MikeMoore

What can I say guys? I'm a wild man? I'm a rebel? And it's even worse than my doing an oil washes on the flat coat. I rarely apply a gloss coat after the decals. I normally go straight to the flat coat. The only time I do a coat of Future immediately after decals is if they are thick decals and I want to get a build up of Future around the decals to hide the thick carrier film. Seriously, I've never had any trouble with my oil washes affecting my paint jobs. I even just did a pretty heavy "filter" on a Harrier I am working on to get more of a blue tone than I ended up with after the paint. That went on straight over the Tamiya. I use what seems to be a pretty mild thinner, Napatha, and it seems pretty safe with the acrylics. I also like the effects I get by doing the panel lines with the flat coat. If you do them with a gloss coat, it's real easy to confine the effect to just the recessed line. But if you do it over the flat coat, it's real easy to replicate fluid and dust streaks by drawing any over run back in the direction of the theoretical airflow. If you do that with a gloss coat on, you tend to wipe the streak away. With the flat coat, some of the wash gets caught in the grit of the flat coat. Same with a fluid spill. If you let a drop of oil wash onto a gloss coat, it will bead up; but do it on a flat coat and the grit of the flat coat acts like capillary action in a panel line and draws the drop outward. Several drops overlapped as they dry will leave overlapping fluid rings or halos. You can't see it in the picture of the Corsair, but I did that on the foward fuselage and a bit on the wings to replicate fluid stains. Besides, as far as protecting the paint, what's the difference between Future, and a modeling acrylic flat coat? They are both acrylic and should react in similar ways to the oil wash. To me, the difference isn't in the level of protection afforded to the paint, but with how the oil wash behaves. On another note, David, let me know how you like the Future/Tamiya Flat Base combo. I've got some Flat base and have been condsidering trying that, but have heard some horror stories of getting the ratio off (as in too much flat base) and frosting the model. Mike Moore

Man, you really know how to hit a sore spot don't you! I used to use Polly S acrylic flat. It worked great and gave a dead flat finish. Then they went and monkeyed with the formula and it started frosting models. So I reluctantly switched to Model Master Clear Flat Lacquer. It gives a nice flat finish, but I worry about my oil washes over it. On the Corsair, the tail section (save the rudder) was flat coated to the Bejeezzuz. On the front, GSB section I TRIED to be a little more artistic, though it doesn't show well in the photos. I tried to spray straight down over the fuselage so that the fuselage sides were a bit glossier than the top, to replicate uneven UV effects on the gloss paint. On the wings, I tried to buff them to giver back just a hint of shine, again to replicate UV degredation on a gloss finish. It didn't come out as well as I had hoped, but I'm happy with it. As for your suggestion of a Journal article, I'm not sure it'd be worth it as I didn't get any in progress pictures. And it is a really nice kit. I just had to take a break from a Roden 1/32 DH2 I'm working on and the Corsair really blew the tough kit malaise out! Not to mention it was part of a "challenge" build hatched at the Nats last year. There are four of us, and anyone who doesn't have a 1/72 Single Engine Fighter completed for the Knoxville show this weekend has to split the dinner bill! Mike

Hi Tom, Here's the resin figures I've picked up over the years. The Alpine and Doug's figures should be pretty easy to come by, but the Verlinden and Warriors figures may be Ebay or Vendor finds only now. I'm not sure how hard the Tank figures are to find. While I'm often not a big fan of the Verlinden figures, the one pictured here is one of the nicer ones I've seen. The Alpine stuff is absolutely top notch as are the Doug's, and the Warriors figures are pretty nice as well. Hope that helps some. Mike Moore

Thanks everyone for the kind words! Paul, both kits are painted with Tamiya mixes. I'm not sure if David Hannant was amused or irritated when he replied to a thread on HS where I told someone looking for the British colors in the US that I'd bought several bottles of Xtracrylics colors to use to match Tamiya mixes to. I'm just very comfortable spraying Tamiya! Mike

That looks really nice David. How much are you planning on weathering it? I'll be very interested in seeing it done. Mike

I keep thinking about getting down there either for one of your meetings or the AMPS meeting (yep, I joined up), but this weekend won't work. Me and the spliced Corsair gotta go to Knoxville. I get a free dinner since I got my Corsair done and neither Tabler or Driskill got their builds done. And what makes you think I EVER thought you might fight fair?

Damnit Corley...you owe me for a new keyboard now! And Lynn Ritger was right...Diet Coke blown through the nose does kinda burn!

Here are my first two completions for the year: Xtrakit's Canberra PR 9 in it's retirement scheme. Started supposedly in time for last year's Nat's but she fought me most of the way! I doubt it'll win much, but it doesn't look bad from 3 feet. And second is a "Spliced" RNZAF Corsair. RZNAF"S No. 1 Servicing Unit at Henderson Field took the forward fuselage, wings and rudder from the GSB NZ 5307 and tacked the rear fuselage of the Tricolor NZ 5272 onto it to get another bird in the air. This one is Tamiya's 1/72 kit. Typical Tamyia build leaving lots of time to add Eduard etch, some scratch built detail and some fun with the finish: That's it for now. Mike Moore

I used to swear by Polly Scale, but got tired of the inconsistency between bottles. I started migrating to Tamiya a few years ago and now use them pretty exclusively. They spray really well thinned with 70% iso and incredibly well with the Tamiya Lacquer thinner (which pretty much eliminates the huge up-side of acrylics!) and the only real down side is having to mix almost every color. A more minor downside to me is that they brush paint abysmally. As for the MM Acryls, personally, I can't think of a more horrible paint. In my experience they adhere really poorly, making masking a challenge, and are tougher to clean up. If you're ok with mixing colors, I'd say you can't go wrong with Tamiya. Mike Moore

Add another to the modeler married to a quilter ranks! After toiling away in an unimproved Chattanooga attic for 4 years, I finally got around to finishing off a piece of the attic for my "space". Only after getting it framed, insulated and rocked did she then tell me it would be really nice if she could move some of her fabric into that space. If she had told me that from the start, it really wouldn't have been an issue at all to bump one wall over a few feet! Oh well, other than that intrusion, she lets me play with my plastic and doesn't comment too much about all the styrene insulation, and I let her play with her fabric and don't comment about all the fabric insulation! It works. Mike Moore

Very nice Vlad. Like others, I also like the way you do water. I thought I saw one of the Subs that was mostly submerged and thought I could still see the bow just under the water...I thought that was really well done. The only problem I saw with the armor collection is a lack of Shermans! Mike Moore

Neal, I was very surprised that Model Master doesn't have an enamel, so I bought a pot of Extracrylics and used it to match a Tamiya mixture to. Here is what I came up with: (sorry, no pictures of the model it's on yet) XF-57:2 XF-19:1 XF-2:1 XF-52:1 and I'm pretty sure I added a little XF-21 to taste! I don't know what the color police would or will see, but it looks pretty good to me. Mike Moore