CDW

Did a little additional investigation and learned I only needed to wait 60 minutes to apply the top clear coat, so it's now got 3 clear coats.
Will wait until tomorrow and polish it up a bit first, then apply the decals. Once the decals have had at least a day to dry, will top coat those as well to finish it off. 
 

After the body parts prep, sprayed on 3 coats of Tamiya white fine primer. Next, polished up the primer a bit and touched up a few spots.
Then it was time to spray on the Createx Wicked Pearl White paint. These are acrylic paints, water based. Pearl colors are not opaque, so it's important to choose the right colors for your primer depending on your finish coat. These paints are not going to do well over bare plastic, they must be primed first for the paint to have something to grab onto. Additionally, they must be sprayed on in multiple fine coats. Heavy coats would be a disaster. Because of the pearl color, I put down four light coats giving each coat about 5-10 minutes drying time in between coats. Just to stay on the safe side, I used the Createx proprietary primer, their stock number 4012. Although I have read others say you can use other acrylic primers as well, like Vallejo primer. But alcohol and other reducers that work with Tamiya and Mr Color paints will damage Createx paint and should be avoided altogether.
 
The following pictures are of the Pearl White painted body parts. I will wait a few days to apply the 2-part diamond clear coats. In the meantime, will probably start building and painting the sub assemblies.
 

Did a little additional investigation and learned I only needed to wait 60 minutes to apply the top clear coat, so it's now got 3 clear coats.
Will wait until tomorrow and polish it up a bit first, then apply the decals. Once the decals have had at least a day to dry, will top coat those as well to finish it off. 
 

After the body parts prep, sprayed on 3 coats of Tamiya white fine primer. Next, polished up the primer a bit and touched up a few spots.
Then it was time to spray on the Createx Wicked Pearl White paint. These are acrylic paints, water based. Pearl colors are not opaque, so it's important to choose the right colors for your primer depending on your finish coat. These paints are not going to do well over bare plastic, they must be primed first for the paint to have something to grab onto. Additionally, they must be sprayed on in multiple fine coats. Heavy coats would be a disaster. Because of the pearl color, I put down four light coats giving each coat about 5-10 minutes drying time in between coats. Just to stay on the safe side, I used the Createx proprietary primer, their stock number 4012. Although I have read others say you can use other acrylic primers as well, like Vallejo primer. But alcohol and other reducers that work with Tamiya and Mr Color paints will damage Createx paint and should be avoided altogether.
 
The following pictures are of the Pearl White painted body parts. I will wait a few days to apply the 2-part diamond clear coats. In the meantime, will probably start building and painting the sub assemblies.
 

Did a little additional investigation and learned I only needed to wait 60 minutes to apply the top clear coat, so it's now got 3 clear coats.
Will wait until tomorrow and polish it up a bit first, then apply the decals. Once the decals have had at least a day to dry, will top coat those as well to finish it off. 
 

Just a stunningly beautiful model. She does such tribute to the men who served aboard Liberty ships in WW2. A fitting subject for Memorial day.

After the body parts prep, sprayed on 3 coats of Tamiya white fine primer. Next, polished up the primer a bit and touched up a few spots.
Then it was time to spray on the Createx Wicked Pearl White paint. These are acrylic paints, water based. Pearl colors are not opaque, so it's important to choose the right colors for your primer depending on your finish coat. These paints are not going to do well over bare plastic, they must be primed first for the paint to have something to grab onto. Additionally, they must be sprayed on in multiple fine coats. Heavy coats would be a disaster. Because of the pearl color, I put down four light coats giving each coat about 5-10 minutes drying time in between coats. Just to stay on the safe side, I used the Createx proprietary primer, their stock number 4012. Although I have read others say you can use other acrylic primers as well, like Vallejo primer. But alcohol and other reducers that work with Tamiya and Mr Color paints will damage Createx paint and should be avoided altogether.
 
The following pictures are of the Pearl White painted body parts. I will wait a few days to apply the 2-part diamond clear coats. In the meantime, will probably start building and painting the sub assemblies.
 

Thank you all  .
 
The start of the build is the cabin. The laser-cut parts are perfect, much better than I could cut by hand in 0.5mm and 1.0mm card. Here is the main framing :


 
Two of the instrument panels. These have some very small parts. The gauge panel is laminated in 3 parts - the gauges, a very thin piece of clear acrylic from a cigarette packet, and the fascia which has been punched for the gauges :



 
The axe and fire extinguisher took me half a day to make :

 
The panels fitted to the cabin :



 
Danny

Hi all, 
 
My latest Card model - A Halinski kit of a Russian Mi24D Helicopter. Here are the pics of the cover page, 2 of the 3 pages of the  laser-cut pieces, resin wheels and a preformed canopy :




 
This is going to be my most difficult card model to date. There are over 4,000 pieces (HMS Hood had about 2,500), some of them half the size of the smallest I've done so far. This should be FUN  .
 
