Monday, October 16, 2017

Lots of Putty!

Using my respiratory mask as this putty smells very bad and protective gloves I managed to put a first coat of putty and do some initial sanding. As you can see its not bad but more work will need to be done. I sure wish Guillow had not made it necessary to cut it out this way...



Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Radial Engine

This kit offers several choices as far as the radial engine is concerned. For a static display I had the choice of the engine being integrated with the engine housing or cut it out and use a more realistic one. I decided to go with the latter and cut out the engine. Although I debated the pros and cons I realized that the extra detail had a cost as cutting out the original engine would leave a nasty half circle marks all around the interior of the engine housing. Looks like I'll be having some fun with putty and sanding!



Monday, October 9, 2017

Pilot in the Cockpit

The pilot is now seated and I installed the cardboard dials. Several instruments are sticking outside of the airframe silhouette so I created boxes to better represent how he should look. The challenging part was to fill in some gaps in the cockpit seat which were visible from certain angles... 


Saturday, October 7, 2017

Primer on the Fuselage

Gave the fuselage a nice coat of primer to make the tissue opaque and uniform in my garage using my new air filtering mask.

Airframe Spray Painting for Canopy Area

Over the past few days I have taken the airframe to my garage to spray paint it. After masking off the cockpit area I started by spraying it with a few coats of Krylon Clear to make the tissue stronger.

A day later I tried to paint on top of the instrument panel area black which I need to do before placing the canopy over it but it would not set properly. To my frustration I could see through the paint even after a second coat! I then realized that I need to spray it with a primer which I did a few days later and after wards the black went on perfectly with just a single coat. I decided to spray a second coat of black just to ensure that everything was covered properly.

Friday, October 6, 2017

Canopy Masking Part 2

Yesterday I started masking the canopy with a new curved masking tape. While it was great I planned to use it sparingly and tonight used standard Tamiya masking tape to fill in the rest of the areas to be protected.

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Canopy Masking Part 1

Back in August I saw a YouTube video demoing a new type of Tamiya masking tape designed for curves which I found potentially interesting so I ordered a 3mm wide roll on eBay which I received in September. I was not sure when I would use it or on what subject which made it hard to choose a width but as I started to plan masking the canopy I realized that this product would be perfect. I went ahead and outlined the areas to be masked with this new tape which has a plastic feel to it and it went very well. As usual I am satisfied with this Tamiya product.