SPA Modeler

I find Carlos' speculation about the inherent differences between Silly Putty and poster tack to be about right, in my opinion. There is something in the composition of poster tack that makes it more adhesive, and I suspect that's the culprit behind the poster tack's staining. I plan to use Tamiya tape for the separating line between top and bottom, and then use Silly Putty for dividing the topside colors. I'd like to do both the topside finish colors on the same day so my masking doesn't stay in place too long. Perhaps that Vallejo paint will cooperate...

I usually trace the curved outline of the wingtips and horizontal stabilizers onto large pieces of Tamiya tape and use that for the tips of both areas, taping off the rest of the straight lines with thin Tamiya tape. That's on the agenda for the next bench session, maybe later today. I suspect most of Saturday will be spent watching college football; UT vs Oklahoma at 11 CST and then Texas A&M vs Alabama after that.

Go Horns and Aggies!

Stikpusher wrote: ↑Fri Oct 06, 2023 9:21 am John, is that the ESCI Kfir kit? I have read that those kits are difficult…

Yes it is. There are other options out there in 1/48 now. It was a bear for sure.

Gary Brantley wrote: ↑Fri Oct 06, 2023 9:27 am I plan to use Tamiya tape for the separating line between top and bottom, and then use Silly Putty for dividing the topside colors. I'd like to do both the topside finish colors on the same day so my masking doesn't stay in place too long. Perhaps that Vallejo paint will cooperate...

That’s what I did on my recent Mig-3, P-40, and Spitfire, and it worked fine. Although I used Vallejo paints only on the P-40

Excellent work Gary - the Mossie must be a pretty big beast in 1/48th?

Thank you, Stuart! She's coming along okay, haven't worked on it in a few days as "the real world" intrudes on my time. Her wingspan is about 34.25 centimeters (13 1/2"), so yeah, a bit of real estate!

13 inches? I thought the wingspan would be a bit bigger than that. oh don't you just love the 'real world'

Well, hello again. I haven't been in this thread since last year and it's time for an update. The Mosquito is finished! As of about 10:30 last night when I put the final touchup on her. I haven't taken any photos of the completed model yet. I'm planning a trip to a neighboring town's airport for some outdoor pics before too long. I have maybe 5 or 6 models that will look good at that airport, but I need the weather to be just right for the photos so it may be a while before that happens. It's cold here now, and going to get colder, so I would probably have the place to myself, but eh, I think not! There will be good days ahead for that!

But, I do want to show some progress. I've been doing some business with the fine folks at Kitmasx. https://kitmasx.com/ lately and I have news to share. I used their mask set for this Mosquito; the canopy has 20 different sections and was dreading that masking task; their masks made a huge difference! Their masks are available in either vinyl or Tamiya tape, or both, and that was my choice. In practice, I found the yellow tape easier to see and align, while the one piece of vinyl that I used seemed a bit easier to remove when done. I masked the entire canopy, including using a little liquid mask in a few gaps, in one hour. Not too bad.

The masks fit well, were very "usable" and pretty easy to lift off when finished. I have several other of their sets coming my way, including for the Monogram He-111 (oh man, those transparencies everywhere! ) and look forward to more success with Kitmasx' products.

Nice work, Gary. Those masks look really good.

Nice clean canopy.

Great work on the canopy framing Gary!