This is the first true post of 2021 so - Happy new year!
My new year’s resolution is (was?) to spend at least 15 minutes a day at the workbench. Sadly, it didn’t last very long. I returned to work January 5, and it felt like I was already a week behind. Time at the bench was limited for the first two weeks because of work, hockey drafts, and replacing the TV sound system. Oh, and a cracked tooth. Friday the 15th was a scheduled Friday off, and I was thinking it could be a day at the bench. Unfortunately, my tooth made a “click” sound while eating breakfast. An unplanned trip to the dentist confirmed I had cracked a tooth beyond repair. An hour later, and surprisingly quick tooth extraction, I was heading home less a tooth. That tooth had been causing problems for some time, so it wasn’t a complete surprise. Two previous trips to the dentist didn’t find anything, so I am glad that it has been resolved. I will have to wait 4 months and then I will get an implant.
737
Most of my bench time has been focused on the 737. I got the first coat of blue on last weekend, and that’s were it sat all week. After the dentist, I squeezed a second blue layer in before the freezing wore off. Saturday afternoon, I very carefully peeled the masking off to see how it had worked. The best areas were where the vinyl masks were placed. Areas with tape had suffered some leakage, and tended to pull paint along the edge. I had bought some 1mm pinstriping tape in Edmonton a year or two ago, and this was the first time I had tried it out. I found the tape easy to apply, as it was relatively rigid, and would easily form a straight line. It may not get much use if it has so much bleed and pull up along the edge. I was very happy to see the thin front edge come out cleanly. This was done using a vinyl mask, and I was pleased with the fine detail I was able to achieve.
The pictures below show the paint after the masking was removed. Both sides had some bleed thru at the fuselage to tail transition. There was also some uneven areas where the fuselage doors were glued in. This was most noticeable on the starboard side at the front door, where two blue “legs” were visible. The was also some bleed along the leading edge of the tail, and under the speed bird mask. Gentle scraping with a toothpick, followed by polishing, took care of most of it. The remaining areas would need to be touched up.
The pictures below show the repairs
Picture 1 shows masking in place to touch up the white.
Pictures 2 and 3 show the white sprayed and the masking removed. Almost good but there are a couple areas where the blue needs to be touched up.
Pictures 4 and 5 show the blue touched up and the masking removed. Success! I am not worried about bleed on the speed bird area, as my decals have a white border. I was nervous this wouldn’t be opaque, resulting in the underlying blue showing thru the white decal, so I masked to ensure a white background. I think the decal will be able to deal with the bleed so will leave it alone.
Picture 6 shows the radome painted black. It was a challenge to do this small, symmetric shape.
I realized that the leading edge of the starboard wing needed a quick touch up to repair some overspray. And with that, painting is done. Time for the decals!
I had ordered a set of photo real window decals back in November. Unfortunately, they haven’t arrived. I am thinking I will use the windows in the Draw Decal set rather than wait.
Sunday morning was bright and sunny. We must have had some fog Saturday night, as the trees were covered in hoar frost. I took some pictures with the sun backlighting the frost.
Preparing to place decals, I noticed that the front of the blue stripe dips too close to the silver. The bottom of the blue should remain a consistent distance from the silver, rather than narrowing as I have painted it. I realized after some experimenting with masking that it would not be an easy repair. The blue taper meant that you couldn’t just extend the blue towards the nose. A lesson for next time.
First decals on were the cockpit windows and the anti glare panel. This is the first time I have used Draw Decals , and they worked well. They are printed on a continuous decal sheet, so you have to carefully cut around the image. With some confidence in the decals, next up was the port side windows. The windows and doors are one long, thin piece. I debated about splitting them up before deciding to apply them whole. The decal instructions suggest placing one end of the decal in the desired location, then sliding the backing paper out from underneath. I typically place a decal, and then move it around until it is in the correct spot. This worked for the cockpit window, so I was expecting it to work for the fuselage windows too. I got the decal down and the front immediately stuck fast. The rear was almost perfect, but the front was too high. I flooded the front with water but the decal refused to budge. Sensing panic, I was finally able to get the bristles of a paintbrush under the decals, and got more water under the door. The decal continued to fight, but I was able to nudge it into place. The blue outline of the front door fractured, but I successfully pieced it back together. Thankfully the windows didn’t stick the same way, and I was able to move them around until the entire window decals was straight.
The first picture below shows the port side decals applied to the fuselage. The second shows the wing detail decals applied. Things are looking good!. I will wait to let these dry before attempting to do anything more.
Avenger
The Avenger vacuum formed canopy had previously been cut out but not sanded to shape. Not the simplest task, but filling the canopy with blue tack helped give it some rigidity. It needed an hour of sanding before it was done. Constant test fitting suggested that the canopy was not going to fit. Sadly, after sanding the canopy to finished dimensions, I could prove that there was going to be large gaps around the back of the canopy. Part of the problem was that the fuselage insisted on spreading wider than desired. The kit used a plastic deck for the ball turret, while the conversion used a resin deck for the observer’s seat. The resin had popped free during all the fussing with the canopy. Some gap filling superglue and a clamp were used to squeeze it together. Styrene strip was added along the edges of the observer‘s area to close up the gap between fuselage and canopy as shown below. It will need some sanding but I think this will work. And that’s it for this week’s post!
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