Hermann , fantastic job on the moltting , I would have made a few tries at it .

Looks excellent, Hermann. The paint job looks great and the mottling is spot on.

Looking forward to see more

Today I've encountered a major setback with the build. Just when I was about finished with adding the small details, my adjustable lamp came undone and as luck has it, the lamp fell right on top of the plane!! I was cursing everyone and everything that I could think of. When the dust settled, the wheels buckled with weight of lamp. I was able to reattach the broken pieces but I'm not confident that they will be able to support the weight of the plane. Fingers crossed, the next couple of days will be telling!! Even if I have to keep the plane suspended on paint jars, I'm determined to finish this plane!!

After several hours on the operating table, I believe that I was able to salvage the undercarriage The feel quite sturdy but I'll play it safe and keep the kit suspended on paint jars till the end! The wheels received quite a douse of cyano (several progressive layers) and they look OK, with the exception of the left wheel which appears a bit crooked. Thats a fact that, given the circumstances, I'll gladly accept.

Made a bit of progress after the previous drama. The kit received a coat of Future and the decals were applied. Not sure if I received a bad decal sheet but the quality of the decals was not up to par with that of the overall kit or Tamiyas. I had a hard time getting the decals to set on the irregular surface and didn't react to micro sol or set. Also, I noticed a considerable amount of silvering .. hopefully the final application of Future and the flat coat will resolve that.







Next step will be the weathering process. Enjoy and thanks for watching!!

Looking good Hermann , How many coats of future did you put on ? The surface does have a nice shine to but maybe one more would have stop the silvering . Some how I don't think this is the problem . I have had the same results with Eduards decals before and a coat of future on top should take away the silvering . Thick decals aren't they a joy to work with !!!!

Looking forward to the weathering ............................

Hello Hermann

If it is really silvering (I.e. air trapped under the decal) you will not get rid of it with further coats, in contrary the effect will get worse. Try to get Daco red for really bad decals (I have had good experiences working with eduard so far) but be vvery careful when using it ... this stuff really melts the decal. aplly it and the forget about the model .. put it very faaar away.

IMO your surface on the wings does not look really smooth and glossy so maybe Terri is right and you should have sprayed more layers and/or the final layer pretty wet.

To save your project pin all the air bubbles with a needle and apply the strong solution (Micro Sol or Daco orange or red) then leave it to dry. If you are lucky the decal mediums will replace the air and "suck" the decal down to the surface. Maybe you will need several applications. You can/could also try Future as decal medium... but be very careful it will melt the decal and the underlying layer of future. (no guaratee it will work)

BTW I had several occurances that the decal medium fogged the Future layer. on normal surfaces another coat of future will take care of this .. if it is under the decal .. .well, no idea but better wait some more days to let it fully dry .. maybe it will go away.

HTH

cheers

Steffen

Thanks Steffen and Terri.
Summer is here and along come the rain clouds..I could either start to build my ark or continue working on my Me-110!!

Managed to apply my wash and brought out the panel line details ..





Next on my to do list is pastels and my all time favorite, the dreaded canopy

Hello Hermann

Well, your last pictures clearly show that you do not have a glossy-smooth wing .. could be the reason for the decal problem. Also the crosses did not go into the panel lines at all (so it seems from the pictures). I personally seal the decals with another gloss coat to get an even base for the wash (this way I get the whole panel line including the decal which gives a better "painted on" effect for them.

Also .. well, I do not want to scare you, but I have the feeling you will have some problems fitting the canopy. At least from the pix it seems as if you have a bulge in the cockpit section ... the sides should be parallel .. might be an optical illusion though

Anyway, good luck!!

all the best

Steffen
P.S. do not push the project now .. better solve the decal problem first before you go ahead!

Steffen, thanks for the pointers, The finish was glossy but after the wash, it tends to dull the finish a bit. Could you explain how I should go about fixing the decal problem? Not sure how an extra coat of future will help the decal bond better and accentuate the panel after the fact. Should I reapply mirco-sol again (not sure it will be effective when the decal is covered with several layers of future)? Thanks in advance!!

