clear flat and installed the rudder and canopy door.  I agree she is a beautiful airplane, although I also really like the p-38 lightning and the corsair.  I'm in the home stretch and think I can finish this weekend.  I just need to paint the green and red wing lights, install the landing gear, and a few other pieces.  The moment of truth will be pulling off the canopy masks and seeing whether I had the same bleed through that I had under some of the vinyl tape.

CDW, Egilman, and Shipman - many, many thanks for the very kind comments.  I've done a little more work.  I've sprayed with clear flat and installed the rudder and canopy door.  I agree she is a beautiful airplane, although I also really like the p-38 lightning and the corsair.  I'm in the home stretch and think I can finish this weekend.  I just need to paint the green and red wing lights, install the landing gear, and a few other pieces.  The moment of truth will be pulling off the canopy masks and seeing whether I had the same bleed through that I had under some of the vinyl tape.

CDW, Egilman, and Shipman - many, many thanks for the very kind comments.  I've done a little more work.  I've sprayed with clear flat and installed the rudder and canopy door.  I agree she is a beautiful airplane, although I also really like the p-38 lightning and the corsair.  I'm in the home stretch and think I can finish this weekend.  I just need to paint the green and red wing lights, install the landing gear, and a few other pieces.  The moment of truth will be pulling off the canopy masks and seeing whether I had the same bleed through that I had under some of the vinyl tape.

CDW, Egilman, and Shipman - many, many thanks for the very kind comments.  I've done a little more work.  I've sprayed with clear flat and installed the rudder and canopy door.  I agree she is a beautiful airplane, although I also really like the p-38 lightning and the corsair.  I'm in the home stretch and think I can finish this weekend.  I just need to paint the green and red wing lights, install the landing gear, and a few other pieces.  The moment of truth will be pulling off the canopy masks and seeing whether I had the same bleed through that I had under some of the vinyl tape.

CDW, Egilman, and Shipman - many, many thanks for the very kind comments.  I've done a little more work.  I've sprayed with clear flat and installed the rudder and canopy door.  I agree she is a beautiful airplane, although I also really like the p-38 lightning and the corsair.  I'm in the home stretch and think I can finish this weekend.  I just need to paint the green and red wing lights, install the landing gear, and a few other pieces.  The moment of truth will be pulling off the canopy masks and seeing whether I had the same bleed through that I had under some of the vinyl tape.

CDW, Egilman, and Shipman - many, many thanks for the very kind comments.  I've done a little more work.  I've sprayed with clear flat and installed the rudder and canopy door.  I agree she is a beautiful airplane, although I also really like the p-38 lightning and the corsair.  I'm in the home stretch and think I can finish this weekend.  I just need to paint the green and red wing lights, install the landing gear, and a few other pieces.  The moment of truth will be pulling off the canopy masks and seeing whether I had the same bleed through that I had under some of the vinyl tape.

CDW, Egilman, and Shipman - many, many thanks for the very kind comments.  I've done a little more work.  I've sprayed with clear flat and installed the rudder and canopy door.  I agree she is a beautiful airplane, although I also really like the p-38 lightning and the corsair.  I'm in the home stretch and think I can finish this weekend.  I just need to paint the green and red wing lights, install the landing gear, and a few other pieces.  The moment of truth will be pulling off the canopy masks and seeing whether I had the same bleed through that I had under some of the vinyl tape.

CDW, Egilman, and Shipman - many, many thanks for the very kind comments.  I've done a little more work.  I've sprayed with clear flat and installed the rudder and canopy door.  I agree she is a beautiful airplane, although I also really like the p-38 lightning and the corsair.  I'm in the home stretch and think I can finish this weekend.  I just need to paint the green and red wing lights, install the landing gear, and a few other pieces.  The moment of truth will be pulling off the canopy masks and seeing whether I had the same bleed through that I had under some of the vinyl tape.

CDW, Egilman, and Shipman - many, many thanks for the very kind comments.  I've done a little more work.  I've sprayed with clear flat and installed the rudder and canopy door.  I agree she is a beautiful airplane, although I also really like the p-38 lightning and the corsair.  I'm in the home stretch and think I can finish this weekend.  I just need to paint the green and red wing lights, install the landing gear, and a few other pieces.  The moment of truth will be pulling off the canopy masks and seeing whether I had the same bleed through that I had under some of the vinyl tape.

Decals done.  I've sprayed clear gloss over them. Not in the pictures, but I experimented a little with panel line wash.  I was going for subtle, so I tried Tamiya brown.  I didn't have any problem wiping off the excess over the Tamiya gloss - using same brand worked well and I didn't have the same problem as with the cockpit.  Unfortunately, the brown is very close to the camouflage brown and doesn't show up well against the green.  It ended up so subtle that it isn't really visible.  I don't plan to weather - I like the models looking like the ones in museums.  Plan is some flat clear tonight and completion soon.

Dan - many thanks!
 
Almost a month since last post.  I had a bunch of work things, then got COVID.  I’m bouncing back and got a few hours of work in this week.  Even with the great fit, I needed to do a little filling to fully hide seams.  Given how small the seams were, I tried Mr Surfacer 500.  I brushed it over the seam and it was really easy to sand off and fully hid the seams.  I primed the whole model, then painted the white and black undersurface which went well. 

 
I masked this whole area before painting the camouflage.  I used Tamiya masking tape for curves around the edges, then filled in with regular Tamiya paper masking tape.  I had my first problem when I tried painting the brown camouflage color.  To get the right color, I used Vallejo Model Color, thinned with Vallejo airbrush thinner. I haven't really used this paint brand before. Not sure what happened.  It seemed to go down OK, but as it dried, some of the pigment seemed to come out of solution and I got weird streaking.  I had mixed really well (I think). It dried flat, so rather than stripping, I found I had some Mr Paint of the same color on the shelf, and I painted over the whole area, which worked fine.  The Mr Paint fully covered and there was no reaction between the different paints.  I used AML masks for the camouflage pattern which were amazing.  They seemed to capture the right shape, were easy to apply, and whatever frisket material they are made out of was great – no bleeding under.
 

 
I used Tamiya paint for the green color and it went down fine.  I was really disappointed when I pulled the masking off.  The brown color (I’m presuming the Vallejo paint) bled under the vinyl masking tape in a lot of areas.  Thbere wasn't any bleeding under any of the paper tape.  I thought I had burnished the vinyl tape down pretty carefully before painting.  I spent a while masking and respraying of the white and black undersides along where the camouflage met the undersurface, and overall am mostly OK with the results.
 

I've sprayed gloss clear (tried the Tamiya X22 instead of the alclad gloss clear I had been using - it was much easier to get a good gloss coat.  Hopefully decals will go on after work tomorrow.

CDW, Egilman, and Shipman - many, many thanks for the very kind comments.  I've done a little more work.  I've sprayed with clear flat and installed the rudder and canopy door.  I agree she is a beautiful airplane, although I also really like the p-38 lightning and the corsair.  I'm in the home stretch and think I can finish this weekend.  I just need to paint the green and red wing lights, install the landing gear, and a few other pieces.  The moment of truth will be pulling off the canopy masks and seeing whether I had the same bleed through that I had under some of the vinyl tape.

CDW, Egilman, and Shipman - many, many thanks for the very kind comments.  I've done a little more work.  I've sprayed with clear flat and installed the rudder and canopy door.  I agree she is a beautiful airplane, although I also really like the p-38 lightning and the corsair.  I'm in the home stretch and think I can finish this weekend.  I just need to paint the green and red wing lights, install the landing gear, and a few other pieces.  The moment of truth will be pulling off the canopy masks and seeing whether I had the same bleed through that I had under some of the vinyl tape.

CDW, Egilman, and Shipman - many, many thanks for the very kind comments.  I've done a little more work.  I've sprayed with clear flat and installed the rudder and canopy door.  I agree she is a beautiful airplane, although I also really like the p-38 lightning and the corsair.  I'm in the home stretch and think I can finish this weekend.  I just need to paint the green and red wing lights, install the landing gear, and a few other pieces.  The moment of truth will be pulling off the canopy masks and seeing whether I had the same bleed through that I had under some of the vinyl tape.

CDW, Egilman, and Shipman - many, many thanks for the very kind comments.  I've done a little more work.  I've sprayed with clear flat and installed the rudder and canopy door.  I agree she is a beautiful airplane, although I also really like the p-38 lightning and the corsair.  I'm in the home stretch and think I can finish this weekend.  I just need to paint the green and red wing lights, install the landing gear, and a few other pieces.  The moment of truth will be pulling off the canopy masks and seeing whether I had the same bleed through that I had under some of the vinyl tape.

Decals done.  I've sprayed clear gloss over them. Not in the pictures, but I experimented a little with panel line wash.  I was going for subtle, so I tried Tamiya brown.  I didn't have any problem wiping off the excess over the Tamiya gloss - using same brand worked well and I didn't have the same problem as with the cockpit.  Unfortunately, the brown is very close to the camouflage brown and doesn't show up well against the green.  It ended up so subtle that it isn't really visible.  I don't plan to weather - I like the models looking like the ones in museums.  Plan is some flat clear tonight and completion soon.