Finescale Modeler Forum Forum

This is a gas, who knew

That’s fascinating. I think what impresses me most is that you basically worked your way into scratchbuilding because the subjects you wanted simply weren’t available, and eventually reached the point where making the whole thing yourself wasn’t that much more of a leap. The part about comparing scale drawings against photographs really caught my attention too. I’m a research nut, and I’ve already discovered how dangerous it can be to assume that a drawing or even a kit instruction sheet is necessarily correct. Using the shadows and reflected light in photographs to understand the actual three-dimensional shape is something I hadn’t really thought about before. That’s a great tip. I can also understand what drove you in this direction. I’m considering buying a resin 3D printer myself right now, largely because I’m getting frustrated that I can’t find some of the figures and details I want in 1/48 any other way. I’m nowhere near designing an entire airplane from scratch, but I understand the motivation. At some point, if nobody makes what you need, you start figuring out how to make it yourself. And I completely understand the burnout once something you enjoy turns into something you have to do to pay the bills. It sounds like deciding to only take on subjects that genuinely interest you brought the fun back into it. Thanks for taking the time to explain all of this. I’m learning quite a bit just following along with this build.

I beg to differ..! LOL

Anything I can do to help you along the way and while here, just let me know. Really happy to help out any way I can.

Sam, My main ‘ingredients’ are plastic card, Milliput epoxy putty, superglue, superglue accelerator and good references (scale drawings AND pictures). By plastic card, I also include evergreen-type of products, though in effect most of what I use from that range is small diameter round sections and small dimension square-ish sections. Plastic card, I buy in sheets of 2 square meters and use anything from 0,10 thou to 0,40 thou. Milliput, I mostly use to fill in holes to give strength to the master, but this is also my favourite sculpting material for figures and busts. Superglue (and accelerator) is mostly used to fill in gaps. I do not have a lot of patience and I hate having to wait hours for traditional putty to dry. I tend to use superglue to stick things together too, but usually also dab in some liquid poly glue to achieve a more resistant bond. Scale drawings are a good source of info, but take any two from different sources and you will find that there are several differences.. that’s where the pictures come in handy, to settle disputes. The pictures other main use to to have a better ‘3D’ understanding, thanks to the shadows cast by, or the light reflected off this or that part or area on the pictures. I started scratchbuilding quite early, after having first tested my skills at a couple of conversions, then a couple of vacuformed kits; those did require that a lot of their vacuformed components be replaced by spare parts from injection-molded kits, or simply scratch

That settles it then. Scratched and gouged to heck, followed by whatever the wash rack manages to blast off. For that matter, the same argument could probably be made for aircraft. Nobody is picking up one of my aircraft to inspect the underside either. I know some people display them over mirrors so you can see all that work underneath, but I don’t think I’ll ever be one of them. I also have to admit your friend’s philosophy on weathering the underside makes a lot of sense. If somebody at a show picks up one of my models to see whether I weathered the bottom properly, we’re going to have an entirely different discussion.

Every time you post an update on this thing, I discover another entire category of modeling I’ve never even thought about. Stripping chrome, cleaning up leather tack, painting horse collars… this is a long way from gluing wings onto an airplane. That trim on the collars especially looks like some seriously tedious work. This may be one of the most unusual builds on the forum right now, and I’m really enjoying watching it come together.

F-4EJ Kai — Sealing 28 Hours of Decals There’s always a weird mix of excitement and trepidation when you finally get to the point of sealing decals in. What makes this one a little more nerve-wracking is that I’ve got roughly 28 hours into the decal work on this Phantom. Hundreds of stencils, lots of tiny markings, and more than a few moments where I wondered why I had chosen this particular aircraft. Tonight was the night to finally commit. I mixed up my own satin/semi-gloss clear using Vallejo gloss and matte at a 2:1 ratio, tested it on the drop tanks first, and got exactly the sheen I was hoping for. Then came the real airplane. The underside taught me a couple of lessons almost immediately. I had a few isolated spots where the clear didn’t behave well. One was clearly a fingerprint, and the others looked like leftover decal-setting solution that I had meant to clean off before spraying and simply forgot about in my excitement to get moving. Nothing catastrophic, and fortunately it’s on the bottom, but those areas will need a little sanding once everything cures. I also discovered the clear was tip-drying in the airbrush more than I liked. A small amount of the thinner/retarder mix I normally use with paint fixed that, and after that it started spraying beautifully. The top side came out exactly the way I wanted. The heavy gloss is gone, the decals now look much more integrated into the paint, and the aircraft has a soft satin sheen that looks much closer to the reference

The 113s and 901s that I was on had their bottoms scoured clean of paint. They were full of scrapes, scratches and dings, but the aluminum armor on them was pretty bare of all paint. At the end of every field problem all mud and dirt was blasted off the track with high pressure hoses. First at the wash rack and later in the motor pool at the “bird bath”. In the field whatever dirt and mud was on there was on there until ENDEX and the wash rack. Dirt and mud was not tolerated on the parking line in the motor pool. I can’t answer for tanks as I was not a tanker, just a grunt. Knocking off the heavy mud before going in the wash rack In the wash rack hosing the tracks off with the high pressure nozzles

When I last posted, it was lunchtime. I’m now taking a break for dinner at my dog’s insistence, but I figured that I would post the results of how I managed to spend my summer vacation… The figures, while admittedly still in subassemblies, have been pinned and assembled. Out of an abundance of caution, I used the old farmer’s adhesive of choice for metal to metal joints, slow-set JB Weld two-part epoxy. Hypothetically, these guys aren’t going to come apart without a lot of effort. Speaking of farm and ranch problem solving, the red oxide primer is the Ace Hardware store house brand. It set up very well and I am pretty pleased at how things are progressing. For this project, I intend to do some experimenting with things and the choice of red oxide for figures is something I have been wondering about. So far, it looks like it is going to do a lot of the heavy lifting for me when it comes time to actually put a brush to things. While the primer was out, I dug an old Tamiya half-track out of the closet. It was built up a long time ago and completely forgotten. I’ve been curious to try the red oxide primer techniques which have become so fashionable in the armor world. If worse comes to worse, I will have a paint mule to experiment on. The base which came with the cloche has received a light coat of Mr. Surfacer 1000, which has dried nicely, so I might give it a coat of color tomorrow. Before calling it a day, I’m running some maintenance on the airbrush to ensure that it’s ready

You can try something like this? DSPIAE AT-HS Precision Hand Stabilizer – DSPIAESTORE . I have one and it helps. This one is a bit expensive, but there similiar ones that are cheaper, or use a wooden dowel.

That’s a really interesting little device. I don’t have particularly shaky hands yet, but I can definitely see where something like that could be useful when you’re trying to glue, paint or position those tiny, tiny parts. In fact, I liked the idea enough that I went looking for one. The place you linked is sold out, and I couldn’t find the DSPIAE Precision Hand Stabilizer on Amazon either. I did find it directly from DSPIAE for $46.80, though, which is actually cheaper than the $59.99 price in your link. I’ll have to see what they want for shipping. Thanks for the suggestion! I may actually pick one of these up.