Hey Hermann ! Nice weathering so far

About the decals ? This might help , take a new #11 blade and where the decals lays over the panel line , scour that line across the decal lightly reapply super sol , where the decals cover rivets use a sewing needle to poke a hole and reply super sol . You can use future for this as well but Steffen is correct this will melt the under coat and could rick losing the decals . A few coats might be needed . Seal with clear , re wash the areas .

You do have a good gloss coat as Steffen pointed out and it does show in your pic's , so this could be a decal issue in themselves . You can also use liquid glue such as Tenax or pro-weld , but work very careful and in small amounts It works great but to much glue and well you get the point .

Hello Herman

1. Fixing the silvering: I am not sure how to explain this further. Just have a look at the instructions of the decal solution.

2. Clear coat: Much more important than the glossy finish is an even smoooooooth layer. I have had very good results even with semi gloss or flat but the surface was smooth

Just have a look at this pic



the flash reflects im many small spots which indicate that the surface may be glossy, but not even. I hope I could make my point clear.

3. Sealing the decals: this was meant as general hint, without your decal problems .. if they had confirmed perfectly to the contours. The wash will normall stick to every imperfection of the surface, so the borders of the decal film could be pronounced (I also has some cases when the decals cracked --- for whatever reason, probably to strong decal solution) the Sealing layer of future will "melt" the underlying future layer the decals and the sealing layer together and provide a pretty even surface for the wash. You might have noticed that you use a few decals mor on aircraft then on tanks, so this probably defers from your used routine.

I want to express again that I really like your model and that it came out beautifully, especially as you do not have much aircraft experience! My comments are not meant as critique but as a help. Everyone has to find his/her own way of doing things and I just try to write what I do and why. So please do not feel offended and if you want me to stop commenting on your progress, just write it!

all the best

Steffen

Thanks Terri and Steffen for the insight. I've always dreaded decals and this model has not been the exception. But now I have more information that will help me along with future builds. Thanks again for providing me with those valuable tips. Steffen, I was in no way offended with your critique (in fact I value your suggestions very highly)..it's just that I didn't follow your suggestions mainly due to inexperience (i.e. I thought clear was the same as future). That is the reason why I post my builds ..not only to share them with others but to have other show me the errors of my ways or teach me a better way of building.
After giving it much thought, I think I know the culprit of the problem. I retraced my steps and looked at what was it that I did that was different from my Tamiya build. The answer was the primer that I used. Instead of using regular acrylics as a primer, I decided to use a primer from a rattle can that I used before with my armor build. It tended to leave a very rough finish which I tried to smooth out with a file but with mixed results. It worked fine with armor because it gave the build the rough texture and finish .. a big no-no with planes.
Again thanks for all the good tips, suggestions and words of encouragement that both have provided me and I apologize i I came across the wrong way in my last reply

Hi Hermann

You did not "come across the wrong way in your last reply"!

Often people get upset because I am a PITA (sometimes) and not being a native speaker complicates things. I just wanted you to understand my intentions and what exactly I mean.

cheers

Steffen

No trouble at all Hermann , we are all here to share and learn from each other while growing as a community and it's great to have you being a part of that .

The build continues with some more mixed results below are some more pix of the progress:



Canopy masked:


And now the DREADED moment of removing the mask...


As you can see it didn't come out as I wanted to. I'll take this as a learning experience for future builds but also wanted to get some input on proper way to mask a canopy. Do you treat the clear plastic before applying the mask? How do you avoid the lifting of the paint lines when you remove the mask (I was ever so gentle and lifted the mask very gently but it still managed to pick up a piece of the thin line of paint)? I'm debating on what to do now ..do I let it be or touch it up with a brush? I also noticed that the mask left a trace of the adhesive on the clear plastic (is that avoidable?).
Thanks for watching ..and as always, any tips and pointers are always appreciated!!!

Very nice progress Hermann , for some one just getting into aircraft you are doing a fantastic job !!!

Masking canopies I never had much luck with so I have always hand paint them . My build for the 190 campaign is hand painted .

To fix what you are referring to you can scrape along the frame line with a new # 11 blade lightly to much pressure and the glass will be scratched . Touch up frames as needed .

Option # 2 . Soak the canopy in Windex ( glass cleaner) and scrub off the paint and let dry .
Dip the canopy parts in future when dry re-mask again ,( yes I know this is a pain ) rub down the edges of the tape with a q-tip really well . If you want brush on a very thin coat of future to seal the tape let dry and respray the parts .

