"Build Session 4 closed-Keep Modeling!"

Oct Build blog

Trick of treat month brings more trick than treat, not much build time due to the temerity of my work getting in the way of my hobby. Alas, I should have a lot more time Nov to make a serious dent on this build (and start the painting process before my unattached garage starts freeze over) , as well as finish my PT boat for the Small craft GB (Thank again for the extension Gunny!). Ok. Now for the Nov progress:

Last month we left with the Mr. Surfacer experiment gone a tad awry (see pics from last month). I proceeded to carefully shave the excess using couple (new) sharp blades.





Much to my surprise, I was able to shave down the “ridge” I had observed last month, leaving the seam in much better shape.





I tried the “square” XCto blade’ careful! If you push it too hard/fast, kit starts to peel off the plastic, much like an apple peeler. However, with careful and VERY slow application of force, I was able to even out some of the joints in which the plastic had a sliver of a lip.



I came to a stop in a few places where the width of the blade overlapped details.



I did some research and found a few posts online in which modelers used isopropanol (and other types of alcohols) to wipe excess Mr Surfacer. I will read some more on the subject and post the results next month! Just a word of warning… any time you use an organic solvent to dissolve a “putty/filler”, you are generating organic volatiles which may include toluene and its derivatives. I perform my “dissolving” steps in my AB hood with the fans on hand. I do the same when I smooth out putty using acetone-based nail polish.
For sub-assembly work I return to my favorite sub-assembly so far, the Captain’s gig. I shaved/sanded off the wandering red boot stripe last month. I also noticed that some of my black paint was laid on the thick side, making it off scale. I carefully shaved off some of the excess paint (I guess I was in barber mode this month!). Now I have to decide whether to paint the black again my hand, as before.. or set up the AB for better/thinner application but high paint usage and AB cleaning time. Maybe I will prepare other subassemblies that require flat black paint and AB them all at once. Stay tuned!



Final sub-assembly work this month was following on a suggestion by Kenny to bore out the 5” guns. Upon closer examination, the end point was slightly curved, like “D”. I snipped off a slight sliver of plastic to make the end flush. Next, I started to slowly rotate the gun with the tip of the xcto blade on the center. Once I made a mark, I was able to rotate the blade and bore out apx ~2mm of the gun. I think this is enough to give it some depth… I do not have a pin vise- drill bit small enough, but it is on my “tools to get” list; I see myself boring a lot of small holes in the future. I hope you can see from the picture the effect of my micro-surgery; gun on left has been bored, one of the right is not.





And that is it for this month! Again my apologies to the readers and judges for the meager output for a second month in a row.. one thing for sure, my slow months ensured I will need ALL 12 months of the competition to finish this baby! Cheers all.

Hey James looking good for just a small update a lot of information in this one did not know the trick about the smothing out of the Mr surfacer who gave you that idea to use that stuff

hey Keith, this is one of the links i have for Mr Surfacer

Mr. Surfacer from Gunze-Sangyo

I cant find the other link where the modeller used isopropanol... Ill try that in the week or so and post the results! Cheers

PS - You can get Mr Surfacer fom LuckyModels if you dont have a UK-base supplier; for awhile was hard to get in the US due to some import issues....

November blog time… hope everyone on my side of the pond had a good Thanksgiving or preferred dinner feast! Some more time at the bench this month (finally!) even though I used up most of it in a feeble attempt at finishing my PT boat on time for the Small Craft GB.. oh well!

We pick up with a seam hunting exercise… last time I used a testors enamel silver ‘pen” in order to attempt to “paint/trace” the seams and make any flaws show up. It worked, sort of… was at times too dark and “streaky”. This month I lay down some of the same ‘silver” but brushed it along the seams with a paintbrush wet with thinner. The end result was lighter and smoother, but not quite what I wanted. Next round I will set up the AB and mist some primer….

Here is the setup….



The superstructure had some flaws, but less than expected given my problems with gluing last month. Some parts appear “seamless” (upper/right side), while some show a clear flaw (lower and upper left)



Another clear example.. you can see the thin “line” where the seam is:



Vertical seams are the worst:



.. except this one, ALMOST good except a bit on the top part:



This one is the worst…



First, I am glad I did not go ahead and paint… second, I still need a lighter way of “seam hunting”, will try AB primer mist next. What is next? Light wet sanding with XF to remove some of the paint, followed by Mr Surfacer applied to the seams. I will let that dry for couple days and then apply another layer. Seems (no pun intended!) that Mr Surfacer contracts a bit when dry (all putty/fillers do I recon) and I need to apply a second coat to the seam.

On the other hand, the hull looks quite nice. This seam at the stern is ok until the very end.



Amidships looks good:



And so does the bow and sonar dome



Some minor touch up needed here



I built up the rudder and shaft bases, rounding them up a bit. That looks fine, maybe couple touch ups



What next? Same as above… light sanding of the paint, minor touchups with Mr Surfacer, AB misting of primer for seam eradication!


The final build step for this month was putting together the next superstructure level, all parts seen here:



All parts were cut, sanded, masts shaved a bit (looked waaay too thick to me, scale wise!). All parts were dry fitted first, before gluing and painting. I am learning (the hard way in the case of my PT boat), that I should dry fit everything and THEN think about painting. Avoids having structures/subassemblies built up that I cannot reach with the paint. Or flimsy antennas that I keep banging and bending/breaking as I attempt to fit in other parts. Here is that whole level dry fitted together:



Top part of the “funnel” structures have to be painted separate from the rest (flat black). I won’t be able to paint all of the cylindrical structures once glued in place.

And that is all for this month! Not too much but getting there… next month I hope to have slayed the Seam Monsters and finish the superstructure, Then I can start planning painting and minor subassembly work. Thanks for looking, and as usual, any comments, feedback or suggestions are more than welcome!
Cheers

Wow, James, that's a heck of an update and very thorough! Good stuff!

