Dassault MD-454 Mystere IV A ''Patrouille de France'' (Revell 1:72)

J.Fenech wrote:model master metalizers are great for metallic effects, but at least it happens to me, when masked, they have a tendency to come off with the masking tape, ruining the effect. Hope that this does not happen to you. Next time, try to work the other way round, leaving the metallics for the end.

I did not use metalizers for this. i used ordinary aluminum MM paint! it shudt peel.

SUCCESS!

I experimented with my new 'French Blue', mixing it with lufthansa blue, then white, then with all 3. And i got an exact blue shade as the decals blue. which saved me a lot of trouble because i was planning on mixing a blue shade, sticking the decals, masking over the decals and leaving the blue area bare and spraying over the blue with my new blue mix! *feeeew*



*blue may seem darker/brighter in pics because i took it at night under a neon*

NOOOOOOOO!



I love acrylics... but somtimes i really hate them! (red and white)
The white is the bloody victim here. as it came off it also pulled off the blue and red with it since it was the first colour to go on! A lot of carefull and tedious touching up to do!

That was looking really good up until the tape pulled the paint off, hopefully it's an easy fix, keeping my fingers crossed. Very colorful fighter!

Not sure if I missed it if you said somewhere, you have the landing gear up, did you drill a hole for a pylon or are you going to hang it from the ceiling?

It's too late now, but maybe for your next one, another good alternative for an attractive looking aluminum finish that's really easy to do is Rub N Buff Silverleaf. It goes on easily and is pretty sturdy and can be polished up to a nice shine.

slingshot392 wrote:That was looking really good up until the tape pulled the paint off, hopefully it's an easy fix, keeping my fingers crossed. Very colorful fighter!

Not sure if I missed it if you said somewhere, you have the landing gear up, did you drill a hole for a pylon or are you going to hang it from the ceiling?

It's too late now, but maybe for your next one, another good alternative for an attractive looking aluminum finish that's really easy to do is Rub N Buff Silverleaf. It goes on easily and is pretty sturdy and can be polished up to a nice shine.

Not really! its gonna be very tough since there is a lot of remasking, spraying, there are many tiny areas which need repainting, sanding down thick lines which were in contact with tape, ALSO the tape left sticky residue behind which i cant remove!

Regarding the finish i am either gonna make a 'mini set up' with it on a stand with turf like the picture above OR on the ground with canopy covers.

It doesnt make sense giving it a polished bright aluminum finish since its of 1:72, and i dont want it too look like a toy!

AdriaN wrote:

slingshot392 wrote:That was looking really good up until the tape pulled the paint off, hopefully it's an easy fix, keeping my fingers crossed. Very colorful fighter!

Not sure if I missed it if you said somewhere, you have the landing gear up, did you drill a hole for a pylon or are you going to hang it from the ceiling?

It's too late now, but maybe for your next one, another good alternative for an attractive looking aluminum finish that's really easy to do is Rub N Buff Silverleaf. It goes on easily and is pretty sturdy and can be polished up to a nice shine.

Not really! its gonna be very tough since there is a lot of remasking, spraying, there are many tiny areas which need repainting, sanding down thick lines which were in contact with tape, ALSO the tape left sticky residue behind which i cant remove!

Regarding the finish i am either gonna make a 'mini set up' with it on a stand with turf like the picture above OR on the ground with canopy covers.

It doesnt make sense giving it a polished bright aluminum finish since its of 1:72, and i dont want it too look like a toy!

I have found that 409 or other household cleaners will take off tape residue...

we dont have such stuff here in malta
I need something gentle that doest react with acrylic or enamel. i was thinking of leaving it in warm water with dish soap. or surgical spirit?

Don't give up Adrian, you are doing an excellent job, nothing that some skill and patience cannot fix. When you mask, try to use paper and paint one bit at a time, no tape, just hold a piece of paper down where you want the line and spray the paint. No glues and you will get a nice straight line. You can even wet it a bit to keep it down in place. You just have to work a bit fast and not spay over a large area.

bcauchi wrote:Don't give up Adrian, you are doing an excellent job, nothing that some skill and patience cannot fix. When you mask, try to use paper and paint one bit at a time, no tape, just hold a piece of paper down where you want the line and spray the paint. No glues and you will get a nice straight line. You can even wet it a bit to keep it down in place. You just have to work a bit fast and not spay over a large area.

thank you for that tip!

Right now ive restarted touching up, using very little tape. just thin tamiya tape. The victim for lifting paint is the 'house hold' masking tape which i used, which had been stuck on for over than a month! After spraying i have a lot of little parts that i will brush paint on.