To get rib of the tape residue this can be be cleaned up with some rubbing alcohol or a damp q-tip with lighter fluid . Don't use thinners .

You can also use bare metal foil to mask as well , just rub down and with a new # 11 blade run it alone the canopy frame . Then just remove the foil off the frame work and spray your colour .

Hello Hermann

I prefer Eduard precut masks, the usually fit pretty good and I really like the kabuki type tape. Before they came up I used bare metal foil because I could cut it very good at the panel lines of the canopy (always use a new blade fo such tasks). The downside was that is often left some residue on the clear part, which I had to remove.

I always burnish it down with a tooth pick, no matter what tape I use. This is also handy for removing paint from canopies, because you can apply pretty much pressure without harming the clear plastic. if the normal "tip" is not sharp enough for your taste, you can cut the tooth pick with a scalpel knife and produce a sharp edge on it.

In most cases i have the one or other spot lifting (though this got much better with the Eduard precut stuff) i lift the tape with a sharpened tooth pick and then pull it off with tweezers .. a bit of practice with improve the results as the way you peel of the mask will influence the result. You can also cut out the mask again after you paintet it. This will help too. If I have some spots lifting, i touch it up with a paint brush.

HTH

cheers

Steffen

Terri and Steffen Again, thanks for your assistance and taking the time to provide me guidance on this build. I think that I'll lightly touch up the canopy to connect the gaps and let it be. Can't bare the thought of stripping all of the paint off and remasking the canopy for a few gaps in the canopy. The build is almost done ..just need to glue the back mg, apply a final coat of flat and attach the canopy to the plane. Overall, I've learned a lot from this build and given the circumstances, I'm quite pleased with the results (unless another castastrophe pops its ugly head ..knock on wood).
Best regards,

Good-looking build so far. Sorry to hear about the masking problems.

Even if you burnish down the edges of the masking material and take care not to apply too heavy coats, paint still sticks to the masks, which then might tear it off from the frames as well.
Gently cutting along the edges of the masks with a fresh-bladed knife before trying to remove them helps reduce the chances of lifting off paint with them.

As already mentioned before, washing the clear parts thoroughly before masking & painting helps the paint grab on the plastic better, reducing the chances of lifting off.

Funny, I've also noticed Eduard's masks fit 'pretty good'. Usually they fit like a glove, but in the Hellcat kit I'm currently building there were both too big and too small pieces: The side window masks for the middle section were too big (how hard is it to measure a simple rectangle? ), and the top window pieces were too small...
Just occasional fluctuation I assume, as I've never had that kind of issues before.
So anyway, these precut masks are a real time saver, especially on complex greenhouse canopies with dozens of windows. The newer yellow "cabuki tape" type are the ones to get. Similar stuff as Tamiya's great masking tape.
If you come across sets of the older greyish vinyl type, I'd recommend steering clear of them. The material used in them is thicker, stiffer, and they tend to lift on their own when laid on curved surfaces. But if you get that type of masks with an Eduard, don't throw them away though, as they can be used as templates for cutting new masks from tape.

All I can say is WOW!!!

I've never posted on Aeroscale before but I thought I might be able to help a little with the canopy problem, that is if it's still an issue, I notice that it's been quite a few months since your post!

I masked the canopy on an He111 myself which is similar in complexity to the 110 and pinched a trick I heard elsewhere on the internet. Mask the frames going in one direction first using long strips. Then carefully sand the revealed frames with a fine sandpaper to give a surface that the paint can adhere to. Then paint. Once this is dry you can mask the frames going in the opposite direction and repeat.

The sanding should prevent the paint peeling off and masking twice in long strips is considerably easier than cutting tiny, perfect rectangles!

Good luck, the 110 looks super by the way!
All the best,
David

I always use a fresh blade and cut along the edges of my masks before peeling them back, that way you dont lift the paint off.
I also brush paint on my base color in thin coats, you can control how the edges are painted that ways and for the most part, prevent bleeding under the edges.

Another tip to prevent bleeding under the mask is to give the glass a quick spray of clear coat AFTER you've masked it, then paint the frames, and then use a sharp blade as Shawn described.

Cheers, D

Damian, clear coat as in Testors Clear Gloss or a dose of Johnson Future / Klear?