1/72 3d Printed Fairey ER.103C or Fairey Delta 3 "Small"

[scautomoton]

So short update. We have been deep in the depths of printing. Luckily this time only a smallish number of iterations to get joints and fitting correct.



Its always a difficult decision deciding where to put the joins. 3D printing in resin takes a bit of fettling to deliver both crisp edges and grain-free surfaces. Personally, I prefer to get the former bang-on if I can since the latter is less tedious than oodles of filler.

You can see from the first print I assembled there have mainly been fuselage and wing prints, most of the fiddly bits are easy to get right with one or two iterations. but the bigger prints are far more likely to go wrong. They twist, or you don't put enough supports in the right places so you get waisted areas, or you miss an island and then there a bit of important detail missing.

Anyhoo, I've done all the panel lines, and the nominal first fully buildable print is ongoing. In the top right of the pic above you can see a bunch of stuff with supports attached. All of that is part of the next build; currently in the printer are the wings, cockpit and a couple of other odds & sods.

Next up, clean up, final fit and then some glue and paintwork starts! I think I'm going to go NMF, with the 66 Sqn scheme from the Sabre or the Commander's scheme from the Meteor F.8.

[Gondor]

  

[NARSES2]

  

[scautomoton]

Todays activities have mostly been a little bit of paint, some sanding, and glossing some vacform moulds.

I've sanded the majority of the larger parts to remove any print artefacts. A dab of Mr Surfacer 500 will be needed here and there to fill pock marks from support removal.



In the interests of getting things buttoned up I've painted the exhaust internals, and the inlet duct and compressor face. Since both turbine & compressor are effectively the same part, they both got a coat of Mr Gunze Silver, a sludge wash, and then Molotov Liquid Chrome for the central "bullet". The inlet duct was also painted in silver. The exhaust & afterburner bits were painted with Mr Gunze Steel, with the spray ring and reheat can then receiving a very light dusting of pure Tamiya Flat Base. This left a very heavy white powder finish. I then used a cotton bud to wipe away the worst of it, and its left exactly the sort of burnt, chalky look I want from a reheat can. Its probably a tad too heavy though, so next time I'll experiment with thinning it a bit to lighten the effect.



And here's a pic of progress thus far. The fuselage is buttoned up, wings and tail just need a clean and they can be glued too. Note all the canopy moulds on the right, another of tomorrow's tasks. I need to check whether the recess depth on the cockpit body is deep enough for the vacuform to sit flush.

[Mossie]

I like this even more the more I see of it.

[Spino]

This really makes me want a resin printer, mine is an FDM and I have had issues with it printing fine details.

[scautomoton]

Today the vac forming kit got a good work out. Well, for about 5 minutes anyway. Et voila! A canopy after I trimmed it down to the right shape and size. Which was a little awkward. Fairey had this design which hinged quite far back from the canopy, so care was required. I've also moulded the surface of the fuselage ahead of the windscreen as part of it, since I find it easier to assemble with a bit you can handle without fear of scratching or scuffing since it will get painted anyway.



And the rest of today's action has been the joyous task of getting a good surface finish for the NMF black base. I really need to change the release film on my printer since the prints are starting to get quite grainy. Lots of sanding required, then a teeny bit of scribing just to get the panel line depth back. I almost caved and went for a camo scheme to spare the hard work, but it'll be worth it in the end. For the black base I just use a can of Gloss Black acrylic from Hobbycraft. With a polish it provides an excellent base. However, I'm always tempted to leave them at this point since I think most jets look great in gloss black.



So tomorrow hopefully I'll be able to give it a quick prep ready for some super shiny metal. I'm going full bore this time, Alclad Airframe Aluminium, so I need to make sure the finish is flawless. If I fluff it I think I may cry....

[scautomoton]

So today started off promising; I painted, decalled and assembled the cockpit interior (still need to add a control stick).



I then settled down and applied the NMF. Annoyingly, the Airframe Aluminium didn't lay down nicely. It was way too dark, looking more like steel or iron, and had a slightly splotchy Hammerite look to it when viewed at any sort of normal distance.



