Luft46's Blog

Hopefully the below photos illustrate the peeling issue with the Vallejo paints

The painting on the BV P178 was not successful with me using Vallejo air 76 over Xtracrylics 75. Basically apart from leaving the Tamiya tape on too long which left behind bits the  likely cause of the paint peeling off in parts was the difference between the glossiness of the xtracrylics and the poor adhesion of Vallejo as noted in reviews I have seen elsewhere. It works ok straight over Tamiya primer as I have seen in the past but not over much else. The plane has gone back to the box for a rest. It will come back because it’s a nice kit , just a bit of a painting disaster.

Back on the desk is the Model Collect V1 launcher on a E100 body. The kit is not Revell standard in this scale and has a semi short run feel in places. Having said that they have gone the extra mile in places. An example is the engine, something I can’t recall in any other 1.72 tank kit. This builds up ok but needs some fettling in places. 

I’ve found I needed to think a little ahead and plan for the next few stages before closing things up. Just an example here …. the engine deck has nothing in the way of support for the front 3/4s. On one side it works fine but on the other it dips down. I’ve put in a bit of evergreen strip to support this and set the level. On the other hand in the engine area it sits high which may be my fault and I’m doing a bit of scraping to bring this back. While I was looking at the deck I thought I would check out the turntable for the V1 launcher. I wanted to have this rotate so test fitted it. This revealed that the two teeth are too thick to allow this. A quick cut on the top of each allowed it to rotate easily. 

The V1 body needs a second PSR cycle.

After an exciting day yesterday of training I managed to do some modelling. I’ve cut out tonnes of blobs and one more session should see me ready to paint. 

This parcel came about ten days ago from HobbyEasy. It contained 2 of the new diorama bottles from AK. I have only opened the asphalt one which looks good but has a strong of PVA glue.

The two Plus Models boxes are for a diorama due to get started one day !

After some misadventures I now have a good light from IKEA. Along with my magnifying lamp i have plenty of light for my eyes as they get a bit older.

Now my bench setup is working better some modelling is getting done. I completed the canopy masking last night which is always a slow process. The 90 odd patches over the RLM 75 have been started. The blown up instructions were covered by clear packing tape amd then Tamiya masking tape per a friends advice. I finally used the tool I bought in Telford last year to cut out the tape in those strange shapes. I don’t have to be 100% accurate as it is Luft46 anyway.

1. Ok my posts are probably like buses, you wait for ages then three come along.
2. So here’s a few photos of the bv p178. The rlm 75 from Aeromaster  is now on. The instructions have been blown up by 220% to be able to cut out the masks. Poor lighting means I will be doing the canopy tomorrowAnd something silly to finish off with.

   

And lastly the V1 which includes a bonus Rheintochter

I have added in a brass engine intake from another kit so far.

Photos on this soon 

What follows is some shots of the 4 kits I received recently via HobbyEasy. The subjects are great W46 to complement my L46 interest.

Having started the V1 launcher kit I can say the kit is very high in terms of sprue gates. The plastic is soft but also brittle. Having used my sprue cutters in cutting out the V1 parts I would recommend cutting a lot further out than normal the cleaning up with a scalpel. Otherwise you will end up lots of holes to fill.

On the whole the kit is good so far . I am looking forward to seeing how it looks further down the line.

This V1 launch site is great. There was one in 1.35 from a UK company in resin but way too pricey for me. Mach 2 did  a variant of this in 1.72 but it was Mach 2 quality though.

Here’s my new painting booth including lighting from the Enterprise. Thanks to a friend who upgraded this with accessible switches.

Now here is my pile of Aeromaster acrylics… unfortunately they have aged they have decayed and some bottles are unusable as the paint is lumpy. Any good ones once opened are a one shot affair. I opened one bottle and sprayed and by the next day it was getting lumpy.