"These are not dark days..."

Kind of a hodgepodge of a day modelling wise.  It was full of highs and lows and to be honest I could feel that I didn't make much progress today.  But I've got to remember that some progress was made which is much better than NO progress at all.

This was the starting point with the F-15 Eagle missing a decal and some prep work for painting on yellow tail stripes done.

I bought another F-15 kit from Hobby Lobby to use the decals.

Getting the decals was a definite plus for the day.

Got the tail stripes painted on.  Another point in the plus column.  But, removing the tape after painting further damaged/removed the remaining decals and even removed the paint down to bare plastic.  Grrrrr... :-(  2 points in the minus column.  I had to walk away for a little while after this and go do some yard work for a few hours to clear my head.

When I came back I removed the remaining decals and starting repainting the tails.

So that's where I'm at with the Eagle today.

I did get a great surprise in the post today.

The A-10 kit I had ordered through Amazon arrived from the UK today!  Hip! Hip! Hooray!  This was double plus good.

Working on the LaGG wasn't a good time today.  Installing one of the wing straps I had cut out showed that what I thought was an good job of cutting was actually horrible.  I am so embarrassed by it that I didn't take a picture of it.  I'm going have to rethink this.  Using Evergreen plastic card might be a better option.  Sanded the wings down to remove some inaccurate panel lines and the remains of glue.  I am going to try scribing the aileron's fabric and trim tab detail.  I was depressed by the failure of my efforts and left the shop and went back into the house.

Where I was greeted by wonderful smells of baking.

My oldest daughter had made some awesome blue berry and peach with cream cheese pastries!  This was exactly what I needed to improve my mood ;-)  The blue berries were fresh, picked from my mother-in-laws blue berry bushes today.  They were really sweet and were complemented perfectly by the tangy cream cheese and flaky texture of the pastry.  Reinvigorated by this tasty treat I returned to the shop.

Where the army men and I were able to finish out the day successfully by masking and painting the first of my uncompleted models with a coat of Dark Earth.  This Academy 1/72 P-40E is going to have a British camouflage scheme.

The day did not go like I had envisioned but I was able to make some progress.  So as Winston Churchill said, "These are not dark days; these are great days..."  More tomorrow.

Wings of Victory

Started added strap detail to the LaGG's wings.

Determined the LaGG's 1/72 scale wingspan and reduced drawing down to correct size.

Then I cut out a wing and taped it down over a brass sheet.  Using a new sharp Xacto knife blade and a straight edge I cut out the strap shapes.

As Ivan said, the first one I cut out came out fine.  The second one I got in a rush to finish and I'm probably going to have to cut out another one if I can't trim it down.  I actually feel better good about this.  It is the first time I've tried to add some scratch built metal detail like this. My plan is to file/sand the metal straps smooth and super glue them in place on the wings.  Once I've got them into position I'll add a little rivet detail with a drill bit or needle in my pin vise.   I'm hopeful that it's going to turn out ok.

Also, removed the tail strip decals from the F-15 Eagle

Photo is of Micro Set loosened tail strip before I used an old brush to remove decal.  I also managed to destroy one of the decals under one of the strips because I got impatient and put masking tape down on unprotected decals.  When I lifted the tape the decal stuck to the tape and came off.  Despite my best efforts the decal disintegrated when I tried to carefully remove it from the tape. After this I sprayed on a coat of gloss lacquer to protect the decals

 I get very mad at myself for getting in a rush which invariably leads to disaster.  I'm going to check at a local store to see if they have another Eagle kit I can buy to use the decal out of.  Or I may try to contact Academy to see if they will send me a replacement.  More to follow.

Decal Duty

Finished applying the rest of the Eagle's decals tonight.  There were a total of 28 decals.  I think this was a very adequate number for this scale.  I liked the inclusion of "slime light" panels in the decals.  It was a nice touch.  I am generally quite pleased with how easy they went on.  The use of Micro Set helped the decals snuggle down nicely.

