I am noticing a disconcerting trend. Each weekly(ish) blog has started with a weather related comment, noting more snow on the weekend as an excuse to spend time at the workbench. Today is Sunday, and the trend has continued. It snowed both Friday and Saturday nights. There is a snowfall warning in effect, with more snow expected tonight. In enjoy the modeling opportunity but I wish it would stop snowing!
CRJ200
Good progress on the little CRJ this week. The leading edges were masked and the silver has been applied (photo 1). I thought this finished painting and was preparing for decals. As I was looking at the decal sheet, I realized that it included red decals for the winglets. I have not had a lot of success applying decals on winglets, so I masked and painted them. (Photo 2). I was looking at internet references to confirm the decal sheet placements when I realized that it didn’t include the wing walkways. Out came the tape and walkways were sprayed on each wing. (Photo 3). Now the painting really was finished.
The Nazca decal set has a very large number of small detail decals. I still need to decide which ones to add, as some represent details that aren’t really visible in photos. Adding them all can also risk making the model look too “busy”. After a couple of sessions, all the main decals have been added, and some of the detail decals have been started. (Photo 4)
CL-44
All the main parts have been removed from the trees and the pebbly surface has been sanded. I decided to tape the various components together to test fit, and to figure out how much nose weight would be needed. Fuselage fit wasn’t that bad, but the wings and stabilizers were pretty rough. Fit of the various wing sub assemblies is poor. There were no locating points for the main landing gear bays, and it took a lot of fiddling to figure out best fit. The rear of the engine nacelles are even worse. They are separate pieces, and fit is so poor you wold swear they belong to a different kit. Initial attempts to test fit the engine cowls has been unsuccessful, as the engine nacelles are too large and the cowls won’t fit over the attachment points.
I decided to fill the lines I had previously scribed to represent the cargo doors. I needed to fill in the incorrectly scribed rear cargo door, as I had subsequently realized that it was only found on the Yukon. A half hour playing around on the computer one evening generated some acceptable door outlines when printed on paper. With great hope that I can print these out on clear decal paper, I decided to fill in the front door outline.
The fuselage has needed considerable sanding and repair of a number of obvious ejector pin marks and casting deficiencies. I used a 12 inch sanding block to true up the edges and prepare them for glue. With ten pennies added as nose weight, the fuselage halves were glued together. Two rounds of filling and sanding were needed before the seams looked good enough for primer. (Photos 1, 2 & 3). The first primer layer looked better than I had expected, but highlighted a number of sanding swirls and ghost seams. (Photo 4). After another round of filling and sanding, I applied a second primer layer. (Photo 5).
The sanding has reduced or eliminated most of the kit’s original panel lines. I had already tried rescribing the panel lines on the tail but they now looked pretty ragged after all the sanding and priming. By chance, I was reading an article where the author expressed his preference to scribe the primer coat, finding it easier to get clean edges. I think I will give that a try.
I am realizing that the wings will need a great deal of work. The trailing edges are short short in several places, and the insides have some of the largest ejector pin marks I have ever seen. The front of the engine nacelles don’t align between the top and bottom, and the rear of the nacelles seem like they come from another kit. After a lot of fiddling and testing with the landing gear legs, I decided on the best spot for the landing gear bay, glued it into place, and added a piece of plastic card to reinforce the rather weak joint. (photo 1 below). With the gear bay in position, the wing halves were joined and clamped. I added pieces of plastic card to the front of the engine nacelle in an attempt to get a better fit. Naturally, the added plastic interfered with the landing gear bay. I used a Dremel to create an opening in the added plastic, but still needed to trim quite a bit of material from the sides of the gear bay. The nacelle extension was butted up against the bottom of the landing gear bay and superglued into place. Fit of the port side was okay, but the starboard side has a 2mm gap on the top side of the nacelle that will need to be filled.
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