Heller 1/72 Mirage IVP

That's another off the bench finally and what I would call a four-footer as it will look good from that distance. Lots of niggling little issues with getting this one finished as just as I had predicted the decals 'silvered' quite badly and required over painting with the base colour to hide some of it.
At one point I managed to drop it on the floor which broke two of the undercarriage legs, luckily I was able to glue them back together. I'm not that happy with the model really as it has put up a fight all the way through however it's done and will disappear into the loft with the others;

Heller 1/72 Mirage IV

Not long after I sprayed the camo scheme I realised that the colours would more than likely show through the roundels so using a vernier gauge I measured the diameter of the decals then divided by 2 (using a calculator because I was always shit at maths) to find the radius.
The vernier was set to the radius measurement then I set the compass cutter to the vernier;

Using a self adhesive masking film that I found on Amazon the masks were cut with the compass cutter, cut into squares to allow for any overspray then applied to the model.
Mr Hobby Aqueous white was sprayed over the masks rather than Tamiya as that stuff is a bitch to spray nicely for some reason, the masks were then removed and the model given another coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss;

While I was in the mood for spraying I masked off the air intakes and painted the red rims around them. Also there are dayglo panels on the main undercarriage doors and a dayglo stripe on each fuel tank and to do this I masked off the areas first, sprayed them with Tamiya XF-3 Yellow and when dry oversprayed these areas with Vallejo Model Air Flourescent Orange. This was the first time ever spraying anything a dayglo colour so I'm quite pleased with the results;

The next step is to get the decals on. 

Heller 1/72 Mirage IV

I sprayed the green camouflage and when dry masked off some areas and sprayed them with the green but with some light grey added, also the black anti-glare panel on the nose was masked off and painted.
All the masking was removed and the model sprayed overall with Alclad Aqua Gloss varnish ready for the washes the model will receive and decals. Thinking about it now I may have to make masks for the roundels and spray the areas white where the decals are placed as the dark colours may show through.

Heller 1/72 Mirage IV

As I'm waiting for the Takom Bergepanther to set for a day or so (the hull and tracks mainly) I've pulled this out of the 'to do' pile. I sprayed it with Tamiya XF-24 Sea Grey but the finish was terrible due to the paint drying too quick and leaving it with a 'sandy' texture, so I rubbed it down, resprayed, rubbed it down, resprayed and realising I wasn't getting anywhere I left it.
Earlier this week I bought a Humbrol rattle can of Matt 27 Sea Grey acrylic to see if that worked and resprayed the model with that and the finish was a lot better. Once dry I masked off the areas for the green camouflage pattern and here's where it is so far;

I haven't masked off a 1/72 aircraft for years! Going 'old school' I used masking tape cut into narrow strips and followed the pattern on the decal sheet instructions, the areas to be left grey were taped over and using a scalpel I verrrrry carefully cut around the narrow strips of tape.
With a bit of luck I can get this one finished soon. It won't be perfect by any means as this one put up a fight from the start but it will be nice to have a Mirage IV in the collection.

Airfix 1/48 P-51D Mustang and Heller Mirage IV

Having calmed down a bit from the last time I touched this model I decided to give it one more shot so I resprayed the wheel bays then masked them off along with the cockpit.
Instead of using Alclad I decided to use a Tamiya rattle-can (AS-12) as recommended by one of my model-making buddies , this being applied directly to the bare plastic.
There were STILL some issues with the styrene looking rough in a couple of places on the fuselage sides however I gave the model three coats and it's more or less evened out and will do for my purposes;

I have to say the AS-12 looks pretty good! The next test would be with masking tape as this model will require the olive drab anti-glare panel, yellow band around the nose, a yellow tail and black invasion stripes masking off.
With that the first area was the anti-glare panel and where everything started going wrong last time so using Tamiya tape the nose was masked off and sprayed with Tamiya XF-62. The tape was carefully removed as I was concerned about the silver paint coming away but there was no need as the AS-12 seems to be pretty tough stuff;

This bodes well as I may actually finish the bloody thing! The cockpit still needs touching up due to the Mr Muscle oven cleaner getting in but after looking the other day it's not THAT bad and repairable.
While I was in the loft I decide to get some paint on the Heller Mirage IV;

I used Tamiya X-27 for the base coat however it was very warm in the loft and the paint was drying out before it hit the model so I've been left with a rough surface that will need going over with Scotchbrite before applying the green for the camouflage scheme.

Heller 1/72 Mirage IV

After the wings warped a few weeks ago when trying to get the starboard wing down to match the port one I shelved the project and cleared the bench, however after a few days I ordered another kit via Ebay. When it arrived I once again rescribed the wings and to counter the starboard wing issue (which surprisingly is still there on the newer kit) I put a thin strip of Evergreen plastic sheet into the wing root, filling and sanding later on.
In fact the kit needed a fair amount of filling especially around the air intakes, forward fuselage, nosecone and the underside where the wing assembly joins up with the fuselage;

With all the joints cleaned up I sprayed the cockpit interior black, repainted the two Martin Baker ejection seats I had found in the spares box then gave both cockpit and seats a dry brush with Vallejo medium sea grey. The canopies and windscreen were masked off with Tamiya tape and glued into place with GS Hypo cement which is used by watchmakers and jewellers and very useful for model transparancies as unlike superglue it doesn't attack clear plastic.
When dry the gaps around the canopies will be filled with PVA glue (after I've washed it down) then it will get a coat or two of primer as I feel it's still a bit rough in areas I've filled.