Vought F-8 Crusader by Captain Slog – FINISHED - Eduard - 1/48 - PLASTIC

[Captain Slog]

Hi All,

 

I thought I may as well jump on the plastic aircraft modelling bandwagon and show my current progress on what I was working on earlier.  I started this at the beginning of last year as a change from the card modelling thinking it would be relatively quick and at least get one completed build under my belt.  As usual life got in the way and it stood still until now but back in Perth for the Easter break so hoping to make some progress on it.

 

This is my first plastic kit since my early teens so getting on close to 4 decades since I tackled anything like it so bear that in mind.

 

On to the kit; this is Eduard’s limited edition release of Hasegawa’s F-8 Crusader and no it is not pirated.  Eduard take the best example of other manufacturers models and beef it up with aftermarket which I will cover below.  This kit was released by Hasegawa and is quite old now but as mentioned probably the best example of this type in 1/48.

 

 

 

A few observations about the kit.  For a 1/48 scale aircraft I was surprised on how big it is in the flesh.  As a kid it was always 1/72 Airfix and had never seen a 1/48 or 1/32 aircraft kit as they were well out of pocket money range.  I was also surprised in the relatively low parts count for this kit at least.

 

Although I have used photo etch in the past this is my first experience of pre-coloured PE and it just looks fantastic.  There is also a small fret with normal brass PE for access panels and the cockpit.

 

 

 

Eduard also include a number of Resin parts.  This will also be my first time using resin and seeing it firsthand I have got to say the detail on the ejection seat is incredible. Also the resin set comes with resin “weighted” wheels, which gives the correct sag and side wall bulges.  I think as a minimum to any aircraft build, aftermarket cockpit/seat and weighted wheels are a must.

 

 

 

Eduard as usual for special editions and profi packs give decals for multiple schemes.  The decals are by Cartograf, one of the premium decal companies who supply to many other kit manufacturers. There are five marking options and I have chosen the Death Angels flying out of Da Nang Air Base 1968 for no other reason than I like the markings best.

 

 

 

I really like the concept of aftermarket accessories and detail sets for sharpening up models so also purchased the Eduard resin exhaust but on closer inspection it probably isn’t really necessary. I also got Eduards resin rear air intakes. Apart from having open intakes and some PE reinforcing panels won’t really add much.

 

 

 

I also came across this miniscule turned brass pitot tube and just had to get it!

 

 

 

Lastly I purchased the resin wing box and the resin wheel bays by Aires and again the cast resin detail is just stunning.

 

 

 

I probably went overboard with the accessories for what is essentially my first plastic build and have stunning models built straight out of the box but I always jump in with both feet.  Detail sets, photo etch etc really appeals to me, so be as well get experience of it now.

 

 

On to the build!

 

Starting with the cockpit there are a few bits of Eduard PE to fit such as rudder pedals, a floor plate and a couple of side panels.  I found with the side panels that the spacing to clear the floor hump is overly large (not an issue) but that they also stick up past the side consoles by quite a bit and here was the first issue.

 

I trial fitted the colour PE flush against the side plates and when fitted in to the fuselage halves the PE pushed the starboard side plate off.  I made sure the PE consoles fitted into the fuselage ribs so guessed there wasn’t enough room.  As can be seen in the photo below I left the Port one sticking up and trimmed the starboard one down to the console level.  I did lose some detail on the side plate but doubt much will be visible when finally installed.

 

 

 

The tub painted and the stick installed.  To keep things simple I used the recommended paint call out from the instructions and this was MR Hobby, Hobby Colour H317 Gray (FS36231).  I have just placed the PE consoles on to show the Port side butted against the sticking up side panel and the starboard side over the trimmed side panel.  I wish I had just trimmed them both but I’ll get over it.

 

 

 

The instrument panel was next and I enjoyed doing this.  It was sprayed using Tamiya XF-Rubber Black and then the first piece of PE with the gauges was CA glued to the cleaned up plastic part.  To attach the bezel PE I used Tamiya X-22 clear applied quite liberally and then pressed it home.  The clear varnish filled in the space over the gauges nicely but I did go back and add a drop of Clear into each bezel. There is still the HUD and a number of tiny PE levers etc to do but that will be later once installed and the front canopy fitted to protect it.

