StuartMalone

Here's a couple of shots of my Pup. I started this in February and completed it in late March. I was fortunate enough to receive the March/April issue of The Journal just in time for painting and rigging. Between Jerry Wells' article on the Wingnut Wings kit and the Pup Windsock Datafile, I had all the reference I needed to make a fair representation of a Beadmore built Sopwith Pup.

Here's a few from the bench. The 1/72 AZ-Model Martinsyde F.4 Buzzard is almost completed. A bit more rigging, some major touch ups and it's done. Here's the 1/72 Czech Master Nieuport 29 undergoing basic shaping-filling-sanding. My example, the fit was less than ideal, along the lines of a Merlin kit. Lastly, continuing work on the Czech Master Armstrong Whitworth FK.10. The fit on this kit was far superior to the N.29. The only major issue has been the second wings down were a bit short and required some lengthening. The marked position of the interplane strut slots were off quite a bit as well. This was a bit disappointing more in the fact that the slots for the single piece interplane struts were not molded in, just simply marked on the wings, requiring quite a bit of patience to get them cut out properly and in position. I have to say, the resin in this kit was far more forgiving than others I have built. It isn't near as brittle as other I have worked with. Stuart Malone

I built a DFW T28 in 1/72 a few years ago and showed it to the wife. She thought it was cute too, then said "It even has eyebrows!" I corrected her, saying, "No dear, those are machine guns." I stashed it away so she wouldn't abscond with it. The wife still asks if we can hang it on the tree.....

I've encountered this problem as well. I always suspected the Tamiya tape either did as mentioned, left a residue, or another possibility is it pulled up some of the Future. If you used non-acrylic paints, alcohol will remove the future and not attack the dullcoat or paints. I do use acrylics and found that the dullcoat insulates the paint from the alcohol as long as you're using a light touch in those areas. Some Novus cleaner will remove the alcohol residue and the polish will then restore full clarity to the canopy, no Future needed.

I too encountered much difficulty with EZ-Line and super glue. All I had to do were two lines on the U/C of a 1/72nd scale biplane. It turned into a daunting task! But, I was trying to surface glue it like I do with fine wire. This didn't work too well. However, I'm going to give the EZ-Line another go on a bipe. This time I'm going to pre-drill all the holes and see if that makes things easier. I picked up a micro drill index last week and will start in soon.

Hmmmm, I will second Jesse's recommendation to not use Future as the base coat. However, not for the same reason. I've tested a number of solvents on top of Future and have had nothing attack the finish except alcohols and the more aggressive decal solutions like solvaset. If you leave water on it and the Future is not 100% dry, it will cloud up, but this is nothing another application of Future won't fix. My reason for not using Future as the basecoat is that it can be too glossy and smooth to get the wash to stick where you want. I've encountered this problem myself, especially with water based washes. To remedy this, I have been applying a coat of dullcoat after the decals, then acrylic wash, then another coat of Future or dullcoat. Seems to work okay. I do lose some of the wash detail if I am heavy handed in spraying the Future. All this being said, I've read the recommendations of oil washes and using Tamiya flat base to dull Future. I'm going to give it a shot. If it works, I could then get away from lacquer dullcoat altogether. Hope this helps.