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F14A Tomcat - PART ONE

The first method, sand paper and elbow grease, is used when removing large amounts of slag from the bottoms of large pieces, specifically the main cockpit tub in this set. Black Box was nice in providing a clue to how much resin needs to be removed as they have a molded in line running around the outside bottom of the main cockpit tub. I needed to sand the bottom until this line is reached. Sounds easy, huh? Guess again.

I start by laying down a piece of heavy grit wet-and-dry sandpaper on a flat surface, grit side up. I use 180 grit paper. Finer grit takes too long to sand and heavier grit leaves too rough of a surface when I am done. I regularly clean the paper as I am working to remove the resin residue, brushing it into the trashcan. This residue gets under the resin piece and interferes with the sanding if I just leave it alone. Also, some of the residue can get ground into the paper and form a smooth surface on the paper. A scrape from an old X-acto blade removes this crusted residue and allows the sandpaper to continue its job.

There are two choices here -- sanding wet or sanding dry. Particles in suspension making the sanding go faster is bull-cr*p, so do not make any decision on those grounds. It simply comes down to dust control and the messiness of the task. Wet is not dusty, but it is very sloppy. Dry is less sloppy, but is very dusty. Bear in mind while you are deciding, too, that resin dust is a cancer-causing agent. Get a hold of a safety placard for the stuff sometime and then turn white when you think of all the times that you have breathed this stuff while modeling.

Anyway, I prefer the dust to the slop. So, I sanded the cockpit bottom dry. To keep from breathing the dust, I did the sanding in my paint booth. Like the fan removes the paint fumes, it also removes the resin dust in the air. I also wear a dust mask to protect me from anything the paint booth fan missed. I move the resin piece in a small circle on the sandpaper, taking care to consciously watch how hard I press on the piece. I needed to continuously check and recheck the line running around the cockpit tub to see when I was finished. All three of my cockpits were molded with more slag on one side. This presents a challenge to control my pressure on the piece and sand only one side without letting the other side lift off of the sanding surface. I also needed be careful not to rock the piece as I moved it on the sandpaper. Rocking the piece would cause a non-flat bottom on the piece and complicate mounting it squarely on the nose landing gear well.