So I decided to overcoat it with Polished Aluminium, and to be fair, it looked OK. Not quite the mirror finish I was after, but shiny enough, and certainly in keeping with some of my other NMF efforts. So then I glossed it with Intermediate Gauzy. And the bloody dust that appeared! It was covered. I waited for it to dry and then attempted to gently polish the worst if it, but I went through the gloss and was then chasing an edge that wouldn't soften. Then to top it all the tail snapped......

So I'm starting again. This time I'm going to do a better job of prepping the surface, and also make sure I clean the paint booth to the Nth degree.

I'm also going to do a paint board, with black ,grey and white base, then paint all the various metals I have over them. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but I guess this is the KUTA I needed.

[Gondor]

That looks very nice Stuart. Where did you get the decals for the instrument panel?

Gondor

[scautomoton]

That looks very nice Stuart. Where did you get the decals for the instrument panel?

Gondor

Mike Grant Decals - https://mikegrantdecals.com/product/cockpit-details-world-war-ii-3/

[Mossie]

Nice. I think you should do an all black aircraft in the future, a Black Mike or Black Arrows revival.

[Gondor]

That looks very nice Stuart. Where did you get the decals for the instrument panel?

Gondor

Mike Grant Decals - https://mikegrantdecals.com/product/cockpit-details-world-war-ii-3/

 

[kerick]

So today started off promising; I painted, decalled and assembled the cockpit interior (still need to add a control stick).



I then settled down and applied the NMF. Annoyingly, the Airframe Aluminium didn't lay down nicely. It was way too dark, looking more like steel or iron, and had a slightly splotchy Hammerite look to it when viewed at any sort of normal distance.



So I decided to overcoat it with Polished Aluminium, and to be fair, it looked OK. Not quite the mirror finish I was after, but shiny enough, and certainly in keeping with some of my other NMF efforts. So then I glossed it with Intermediate Gauzy. And the bloody dust that appeared! It was covered. I waited for it to dry and then attempted to gently polish the worst if it, but I went through the gloss and was then chasing an edge that wouldn't soften. Then to top it all the tail snapped......

So I'm starting again. This time I'm going to do a better job of prepping the surface, and also make sure I clean the paint booth to the Nth degree.

I'm also going to do a paint board, with black ,grey and white base, then paint all the various metals I have over them. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but I guess this is the KUTA I needed.

I have an on going battle with dust and lint getting on everything I paint. I've grounded my work surface and plastic spray booth to help get rid of static electricity which attracts and holds dust. Beware of the clothes you wear when painting. Knitted clothes like sweat shirts give off lint like crazy. A tack cloth will collect and hold dust instead of launching it into the air like a normal dust cloth. I've considered getting something like a lab coat to wear to cover up my usual dusty clothes.

[zenrat]

So today started off promising; I painted, decalled and assembled the cockpit interior (still need to add a control stick).



I then settled down and applied the NMF. Annoyingly, the Airframe Aluminium didn't lay down nicely. It was way too dark, looking more like steel or iron, and had a slightly splotchy Hammerite look to it when viewed at any sort of normal distance.



So I decided to overcoat it with Polished Aluminium, and to be fair, it looked OK. Not quite the mirror finish I was after, but shiny enough, and certainly in keeping with some of my other NMF efforts. So then I glossed it with Intermediate Gauzy. And the bloody dust that appeared! It was covered. I waited for it to dry and then attempted to gently polish the worst if it, but I went through the gloss and was then chasing an edge that wouldn't soften. Then to top it all the tail snapped......

So I'm starting again. This time I'm going to do a better job of prepping the surface, and also make sure I clean the paint booth to the Nth degree.

I'm also going to do a paint board, with black ,grey and white base, then paint all the various metals I have over them. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but I guess this is the KUTA I needed.

I have an on going battle with dust and lint getting on everything I paint. I've grounded my work surface and plastic spray booth to help get rid of static electricity which attracts and holds dust. Beware of the clothes you wear when painting. Knitted clothes like sweat shirts give off lint like crazy. A tack cloth will collect and hold dust instead of launching it into the air like a normal dust cloth. I've considered getting something like a lab coat to wear to cover up my usual dusty clothes.

Or you could paint naked.
 

[NARSES2]

Or you could paint naked.
 

Considering the detritus the human body leaves on everything it touches I doubt that would work even