Meng T-90- Close but no cigar for 2014

Well I NEARLY got something finished for 2014 lol! At least the T-90 now has the tracks on and just needs a few things doing here and there and then I can call it done;

I hope that the photo's I've posted have been of help to others building the Meng T-90, obviously there are other modelsout there that are WAAAAAY better than mine but I'm quite pleased with it. The ONLY thing I'm not happy about is the right fender colour where I changed the tone with oil paint, I was hoping the weathering would either lighten it or hide but it did'nt.  Never mind!
I'm not planning on anything for 2015 really, I just tend to pick stuff that catches my eye and probably why I have a loft full of kits :o)
I have a new decal sheet for the Albatros and the SS-23 build is almost complete so there's at least two definites for the new year, anyway Happy New Year to everybody that has looked in on my blog and see you in 2015

Meng T-90-Starting the weathering

The oil paint process worked in a fashion but I was'nt entirely happy as the white spirit was dragging off the acrylic matt varnish plus I've altered the sand colour too much in places, anyway it's onto the pigments and to begin with I've given the whole model a dusty look with Mig's 'Dry Mud';

In the bottom two pictures I've tried to show the contrast between areas that have had pigment applied.
I have to say that at the moment I'm quite pleased with the way it's looking as instead of flooding an area with white spirit I've just been using a damp flat brush to drag the pigment in vertical and horizontal directions, previous results have just ended up as a mess plus the IPA I used to use for this job made the pigment dry funny too.
Next job will be to use different colours of Mig pigment and various AK muddy colours to add to the weathering effect, also I may try depicting wet mud on this model too.
So far so good!
PS; I forgot to say that the paint chipping was done with various Vallejo acrylics before the pigments were applied. Sorry about that :o)

Meng T-90-Back to it

After the decal issue with the Eduard Albatros I've decided to rescue the T-90 from the Shelf-of-Doom instead. I got as far as the intial wash of dark brown and matt varnishing but that's where the build stalled earlier this year so after seeing the beautiful T-90 by Abilio Grajera it gave me an incentive to finish this one. To be fair it's not THAT far from the finishing post, it's just the dotting with oil paint that will take a while to dry however that is the main reason the oils are put onto cardboard instead of a palette as it soaks up the linseed oil in the paint and that helps it dry quicker.

I use a variety of colours but tend to avoid white as in my experience all it's ever done is leave a chalky finish and some browns can be a bugger to blend in too.
By the way the Maltesers are there for moral support as at the time of writing it's cold and raining outside so it's a perfect day for some modelling with home comforts :o)

Albatros update-that's all folks!

I attempted to put the decals on today but they broke up after being in the water;

I also inadvertantly ripped off half of one of the underwing crosses while handling the model so I removed the other cross before it set.
So that's that for my attempt to finish something before the year ends as I have to source another decal sheet and it won't arrive before then, also there is no guarantee that I'll be able to find decals for the exact colour scheme the model is in so it may need re-painting. Bugger!
The possible cause for the decals breaking up is that it's one of Eduards earlier kits, or at least I hope so as I have quite a few Eduard kits in the stash.
Oh well where's that Meng T-90...

Albatros painted

That's the main painting done, I just need to gloss varnish the model then apply the decals;

The darker green was a 1:1 mix of XF-58 and XF-26 and the red brown was XF-64 straight out of the bottle, again they were lightened to spray between the rib posts.
One of the inner wing struts has broken off during the removal of the masking tape and that could lead to some assembly problems later especially as the surface area is so small. I may have to drill the struts and fuselage and pin it...bugger!

Another Albatros update

I painted the undersides with a 1:1 of Tamiya XF-23 and XF-2 then masked off the wing ribs with tape cut into 1mm wide strips;

I  lightened the mix again and sprayed in between the ribs then removed the tape;

Hopefully it gives the effect of  fabric stretched over wing ribs (it looks better than the camera phone shows it anyway).
I have to mask the undersides next then spray the camouflage scheme on the upper wing surfaces, once done I'll try to get the top wing on without destroying the model :o)

Albatros update (already???)

 Well I've made a start :o)

As is typical I did'nt have the Tamiya paints in stock for this job so I mixed some Mr Hobby H312 Green and H70 RLM Grau roughly to a ratio of 2:2 and it looks as near as dammit to me, although I will give it some thought (and more reference via the Wing Nut Wings website). Having said that I'm not THAT into finding the EXACT colour as a lot can change during the weathering process so I may leave it.

With 13 days to go until 2015....

It's become painfully obvious that I have not finished a THING this year, in fact the last model I did finish was back in November 2013 (the Spanish Civil War T-26). This has been due mainly to work being done on the house, full time employment and random bouts of apathy, so in a (quite probably futile) attempt to actually complete something for the year I've pulled this off the Shelf-of-Doom;

It's an Eduard Albatross DIII (O.A.W) that I actually started a couple of years ago. I dug it out earlier this year and got as far as the wood-graining on the fuselage then had to leave it to dry (oil paint over an acrylic base) and of course I forgot about it again. Anyway I started masking it off last night and will hopefully get some paint on it this week (don't hold your breath though).
Alongside this the Meng T-90 is also lurking as it just needs the weathering doing so maybe I'll get around to finishing that too as the SS-23 is becoming a chore although the build is close to completion.

SS-23-Soldering etchy bits

There is a narrow strip that runs along the lower hull sides and it's made up of sections so figuring out that cyano glue would never hold it together I decided to solder the sections instead. Thankfully this has worked so YAY for me :o)

The sections each have a right-angle so this was done using a Hold-and-Fold etchy bendy tool that is absolutely invaluable. Each part was cleaned up where they are to be soldered using a medium grade Wet and Dry paper and using Blu-Tack they were fixed into place on a piece of ceramic tile. A SMALL amount of flux was brushed onto each side of the join then using a 25w soldering iron the solder was run into the joint (again only a small amount) and when cool it was cleaned up to remove excess flux.
Superglue has it's benefits when attaching etch but soldering is really that easy to do and of course makes for stronger joints especially for a job like this.
By the way the stuff I'm using is lead-free solder AND flux that I got from a local DIY shop although I believe that a company called Carrs make products more suited for modelling.