We're still going crazy on the Mole!!!....
Truly impressive stuff Sir. You're going from strength to strength.
Thanks Jim! But I'm getting weaker everyday with the pressure on...
Dude1, remarkable work , if I was wearing a hat I'd lift it off .
Thank you Dude 2! Still owe you a PM though...
Fabulous stuff Allen, it's good to see the mojo in full swing!
Thanks to you Buddy, the mojo is flying off the charts!!! Somewhere near Jupiter right now...
Hat off with a triple loop in the air (of the hat, not me
) while bowing, Sir.
Thank you Andrea, but please be careful with those movements my friend!!! You could land on your forehead...Oh, and congrats on your retirement too!!!...
Small round of applause, looking superb
Too kind Mick!!! And thanks for keeping the noise down as I have no idea what I'm doing...
This is truly an amazing build.
Thanks so much Boss!!! It's not as amazing as your resin Scania conversion though, Ian. Sorry, I still owe you comments too...
Dude,
Outstanding scratchery mate. Keep it going.
Thank you Bro!!! It's going, but the only scratchy here is my head or my butt, as I have no clue whatsoever. Beer's good though...
Ok folks, the crunch is on and I have been really busy at the table and not much time on the forum, to ketchup. My sincere apologies for that...A lot of pics and I'll keep the Bla-Bla short and sweet tonight. Started prepping brass and plastic for the supports for the gorgeous floats.!!! RR flat car got a coat of XF-59 Desert Yellow,
Now what to use for the woodgrain? I have a cheap set of acrylic oils from the € 1 store. It has 12 colors, cost € 2.50 and had 2 burnt color tubes in it. An old foam square from my R/C days and a little water,
Burnt Umber dabbed on and dragged over the surface with the damp foam. Left a great wood pattern, dries quickly and matt....both,
I used a 10 ml bottle of paint wrapped in paper towel to keep the surface flat, from the inside, while applying the oils. The rest of the flatcar,
Same routine as the wheel covers, but using Burnt Sienna this time. The frame looks a bit wonky in the pic, but it's not. Maybe I should have reversed the color combo on this. Too late now, so I'll just muck it up with some seaweed or darker washes. The 2 together,
Glued the wheels on and gave it try on the Italeri RR tracks platter,
Fits fine and the wheels even roll too. I have since painted the frame gray. It only needs detail paint and rust all around. On to the wings,
I shot them with a coat of XF-57 Buff, mixed with X-22 Gloss, thinned with 40% thinner. Sprayed a coat and saw it wasn't covering very well. So I shot a bit closer and a couple of pieces started getting pools of paint. Big headache, but most of them leveled when they dried. I had to knock a few bigger ones down. They aren't too bad and the
decals will cover them up. I found out I had my hissy stick turned down for finer work, adjusted it, and shot a second coat on the wings. It looks funky, but will add to the effect when covered with the
decals. Measure 5 times and cut once, was today's theme at the table,
Notice the backing paper is white and seems 10 times thicker than the
decals. A big pan of warm water, paper towel pieces, Q-tips, tweezers and squeezing my butt cheeks, I went to do the nasty's,
What a beatch and nerve wracking job, BUT.......You can see they are on the top wing!!! The
decals are a thin, almost a vinyl material and very strong too. The top left wing rear shows just how thin they are...I have to admit they don't tear, even when you pull them with tweezers!!! Once they were on, I rubbed them down with the Q-tips. wet and dry and they snuggled down beautifully. Let them dry a while and then went back to trim off the excess with the sharp blade tip. The bottom wing went easier and after about 4 hours total,
The color difference is due to what color you paint the base coat. If I had used white, they would look like the sheet. I went with a warm color base. The nekkid spot on the top wing will be filled in with a small piece behind the rad hole. I hit them with M-Sol on the edges and and raised strut mount surfaces and they stick like glue to the paint. The upper flappies are done too and pre-rigged....
Respect to Lukasz from Lukgraph, as the
decals are really superb, once you get the hang of them. I have plenty to finish the fusi top piece and rear wings. Still plenty to do. I made the side supports and drilled into the gorgeous floats for them (Sorry Neil)...Hissy work and much more tomorrow. Thanks for the support and wonderful comments good people. Stress rules and have a good one!!!...3 1/2 days...
Prost
Allen