Any ideas on what i can use to remove the tape residue Brian?

bcauchi wrote:Don't give up Adrian, you are doing an excellent job, nothing that some skill and patience cannot fix. When you mask, try to use paper and paint one bit at a time, no tape, just hold a piece of paper down where you want the line and spray the paint. No glues and you will get a nice straight line. You can even wet it a bit to keep it down in place. You just have to work a bit fast and not spay over a large area.

Now THAT is a great tip! Thanks for sharing Brian!

AdriaN wrote:

bcauchi wrote:Don't give up Adrian, you are doing an excellent job, nothing that some skill and patience cannot fix. When you mask, try to use paper and paint one bit at a time, no tape, just hold a piece of paper down where you want the line and spray the paint. No glues and you will get a nice straight line. You can even wet it a bit to keep it down in place. You just have to work a bit fast and not spay over a large area.

thank you for that tip!

Right now ive restarted touching up, using very little tape. just thin tamiya tape. The victim for lifting paint is the 'house hold' masking tape which i used, which had been stuck on for over than a month! After spraying i have a lot of little parts that i will brush paint on.

Any ideas on what i can use to remove the tape residue Brian?

Adrian,

I have used a contact cleaner, named K6 bought from G&E electronics to remove tape residue especially from transparencies, and I it is great for that job (It is a little oily though and does not dry instantly). I have also used it on enamels and it seems to do them no harm, but I have never tried it on acrylics. Try a test before rubbing on any model though. I hope that helps.

Gordon.

IM BACK!

This build has literally been christened... 'an accident waiting to happen'
Everytime i progress, something goes wrong! The problem isnt the kit.. but the complexity of the markings, alongside rotten bad luck.

These are some of the problems:
1) As we saw before i was plagued by peeling paint, which kept happening almost evertime i retouched the damaged parts. My solution (which worked) was to give the paint 2 coatings of future/klear... and no more paint peeled off! (around 95%)

*2) After all the delicate touching up... the aluminum finish was damaged. So i had to remask the 3 colours AGAIN and spray silver this time. Aluminum looked too 'dotty'. I sprayed the silver & the finish came out full of different shades because of the polluted underyling surface (alum, black, plastic). So i wet sanded it all. primed it with gray paint & sprayed the silver-SUCCESS.

3) When spraying the panels on the tail, some thinner on the tissue ate its way into the fresh silver! AGAIN i had to mask & resprayed the damaged area. again i made the same mistake of not priming the surface.

This is it mentioned in no2. Sanded & REMASKED in prep for the silver.

The model has FINALLY been given 'a few' coatings of Klear/Future, in preperation for decals. If the decalling stage goes well... i will start believing in miracles

So far seems good Adrian but you better wait for the others opinion. Maybe if you can bring it to the club they will help you better

RAF wrote:So far seems good Adrian but you better wait for the others opinion. Maybe if you can bring it to the club they will help you better

Ive already started decalling. its going well i will bring it when they are done.

Looking really great Adrian, it is a beauty and your masking is just excellent and the different colours look very well placed. In other words, i really like it.

bcauchi wrote:Looking really great Adrian, it is a beauty and your masking is just excellent and the different colours look very well placed. In other words, i really like it.

Im glad the masking is an art in itself and tests your patience and skill to the limit.

Decalling ready!
They went on really well with aid from MM decal solvent solution. The model definetly looks fuller and more colourfull. Actually it looks more like a ''flying french flag'' with all those 3 coloured lines.
It was a bit tough trying to line the decals up parallel. Decals were a bit thin so the white came out darker than the painted white.

Next step is touching up, weathering, gloss coating, some light sanding...& figuring out its final set up!

Well done, excellent work.

Proset eh!

Adrian, that is masterful work. it looks really great with all the lines perfectly aligned. That was not a colour scheme for the faint hearted. i think you did an excellent job. Could not have done better myself and considering all the problems you encountered, you sure came back on top. Great work.

Im glad you all like my work
A lot still to go!

Belated mate, but Prosit with a capital P, very well done ... this kind of schemes are damn tricky!
Maybe a tip I can give to solve the decal 'transparency' issue is to mask the area that is gonna be placed upon be given a base coat of white, but you have to live with the issue that it is almost impossible to replicate the exact colour of a printed matter and a painted matter, you might go near which IMHO you managed but never can be exact as the process of making for both materials is different!
Well done again, nice to see a colourful subject ...

Nicely done, well done! Let's see it finished

Wow! That's some decal job alright.

Very nice work Ad.