Peter Garsden Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 "Good form Andy Meade", to quote Captain Hook in Peter Pan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted September 2, 2016 Author Share Posted September 2, 2016 Well, Jester is all strapped into his seat and ready to roll! The canopy has been cleaned down and is awaiting glue - I've done a number of trial dry fits to work out how best to batton the sides against the fuselage whilst it dries as the canopy needs a little 'pinching in' along its length. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kettle 1 Posted September 2, 2016 Share Posted September 2, 2016 "Jester's dead" good, nearly there Phil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted September 3, 2016 Author Share Posted September 3, 2016 I've been out chasing the Red Arrows most of the day so only 1 proper job done on the Skyhawk, but an important one with the fitting of the canopy. I feel at this point I owe all builders a slight apology as the vac form supplied is a little wider than required despite my best efforts last year in replicating the balsa formed prototype when I made the plug for Traplet. So although the canopy fits snuggly at the front and back you will find along the sides it needs 'pinching in' a little to get it to bed against the fuselage. This makes fitting a little more tricky that it should be - but with a couple of stiff batons and a clamp this can be done. As ever I used my trusty 'Formula 560' canopy glue which dries clear and can be cleaned up with water whilst wet - so any external overspills can be removed easily. Forms a great bond between the plastic and the model once it is fully dry. Just the exhaust shroud to fit now and the fuselage is ready for its grey primer coat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted September 3, 2016 Author Share Posted September 3, 2016 Exhaust shroud fitted with a mixture of epoxy (against the base of the fin) and some wicked contact adhesive for the edges. With the edges down this 'floppy' plastic sheeting has firmed up ok. I've not dared remove the clamps yet from my canopy as its only been 12 hours and there is still some 'wet' glue visible along the inside... So the fus is off limits for a little longer - time to find some other jobs I can do ahead of the paint - like fitting the servos in the wing and making the pushrods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kettle 1 Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Thanks Phil for showing the exhaust shroud it helps me think how I will do mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted September 3, 2016 Author Share Posted September 3, 2016 Wing servos and pushrods fitted and tested, all programming done on the Tx - ready to rock. Will mask all this up when the airbrush is out... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John H. Rood Posted September 3, 2016 Share Posted September 3, 2016 Phil, such beautiful workmanship, and a superbly helpful blog! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted September 4, 2016 Author Share Posted September 4, 2016 Many thanks John, I'm glad the blogs are of use to others building in parallel! Some more tasks completed yesterday whilst I was still waiting for the canopy to set hard. The Rx switch and elevator servo were fitted into the fuselage and I made up an extraction ribbon for the Rx Battery which will sit at the far end of the battery tube. The 5 piece refueling probe was all assembled and fixed permanently to the fuselage awaiting primer. Hoping that the glues joints will not prove problematic on landing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted September 5, 2016 Author Share Posted September 5, 2016 I've had a bit of stress with my A-4 this last 24 hours as we face the deadline now fast approaching... First my canopy undid its bond a little after the batons were released down each side - I'm not sure the canopy glue has bonded as well as it should to the primed, sanded surface below and the 'pinching' load required to keep it tucked in tight around the canopy frame proved a little too much... I contemplated other glues but nothing sprang to mind, so I've added a couple of small canopy screws which self tap quite nicely through the glass covering. A bit of a compromise on scale finish but at least its secure. Second, I've struggled to get to grips with the top coat painting. I'm well out of practice having not owned an air gun or air brush since I was a kid on the plastics... I'm using new acrylic paints, with spraying equipment kindly leant to me by Mark Kettle - all of which I have had to learn how to use before applying any colour to the model. Lesson Learnt - 5 days before the event isn't the time to be learning a new skill like airbrushing! I've been using a big piece of mdf board as a practice wall and once I felt happy with the consistency of the thinned paint, the supplied air pressures and fluid flows, I gave it a go on the underside of my tailplane. Disaster! As you can see the paint seemed to 'bead' up on the surface - the primed, sanded surface had been cleaned and de-greased so what was happening? I wiped all this off and tried again with a higher pressure supply as I thought maybe the gun was 'spitting' a little. Similar result. I wiped it off again and gave the tailplane another light sanding, matting down the surface a little more than it was. This time the paint seemed to cover but it went on all lumpy in spits and spats... off it came AGAIN! By now as you can imagine the air was pretty blue! I did some more reading and confirmed my pressures were good as was my painting technique in principle (I'm the first to admit I need more practice!) The only thing I changed was the thinning agent in the paint, moving from tap water to Tamiya Acrylic thinners. Another mix of paint and a repeat of the method FINALLY gave a painted surface that was passable - not too thick, even and controllable with no runs via the application of many thin coats with a couple of minutes drying time in between. With the first colour successfully applied to the tail I moved onto the wing. Again, no issues... so thankfully I think we can continue after a number of stressful attempts and a lot of wasted paint! This is only the first of 3 colours required to finish the basic camouflage. I'm not happy with the amount of overspray I'm getting considering this is now an airbrush application, and I'll be masking the other 2 colours with raised 3M masking tape - which