 

 

 

I was really looking forward to doing the seat to do some work with resin and decals.  I believe it is a Martin Baker MK.7 series seat.  I also discovered that the horse shoe shaped ‘head rest’ is in fact the parachute, which I thought was pretty cool.

 

 The resin plug was chopped off the base of the seat and flash removed to open up any spaces such as the ejector handle and some pipes round the back.  I sprayed it up with XF-85 and the call out called for H80 Khaki Green which I started doing on the seat squab and the ‘head rest’ but found it quite dark.  A look at some images on line showed different colours so used H58 Interior Green on the lumber pad to lighten it up a bit.

 

 

 

First attempt at decals wasn’t too bad despite the small size which probably hides any issues.  I used the obligatory Microscale Set and Sol.  The only part I am not happy with so far is the dry brushing with Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminium, which is far too heavy. I even tried dry brushing neat thinners and then Rubber Black to try and reduce it but things were starting to go downhill so stopped before I wrecked it.  I should have resprayed the black but already painted the greens and didn’t want to redo that (I have decided I dislike brush painting!)

 

I had planned to dry brush lighter green on the edges of the upholstery but after the silver experience decide against it.

 

 

 

There is still all the colour PE harnesses to add but will do that later.

 

A couple of shots with everything dry fitted.  There are the throttle and flap levers and a few other bits and pieces to go on but will wait until installed.  I think I will also wait until the tub is installed before fitting the side console PE so nothing gets popped off during fitting.

 

 

 

 

I thought I would have a bit of fun with the photo-etch HUD and made a little projector lense from clear sprue and painted it with Tamiya clear green.  It took 3 attempts to fit the supplied acetate screen so got a bit a bit messed up LOL

 

 

 

Next up will be fitting of all the replacement resin upgrades and I have shown the kit part for comparison.  The main gear well is a straight drop in replacement and the difference in detail is staggering.  There are still a few resin detail and wire parts included to fit as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the massive plug on the bottom there is enough space in the fuselage for it to drop straight in.  I had to remove some flash from the holes where the undercarriage fit in to but that was it.

 

 

 

The front wheel well would be the most difficult and will require hacking off the kit one from the intake duct and removing the large plug from the underside of the resin part as well as shaping the correct curves.

 

I was undecided whether to use this or not.  The wheel well alignment to the underside of the fuselage will prove tricky as it fits from the inside. As can be seen the resin part doesn’t really add much from the kit part so not a big loss.  I will just use some of the resin details such as doors etc not shown but were supplied with the wheel well.

 

 

 

The F-8 has a Variable Incidence Wing and the whole wing lifts up by approx 10 degrees at the front for take off and landings to provide extra low speed lift.

 

There are so much nice parts in the resin wingbox from the distribution pipes, the insulated main line and the bundles of cables running down the sides. It’s a pity most of this will be hidden even with the wing in the raised position.

 

 

 

The resin wing box has a 3mm plug on the underside which requires removing.  I didn’t trust myself to cut the 3mm plug off the full length and width of the wing box with a razor saw and spent about 45 minutes slowly sanding it down on a large flat sanding block with quite an aggressive grit.  After lots of sanding and trial fitting on each fuselage halve separately it slipped in.

 

The only tweaking required was to gently sand the top of the front bulkhead to get to reduce the height of the top curve.

 

 

 

 

Now that the fuselage halves were together it was time to sand the fuselage join seams and fill and sand the intake.  Of course sanding removes some panel line and rivet details so was time to try redoing these.  I mentioned previously my plastic modelling was limited to pre/early teens Airfix kits (decades ago) using tubes of poly cement and brush painting Humbrol enamels so had to investigate what’s what.

 

For panel line scribers I settled on giving RB Productions Scribe-R a try as readily available, reasonably priced and I only found one video which sounded good to me.

 

It is made from photo-etch stainless steel and had to be assembled by bending the scriber and slotting into the holder.  Incidentally I have several different brands of knife handle (to take No.11 sized blades) but only one allowed the scriber to go deep enough in so the all four side could be gripped in the slots. It also comes with 2 spare scribes

 

 

 

As this is all new to me,  I have nothing to compare its performance against but must say it was easy to assemble and use and I enjoyed re-scribing with it!

 

Next up was re-riveting…again all new to me.  I would love a set of Rosie the Riveters but since I only had a rough idea of the size required it would quickly get expensive to find the right one plus availability.  So again settled on RB Productions Rivet-R which is also photo etch stainless steel and was easy to cut out and assemble.