Danny

look'in good so far    

It's an excellent tool for re scribing or deepening panel lines.

When building car models, I like to carefully examine the body/parts to identify any imperfections caused by mold separation lines. These will leave a raised line along the body that needs to be removed before priming. To help see what I'm doing, I'll first mark the lines with a sharpie permanent marker.

 
Then will use sanding sticks to sand away the imperfections. When the sharpie mark is removed, I know enough sanding has been done.
 


Next, I rescribe any panel lines that need to be a little deeper and wider to prevent the coats of paint from filling them. In this case, the doors.
Last, I will go over all the body parts with fine sand paper/sanding sponge to prep it for the primer.
 

When building car models, I like to carefully examine the body/parts to identify any imperfections caused by mold separation lines. These will leave a raised line along the body that needs to be removed before priming. To help see what I'm doing, I'll first mark the lines with a sharpie permanent marker.

 
Then will use sanding sticks to sand away the imperfections. When the sharpie mark is removed, I know enough sanding has been done.
 


Next, I rescribe any panel lines that need to be a little deeper and wider to prevent the coats of paint from filling them. In this case, the doors.
Last, I will go over all the body parts with fine sand paper/sanding sponge to prep it for the primer.
 

I watched that comparison video between Gravity and Zero brands of paint. The Gravity paint did very well. However, I have also seen very professional results with Zero paints as well, from other modelers. When working with paint, "one size does not fit all". Certain paints have their own magic sweet spot for percentage of reducer, air pressure, needle size, etc. Finding that sweet spot is up to the individual modeler.
 
 

I wanted to make sure there were no major fit issues between the various major body parts. A dry fit indicates no serious issues. Just some prep work needed to remove a few mold lines and rough up the plastic a little for primer.
 
 

I'll bet it would look sharp in that color, but without the kit decals.

Totally agree with you Mark.
 
 

It's an excellent tool for re scribing or deepening panel lines.

When building car models, I like to carefully examine the body/parts to identify any imperfections caused by mold separation lines. These will leave a raised line along the body that needs to be removed before priming. To help see what I'm doing, I'll first mark the lines with a sharpie permanent marker.

 
Then will use sanding sticks to sand away the imperfections. When the sharpie mark is removed, I know enough sanding has been done.
 


Next, I rescribe any panel lines that need to be a little deeper and wider to prevent the coats of paint from filling them. In this case, the doors.
Last, I will go over all the body parts with fine sand paper/sanding sponge to prep it for the primer.
 

Hatch Nr3 Rigging
 
This hatch, like the last 2 to still to come, is rigged as a “Burton” or “Yard and Stay,” rig which had several variations. This hatch is rigged as the “standard” type. What made these rigs interesting for me is that the booms do not move during the cargo operation; the cargo can be moved anywhere along a line connecting the 2 points directly under the end of each boom by coordinating the 2 cargo winches. In this case one boom is positioned directly over the center of the hatch and the other over the side of the ship for loading to/from a pier or lighter.
 
When I was onboard the SS John Brown in Baltimore they ran a demonstration of a yard and stay rig at work, pretty simple when you see it in operation but it took a lot of concentration by the winch operators and foreman, one missed signal and the winches could end up pulling against each other which would quickly collapse the whole rig, with all the expected death and destruction.
 
Here the 2 cargo whips are rigged together and secured to an eye pad near the hatch:

I had to install the life raft racks before rigging the guys to make sure there would be no interference. The racks are made up of 4 pieces of VERY thin laser cut wood. It was a little intimidating cutting them loose from their fret/billet but once they were glued up they are pretty sturdy:

Here is the final rigging, minus rope coils that will come later - it is starting to look pretty busy:

And the rounded section for dowels  (like my yardarms on the pearl)   very useful tool.
 
OC.

Iv'e   got one of those  (The tool I mean)
 
OC.

I wanted to make sure there were no major fit issues between the various major body parts. A dry fit indicates no serious issues. Just some prep work needed to remove a few mold lines and rough up the plastic a little for primer.
 
 

A few images of the cockpit area details. More remains to be added before assembly of the fuselage halves can begin. What can be seen are the engine bearers in the forward parts of the fuselage halves. Photo etch is used to simulate the internal wooden structural framework with wire bracing. 

When building car models, I like to carefully examine the body/parts to identify any imperfections caused by mold separation lines. These will leave a raised line along the body that needs to be removed before priming. To help see what I'm doing, I'll first mark the lines with a sharpie permanent marker.

 
Then will use sanding sticks to sand away the imperfections. When the sharpie mark is removed, I know enough sanding has been done.
 


Next, I rescribe any panel lines that need to be a little deeper and wider to prevent the coats of paint from filling them. In this case, the doors.
Last, I will go over all the body parts with fine sand paper/sanding sponge to prep it for the primer.