stefanwest

That is a good looking model. I agree that the new tooling from Airfix has been great and at a great price.

Some more progress. Also figuring out a way to add weight. Plus I made a new painting jig based what I saw on another website.

My next project. Wish me luck. :)

Here it is folks.

Very nice. What paint are you using?

Some more pictures. First you see my repair work on some sink holes on the wing. Before picture is of my rivet masking method to paint on new rivets. Here are the results. And here is where I am at with the model.

Here is the final result of rivet replacement on top of the Short Stirling. Just a few more to go on the nose and bottom and it will be ready for color paint.

I use a vinyl cutter. Normally it is used in the scrapbooking hobby but I design masks and cut them out on blue tape. Hence the photo you see of the blue tape mask. I just trim and cut the mask and then paint primer on the mask. The primer is painted somewhat thick. I remove the mask while paint is still wet. I replicate panel lines similar to thus but going to try a panel line mask instead of painting on one side of a piece of tape.

Starting my rivet replacement.

Putting together the tail section. Noticed big gaps when putting together the tail wheel section. So I filled them in. Tail section in done. Just need to do some more gap filling.

I used something similar on my Heinkel 177. They were Archer transfers and they worked ok but were hard to work with. Reason I came up with this soulution is that I could maintain the out of box status of the model. But I will look into micro mark because I do order alot from them. Thanks

Been cooking up new idea to replace rivets. Using my cutter I created a mask. So far this looks pretty good. I might be able to create a better panel line using this method. Cutter has open up a lot of new ideas.

Have yet to replace the sandpaper. Battery is about needing to be replaced. Probably invest in rechargeable. I think I had about a total time of 1 hour use over two days. What really works is you can do wet sanding since this is a toothbrush.

Started cleaning up the seams on the main body. Plus here is picture of the tool I made to help me. Got this tip from the recent IPMS competition I attended. Here is my new toothbrush sander. And all of the changeable heads with different grit of sandpaper.

What brand of aluminum paint are you using?

BTW, I wont have to use my replacement decal. Airfix still had some in stock from the last production run and I ordered one. Course once I get them and they are not up to snuff. I will return to my replacement set.

I tried a program called GIMP 2.8 but photoshop has easier erase tools. They have a tool call magic eraser and it clears out big chunks of the yellow without removing the decal. I scan in at 2400 dpi and then zoom in to do my erasing. What ever the magic eraser does not remove, I switch to paint brush and then paint white around the decal to clear out any yellowing. I also found websites that give the RGB numbers for the different colors used for RAF planes. I enter those numbers and replace the colors that were darkened by the yellow film.

Yes. Those are the kit windows. I sanded down the thick flange on the back so you won't see them. I only did this for the windows inside the cockpit. I also used a progression of grid from 320 to 2500 on the windows. Then I painted a tiny bit of future on the inside. The glue I used is the crystal glue from micro mark. It is what watch makers use. It is strong and dries clear.

I use adobe photoshop elements and edit the images. I also brighten up the colors. I basically erase the yellow from the images.

Cockpit is done. Doing test fit.

Some more pictures. I did not like the way the instrument panel was looking so I changed it. I think it looks better. The windows are pretty think with a think flange. So I am sanding it down so they will be flush to the model. I will do this especially to the windows you can see from the cockpit. Here I inserted a sanded down window on the far left. I think this will work pretty well. I also drew some lines and then shaded them in to simulate framing you would normally see inside a plane. Here are couple pictures test fitting the cockpit and getting a general sense on how this would look.

Bump for update. See original post up top.

Before and After of cleaning up pilot figures. Masking cockpit panel. Instructions said to cut out paper panel and glue it on. Test fitting the cockpit.

Try airfix website. I was able to find newer instructions for the short stirling I am building.

Looking over the kit, it looks almost like the Airfix Heinkel He 177 that I did. Same blue plastic and same structure to the build. I will be building it with no moveable parts. The rudder and ailerons will be glued in place along with the turrets. That will allow me to attached the turrets last. Have not decided if I am keeping the bomb bay open or closed. I will put the crew in there since the turret guns are molded partially into the crew figure. Btw, the pilots are the exact same mold as the Heinkel He 177 pilots. Which makes since since both kits were sold at the same time. The instructions are different. There is no control panel decal put you cut out the panel drawing on the instructions and glue it on. Think I am going try painting the dials on the panel and use my cutter for some dial masks. Hope it can cut that small. If not, I'll do it by hand.