On the Bench - Jack goes in the Booth

After disassembling, repairing, and reassembling my clamp on desk lamp, it was bright enough in my spray booth. Time for some preshading for Jack. 

If it works for Jack, it will work for Betty....

Meanwhile, I ordered a set of Eduard masks for the ME-410. What I don't know / can't tell is, does it mask the canopy interior as well? Like a number of German designs, the framing is primarily inside the canopy, so it needs to be painted there too. Will have to wait and see. I may be in for a bit of very steady- handed hand painting....

Here he is after a coat of Tamiya XF-76 on the underside. Now to get some deep panel line....lines.

Here goes

Ok. AAR on the underside painting. Despite giving the plastic a thorough detergent cleaning, the Tamiya acrylic still scratches off far too easily. I will not use it again unless shot over a primer coat. I used laboratory Parafilm to mask the underside and shot the upper surfaces with Modelmaster IJN Green:

It covers well, and goes on gloss. I should have thinned it even more, has some "orange peel". Even though I dialed the psi down and thinned extensively. Lessons learned before I shoot "Betty".

Next, decals and details.

The kit decals lived up to their reputation, as thick and difficult to get to conform to surface details. A liberal application of Solvaset was needed, and lots of gentle persuasion with large flat brushes and q-tips.

You can also begin to see why I should have primed white and sprayed the leading edge bands before the IJN Green. 

Getting a color to match the flashes on the fuselage by mixing some of my stash of paints was easier than I thought it would be; masking and hand painting over the dark green, not so much. I'll try to deemphasize the imperfections with weathering  ;-)

One coat of Vallejo matt varnish. Very humid tonight, and some beading, so going light and second application tomorrow. 

A few vanity shots before Jack gets scratched and dirty:

Next aluminum "chipping"....

Out of the Vault - French Viet RAG Boat

From out of the storage box came a 1/48 scale craft that I had to research in order to find out exactly what it was.  River Patrol Boats during the Viet Nam conflict were something I was familiar with but only from film, and these were US boats when the US was fully involved in the fighting.  This is a French/Vietnamese boat from the early 50's.  The crew being Viet soldiers with only a US advisor on board.  The kit was not complicated as it did not contain that many parts, but then it looked too simple to me to pass up not trying to add some lacking (in my opinion) detail.

The simplicity is plain to see, but I did like the bottom of the hull.

The other thing I liked was the deck surface.  Even my brother does not recall what was used, but it was a good surface that I wanted to keep.  So what to do with this?

Of the five crew supplied with the kit only one Viet crewman remained in the Storage Box.  Try as I might to negotiate for other crew I was not prepared to spend almost $100 for the few kits of this Revell Model available just to obtain extra crew,

I thought some Camo was needed so I started in on masking and hand painting in on the hull and superstructure.

Both the 30 Cal and 50 Cal (previous photo) needed only some touch up.

I tried to give the Viet Soldier a proper sun exposed look.

Work around the 50 Cal was a bit challenging to paint the molded life rings.

The boat needed a Vietnamese Flag of the period (26 gauge wire - a favorite of mine) using some yellow stock.

Mounted Flag.

I found some other RAG boat models online which lead to me add tie offs for the "tire" bumpers I wanted to add.

Some rubber grommets from Harbor Freight cut and glued together made for old truck tires.

Three on the Port and.....

....two on the starboard side.

Next my attempt to put bales aft to somewhat provide protection of the crew.  I cut up and shaved some common felt pads I use for cabinet door bumpers.

A little paint and thread and call it done.

Oh!  Almost forgot that coming out of the storage box the prop was missing.  Months later while working on my 1/350 scale Destroyer Escort I realized I had extra propellers.  So a 350 scale Destroyer Escort prop become a 1/48 scale RAG Boat prop.  One uses what one has!

The Val D3A1 at Pearl Harbor, 1/72 scale Refurbishment July 26, 2020

Well, I finally got the radio wire attached to the mast, but I also added a few extra touches to the propeller and the the wing tips (lights). so now she is done!

To Mask or not to Mask, that is the question - and nothing to do with COVID!

Aircraft canopies are easy to do poorly. Model makers often compromise their construction to simplify manufacture and assembly, and a sub par paint job just draws attention to it. For a model, particularly in larger scales, to not draw undue attention to its "modelness". Typically the framing is a not too crisply formed raised area surrounding the glass, making hand painting without some sort of mask an exercise in futility. So in my estimation, the answer is "Mask", but how? For years i have relied on scotch tape and an exacto knife, hand cutting and trimming each pane. This works reasonably well, but is limited by the crispness of the molded canopy, the steadiness of my hand, my ability to see the frame through the tape, the curves of the canopy, etc. Oh. And sometimes you can't quite get all the adhesive back off eadilt.

Recently I began finish work on my backlogged Tamiya G4M in 1/48. It has a dizzying amount of windows, nearly all curved. Could I tape and cut? Yes, but....

Fir this one I tried something new (for me): a precut mask, in this case an Eduard diecut mask. They have a plethora of them available and in stock. Their shipping, while pricey got my mask set to me in a matter of days, not weeks. (If you can get yours from a domestic stockist, more power to you!).

My mask for the Tamiya Betty arrived in a stiff carboard mailer unmolested by man or machine. The small sealed plastic package held two snall sheets of mask and one large sheet of instructions - placement diagrams, not text. 

It provides mask for every pane of "glass" on the model except, curiously, for the bombardier's downward facing window. Looks like there will be some scotch tape in my future after all. They also expect you to use some liquid mask on a few curved pieces where they provide the outline and the liquid fills in the center.

I am using my most fine-pointed tweezers to remove the individual mask pieces from the sheet and applying them to the glass. 

Note, I recommend doing this prior to adding wings or empennage, as it makes manipulating it easier. You'll need a steady hand and a good eye, but it goes on cleanky and is an excellent fit overall. Just be prepared to spend a very long time getting it all on.

My hat's off to the folks at Eduard who can produce something that is as precise a fit as this. These little bits of tape fit like they were, well, made for this.

In retrospect, do not install any radio masts prior to masking. I haven't broken one yet....

...but I'm not done trying.

All masked up.

Next stop: Paint.