Italeri 1/72 X-35 construction

Katya Hodgson
Realised I had forgotten to take pictures, sorry about that, i'll start taking them now.

Katya Hodgson
This kit has a LOT of doors...

Greg Baker
Heh... doors are fine.... just wait until you want to mask 500 little windows... THEN we'll see what you're made of...😉

Stefan Schacht
nice start, i take a seat

Katya Hodgson
I'm honestly thinking it might be easier to brush paint parts of this...

Greg Baker
It often is. 🙂

Treehugger
I think those that are good at using a brush, uses a larger flat brush (or large enough).

Katya Hodgson
That might be a problem as the bits I want to brush paint are small areas...

Michael South
Have you started on the X-32? Or otherwise known as the "Sailor inhaler"....😉

Donald Dickson II
Small areas arent too bad to brush paint. I am not a big fan of doing larger area with a brush though. Thats Augies thing. LOL

Katya Hodgson
Well I might have to, as the areas are too complex to mask.

Cuajete
Well done so far. Following.

Calvin Gifford
Great work! Before I retired we would occasionally get F-35's in at NAWS China Lake. Too bad they were VERY explicit about taking photos!

Katya Hodgson
I always preferred the X-32 anyway. 😛

Katya Hodgson
First test!

Treehugger
Inspired by this project, I found some clear parts I won't be using and tried out dipping the clear part into the Pledge product I have.

Four things is what I seem to learn quickly.

1 Having a clean clear part, it seems to me, to be a good idea to keep clear part under running water, try to shake off the excess water, then dip the clear immediately into Pledge. Better plug the sink or risk losing the clear part into the pipe if you accidentally drop it into the sink.

2 I think I have noticed that some kind of speck of dust somehow is in the liquid, and immediately after the first dip, if you see some obvious speck of dust, then one should be able to very quickly dip a second time and with a stirring motion.

3 Avoiding dust on a clear part that has been dipped into Pledge seem very difficult. Perhaps made worse if lots of dust is in the air.

4 Getting the excess liquid off the clear part seems a little difficult when having flat clear parts. Presumably, a good idea to at least keep those parts level so the gloss coat doesn't pool in a corner somewhere. Best to try have paper soak up the excess very carefully to try rely on capillary reaction with out touching the clear part too much.

Katya Hodgson
1. Wear gloves when handling it, stops any finger marks. 🙂
2. Wipe it down with a cloth before you dip, gets rid of any dust.
3. lower it very gently into the liquid, and when you remove it remove it VERY slowly, leaving part of the piece touching the liquid for a while to allow any excess to run off.
4. Place the piece on a tissue or if you have it a paper towel.
5. Place an upside down cup on top of the piece, to avoid any dust getting on it before it dries.

This is what I did, doesn't take too long to dry, about 20 minutes to be safe, and gives it such a glossy sheen. ^-^

Treehugger
Interesting! I will try raising it slowly from the liquid the next time. 🙂

Katya Hodgson
That's a very important part, you have to let the excess run off very gradually, so as not to get areas with more than others. 🙂

Calvin Gifford
Yes, Future is your friend! 😉 I also use it to attach photoetch.

Katya Hodgson
Oh, does that work?

Calvin Gifford
I also agree with Treehugger, your work is inspirational!

Katya Hodgson
It is? o.o

Calvin Gifford
Future will not fog up canopies like CA can.

Donald Dickson II
I was going to say the thing about covering it with a cup, but Katya already figured it out. 🙂

Katya Hodgson
I watched a video where someone did it, so I was prepared. 🙂

Greg Baker
God only knows how many YouTube videos I watched when I first started... one thing I found difficult at first is that a lot of them assume you have at least some idea of what you're doing. Took me a while to find a series that spoke plain English (not model speak) and explained WHY you were doing something, and not just HOW.

Katya Hodgson
Gaps are filled and sanded as best as I could manage, and the canopy is masked. Next step is to put the canopy on and start painting.

Sadly my tube of filler sprung a leak, so i'll have to replace that when I have the money. I might try some vallejo stuff in the future instead of the humbrol I have been using.

Calvin Gifford
Depending on what you are filling, it is a good product.

Katya Hodgson
Painting in progress.

Katya Hodgson
Construction and painting are finished, once glue and paint are all dry, i'll give it the first clear coat.

Katya Hodgson
First clear coat is on and drying, next is the decals. It's a race against time to finish it before mum needs the table for dinner!

Katya Hodgson
Decals are done, once they are dry, i'll put on the final clear coat to seal them and finish the model.

Katya Hodgson
The X-35 is finished, but I will remove the canopy mask and take pictures tomorrow, as the table is now occupied.

Calvin Gifford
Cool!