 

 

 

The F-8 doesn’t have a great deal of panel lines and rivets to redo but shown below is my first attempt at re-scribing and re-riveting the underside of the exhaust.  On the whole pretty happy how it turned out.

 

One thing I noticed (which is not me or scriber related) is some of the panel lines don’t fully line up with each fuselage half but on other areas they do.  The picture shows the last panel line meets perfectly but the forward 2 don’t and then the 4th one next to the tail hook recess meet again.  Anyway rescribed and reriveted satisfactorily.

 

 

 

Next up was fitting the resin rear air intakes.  The clean-up of the resin was straightforward and the photo etch plate fitted perfectly to the resin.  The fit of the assembly though isn’t the best with some daylight showing.  On close inspection the rear heat panels aren’t a perfect cone with a bit of a depression near the rear.  Just going to accept it as is though. 

 

 

 

The first real fit problem with the kit encountered so far is the fitting of the rear ventral strakes.  As can be seen they only really touch at the front and rear and this is after a bit of shaping to improve the fit somewhat.

 

I ran some Mr Hobby Mr White Putty R (quite a runny filler) into the join and then cleaned up by rubbing the joint with Levelling Thinner soaked cotton buds (Q-Tips)

 

(Interesting fact, I think anyway, is that the first F-8’s didn’t have these strakes but were later installed to eliminate a tendency during catapult launches for the plane to spin out when it cleared the deck!  There is a YouTube video showing this with the plane spinning past 90 degrees to the left immediately after leaving the deck.)

 

 

 

On to the jet pipe / exhaust.  As mentioned at the beginning I bought Eduards Brassin Jet Exhaust set (shown on the right of the photo) to replace the 2 kit supplied parts.  The resin has nice detail.  I really enjoy working with resin as it slices and pares so easily with a craft knife.

 

 

 

After opening the packet of the Brassin set I discovered in the instructions that parts of the internal fuselage need to be removed for it to fit.  A couple of tabs need trimming down which is fine but they also require removing the stubs which hold the polycaps for the stabilators!

 

Apart from access I didn’t like that idea so after a bit of eyeballing the kit plastic jet pipe I reckoned I could just about fit the Brassin turbine and afterburner ring in to the back.  If it didn’t work out I could fall back to the resin jet pipe.  I attacked the plastic part with drills in a Dremil, round files, craft knife and sanding sticks and after what seemed like hours later the completed Brassin assembly JUST fits!

 

 

 

For painting I really wanted to try AK Interactive metal lacquers but couldn’t get them locally and my usual on-line store would only send them by road so got some Vallejo acrylic metals instead.  The instructions call for Dark Iron so used Vallejo’s steel and gave everything a coat.

 

I came across a couple of images looking up the jet pipe of a F-8 and everything was coated in a matt brown ‘soot’ so tried to recreate the effect with Vallejo Burnt manifold but I just couldn’t get a fine enough spray and the colour in small doses didn’t stand out. I thinned down some Tamiya Red Brown and tried to spray the pattern as per the google photo.

 

   

 

 

The effect isn’t quite how I imagined it but happy enough.  I will probably put on some black panel line wash, which I forgot to do until I was looking at the photos.

 

 

 

The main wing all glued up.  I watched YouTube videos of actual F-8s taking off and landing to work out the droop for the slats and flaps etc.  I have left off the inner flaps(?) off as these need some trimming to clear the fuselage.  Also included is a bit of PE at the front which was supplied with the kit.

 

 

 

A small tentative step towards painting with priming the main wing and elevators.  I want to try black basing instead of panel line pre-shading so laid down a coat of Mr Hobby Finishing surfacer 1500.  This is my first time using this and it went down beautifully.  I really need better lighting when spraying as the coverage isn’t uniform (but should help with the effect! LOL)

 

 

 

The same 1500 Finishing surfacer went down on the fuselage perfectly.  This will definitely be my primer of choice for future builds.

 

 

 

The one thing that is a little disappointing is on checking the box contents I found the main canopy had broken free from the sprue and has been scratched up a bit and there is also a strange line in the front canopy which may also be a scratch.  The marks/scuffs don’t look so bad in the photo and I am hoping I can polish them out.

