Restoration of XSL-01 by Revell

[ewahl]

Hi, Dick,

 

Ummmm, I'm a bit confused here. If you have an original kit nose cone, why did you not use that one on the model? Let me guess: You have TWO of these rare kits, but the one you are restoring had its nose cone missing and needed a replacement. The purity of the other kit must remain intact with all its original parts. That was a neat solution to your replacement problem.

 

Ed

[Dick Montgomery]

The crew compartment is now completed. The 3 figures have been painted and are now at their stations. The hard Space Suit is located behind them and is the only piece I decided to leave unpainted and in its original color. The main rocket motor has been painted and attached, and the exhaust ring has been attached to the fuselage. Not much left to do now except the decals!

 

 

By the way, one of the crew had lost his head at some point. Literally, the head was gone. I used a grain of sand to replace it.

[Dick Montgomery]

The 1st decal on the exterior of the spacecraft was applied this morning. Application of the exterior markings marks, for all intents and purposes the last and greatest of the challenges for this restoration. The decals are home made and, for the most part, are usable. A few markings, however, need a higher level of professionalism than I can achieve on my scanner and printer. I've contracted out some of the marking to a buddy who manufactures paint masks. In the meantime those decals that I printed that are usabel will be applied.

This project, however, will have to take a back seat for a while. I've got an IPMS review item underway and that always takes precedence over all other projects.

 

That's one small decal for the XSL-01, and one giant leap forward for project completion. The first exterior decal is the American flag at the base of the booster.

 

[Mark Aldrich]

Looking good!!!

[Dick Montgomery]

I’ve talked about making my own decals for this restoration project, and that was accomplished, in part, by using an inkjet printer and printing out a copy of the kit decals found on line. In fact another member reading this thread pointed out that image of the decals. Thanks!

There are a few decals for which that process simply does not work out well, and that is the case with the “Global Emblem” markings. This “emblem” shows the northern/southern hemispheres, a “flight path” in red, with a black “rocket ship” flying above a red dot. Below is a close up of the marking that this post discusses. This is the "pre" touched-up marking. I'll go back over it to add color over the chips in the decal surface that allow the white backing to be seen.

 

 

 

If printed on clear decal stock the globe was almost invisible, and if printed on white decal stock there was too much of the carrier sheet that would have to be trimmed away for my taste. My option was to figure out how to make this marking in some other way.

 

I started by using white decal stock and printed out a set of decals on it. That would give the globe a background of white, which was essential. The decal sheet was then coated with two separate applications of Testors Decal Bonder, a rattle can clear coat that seals the decals. The two coats were applied about 2 hours apart, allowing the first coat to dry thoroughly before the second coat was applied. I’ve also used Black Magic Clear, a clear enamel coating for car models (or any other kind of model). Both Black Magic and Testors work equally well.

 

When the last coating of Decal Bond dried I used a small pair of curved tip scissors to cut the Globe from the carrier sheet. A hole punch would do the job nicely if one of the proper diameter would have been available. The globe was applied to the model in the usual fashion, with Solvaset being applied to settle it into place. You’ll know if you applied sufficient Decal Bond as soon as the Solvaset touches the decal. If you get any “color runs” that means you didn’t apply enough Decal Bond and the Solvaset is dissolving the ink on the decal sheet.

 

 

Now came the tricky part. The question was, “how to make the curve on the red flight path” portion of the decal? My first effort was a failure. I punched a red dot from the decal sheet and tried to cut a thin strip of the decal by following the curvature of the circumference. No go….didn’t work.

 

My next attempt proved successful. I punched a red dot from the decal sheet.

 

The center of this dot was marked on the backside with a small pencil mark.

 

The red dot was then inserted into a different hole punch with a small diameter, with the pencil mark centered on the hole punch. I was able to create a thin circular ring of decal, and with a little juggling, was able to arrange it so that one half of the ring was slightly larger than the other. The ring was cut in half in such a way that the base of the swoosh would be wider than the tip of the swoosh. Its easier just to look at the pictures to see that effect.

