WnW Sop Pup first plastic build in over 10 years

[smperry]

Back home for the weekend. Time to make some progress on the Pup.

Got the fuselage halves glued. Not a perfect fit but I can take those issues out on the lower wing roots when i fit the wing.

I decided to putty the seam, so I taped it off. The only putty I have is probably a little more aggressive than Squadron White,  so I taped real close to the seam before smearing it with putty. I pulled the tape off before the putty started to harden. At this point I had a doctor's appointment and left the putty to harden a few hours.

Using the time honored increasingly finer grits, I sanded down the seam, masked it for priming and gave it a light coat.

Well fudge and fiddle, looks like I missed the last little bit of seam. I'll let the primer cure over night and repeat the process in the morning. Filling seams is not a part of plastic modeling that I missed...

sp

[Ernie]

Nice neat job filling the seams, Steven.  A little bit of a tedious job,
but any progress is good.  Looking forward to the next updates, my friend.

Cheers,
Ernie

[lone modeller]

For one who has not touched plastic for 10 years you are achieving some excellent results. I just wish that I could have been in the same position as quickly as you when I restarted modelling after a long break!

Stephen.

[smperry]

Careful what you wish for Stephen. My long dormant skills remained fully asleep after my last post. I attempted to paint the underside of the wings and managed to make a complete hash of the job.

I was going for the same look as i got on the underside of the stabilizer. The lightened CDL  i was using on the tapes looked good at first, but when i added the darker CDL, it was clear that the lighter stuff wasn't opaque enough and the primer showed through. The light shade looked right, but i think i over thinned it and the coverage wasnt there and that really showed up next to the regular shade of CDL.

I'll have to hit the ole brake fluid reset button and start over. I've always maintained that i would consider myself a good modeler if i could get my time spent fixing mistakes to time spent building ratio down to 1::1

I need to find a decent primer paint that comes in white. Can anyone recommend one and a source?

Thanks
sp

[RAGIII]

I am sure you will overcome your small setback Steven! I am looking forward to seeing more.
RAGIII

[Des]

We all come across these speed humps when traveling down our modeling road, I'm looking forward to seeing more progress photos.

Des.

[smperry]

RAGIII and Des
Thanks for the encouragement. Im down in St.Pete for the work week, but I'll post some more photos when I get back home this weekend. Hopefully some of it done right to go along with some showing the bad job. Only way to learn to do it right is to make yourself go back and do it over if it isn't right. It's ever so much faster to do it slow and right once.
sp

[Ernie]

Hi Steve...not to worry about hiccups, it seems to be the nature of the beast.
My choice of primer is Tamiya Fine White Primer in the rattle-can.  I've been
using it for quite a while with no problems at all.  Onward and upward, my friend!
By the way, I've found IPA straight works really well removing Tamiya acrylic paint.
Just wet a paper towel with it and wipe off the paint with a couple of swipes.

Cheers,
Ernie

[smperry]

Thanks Ernie. I'll have to order some of the white primer. I take it IPA is isopropol alcohol. I use Future based acrylics, so i'll have to check and see which works best, alcohol, windex/ammonia or brake fluid. Very handy to be able to take it all back down to the plastic without damaging the surface. Better to do that than attempt to paint ober a mistake. It will always look like a painted over mistake e en if you are the only one who can see it.

sp

[smperry]

After working 15 straight 12 hr night shifts I returned home and took a look at my bench. A couple of framed pictures had fallen off the wall right on top of the Pup's fuselage deconstructing much of the interior. I suppose I shouldn't complain, I get to have the fun of building the cockpit all over again. Yet, here I am whining.

Fortunately no plastic actually broke, it simply came unglued on impact, so it won't be all that hard to fix. I think an investment in a few plastic storage boxes to place upside down over works in progress on the bench may be in order. Excellent protection from falling objects from dust motes to framed pictures.

sp

[RAGIII]

After working 15 straight 12 hr night shifts I returned home and took a look at my bench. A couple of framed pictures had fallen off the wall right on top of the Pup's fuselage deconstructing much of the interior. I suppose I shouldn't complain, I get to have the fun of building the cockpit all over again. Yet, here I am whining.

Fortunately no plastic actually broke, it simply came unglued on impact, so it won't be all that hard to fix. I think an investment in a few plastic storage boxes to place upside down over works in progress on the bench may be in order. Excellent protection from falling objects from dust motes to framed pictures.

sp

And to think I whine about 4 x12 hour shifts weekly! You also seem to have my luck going with Stuff falling or knocking things about. Glad to hear no major damage but a shame that you have to re build the whole interior. As Ira would say...Have Fun 
RAGIII

[smperry]

One must always bear "Dicta Ira" in mind. Ill get right on it just after i finish rehanging some pictures.....securely this time.
When you make so many setbacks for yourself as i do, you have to look at it as squeezing all the modeling fun possible out of each modeling dollar spent.
sp

[lone modeller]

I am glad that you can be so philosophical about the latest disaster. I won;ld have been screaming blue murder and much worse besides! At least it is only a repair job and not a reconstruction of broken parts, but I do think that investment in protective covers is in order.

Stephen.

[smperry]

I'm still pouting about it. I managed to remount the pictures more securely, but haven't attempted to fix the model yet. It was a bad week. A tree jumped out and grabbed one of my RC models on base leg. 8 inches of wingtip was all that made it to the ground. Not much different from dropping a plastic model as you are attaching the last run of rigging. Still and all, a bad day witb the models is better than a good shift at work....or so i keep trying to tell myself :-)

sp

[smperry]

Darn, looking at the date on the last post, it has been 2 years since I broke the Pup. I guess that is enough pouting, the wife must be starting to rub off on me after 33 years.

I cleared the bench, slapped down a fresh sheet of white paper and laid out the parts. There is the closed up fuselage, the seat, the ammo chutes, the oil tank and the curved brace that goes between the top longerons and in front of the instrument panel.

The ammo chutes fitted in well and aligned properly as did the oil tank. A few judicious drops of CA and they were set, The fuselage sides had broken away from the little curved formers on the outside of the frame. A gentle pinch and a couple of drops of CA put that right.

Some more tweezer work and a few more drops of CA had the seat in place and the curves cross piece fixed back where it belongs.

The two year hiatus has not all been filled with the joys of flying and crashing RC models. I have read up some on building WnW kits and I now have a much better idea of how much I have to either re-learn or learn anew. So with chastened ego firmly in hand, I will try to get this Pup finished in a reasonable time frame.
sp