 

 

 

I wasn’t sure if I should show the canopy as I decided to give this a go to remove some scuffs and scratches it had with rattling around freely in the box and came close to destroying it! I watched some YouTube videos on polishing canopies so went to work on it will various grades of sanding sticks and then used Tamiyas 3 progressive grades of polishing compounds.

 

I wasn’t happy with it so went through the process again and this time decided to speed things up with a Dremel and felt polishing wheel I had instead of going out to get a mop wheel.  I am sure you are all shaking your heads because as you will know the felt is far too hard and before I knew it I had burned the plastic and it had all burred up in several places!

 

I set about sanding it again to see if I could remove the burrs/burns which required sanding down a fair bit in localised spots and tried to show the worst area of distortion in the photo.  I couldn’t really capture it well but it is in the middle of the side and depending on the light disappears or is worse than the picture shows.

 

I think I managed to dodge that bullet as it looks acceptable in my eyes from what could have been disastrous.  Yet another hard lesson learned for this n00b!

 

 

 

Then on to masking up both inside and out using the supplied masks which again first time using and liked how quick and easy they were to use.  I just filled in the exposed sections with bits of Tamiya masking tape.  The rear of the main canopy was reduced in thickness as per the instructions for installing in the raised position.  The hinge points in the fuselage were also trimmed to allow the canopy to open.

 

 

 

The finished canopy with the Eduard coloured photo etch internals.  Quite happy with it.  There are still yellow decal stripes though.

 

 

 

Finally on to some painting and started to do the mottle coat on the underside of the stabilator.  I believe black basing isn’t really a good option for the navy’s high visibilty paint scheme from this era but wanted to try it anyway.

 

 

 

Finally! The current state of play.  I had finished the wings and stabilators and applied the minimal decals and stencil data using the usual Microscale Set and Sol.  I still need to apply gloss to the fuselage for all the decaling fun that entails.  I will be applying only minimal weathering as I believe the 60’s High Visibility paint scheme was very durable but will apply various staining and panel line highlights etc.

 

 

 

Cheers

Slog

[ccoyle]

All I can say is 😲.

[Richmond]

Thanks Slog -for a very detailed and interesting log and fine photography as well. 

 

One thing I noticed when placing Eduard pre-coloured PE onto my spitfire build was there was a problem using CA in that it tended to attack the paint maybe I just wasn't being careful enough.

 

Anyway after some research I have since gone over to micro crystal clear for attaching the PE - not sure if this will be robust enough over time. 

 

Love the console. Your dry brushing doesn't look bad to me - maybe a wash will darken it down if you are not happy with it?

 

Look forward to more

 

By the way I have located some links to other builds over at Scalemates 

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/eduard-11110-crusader--1067628

Edited April 19, 2019 by Richmond

[popeye the sailor]

nicely done Slog!     that's the main reason I smile,  when I see that the clear plastic is in it's own bag.........I've had that happen to me on a few occasions as well.   don't be too critical on the exhaust.....the effect can be seen...there's always the gray area on just how much,  and I think you captured it quite well    welcome to the plastic forum.......always good to see new faces.   I started with the funny car,  but with the nice weather,  and the indication from my last project in this forum,  I fear the wood bug is starting to make me itch.   I've still got a couple non ship plastic projects in the Que,  so I think I'll be keep'in ya company for a while.  very fine job on the Crusader........following along to see how she turns out   

[Jim Rogers]

Plastic modeling sure has changed in the past fifty years.

[Canute]

Jim, that's for sure.

 

Slog, the seat/cockpit turned out great. You'd be surprised how much of the black paint wears off, since the seat is a sometime work platform for a crewchief. Looking forward to see how you continue. Navy jets always looked beat, since the corrosive environment they lived in, needed a lot of grease and oil for protection.  When we'd use Air Force jets in similar environments, they'd need a trip to the wash rack soon after coming home to remove the salt.

 

Most newer jets have the parachute built into the seat. We had similar Martin Baker seats in the Phantom. Made you lean forward too much. TheF-15/16  seats have more of a lean back attitude, especially the F16.

[CaptainSteve]

Exquisite work, Slog ... as always !!

(Also, I note that you are buying the new maxi-sized Tic-Tacs, these days)

 

[vossiewulf]

Nice job Slog!

 

F-8, was called "the last of the gunfighters" as it still carried guns during the time where they were being eliminated in favor of missiles, which turned out to be a bad mistake at the time. Today of course guns are pretty much superfluous, the chances of planes evading both modern radar and dogfight missiles is really pretty slim.

 

As for the F-8, everything I've read says that pilots loved flying it, the maneuverability and power were very good for the time. And even though the F-4 proved popular, they should have gone with the Super Crusader, it would have flown rings around the Rhino.

[CDW]

7 minutes ago, vossiewulf said:

And even though the F-4 proved popular, they should have gone with the Super Crusader, it would have flown rings around the Rhino.

Wasn't that at a time when the USN decided their new aircraft must have two engines rather than one? It made the Super Crusader a non-contestant.

[Canute]

Yeah, pretty much, Craig.

 

And, the Super Crusader was very exotic looking.

[Gregory]

From vossiewulf's link:

 

" NASA pilots flying at NAS Patuxent River routinely intercepted and defeated U.S. Navy Phantom IIs in mock dogfights, until complaints from the Navy put an end to the harassment.

[Old Collingwood]

Amazing work  - so different with those super details sets.

 

OC.

[vossiewulf]

The F-8's other claim to fame, that Slog has already shown, is that it's the only production aircraft that had a variable incidence wing. It was an odd feature in that it was fairly Russian in its sledgehammer approach to solving the competing needs of supersonic wings vs. wings that would allow a reasonably slow approach to the carrier- the hell with that complex swing-wing idea, we'll just tilt the whole damned wing! Problem solved! Pass the vodka comrade!

 

Also, anyone with a vague interest should watch the below, it's one of the best Dogfights episodes and its title is The Last Gunfighter 

 

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

11 hours ago, vossiewulf said:

The F-8's other claim to fame, that Slog has already shown, is that it's the only production aircraft that had a variable incidence wing. It was an odd feature in that it was fairly Russian in its sledgehammer approach to solving the competing needs of supersonic wings vs. wings that would allow a reasonably slow approach to the carrier- the hell with that complex swing-wing idea, we'll just tilt the whole damned wing! Problem solved! Pass the vodka comrade!

 

Also, anyone with a vague interest should watch the below, it's one of the best Dogfights episodes and its title is The Last Gunfighter 

 

 

 

Makes one wonder how it would get on in a dogfight situation with modern tech  F16  type thing.

 

OC.

[CDW]

1 minute ago, Old Collingwood said:

Makes one wonder how it would get on in a dogfight situation with modern tech  F16  type thing.

 

OC.

Yesterday's weapon systems cannot favorably compare to today's weapons systems, period. It would be a turkey shoot.

[mtaylor]

I'm not so sure, CDW.  The 4th generation are pretty darn good while the current 5th generation is still in development.   I'm reading where there's plans afoot to upgrade the F-15 and F-18 to keep them in the game. 

[CDW]

When you watch that video, you'll see the '60's sidewinders must acquire the target at less than 20 degrees from the afterburner, and everything is within visual range...

 

Today, weapons systems can track, lock, and fire upon multiple targets at once, many many miles beyond visual range. Aspect angle is not even a thing anymore compared to what it once was. A modern fighter can lock on and fire upon a target at any angle.

 

Now as to whether or not the F-8 could maneuver sufficiently to gun fight a modern aircraft, that's another story.  

[Old Collingwood]

1 hour ago, CDW said:

 

 

Now as to whether or not the F-8 could maneuver sufficiently to gun fight a modern aircraft, that's another story.  

Thats an interesting scenario  say and F8 vs F16  just dog fighting using just thier guns - compairing agility.

 

OC.

[Captain Slog]

Thanks to everyone for the interest, comments and likes, much appreciated.

On 4/19/2019 at 8:40 PM, Richmond said:

Thanks Slog -for a very detailed and interesting log and fine photography as well. 

 

One thing I noticed when placing Eduard pre-coloured PE onto my spitfire build was there was a problem using CA in that it tended to attack the paint maybe I just wasn't being careful enough.

 

Anyway after some research I have since gone over to micro crystal clear for attaching the PE - not sure if this will be robust enough over time. 

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/eduard-11110-crusader--1067628

Thanks for the link Richmond.  Turns out Hasegawa 1st released this kit in 2003 so yeah it's getting a little long in the tooth compared to latest offering but despite it's age goes together perfectly and has no flash, sink marks or any other foibles. 

