Airfix 1/72 Sea King

[Guest]

As long as I remember not to bake them. I don't think the plastic will fair too well at 80C air temperatures!

80° might just be cool enough to work: polystyrene apparently has a Vicat softening point of 90° and a glass transition point of around 100°, so chances are that at 80° it’s still hard. It would be easy to test with some spare parts and/or sprues from the kit. But I think that even if it works for one manufacturer’s kits, you’d want to test again with any other brands you intend to bake.

[Guest]

It was a joke Jakko, but yes, given that the air temperature of 80C normally gives a panel surface temp of 60C I think I'd probably be safe. Won't be taking the chance either way

[stillp]

80° might just be cool enough to work: polystyrene apparently has a Vicat softening point of 90° and a glass transition point of around 100°, so chances are that at 80° it’s still hard. It would be easy to test with some spare parts and/or sprues from the kit. But I think that even if it works for one manufacturer’s kits, you’d want to test again with any other brands you intend to bake.

I had an Eduard La-7 that went out of shape at much lower temperatures than those Jakko. I think the difference is that the Vicat point and transistion temp are characteristics of a sheet of the material, whereas we are dealing with moulded parts that have a lot of internal stresses.
Pete

[Guest]

It was a joke Jakko

I know it was, but I’m the kind of person who will often make a serious reply to a joke and make a joke in reply to a serious point

but yes, given that the air temperature of 80C normally gives a panel surface temp of 60C I think I'd probably be safe. Won't be taking the chance either way

You could always test it with a bit of sprue. Not that you’d need to bake paint onto a static model, of course.

[Guest]

Managed to get a bit done today. I work 12 hour day shifts so don't always have the time or inclination to much in an evening, but the flip side is that I work 4 days then have 4 off, so I get plenty of spare time. Hence me dipping my toe into the world of model making, to fill up some of that time, learn some new skills, and escape from the real world for a while.

Anyway, got the main rotors together. Seemed a bit geeky checking the angles but I might as well get things right where I can.



Then got some paint on them. I managed to get a bit of overspray on one of the grey blades whilst painting the solitary yellow one, but a quick touch up will see to that. Painted the rotor head black then tried dry brushing a bit of silver onto it to bring out the details.



Then spent what seemed like hours masking, and got everything primed up. My photography skills need some practice too :smiling5:





Really happy with the way the Mr Finishing Surfacer went on. It's highlighted a few imperfections in my prep work but nothing a bit of light sanding won't sort. If it dries properly overnight I'm hoping to bang the yellow on tomorrow. Judging by how the rotor blade went I'll need around 5 light coats for good even coverage, even over the white base.

[Guest]

Coming along nicely.

[Jim R]

Hi Andy
All progressing very nicely. Good luck with the yellow. Not the best colour to get nice coverage with.
Jim

[Guest]

Thanks chaps.

Jim, I'm not looking forward to the yellow at all, especially since I'm new to wielding an airbrush. If it all goes terribly wrong and looks patchy I have a secret weapon.

I've brought home my mini Iwata LPH80. I'll hook it up to the big compressor and show the Sea King who's boss :smiling2:

[Guest]

So, it's yellow.

It actually went pretty well, even though it took a good part of the day. I ended up putting 6 light coats on altogether and followed my usual working practice of giving each coat longer to dry than the previous one. That gave me time to help the wife put some wallpaper up in the kitchen between coats :smiling5: She cut & pasted, I applied & trimmed.



I gave it about 3 hours to dry in the house, in the (occasional) sun in a window sill, then threw on 3 coats of Vallejo gloss varnish. Gave it around an hour then removed the masking before it all set too hard.



There are a few bits that need cleaning up but not too bad I reckon. I have made a boo boo with the canopy frame though. The instructions indicate that most of it is black so I masked accordingly. However looking at a few images of the real thing it seems most of the frames are in fact yellow! Oh well, should have done my research first I guess.

Will give it a few days to harden up before I start to tackle the decals and final assembly, since there is so much paint on it. I'm hoping to paint some of the black areas like around the engine exhausts rather than using decals, but will use them to create a stencil, and may even try my hand at some light weathering. Pictures show they are generally in a very clean condition but almost all show exhaust streaking down the sides, so might give that a shot.

Thanks for looking.
Andy.

[Guest]

That’s come out very nicely — you can certainly tell you’re used to spraying things, even if it’s on a bigger scale

[Jim R]

Hi Andy
That is a nice finish. A few thin coats and then being patient to allow dryng is the key. Well done.
Jim

[Guest]

Thanks Jakko and Jim

I guess the fact that I spend my days filling, shaping, sanding, masking & painting is a help, but the hard part is miniaturising those skills. I'm enjoying the challenge though, even if my brain keeps giving me ideas that my hands and eyesight can't yet handle! Hopefully once I get a decent grasp of the basics I'll be able to start adding my own touches with either aftermarket or scratch built parts, and trying out some of the awesome paint effects I see many of you guys using.

I'm a long way off that but I'm having fun practising :smiling:

[colin m]

Looking very good Andy. I think you might have the knack for this spraying business !

[Guest]

Looking very good Andy. I think you might have the knack for this spraying business !

Ha ha, I should hope so, they've been daft enough to pay me to do it for the last 25 years :smiling2:

But I know what you mean, I'm finding it a whole different ball game with an airbrush. I'm plodding along with a 0.2mm nozzle at the minute. The cheapo kit I bought came with a 0.3 & 0.5 but for some reason neither of those want to work (no paint comes out at all!) so I keep putting the 0.2 back in. The bigger nozzles look deformed like they've been damaged so it might take me a while if I start doing larger models lol.

I'll treat myself to something better once I really start to get the hang of it, but since I've recently bought one of these to add to my arsenal at work I need to build up my tool funds a bit first!

[Fernando N]

Just saw this one Andy and looking very good so far.

Like others said seems you’ve got your fair share of airbrushing under your belt, neat paintjob.:thumb2:

If I may give a tip for masking the windows, a while ago I found out it’s easier to mask the windows individually part for part before gluing them on, just make sure to wipe away any fingerprints on the insides before fitting.:tongue-out3: