davec

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.

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.

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.  

Thanks everyone for their kind comments and interest and apologies for the giant gap in posting.  I've had lots of life and work stuff since the last post almost two months ago.  I’ve been getting to the workshop for 15 or 30 minutes a few times each week and haven't been good about taking pictures or posting.  It is a beautiful kit, and except for a single non-kit related frustrating setback, has been going together really well.  I had tried to use Tamiya panel line wash as a pin wash, and when rubbing off excess with mineral spirits took off some paint.  I had gloss coated with alclad clear, which I think is lacquer based (at least I thinned it with lacquer thinner when I sprayed it) and should have been OK.  Not sure what happened.  Next time I try it, I will use Tamiya x-20 clear gloss.  Should work fine over a gloss from the same brand.  I was able to touch up the areas with a brush in a way that came out OK.  That was the major victory.  For me Tamiya paints airbrush beautifully, but I never have been able to brush them well.  I tried Tamiya retarder instead of thinner, and with it the paints flow beautifully with a brush.  The air tank on the right sidewall was hand brushed and to me looks almost airbrushed, and 10x better than any of my previous hand brushing efforts.  The rigging is modelkasten .6 elastic line (not sure what it is .6 of, but it is .13mm, which is about right for the model).  I had previously used Uschi line.  The modelkasten is stiffer, which makes it much easier to work with – very happy with it as well.  Seatbelts are HGW fabric belts. From reading some of the other build logs, getting the cockpit done is a significant part of the total build.  There is a lot going on in it.
 
Mike - it does look like the WNW quality transferred to Kotare.  The instrument panel is amazing.  ~30 separate decals.  The true test will be when I button up the fuselage, which will hopefully happen later today.  The test fit was excellent.
 
Dave
 
 

Well, this is turning out to be a humbling experience. Hopefully a learning experience too. My first encounter with metallic paints.
I'm using the Vallejo acrylic aluminium paint. For some reason lacquer paints frighten me. The Vallejo paint went on well in thin coats although I think it was drying too fast in the heat of my garage. Maybe I should experiment with some retarding fluid. Its not as good as Alclad but it does have a reasonable shine. It may have benefited from one more coat too but I was a bit concerned with the paint pooling or drying rough. Its okay for a first attempt.
I have learnt that you can't hide anything under a metal finish. I thought I had the primer down nicely but I can see all sorts of minor imperfections.. So now I am adding the black decals on the wings and along the fuselage sides. The fuselage one broke in three pieces but I managed to piece it together and my masking sems to have been accurate - the decal covers the masked area with no gaps (so far). I am doing a few decals at a time because I don't want to risk moving ones as I handle it.
The acrylic rod shows up tomorrow, the props need adding and the base needs to be completed



Thanks for looking in and for the likes and comments
 
Alan

I sprayed the white upper sections today. Now letting it dry and harden before starting the serious masking tomorrow for the grey bits.


Thanks for looking in and the likes and comments
 
Alan

This one has soaked up a lot of time without making much progress. Its by alternative frustrating and rewarding. I put another coat of primer and the wing. fuselage and tailbooms all blended nicely (rewarding)



There is definitely a touch of the Fat Albert in this one

The messy blue line is down to be covered with masks for the demarcation between the white and pale grey colour scheme which is going to be challenging. I started adding the PE and then decided that there was no way I could mask for painting with the PE in place so I pulled it all off again (frustrating). 
The kit provides masks for the fuselage stripes but not for the booms. Luckily the masking template came to the rescue to cut some nice regular thin stripes of tape

I was just stirring the pot of white paint and realised - I hadn't masked the inner sides of the booms so I also need to paint the blue line and let it harden before putting the masking stripe on (very frustrating)

This is the paint scheme and rather grimy finish that I will be generally trying to emulate.

It looks like the Rolls-Royce Darts chucked out a lot of oil. Never had much to do with them although they were part of my fleet portfolio at one time.
I'm a bit puzzled about the red over wing stripe above the inboard engines. I don't see it as part of the colour scheme and it doesn't seem to fade away like stain would. It looks like there is a vent ahead of it. Hydraulic fluid is usually that colour but it seems a lot. Any thoughts please?
Thanks for looking in and teh likes and comments.
Alan
 
 
 

After a couple of days getting seriously medieval with the tail booms and the wing / fuselage fit the major pieces are assembled and the first round of filler applied. 

She is a serious tail sitter but I plan to complete her with the doors open and I'm hoping the ramp will put her back on the nose wheel. I need to find a few decent photos of the clam shell door in the open position.
The kit provides masks for the port holes (but not enough so some are liquid mask). Once the filler has hardened I will try a coat of primer and see what I have got.
Thanks for looking in and the likes and comments
Alan
 

The Argosy kit is now showing its true colours and its turning into a bit of a fight.
I have been working on the booms and its taken nearly two full days to get them completed.
The gear is made up of several pieces shown below and the instructions need a lot of puzzling over to work out how they go together.


Parts 25 and 26 make up the exhaust and have to be installed such that they will protrude through the relevant hole in the other side of the boom. Naturally the hole is too small and needs enlarging.
There is a tiny actuator (part 74) that I couldn't make sense of and spent an hour or so on the internet to finally work out where it goes - its a bit of a wasted effort though - its going to be completely invisible.
The detail is quite impressive for the scale but it was a long tussle to get to the point where the booms could be completed.

I made up the outer engine nacelles and then started dry fitting everything to the wing. Nothing fits even closely. I had teh full range of material removing gear in play at some point or other.

Th DSPIAE sanding pads bought on impulse are seeing a lot of action on this build. The wing / fuselage interface needed a disturbing amount of material to be removed and the booms were not much better. On the plus side the booms locate well into the wing and should line up and even allow the tail plane to fit properly (I think)

The assemblies all fit now and the amount of material removed can be seen. I probably should not have primed anything until it was fully built.
 
So maybe tomorrow I will have some bits assembled. I think nacelles and booms and then the wing onto the fuselage. Hopefully that should be the last of the seriously rough stuff.
 
Thanks for looking in and the likes and comments.
 
Alan
 

Moving along; this is an interesting kit and has the advantage that you can work on several elements, fuselage, wing, booms etc so I'm not brought to a halt to wait for paint to dry.
I've primed most parts and sprayed the interior of the fuselage with light grey. 

I gave the cockpit a light coat of grey over the primer to bring out the details. There is not much point in getting wild with the painting here; its going to be invisible once the fuselage is closed up

The porthole glazing was then installed. Each window is a separate tiny clear part and they are all too big to fit the hole in the fuselage so each opening had to be reworked. Several escaped from the tweezers but thankfully all were recovered. 

The flight deck was installed along with the cargo floor which was painted light grey and scuffed up to show wear.

This will be the last look at the flight deck. I made up the doors and they look quite nice although the fit might be a bit nasty. I plan to have the doors open which may also stop the nose lifting. I don't see much space to stow some weights up front. Maybe some lead weight under the floor - or possibly a 1/144 vehicle or pile of freight.
 
So far this is a lot of fun with some interesting challenges ahead, mating the wing, booms, tail - and then the paint scheme.
 
Thanks for looking in and the likes
 
Alan
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.