G'day this is awesome. I have the same mirage, though i was gonna hold off on any mods until/if it needs major repairs. Can't wait to see how this turns out.
Oh boy! I can't wait! So cool, i will waiting the final to show it to my friends that worked on the plane for years, i'm sure they're will be impressed! Oh yes, i forgot to say,. Nice job!
Thanks! Very cool you had friends who worked on the real deal! The kfir is a favorite of mine for sure. I have about 4-5 videos planned in the series, so the next one should post in about a month with the others following after that.
Thanks man, iv been watching your videos and it's has inspired me more to build, paint ectra RC planes. I'm working on a 11 year old rc extra foamy 300. She has a all new paint scheme and integrated wing fences I came up with. She's about done, anyways Thanks for the videos and the cool planes you build man appreciate all your tips, tricks and builds. Godbless ND can't wait for the next one.
Thanks! Yes, there will be a video on painting as well as some simple panel lines and weathering when the time comes. The airplane is currently waiting for primer and then paint. I'm need my hand to heal up a little bit longer before I can do that unfortunately :(
HEY CHRIS, IT WAS GREAT FUN TO WATCH THE "BASH" AND SEE HOW INVENTIVE AND KEEN YOU ARE. ALL I NEED TO KNOW AT THIS POINT IS WHERE TO GET A GOONIES OR A TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLE T SHIRT..lolol. John
I thought I was pronouncing it Kfir, doh! Guess my Hebrew isn't as good as I thought. :p Paint scheme will be 555 from the Arava Guardians. That particular airplane they called Saturn (Shabtay).
I will be looking forward to the weathering video. Hey, after you apply your decals to the model(in the past perhaps on inkjet paper with clear coat, or with the better laser printer), do you apply a clear coat over the decal? I mean after it dries on the model..spray or brush on??
Chris. Just putting the wraps on my first project. All in all it went ok.. I Bought my graphics from Callie and they won't stay down when I apply them. I've tried the same floor product you use as well as just soap and water per Callie's instructions.. How long should I need to wait before pulling off the top layer to ensure adhesion? I painted my model with Tamiya Acrylics via an airbrush. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Happy Thanksgiving!
I usually just place the markings dry. If you used soap and water (I actually recommend windex for that) you’ll need to wait for it to evaporate fully before you can peel off the transfer tape.
And here I thought I was executing an original idea bashing my Mirage into a Cheetah! The Cheetah was a local development of the Mirage lll similar to the Kfir with a longer nose, canards, dog tooth leading edges and engine upgrades. A much loved now retired type of our Air Force
What do you think of the Dollar Tree foam for scratch build components? Some say problems with paper delamination. I think its a little stiff to work with. It is super cheap though. My first kits were depron and kind of got used to that. If you prefer depron, can you recommend a good reliable source?
Plydrms the issue with the dollar tree foam is the paper. If you have a flat sided model it's ok, but trying to make and/or sand contours would be difficult. Depron is a fantastic medium, but I recently found out they're no longer making it. Rcfoam.com has some left over stock, but that's it once it's gone. I'm not sure what would be a suitable replacement at this point. It's really crappy they're not making depron anymore.
Thanks! I scaled up the composite drawing I made by dividing the Mirage 2000 wingspan measurement of the model by the measurement of the drawing. When scaling up, you should get a number greater than 1 and then multiply by 100 to get a percentage. That gave me a scaling factor to increase the drawing by to match the model. I used powerpoint to scale up the portions I needed and then printed them out. You could blow them up similarly using a straight copy machine too.