  The exception was the yellow tail bands.  The bands were not the correct length and were difficult for me to get positioned.   Specifically, when I got both inner and outer bands positioned to match up invariably one or the other would be too long with part of the decal hanging off or one would be too short.  I think I'm going to remove them and attempt to paint them on.

I don't know the exact time frame these decals are for.  They were labeled 1999 so they represent some time from the 1970s to the 1990s.  If I had to guess I would say the 1970s since the national insignia is full color and not subdued.

I enjoyed putting them on and it's good to being close to finishing this step in completing the Eagle.

On a side note.  My inspiration for yesterday's picture of Ivan rubbing the Eagle's belly came from - - -

This is Ledger and this is the sight that greets me and/or my wife every morning.  Ledger loves his belly rubs.

Please be safe and I'll see ya'll soon.

One step at a Time

Made a little progress today.

I put on a little less than half of the Eagle's decals this evening.  The yellow tail strips gave me fits and I'm still not 100% happy with them.  I may take them off and paint them on.  More work on this tomorrow.

I made some progress on getting the LaGG-3's canopy masked.  I apologize for the out of focus picture. The canopy framing is very faint in some spots.  I'm using a lighted magnifying lens to work on the canopy and it's still difficult to see to position the masking tape.  Also more work on this tomorrow.

The big event today was that my youngest daughter was involved in an automobile accident this afternoon.  Thankfully no one was hurt, but my wife's car  is going to be out of commission for a while.

I'm trying to think of this in the "glass is half full" way and be grateful that no one was hurt and I'm not spending my evening at a hospital or worse.  Life is precious.  Live it to fulfill your rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Looking at some LaGG-3 references, I noticed that the LaGG-3 is missing the straps on the wings.  I think I'm going to scribe these on before painting the topside.  More to follow on this.

Thank you to other model builders, you work inspires me to try to do better(if it does sometimes give me an inferiority complex:-{ ).  And thanks to family and friends for your encouragement and patience with my geek like ways.

See ya'll tomorrow.

Turning Blue

Got the LaGG-3 masked off.  Ivan is examining the tail landing gear doors.  I was able to lose at least one of them TWICE! before getting them glued on. That upped the aggravation factor for a little while.  This was when I came in from the shop and ate some of my wife's chocolate chip with Oreo crust cheesecake  (yum!).  This had a calming effect and I was able to return to the shop and successfully search the floor for the absconding gear door.  Which I quickly glued into place.  May it stay there for eternity.

Airbrushed the underside with Testor's acrylic Hellblau (light blue).  Topside painting to follow.  I've got to get the canopy masked.

I put on the Eagle's landing gear and applied a gloss coat in preparation for applying the decals.

Ivan! what are you doing?

Had a good day.  See ya'll soon.

Rescue Mission

Dug around the model stash in the shop today and found a number of uncompleted models that I had started at times but have never completed.

I pulled them out and organized them.  My plan is to complete them after finishing the F-15 and LaGG-3 projects.  I will feel better when I get these done.

So more to follow later on this rescue mission.

Canopy Clear Up

I was going to start masking the LaGG-3's canopy.  Noticing some dust and fingerprints I decided clean them off with a quick swipe with a brush dipped in rubbing alcohol.  This was a mistake (I love understated British humor :-) ).  The canopy fogged, and I nearly panicked.  Ok, I did panic.  But then I calmed down and got to work fixing it.

The picture really doesn't show how bad it was.

About an hour to an hour and a half of sanding with 600, 4,000, and 12,000 grit sanding sticks and buffing with a cotton swab got it to this point.  This was much better but still a little opaque.

Then a dip in Future got it clearer.  I took the canopy back off to let it dry under cover for a full 24-48 hours.

I'll re-evaluate once the canopy is fully dry if a second coat of Future is needed.

In some ways this is funny, since historically some LaGG-3 pilots removed their canopies because the manufacturing quality of the Soviet perspex  was so bad.