Not really too much to talk about this week. Weather was generally cool to cold, with Tuesday only getting up to 8. Not much incentive to go outside. Temperatures have gotten back to something more seasonal later in the week, but still no appreciable rain this spring. Forecast says we could get 5mm later this week so here's hoping they are finally right. We desperately need the moisture.
Marie was in Calgary all week, helping her Mom out with various medical appointments. That kept things pretty quiet back home. I did try leaving the dogs loose upstairs, and by dogs I mean Ember, for a couple hours at a time, while I went downstairs to the shop. It was typically late morning, when Ember would normally nap, and it worked out well. I am looking forward to getting back to the shop more regularly so this will be something that I will do more frequently.
Christine and Nicholas worked most of the week, with both getting a fair bit of overtime, so it was just the puppies and me at home. Daniel got back safely from Wisconsin and almost immediately went back to work. All his spare time is focused on getting the F1 team's electric car ready for its trip to Wisconsin in a couple weeks.
Anson
The Anson was finished a couple weeks back but only just got around to taking pictures. I would call my effort to take them outside, on the deck, to be partly successful.
Unfortunately, as I was packing things up, a gust of wind blew my cardboard backdrop into the plane, breaking several pieces. Fortunately nothing fell thru the deck boards, and the repairs weren't onerous. The plane is now safely sitting on the basement shelf.
MiG-21
The upper surface consists of a brown/green camouflage. With the brown applied to the upper surfaces, it was time to mask and paint the green. The kit's painting instructions were first scanned and enlarged to fit the model. The original plan was to cut out the brown areas and attach them to the model using thin white tack worms. This progressed as far as both wings and stabilizers being covered before getting stopped. The paper masks stood too proud of the surface, regardless of how thin the white tack was rolled, which would have resulted in a softer edged colour separation than desired- see Photo 1 below. A rethink was necessary.
The scanned painting instructions were then copied into the Sillohette cutter software. The brown areas were traced out using the software, and then sent to the cutter to create a set of masks. Tracing 2D, three view drawings wouldn't yield perfect masks, especially over the curved fuselage, but would get things close enough to start. The vinyl masks fit the wings and stabilizers almost perfectly, but it was necessary to adjust along the fuselage. A couple of hours later and the vinyl masks were in place. - see Photo 2 below.
With the masks in place, the dark green colour was sprayed and then set aside to dry.
It was realized during masking that I had missed painting the external surface of the engine housing. The masking was adjusted to keep this area clear. Once the green was dry, the masking was adjusted to protect the green areas and the engine area sprayed with two colours of metallics. There was also a small radar fairing immediately over the engine that had to be masked and sprayed a medium grey. With this complete, all the masking could be removed.
Overall I was very pleased with how well the masks worked. The number of areas that needed clean up was thankfully small. These were locally remarked and repainted.
Normal practice at this point would be to apply a clear gloss to seal the paint and prepare for decals and weathering. I was concerned that using a clear coat could fill in the fine lines, but there was no way that decals or weathering could be applied to the very matte paint. There were a lot of decals, especially small stencils, increasing the risk that the decals would silver without a gloss coat. The engraved details still looked pretty good so it was decided to apply a thin gloss coat. Work on the Kharmann Ghia got in the way and the clear coat will have to wait until next week.
Photo 1 - First effort to mask camouflage
Photo 2 - Lots of masking
Photo 3 - Green painted
Photos 4&5 - Masking removed
Kharmann Ghia
I have started using Mr Surfacer as a primer, rather than my traditional Alclad grey primer. I like the way the Mr Surfacer sprays, creating a nice, even, slightly glossy finish.
A half hour was spent cleaning up missed mould seams and polishing the primer to remove any dust and even the primer out. Dad had bought a can of Tamiya black gloss spray paint for the colour coat. I have had success using Tamiya spray paints for car models so was quite happy to use his selected paint. A light mist coat, followed a few minutes later by a heavier wet coat, did the trick. I can already see that it will be necessary to polish out a few dust nibs but was happy worth the initial result.
The roof needed the most work to level the paint and remove imperfections. Various types of sanding pads and sandpaper was used to remove blemishes and level the paint. Once complete, the model was washed and then resprayed.
Work on the roof paid off with a near perfect finished. There was a couple dust blemishes on the hood that sanded out well. For some reason the trunk had a lot more dust blemishes that need to be removed. As the trunk was sanded, it became apparent that the paint had run in a couple places, so even more sanding was required to smooth the paint. With sanding complete, a third coat of paint was sprayed. Fingers crossed but it seems third time will be the charm. Now it will be on the the Tamiya polish compounds to get a brilliant shine on the paint
Photo 1 - Primed
Photo 2 - Initial coat of gloss black.
Photo 3 - Dust nibs and rough paint
Photo 4 - Dust removed and paint smoothed
Photo 5 - Roof looks much better. Still work to do on the hood and trunk
Photo 6 - Trunk required extensive sanding to remove paint runs
That's if for another week. Hope everyone has a great week. Stay safe!
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