Jessie Cooper has sent us photos of her Roden An-12 Cub in civilian colours.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

SWEET! Nice clean build on a not too often seen subject. My son deals with these things on a daily basis. After doing six years in the USAF he's contracting at Manas air base outside of Bishkek Kyrgyzstan parking, gassing and de-icing both civillian and millitary AC. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work!

Pat.

Looks Great! I have this kit in my stash and plan on building it sooner rather than later! I am curious about your comments on the decals. I have never heard of the boiling water trick. Can you tell me more? Thanks!!!

The boiling water trick is to press down on the decal with a cloth dipped in water that's just been boiled. You can also use a hair dryer to heat the decal. Both of these methods heat the decal film and force it to conform to the model's surface.

Good luck with your build Do you have the military or the civillian kit? (The military kit has far fewer decals, which is probably a good thing. There are no aftermarket civvie decals )

Thanks! I have the civilian version with the same markings that you have done. At least I have an inkling of what to expect when I get to the decal stage.

Look in page 6 of the Hangar Queen campaign thread for the start of my adventures with this one.

Jessica, yet another clean and passionate build. I admire your skill and determination... I was also wondering about the boiling water trick. Doesn't it make the decal even more brittle and difficult to handle? Hopefully I will get to that phase one day

cheers,
E

These Roden decals are so brittle it doesn't really matter. What it does is soften them up so they stretch around the bumps rather than shattering. You still end up having to do touch-ups where the decal tears, but nothing like having to replace great huge swaths of it. The trick is to press straight down with no side-to-side movement.

Here's a before and after picture.

Before: The decal has cracked rather than conform to the shapes


After: The decal is pressed down over the shapes. There are still touchups needed, but way less than before.


In this image, you can see where I patched the decal with a piece that was just slightly the wrong colour.

The model ended up with more than a few of these patches

Now I see... it is interesting how photos sometimes reveal and sometimes conceal our mistakes. I didn't notice the patches before. It is still very beautiful plane... congrats!