Chris, do you make and apply your own decals? I am experimenting with a lot of techniques. After printing, I have tried coating the decal paper with clear lacquers, acrylic spray, and Testors decal bond. I have also tried coating the foam surface first with clear polyacrylic minwax..water based. Can you tell me how you get your best results for adhesion and appearance?..Rob
Plydrms I do make my own markings quite often actually. I didn't for this project though just to save time and hassle. In printing decals, I highly recommend printing onto laser decal paper using a laser printer. It removes the necessity of spraying a clear onto the decals once they're printed and so provides a much thinner and better quality decal. In placing them I use micro set and then once applied, I use micro sol. The micro sol helps soften the decal and pull it onto the surface. Just avoid touching the decals if you've applied micro sol or you risk ruining them! Spraying the model with a gloss clear before application helps too. I put together a discussion on making markings a while back. Here's the link to the vid m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GrSj_Z_cFbY.html
Thanks, great information on that link. I do not have a laser printer. I have an inkjet printer and have been clear coating the decals after printing. This kind of yields inconsistent results. Like I was saying, I have tried different clear coats. I have also tried varying the number of coats applied. Clear coating the foam first with polycrylic is a must. The decal edges tend to form a ridge and curl up without the clear coat. Even with following the best method, I sometimes get one that dries with defects in it...:( I have sprayed a thin coat of minwax poly over the decal after it has dried, This seems to lock it in and help prevent lifting. I guess a laser printer would eliminate all that crap?? Anyhow, any suggestions for better results with this injet method?..thanks!
The best clear I've found for the inkjet decals is the krylon crystal clear. The problem is that you have to build up a number of coats to get it to where it's easily transferable so you end up with pretty thick decals. If you have a print shop or a kinkos near you, they should be able to print your artwork onto laser decal paper for you if you wanted to give the laserjet paper try. The decals are ready to apply straight out of the printer, no clear coat required.
I bet that is a lot better than what I'm doing now. You're right, I find it takes about 4 coats of Krylon or clear lacquer to get a good decal. Then you can see that its pretty thick, slightly raised above the surface. I just tried a little "bashing" on the Art Tech F-14. The panel lines are deep. I also changed the rudders to gray and did a new black felix the cat. I like the "low vis" gray schemes the Navy started painting in the late 80's.
I use a non-yellowing lacquer satin clear sprayed through an automotive touchup gun. I kind of dust it on, so it's a light weight coat that has a nice dull finish. Sometimes I'll take a scotchbrite pad to it too to cut down on the sheen if needed.
Do you think the planes look better with the original panel lines filled in? What material do you use to fill in the panel lines, and does it accept paint well?
Plydrms I do think it looks better, because usually the panel lines are too large. Also, my goal is to get rid of the foam texture and look too. So, I like to fill it all in and the varnish the airplane with about 6 coats of minwax polycrylic. That hardens up the airframe and then provides a nice surface for primer and paint. I show the full method here: thercgeek.com/refinishafoamy
Very nice, thanks. Is that the water based Minwax acrylic poly? I think the Flite Test guys specifically say not to use the water based minwax. They show using the oil based. Then again, they are scratch building using the Dollar Tree foam....oh, on a side note...would you recommend removing the paper from the Dollar Tree foam before a scratch build?...(better for adhesive bonding, paint bonding, ect..).
It's the water based crylic. I don't think you'll have much luck pulling the paper off the dollar tree foam. I'm guessing they recommend the oil based to avoid warping the paper.
Plydrms they are unless otherwise noted which most all of them. My p51 refinish I never flew stock because I had seen one fly stock and was thoroughly underwhelmed by what I saw and from the onset I wanted to fly 5cells with it. ;)
These sanding blocks I’ve had for a long time. Some are the great planes ones and some are ones my dad gave me that are made from aluminum “I” type material.
I know, saw that they call it "slightly curved" depron now. I guess it was more profitable for the original manufacturer to invest solely in floor insulation. They are going to stop producing for the RC model industry. I saw that rcfoam offers a cheaper 6mm alternative called XPS foam. I was thinking of trying it, but have my doubts. You ever work with that?
I used acetone to strip the paint. Anymore, the paint stripping isn't really necessary. The stock paints that are used now on these airframes provide a nice base for working on.
I did use some tape initially to try and remove the water slide decals, but just went for the acetone ultimately. Of late, I don’t even bother stripping the paint and just apply the refinish work over the stock paint.
But they weren’t actuated on the full scale either. 😉They’re a fixed lifting canard that help keep the nose up in the turn and help tighten the turn radius.
