Pete's Tiger

[spanner570]

Adding the nose weight was a mistake - it's got a tail wheel, it's supposed to be a tail sitter!
Never mind, I haven't closed up the top of the fuselage yet, I'll add some weight to the tail.

Pete

...and strengthen the under carriage! .....:worried:
Looking good Pete.

[stillp]

Well, I found the first mistake in the instructions: [ATTACH]305616[/ATTACH]parts 35 and 36 are transposed, 35 has a pin to fit into the hole where they show 36, while there's a ridge on the inside of the canopy that fits between those 2 prongs you can see on part 36. No big deal, so on with the canopy:
[ATTACH]305617[/ATTACH]
While the Gator's Grip was setting I got on with the rotor - straightened the bent blade, and assembled the 4 blades plus top and bottom parts:
[ATTACH]305618[/ATTACH]
Next tasks are to mask the canopy (when I can find a new scalpel blade) and add all the small parts like hand-holds, steps etc to the fuselage ready for painting. However, disaster has struck - I've lost a part!
[ATTACH]305621[/ATTACH]
Part number 40 is not on the sprue - it could have caught on something and snapped off any time during this build, so there's not much point in expecting to find it. I'll have to make one. The (slightly simpler) one for the other side is just 4mm long. I'll try a piece of sprue, filed to a rectangular cross-section, and a couple of bits of 0,5 mm brass rod - sounds easy enough if you say it quickly! Wish me luck!

Pete

[Steve O]

Well done Pete all is coming together nicley.

Steve.

[Jim R]

Hi Pete
This is fightng you all the way but it looks as if you have the taming of it.
Jim

[stillp]

Thanks chaps. Jim, this one's a walk in the park compared to the last one. Things fit, and the instructions seem to have been written by someone who's actually seen the kit, unlike the EC-145.

Pete

[stillp]

So, I found a piece of sprue that was not much thicker than I needed: [ATTACH]305652[/ATTACH]Cut it off the main sprue, leaving enough to get hold of. Note that the kit part has some Mr Surfacer on it to fill a sink mark. Filed it down to the thickness I wanted: [ATTACH]305653[/ATTACH]
Then spent a frustrating hour trying to drill two holes 0,5 mm diameter through that from the narrow side, which is about 1 mm thick. That was never going to be successful without a precision drill stand, so I had a rethink. I cut two slots across the broad (~2mm) side, using a screw slot file I've had for about 50 years, and used about twice. Then CA'd two short pieces of brass rod into the slots, added another layer of CA on top, then a coat of Mr Surfacer 500.
[ATTACH]305654[/ATTACH]
Not perfect, the top surface should be flat, but I didn't want to file the slots any deeper as it was getting a bit floppy, but I think it'll do. This shows what I'm trying to make: http://data3.primeportal.net/hangar/...p_60_of_92.jpg
and here's a closeup of my effort:[ATTACH]305655[/ATTACH]
Right, now I can concentrate on the masking!

Pete

[Fernando N]

Hi Pete, sorry for missing the start of this one, despite some fit issues it seems to come together nicely.
Very nice work on the office and nice idea of using a marker for the seatbelt buckles.:smiling:
Nice replacement part too.:thumb2:

Oh and a bit late now, I find it easier to mask canopies when they're still unglued, gives one more freedom of movement when cutting the tape, just make sure to remove any fingerprints from the inside of the glazing.:tongue-out3:

Fernando

[stillp]

Thanks Fernando, I was going to mask the canopy before fitting it, but forgot - too keen to get it stuck on!