 

I haven't experienced any issues with the coloured PE etc the coating has a tendency to flake off when bending it!  I also use normal PVA and have tried the crystal clear also with good results. I used it for the side consuls. 

 

On 4/19/2019 at 9:55 PM, Jim Rogers said:

Plastic modeling sure has changed in the past fifty years.

It certainly has, there has never been so much choice in all genres and the aftermarket has gone insane with upgrades, detail sets, decals, the works.

 

On 4/19/2019 at 11:11 PM, Canute said:

Slog, the seat/cockpit turned out great. You'd be surprised how much of the black paint wears off, since the seat is a sometime work platform for a crewchief. Looking forward to see how you continue. Navy jets always looked beat, since the corrosive environment they lived in, needed a lot of grease and oil for protection.  When we'd use Air Force jets in similar environments, they'd need a trip to the wash rack soon after coming home to remove the salt.

 

Most newer jets have the parachute built into the seat. We had similar Martin Baker seats in the Phantom. Made you lean forward too much. TheF-15/16  seats have more of a lean back attitude, especially the F16.

Thanks for your real world input.  F-4's a personal favourite of mine I have a 1/48 F-4B in the stash which I will model as a bomb truck in VF-111 'Sundowners' the best markings ever...well maybe 2nd to the Jolly Rogers!  One of my favourite photos is of a sundowner diving at about 45 degrees unloading it bombs!

On 4/20/2019 at 4:24 AM, vossiewulf said:

 

As for the F-8, everything I've read says that pilots loved flying it, the maneuverability and power were very good for the time.

Thanks Vossie, on a youtube documentary there was a story where one was launched with the ends of the wings still retracted up in the storage position but he was able to eject all his stores circle round and land again!

 

Saying that I am led to believe that the type had one of the highest loss rates ever for a military aircraft, an order of magnitude much higher than the next high loss aircraft.

 

I managed to get a restock on levelling thinners yesterday so will get a gloss coat laid down and on to the fuselage decals. There aren't a great deal of stencil data to add, which I don't mind really as find it very therapeutic but will start to show a lot of colour and progress quickly with the larger decals which will be good.

 

Being a Hasegawa kit as usual they don't supply any stores or weapons but they do pylons!?  I have left them off as didn't feel empty pylons add much and especially left off the fuselage side mounted pylons as even with a sidewinder (if I had any aftermarket ones) they spoil the shape fuselage. I'll just pretend it's in transit!

 

Thanks again to everyone for the interest and comments.

 

Cheers

Slog 

Edited April 20, 2019 by Captain Slog

[Canute]

Current infrared (IR) missile technology is lightyears better than the 60's IR versions. F8 versus F16 would be fun for this FWS grad, but my money has to be on the Viper, even in a guns only "knifefight in a phonebooth". Unfortunately, the likelihood of a classic dogfight happening is rapidly shrinking.

[Captain Slog]

Hi All,

Some more progress.  The other day I laid on a coat of gloss coat of Tamiya X-22 and I did the decals today on my ‘practice’ side.  Bit hit or miss.  The 2 issues I have is that although the Micro Set is fine the Micro Sol damages the paint.  I had used it once before but thought it might be because I used it straight over Mr Hobby colour coat but it does the same with Tamiya clear.  Will just need to be more careful when applying.

 

The 2 area is the nose decal, this is such a complex area of different curves I couldn’t it get it to conform very well and continuously applying and removing and applying caused all sorts of tears and wrinkles which I will need to touch up with paint.  I did slather the decal several times with Micro Sol and it did get somewhat better but still meh.  My lack of decal experience certainly shows but hey got to start somewhere.

 

The rest of them went on fine.  Will go back over with Micro Sol another once or twice to get the larger ones to fully sink in to the panel lines a bit tighter.

The decals are really nice and all the stencil data can actually be read.

I will hopefully get the port side decals done the next day or so and then seal with gloss, do the panel lines and washes and finish with a mat or satin coat.  But unlikely to get that far before heading off to Melbourne again.

 

Cheers

Slog

[Richmond]

Looks good - that's a lot of decals and stencils  - I noticed Plasmo used a hair dryer to assist in decal conformance on a very tricky area on one of the motorcycles he was building  - I think there is a link on my Youtube channel. Will you be doing any panel washes?

