Mossie done, far from perfect but not too bad either, the DH88 and Brisfit Airfix are still selling were worse



Photos uploaded to said location

This is my entry for this campaign:




First time building the Frog version, built the Airfix with rotating boom doors many moons ago.

Hey Richard, glad youre in here.
The Buccaneer was one of my favorites back in the day. I really like British cold war jets, and FROG had a nice line of them, Meteor, Seahawk, Hunter, Javelin, Scimitar - top cool!

So, to recap. I'm doing the Maquette reboxing of the Dart Herald

Here's the flash I have to carve the model's parts from

And here's the first session's progress

oh good. I want to see that built, it cleaned up pretty nice!

If the catalog numbers mean anything, I think that was one of the very first FROG injected molded kits.

first dusting of primer after some considerable scraping and filling


pretty ok

Well, Model building is problem solving. Looks like you're 'beating' the 707 into shape. Hope to spend a little time on my Corsair tonight. May not require all the putty I've been conditioned to expect.

The Buccaneer cockpit is lacking in control details but seeing as there are no engines why bother with controls!

your choice, go with out-of-the-box and call it good, or scratch build us a city

I will go with OOB, Seats are by Lazy Boy!

I did a bit more filling a fairing, and fitted the cockpit glass. I actually think this is a pretty good looking fuselage.


then we come to the engines.

Ugly, poorly made, ill fitting, un-prototypical , I can deal with or live with, but there are no jet nozzles. I kind of think organ pipes would make these engines look at least a little like 707 engines. like this, or this.


I suppose i could try to whittle something into the tubing, or I could add some gilt to this pig's ear and send away for some after market resin engines.

also, this one looks like a hobo has made a bed in the inlet.

If you have a Minicraft 707 there are extra unused organ pipe tubes on the engine sprue. For a -420 you want the shorter ones. I have spares if you'd like them.

well it so happens I do. I broke the shrinkwrap to swipe spare parts
I guess they look better than what I could do with a file.
They should look better painted 'gun metal'.

So you'll need to replace that cylindrical section which was Frog's attempt to reproduce organ pipes

yup

well I gotta say these cleaned up pretty well, and the minicraft nozzles are better than I could have done with a file.

of course, nothing like a coat of shiney to show off how much more work you could have done, but Im moving on.

good looking fuselage. vertical tail needs some work.

Those nozzles transformed what just looked WRONG. Looking good

Ok, so I primed the Sea Vixen yesterday, with Automotive rattle can white, and something rather strange happened. I'm sure we've all experienced what happens when you paint acrylic over the top of gloss enamel, right? It cracks as it dries and goes all "crazy paving" doesn't it? Well, I've never seen it happen with spray primer onto naked plastic, so it looks like I'm going to have to strip it today and start again. Incidentally, at the same time I sprayed the plane, I also primed the PE and resin airbrake, and had no problems at all.

Does anyone have a clue as to why this happened, and how to prevent it when I re-prime it?

I presume you washed the plastic before painting, otherwise it could be too thick, too quick, not allowing the paint underneath to dry before re-coating, easy to do with a rattle can

Yes, I washed the sprues before I started building. The only thing that was different was, the can was fairly cold as I store it in my attic workshop. I took it outside to spray one side of the aircraft, and I left it in the shed to dry, and it was pretty damn cold out there. Normally, I spray outside, and then bring the bits indoors to dry in the warm.

Could it have been a simple mechanical process of the cold plastic expanding in the heat inside, therefore cracking the surface of the paint which cured when the plastic was cold?

Lee, I believe you have your answer in the temperature variation affecting the drying characteristics. For example the plastic may have been warm and the paint was cold causing the cracking affects. Air temperature, moisture in the air all come into play.

I usually spray outside in warm weather, on sunny days. This past week I used my utility room off the carport. It is unheated but our freezer heats the room up to the mid 50F's even when the outside temperature is at 20F.

Full size paint bays are heated, I think you have got your own answer. Spraying this time of year is not easy

I fabricated an extended fin from bits if scrap styrene.


got the polished aluminum belly painted, and the wings. I think the light grey primer will do for the painted areas.
I did a gloss black undercoat, even though its just Tamiya rattle can aluminum, I think it does improve the metallic look.


next to mask for the white top.

Folks, I'm afraid I've had to bite the bullet, and de-enlist from this campaign. After the spray primer disaster last week (see previous posts above), I did a bit of research elsewhere on this site, and picked up the tip of using Windex window spray to strip acrylic paint. I picked up a couple of supermarket own brand window cleaner sprays, poured them both into a plastic tub, and put the model in to soak for a few days. I checked on it periodically, and over time it did seem to be softening the paint. Today, I sat and sanded all the primer off, and revealed the next problem!

As I mentioned before, the paint had cracked as it dried, and had gone all "crazy paving", well, all the cracks in the paintwork had actually gone deeper and scarred the surface of the plastic. I tried to sand them out, but unfortunately there isn't a lot of plastic to work with, and before you know it there's not a lot left! I don't like giving up, especially after the time, effort and aftermarket goodies I've put into the kit, but enough is enough.

Best of luck everyone, hopefully this can be a learning experience, so people don't make the same mistakes I did!