Great update, James!
Keep it coming!
Guido

Take it slow and you still get there in the end. Nice one James another perfect update

Session 6 closed~Keep Modeling!!

Impressive, there's something new to learn with every entry in these blogs, well done, and well done MSW for the entertainment!

Peter F

Remember on the Kidd's they were repainted overall Haze Grey in the 92-93 time frame.

Of course I think they looked better with black masts.

C|:-)

Thanks for the heads up! The kit has painting instructions for both 90s & 80s "Kidd", main difference is the funnel/masts painted black... I chosed the 80s scheme just to be able to have something besides grey on the ship

80's and 90's is actually wrong. Both Kidd and Scott were black topped while I was onboard which was 1991-92. If I recall Scott went into a yard period some time in late 1992 and came out all grey.

Some folks in the Pentagon thought it was a good idea. I think it made the ship look plain.

Anyway....

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone ! Here is the December entry….

The silver paint was wiped clean with a Q tip moist in thinner followed by gentle sanding. The seam portions that still need some work were marked with Tamiya masking tape for further fixing with putty next month. Some examples:







I also needed to re-scribe a joint in the sonar dome that had been sanded down:



I airbrushed flat black to the captain’s gig; the paint looks a lot better than the hand painted job I did before, which was too thick. I need to learn to hand-brush with thinner coats, for those small paint jobs.



The second level of the superstructure has started to come together: Structures on the left are complete; the ones on the right are dry fitted together.




The top part was also painted flat black with AB after putting together; I was able to get all the nooks painted. Some of seams need a bit of work/fixing:



Uppermost superstructure is next, seen on the next picture.



The two halves have been glued together with Tenax after a lot of sanding, and then clamped down for a day. I am trying to make the parts fit better and glue better to avoid spending dozens of hours fixing seams

The antennae structure had a mold line needed cleaning up. Problem is three sink holes on the main mast (you can barely see then in the pic) that need to be filled/sanded. Finally, the antennae structures are on the thick side; I plan to shave them down a bit (if the OOB rules allow!). Otherwise, clean up, sand and put together~!

That is all for this month! Next month I hope/plan to finally fix the seams and get that step down, so I can start the priming/painting process.

Seam lines and sink holes modellers nightmare but a great job getting them so neat James.
All the best for the new year Keith

Great work, James! I love the tiny boat detail.

hello James,
great job on your build.i am learning alot with you explaining what you are doing and how you are fixing the problems that come up.
on hand painting the smaller items,i have found the Colorcoats paint from White Ensign go on light coat with a brush and do not need any thinner at all.i hand paint all my ships and now using Colorcoats paints they,to me,look like i used an airbrush.
again great job and thanks for you updates.
have a good and safe New Year.
cheers,
Bruce

Hi James,

I was thinking maybe you should thank me for being even farther behind in this build than you seem to think that you are! Paying attention to details like the weld seams (and the boot topping on the captain's gig) is important, but sure can slow things down. Looking good so far.

Barry

January build blog is here, with a modest amount of work chronicled due to last patch of pics dutifully deleted by family members to make space for more mundane stuff like a birthday party of a young cousin, the humanity!

We start with the seams, yet again! Borrowing a method from the aviation modeling world, in which you “fence” the seam with tape and apply putty. Then you use a cotton swab moist in acetone-containing nail-polish remover (Cutex in my side of the pond). This will result in less of a need for heavy sanding.

Couple links on the method:

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/tnt1/001-100/TNT029_Filler_WO_Sanding/tnt029.htm " TARGET="_blank"> http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/tnt1/001-100/TNT029_Filler_WO_Sanding/tnt029.htm

http://www.swannysmodels.com/Seams.html " TARGET="_blank"> http://www.swannysmodels.com/Seams.html

make sure you do this in a well ventilated area…

The materials and first victim:



Some areas in need of repair;



And here:



Some just require filling a small gap:



Q-tip has to be moist with the Cutex, not dripping wet or you will get the putty out of the seam (yes, talking from experience!).

The tape can be pulled out, and then the putty “fence” can be carefully shaven off by scrapping with the back of the Xcto knife. Last step is a carefully sanding with x-fine sand stick. On the LEFT you have a super-structure subunit after the tape is out, on the RIGHT after the scrapping/sanding. You can see the faint white line of the putty-filled seam.



Some minor gaps were filled with ZapGap and accelerator, leaving a couple minutes for sanding down the area:



Some of the major areas after the fix:



Again, you see the faint white lines of the filled seam:





One of the sensor masts, before full assembly:



One seam, ready to get fixed.. the mast needs to have 3 sink holes filled, which has been done with Mr Surfacer, but do not have any pics Finally, the actual structures are a huge pain, which needed a lot of work, with a flash line in all the lines. Sure candidate for PE replacement if not OOB! No pics of this assembly though…

The second mast superstructure has been cut off the sprues and ready for assembly as we get to the final stretch! Next month, I FINALLY FINALLY get to prime for flaws and post the pics of the sensor super-structure assemblies.

Thanks again for looking! Cheers

Excellent clean up work, James! Great job!

Looks like some nice detail on that kit even for OOB neat clean up lines to nice one

I see a typo that is really annoying me, first line:

"last patch of pics dutifully deleted .."

should read "last batch of pics.... "

Hey Keith - yes, this kit has actually nice detail, Jim Adams (goldenpony) has a WIP in MSW on the same kit but with many AMs and a conversion to his own ship, the USS Scott. I actually highly recomend this kit to anyone interested in modern USN. I also plan to build Mobile Bay as a Ticonderoga class and the Momsen as the Arleigh Burke represenative, all Dragon kits in 350 scale.