Tiger Force Spiteful F26

[PR19_Kit]

Hmm, I'm stuck with what I've got then.

I've already glued the two fuselage halves together, and if I cut them and put a shim in, the prop will look silly.

Good thing I started with a Seafang.....................

[PR19_Kit]

Making good progress with the Spiteful. I've chopped off the stinger tail hook and filed the lower fin to be more 'Spiteful like', and also glued on the tailplanes as well.

As with the Super Monsoon, I've built up a couple of props for it, 6 blade contraprops, one of which came from the MB5 kit! The other came from the Seafang kit, but that needed serious work to make it rotate, AZ would have me just glue it right on the nose! Not sure which one I'll use yet, I'll see how well they work.

The airframe has had its first coat of primer and it's looking pretty good, so it doesn't look as if it'll need any more PSR other than the first lot. 

[buzzbomb]

Here is to the next steps.. sounds good so far

[PR19_Kit]

That'll be the painting, never my best skill.

[steelpillow]

Just come across this build. Be warned, the AZ Seafang has wings that are asymmetric and a bit short in the chord. The radiators are also the wrong shape: too shallow and not quite the right area, as I recall a bit too long. I converted two to a Twinful. Pix starting here in my A Trilogy of Twinfires thread. Didn't bother to fix the radiators.

[PR19_Kit]

I found out about he wings already, easily foxed with a large second cut file. 

[PR19_Kit]

After two coats of primer, with a small PSR session in between them, I painted the cockpit interior black, as well as I could through the tiny aperture, and the seat browny grey, (Or greyish brown, take your pick....) and now I've got the first colour coat on, Light Sea Grey underneath and Ocean Grey on top.

The only problem is I might as well have left it all in primer as all three greys look pretty much the same! 

Do I care? No, it is what it is, and it will look 'camouflaged' when I add the Dark Green.

[Dizzyfugu]

The only problem is I might as well have left it all in primer as all three greys look pretty much the same! 

LOL. "Low-viz troubles"... 

[PR19_Kit]

Hmmm, I've applied three coats of Hataka Dark Green for the camo on the Spiteful, but it's all very wishy-washy.

I think I'll overcoat it with the same colour Tamiya paint, it's much denser.

[PR19_Kit]

The Spiteful's prop worked pretty well, although it's not free enough to spin if I blow at it. But it's fee enough so the blades won't snap off in transit to shows etc,

The Gunze Sangyo Dark Green worked a lot better than the Hataka stuff and I've almost got the camo done now. Decals soon I hope.

[PR19_Kit]

After much fiddling and scraping I've got the Spiteful's canopy in place, but it's fogged on the inside, and no, I didn't use superglue to attach it! What's all that about then? 

I've just about got the camo on now, but it may need another coat of green as it looks a bit streaky., and then I tried to mask up the canopy. AZ provide a 'masking set' but I think's it's for something totally different as the tiny vinyl masks don't fit anywhere on the Spiteful, and don't stick anyway just because they're vinyl! I've resorted to Tamiya tape, at least I know it works.

Painting is difficult in this heat, it dries ON the brush, and I think that's the cause of the streaking. If I wait till the hot weather's gone I'd have no chance of finishing this in time. We'll see............

[steelpillow]

it's fogged on the inside

Lots of solvent to evaporate and deposit poly?

#Painting is difficult in this heat, it dries ON the brush, and I think that's the cause of the streaking.

Acrylic? Never touch the stuff  if I can help it for exactly this kind reason.

Enamels start with tiny molecules which seep into the tiniest cracks or pits, so you get good surface adhesion. As the solvent evaporates, in the presence of oxygen they polymerise into a durable surface.

Acrylics are all balls. They don't get right down there, and the paint does not adhere properly. The solvent evaporates, the balls are already polymerised so they just squish together. Fast evaporation means a skin quickly forms, but easily cracks and crumbles.
Been using some Tamiya White with exactly this problem. (The only brand I could find at the time that doesn't yellow horribly). In the past it has adhered well enough to matt enamel, but on bare plastic or semi-gloss under it just flakes off if you look at it. In this heatwave, cleaning the dried paint off the brush is a right pain. Next time I think I'll just buy a tube of artist's oil paint and thin that down.