will control the shapes better and allow just a nice amount of fade between the colours. Of course this could also bring the first colour off where the tape has sat if I do this too soon... I appreciate I'm not out of the woods on this one yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 Had a stressful time with the vac former and Matts canopy last week so I know exactly what you mean Phil The Tamiya thinner is more like a cleaner than a true thinner in that it seems to break down the medium carrying the pigments. I usually use pure acetone for spraying. I have read several times of using screen wash for thinning acrylic paints but have never tried it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John A H Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 If young Harry has some plasticine you can roll it into long snakes and then use that to mask the edges of your colours to get a soft edge. Fill inbetween with masking tape/paper. About 5cm of my canopy edge lifted as well - masked around it and then took the risk of applying a blob of super glue and then held it for 10 seconds. Worked OK and I got away without any misting of the canopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted September 6, 2016 Author Share Posted September 6, 2016 Thanks John, glad you got away with the cyano mist on the canopy! The 3M tape I'm using is made from 'domed' foam and will do the same as your plasticine trick - I just need to be careful the sticky side doesn't upset the paint Ive already put down - you can make it less sticky by sticking it first on your T-shirt a few times before you apply it to the model... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kettle 1 Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 Keep up the good work Phil, you'll get there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Jennings 1 Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 Looking good now you've crossed the paint mix hurdle. First time i've seen that beading to be honest. The danger with a higher pressure can be a moisture build up in the line, with the most annoying spit of water in the air supply! A moisture trap prevents this to an extent. I try not to run the compressor for more than 20 mins and keep the pressure down to 10 - 15 psi. Even lower pressure allows me to get closer to the model to draw fine lines first, then bump it up a bit for filling in. Crack on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Jennings 1 Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 On the canopy... I had similar issues using RC Modellers glue. Each canopy had one slight edge that lifted slightly somewhere, but I also bit the bullet and dabbed a dot of CA along the edge with success. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Meade Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 Weird, I don't think I've ever shot at under 40PSI, and typically ave my gun set at 60 for acrylics! I do have two moisture traps in line though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Garsden Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 I think the way to do it is to spray the whole aircraft with the light colour first - that is what I did - then overspray the camouflage colours. My first colour was the beige like yours, then on top of that was the green and brown. My spray gun has a much narrower spread - indeed that was my problem, not enough spread and I had to give it 2 coats. If you are going to mask off, rather than use masking tape, what I did with the vulcan was make a negative pattern mask out of scrap A4 paper, then blue tack it to the surface to raise it about 5mm. I then sprayed using a rattle can outwards. This give a feathered edge. If you are making camouflage patterns then maybe it is better just to paint free hand? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted September 6, 2016 Author Share Posted September 6, 2016 Painting continues... Before the fuselage could be primed I masked off the canopy and all its curves - see you in a few days Jester - lights out! Tamiya tape is the very best stuff for this allowing the detail curves to be cut in with a new scalpel blade fitted. Once happy with the shape the fuselage got a good final primer coat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted September 6, 2016 Author Share Posted September 6, 2016 Whilst the primer was drying I could work on the second camo colour on the wing and tail - brown today. As my airbrushing is still showing evidence of too much overspray, I'm masking the shapes for an accurate feathered edge using 3M Automotive masking foam. This stuff is cool! Self adhesive foam cylindrical section, off the roll! It's tacky but not so sticky it pulls the paint off - bonus! Using the simple tail design as an example, the tape is laid on forming the required shape... ...you then mask the middle with plain white paper and tape onto the top of the foam - and you are ready to paint! With the masking removed you can see you get a lovely consistent feathered edge between the 2 colours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted September 6, 2016 Author Share Posted September 6, 2016 Moving back to the fus the primer was given a final sanding and following a good clean down (is that really the last of the sanding!!!??) the first of 3 colours was applied. Edited By Phil Cooke on 06/09/2016 20:24:20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted September 6, 2016 Author Share Posted September 6, 2016 More painting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kettle 1 Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 Don't you have to brave when spraying your pride and joy. Similar to the bravery we make to throw this and other very nice models off the rocky cliffs at the Orme, some watching these threads must think we're crazy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted September 6, 2016 Author Share Posted September 6, 2016 yep. We must be mad! Also think of all the guys beavering away and rushing their models to completion this week after a full 6 months build window... hehe - crazy days! We'll all be asleep on the hill come Saturday... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Twist Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 Your A4 is really starting to come alive with that "flowing" colour scheme Phil. I think an airbrush and compressor is on my Xmas list! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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