Pete

[stillp]

Sorry for the lack of updates folks, things have been a bit busy here, and too hot. I finished masking the canopy - easiest masking job I've done, as all the surfaces are fairly flat, and the windows all have straight edges.
[ATTACH]308008[/ATTACH]Not quite finished there, but you get the idea. Then on to paint, and it all started to go wrong. I'd bought a set of 3 NATO colours by Ammo Mig at a show. I'd used the green previously, with no problems, but this time it just wouldn't spray. I added some Vallejo flow improver and water, and it started to spray quite well, then left it to dry for a day - then another day - then another... After 4 days it was still tacky and would come off on my fingers, as well as being rather blotchy, as if there was some contamination on the surface. So, it had to come off, which it did very easily with IPA and cotton buds. I tried again without the flow improver, and in cooler weather, and it seemed OK, so I went on to freehand spray the next colour, black, which was fine. Then the final colour, brown, which just didn't want to be sprayed. I had to clean the tip every couple of seconds, in spite of thinning heavily (with water). Eventually got all the bits that needed to be, brown. It dried hard, but the green was still very slightly tacky, but I wasn't going to clean it all off again!
Masked up the rotor blades and brushed steel on the leading edges, added some final parts, rocket pods and Mistral missiles, that had been painted off the model, fitted the undercarriage. I was getting a bit worried in case the IPA had removed any of the Gator's Grip that was holding the canopy on, but removing the masking it seemed fine, with no paint creepage. Wish I could say the same for the rotor blades - quite a bit of the steel crept under the tape, but the base colour of the rotors is that Ammo NATO green, so I didn't want to sand it off. Probably should have stripped the rotors and started again, but instead I just painted over the offending bits with a hairy stick. Sorry I didn't remember to take any photos during the painting saga, but here's a few taken after most of the painting, before cleaning up the canopy with a cocktail stick and before fitting the last few parts, wipers, cable cutter, and the engine inspection grids. Revell provide these grids as clear parts, and say to paint them with a mix of Anthracite and Clear, but I just used Tamiya Smoke. At the moment they look more like wired glass that grids, but I'm sure they'll look better after a matt coat.
[ATTACH]308010[/ATTACH][ATTACH]308011[/ATTACH][ATTACH]308012[/ATTACH]
At the moment it's had a coat of Pledge and is drying in the paintshop (garage), so tomorrow, with luck, should be decalling time - only about 60 of them, mostly too small to see! Oh joy!

Pete

[JR]

Pete .
I've been following from the door, your making good headway, I like that screw slot file . You see It
would come in handy one day !

John

[stillp]

Thanks John. Yes, I bought that file a few decades ago, from Ken Whiston's in Stckport. Shame they went bust, they had a lot of interesting stuff.

Pete

[stillp]

Phew! I've applied the first 20 or so decals, some many of which are less than a millimetre across. Only lost one (so far). Now I need to lie down for a while...

Pete

[stillp]

I'm sure when I made models as a teenager, they didn't make decals this small - number 132 in the photo is a tilde (~), dwarfed by the 0,5mm pencil tip.
[ATTACH]308252[/ATTACH]
Revell seem to have been a bit confused with their numbering, as the numbers on the decal sheet don't always match those in the instructions, but the bigger ones are easy to sort out, and the small ones aren't very visible anyway! In one case, the instructions refer to 8 of one decal, but they only provide 4... It's entirely possible that the port and starboard sides of this model won't match.
Anyway, after another evening's work, this is where I'm at:
[ATTACH]308253[/ATTACH]
The decals seem to be behaving themselves, although there's a lot of silvering due to the poor paint finish. I'm not at all happy with the paint on the main rotor blades - I'd strip it and repaint with something other than Mig Ammo, but I've already used the decals for the blades. Decisions, decisions... Maybe it'll look better under a matt coat.

Pete

[Steve Jones]

Terrific work on the decals. That is one crazy small decal. I will look forward to searching for it on the finished build:smiling2:

[Fernando N]

Sorry to read about the paint troubles Pete, I've used them a couple of times too and find the Ammo paints more susceptible to ambient changes than Vallejo but then again this hot weather isn't ideal for airbrushing....:rolling:
It looks very nice with the decals on.:thumb2:
Maybe a generous amount of MicroSol will get rid of the silvering, I know the Revell decals can be quite stiff and silver easily.
A gloss coat before the decals will stop a lot of silvering too as there is less rough surface to trap air under the decal.
Good luck with the final steps.