[CDW]

Slog

Your decal work looks great. I've had good and bad experiences with Micro Sol, but it seems mostly due to the decal material itself. I cannot recall with certainty the name of it, but there once was a model rail road decal solution that was my go-to for best results. I believe it was named "solvaset", or something close to that. Canute will probably know if he reads this.

I'm still searching for a go-to clear coat. Tamiya clear is just not as reliable as I would like. Don't know of a better alternative right now, but I'm still searching.

[Jack12477]

50 minutes ago, CDW said:

believe it was named "solvaset",

You are correct .

 

Try Microscale Gloss and Microscale Flat. They work well with the Sol/Set Microscale products.  Before decaling I spray the entire model with Testors Dullcote to seal the paint, then apply Microscale Gloss over the area where the decal is applied, let dry thoroughly, then apply decal.

[CDW]

8 minutes ago, Jack12477 said:

Try Microscale Gloss and Microscale Flat. They work well with the Sol/Set Microscale products. 

Thanks Jack. I'll order some of those and give them a try.

[Jack12477]

Solvaset is now available from Walthers under their brand name

[popeye the sailor]

ya had to love all those 'no step' decals to put on...........I had a ton of them on my F 15 Eagle.  I'm not too much with jets,  although there are quite a few kits out there.  very nice progress....she's look'in super  

[Captain Slog]

14 hours ago, Richmond said:

Looks good - that's a lot of decals and stencils  - I noticed Plasmo used a hair dryer to assist in decal conformance on a very tricky area on one of the motorcycles he was building  - I think there is a link on my Youtube channel. Will you be doing any panel washes?

Thanks Richmond, I have seen Plasmo's bike build but think I will try dipping it in warmer water and then apply some Set and leave it a bit to soften before wrestling it into shape.

 

I am going to use Ammo by Mig Panel Line Washes (got a dark gray for light gray subjects and a black) for the panel lines.  I am not going for an overly weathered surface but will add some streaks and discolouration with oils as never tried that before. 

11 hours ago, CDW said:

Slog

Your decal work looks great. I've had good and bad experiences with Micro Sol, but it seems mostly due to the decal material itself. I cannot recall with certainty the name of it, but there once was a model rail road decal solution that was my go-to for best results. I believe it was named "solvaset", or something close to that. Canute will probably know if he reads this.

I'm still searching for a go-to clear coat. Tamiya clear is just not as reliable as I would like. Don't know of a better alternative right now, but I'm still searching.

Thanks Craig, I had heard of solvaset but can't remember coming across it anywhere.  Its funny but out of all the videos I've watched no one has mentioned the Micro Sol attacking the paint work that I can remember.  Yeah I think clear coats are a real personal thing.  Starting out I just went with Tamiya as readily available locally but always looking for alternatives.

 

I actually hate spraying clears as I struggle to see where I have applied them and think I missed a bit then apply more and suddenly the area is swamped!

10 hours ago, Jack12477 said:

 

Try Microscale Gloss and Microscale Flat.

I wasn't aware they did clear coats as well.  Makes sense the whole system should be compatible so will keep and eye out for them.  An other alternatively would be to try Tamiya decal solution as should work with their paints.  I really like the Micro Sol as it really gets the decals down into the panel lines and rivet details etc.  I thought Tamiya only had the one solution so may be milder than the Sol.

9 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

ya had to love all those 'no step' decals to put on...........I had a ton of them on my F 15 Eagle.  I'm not too much with jets,  although there are quite a few kits out there.  very nice progress....she's look'in super  

Thanks Dennis, yeah the F-4 in my stash has literally hundreds of 'No Step' all over the place. 

 

Interestingly, for me, was one of the stencil data decals which I barely read even with the head magnifiers states that the Tyre Pressures for land operations is 230 PSI and for carrier Operations is 365 PSI! LOL

 

Only got a few free hours today so will hopefully get a little more done.

 

Cheers

Slog

 

[vossiewulf]

Solvaset and Microset are both basically weak concentrations of acetic acid (vinegar) and pretty much identical, although I tend to use Microset as it's cheap enough to not spend time experimenting with making my own. I've never known Microsol to do much of anything useful, it's the acetic acid in Microset that makes the decals flexible to conform to underlying surface. 

 

And I agree with others that the decals on the Crusader look great, very nice job.

[Richmond]

The micro clear coat forms part of microscale set from BNA