 

 

The “swoosh” was applied in the usual manner. A piece of red decal was then cut using a sharp Xacto knife to the proper length and width and applied to the end of the swoosh. The little black arrowhead shaped Rocket Ship decal from my homemade decal sheet was applied to the end of the swoosh, and a small red dot was punched from the sheet and applied under the Rocket Ship.

 

 

 

 

I will need to touch up the Rocket Ship pieces a bit as there are some very tiny points at which the black ink on the decal chipped away revealing the white carrier film underneath.

 

Six of these decals are required and each one takes about 20 to 30 minutes to manufacture and apply. It could be done in a much shorter time but there isn’t any rush and speed is not a driving concern.

 

I am pleased with the finished product and happy that this rather difficult decal was so easy to replace.

 

 

 

 

[Ron Bell]

Just an idea. In future, when making those holes in round decals, try punching the inner hole first. It's easier to center for the second, larger, hole and you are working with a much larger piece of decal than just the little "dot" so its easier to handle.

 

Lookin' good, however.

 

[Dick Montgomery]

That works perfectly! Much easier...more contol!

[Dick Montgomery]

It has been too long since I made any progress on this restoration. I needed to have some special "decals" made since those that I produced were beyond recovery. Kenny Loup (Gator's Mask at www.gatorsmask.com) agreed to manufacture a custom-made set of masks. I provided full sized copies and Kenny did whatever it is that he does to manufacture a set of vinyl masks.

 

The tricky part is that the markings that run vertically along the fuel tanks are two colors. The right side is black and the left side is white, being placed along a color separation line on each tank. The decals, of course, are in one piece with either side being printed in the proper color. Kenny made separate masks for each side.

 

The masks are very easy to use. One simply removes a clear covering film exposing the mask. The mask is then carefully removed from the backing material and applied to the model in the proper location. The mask cannot be pushed into position like a decal. One must be careful when applying the mask to get it in the right location and orientation. It can be removed and then reapplied if not in the correct location, but it is just not that hard to do it right the first time.

 

Rather than apply all of the masks for the black half of the marking and then doing the same for the white half of the marking, I decided to do one marking at a time. I applied the left half, masked off the surrounding area to prevent overspray and shot the mask with Tamiya White. After cleaning the airbrush I removed the mask from the model and left it to dry for about 2 hours. After two hours I applied the right half of the marking and shot it with Tamiya Semi Gloss Black.

 

Success!

 

There are four such markings and then some smaller, one color markings that go on the wings and on the boosters near the base. Those will be much easier to paint since they are a single color.

 

Kenny's masks are easy to use and work very well. The process is not difficult although I've chosen, for reasons not addressed here, to do them in a rather time consuming fashion. This is the last big hurdle before the restoration is complete. Modeling just doesn't get much more fun than this!

 

The first pic (below) shows the left side having already been masked, painted, and with the masking removed. The right side mask (the white rectangular piece of material in the image) has been put into place. The right halves of the "X", "L", "S", the dash and the numeral "1" are openings within the masking material through which black paint is about to be airbrushed.

 

 

(Below) And marking # 1 of 4 is done! The black paint was applied, the masking materials was removed and I'll let the model dry for another 2 or 3 hours and the repeat the process. By the way, because of some glare the numeral "1" to the right of the "0" cannot be seen clearly. It's there. It looks good. I'm just a lousy photographer.

[KennyLoup]

Very nice Dick.

[MattLeBlanc]

:smiley20: :smiley20:

[Mark Aldrich]

Impressive and cool looking!

[Dick Montgomery]

The Gator's Mask material worked very well (The white and black "XSL-01" markings were done with Gator's Mask), and the project benefited from about 6 hours of work today. This restoration project was initiated on Dec 19, 2010 and was brought to a successful conclusion today. It has been a rewarding project and the model will be given a prominent location in the display cabinet.

 

Here is an image of the finished model: