Submarine is finished

After spending about 2 hours for all the decals - especially the white lines - and another coat of Alclad varnish, it is finished.

Even though I didn't spend more than 12 hours on the model, completing it took a long time, because it took me a while to get the hang of airbrushing and - specifically - applying the clear coat (varnish).

Price : € 20

Number of parts : 28 (+ 5 photo-etch)

Time spent : 11 hours

Project completion time : 6 months

Paint : (Vallejo)

• Black primer
• Black
• Hull brown (would like it to be redder, but leaving it this way)
• Gold
• Silver

Other :

• Alclad II semi-matt clear

All decals placed

A quick update. All the decals have been placed on the submarine. Just another coat of varnish to seal them in and it'll be finished.

I spent roughly 2 hours doing all the decals. The long white lines alongside the entire hull were sturdy enough to be manipulated, but flexible enough to be really hard to get straight. Just don't look to close to the end result.

Attack a Submarine with sanding paper.

The submarine is finished, but before I can start placing the decals, I need to (try to) repair a few spots where painting or varnishing went wrong.

The top of the sub has a pebbled surface, where the gloss varnish went on too thick. I scrubbed this down with fine-grain sanding paper. It's still easily noticeable, but hopefully wil be better after another layer of gloss.

The right side, under the tower, had some runners. I can't remember if it's paint or varnish. I sanded a little too deep and the bare plastic peeped through. Some paint will be required.

You may remember a big blob of varnish that had pooled up at the bottom of the nose. I sanded it away as far as I dared before I would start removing the brown paint.

Airbrush practice

I found some time AND motivation to get back behind the hobby-desk, even if it was just for an hour.

• I finished the base coat for the Abrams and it's wheels. (I'll post pictures when its dry.) I still need to do the backside of the wheels, but the outside needs to dry first. Even though the paintflow was irregular - and I still don't know why - I am managing with it. The airbrush seemed in an agreeable mood today.
• I put a second silver coat on the Enterprise's display base, so I can move on to masking for the next color. I'm tempted to start basecoating the Enterprise, but my workbench can only hold so many works in progress. It's time to finish something.
• I tested free-hand lines on a piece of paper, because I want the Puma to have soft-edged camouflage stripes. (Masking would give harsh edges).
  For the camo to work free-hand, I need the paint-consistency to be perfect, the air pressure on minimum and my hand steady the entire time. If the airbrush sputters only once, it's ruined and I have to start over.
  I can manage lines as small as 2-3 mm, but not smaller and the overspray is about twice as wide, but looks acceptable. One of the next sessions should be dedicated to this and I'll start with the underside, in case it doesn't go well.
• Another attempt to put gloss clear on the submarine. Tested pure or slightly thinned, the liquid does not atomise well and sprays droplets rather than particles. I thinned it 200% just for the hell of it and it sprayd rather okay(-isch). Then I knocked over the bottle with the thinned clear and took that as a sign to stop for the day. When finished, it'll have taken 5 or more sessions, but I WILL finish the clearcoat, so I can move on the decals. (Since ALL models need a clearcoat in the end, this is kinda a major skill to get the hang of)

I've been in contact with 2 supply companies for Revell about the needle not sitting flush inside the nozzle, but both times the answer was "Send it in and we'll look at it." Even though I don't use it that often, I'm not yet willing to be without it for several months. I also don't want to spend too much money on repairs that turn out unnecessary because I only THINK it might be damaged.

I guess it's back to the same questions : Is it too cheap to perform well? Is it my luck to have a crooked version? Do I go for a - more expensive - Badger (or Harder and Steenbeck or whatever) or is it just me?
Only time will tell ...

Clear gloss is tricky stuff

Since I was at my workbench anyway, the last thing I did with the airbrush was try some more gloss-coating the submarine. I sprayed it 1) thinned with the dedicated thinner, 2) straight from the bottle and 3) thinned with water.

I'm not sure if there was residue from the previous paint or just something iffy, but the first minute it sprayed light and decent (would need 4 coats to cover, but I can live with that), but then it started acting up again. Thinning with water was too runny. It's all dried up now and there's a big dry blob on the bottom of the nose, where it all pooled up.

Nothing a little sanding won't fix, I hope. Anyway, I know now that there's a "sweet" spot for thinning clear gloss (NOT with water) that I have to aim for and if it starts spraying a milky white sheen, I have to stop immediately.

I guess I can officially declare this sub a test-kit, because I doubt I'll ever get it the way I want it. Since all my kits have to be clearcoated at some point, best to keep practicing on the same model until I get it right.

A clear coat for the submarine

I tried giving the submarine a coat of gloss varnish, but it wouldn't go very well. I experimented with thinning it, but not sure the result will be okay.

In the end, the varnish was really pebbly or grainy, not sure what the best term is. It's hard to get on camera, but here's a picture anyway.

I'm not sure if it was a bad (old?) bottle of varnish, or if there's some trick to applying it to prevent this. I doubt I'll be able to correct it, unless maybe by putting a massive wet coat on top of it, to even it all out.

The bottle's empty now anyway, so correcting it will be for later.

The last photo-etch part

One more photo-etch piece needed to be added and that's the nameplate for the submarines display stand.
It's not 100% straight, but those are the disadvantage of working with superglue.

Brushpainting

I had to do some brushpainting, for the first time in at least 10 years.
The Vallejo "model color" line is very thick from the bottle and requires thinning, but it's nice to work with and very forgiving. Brushpainting with the Vallejo "model air" is tricky, since the paint is too runny for the brush. Slow painting and multiple layers give a beautifully smooth result though, so no need to go buy the same color in both types.

The Jaguar needed some corrections on the camouflage and I painted the landing gear aluminium and the tires flat black.

The submarine required a touch-up alongside the diving planes and the antennae and periscope needed a touch of silver and gold. I had forgotten the specific problems of working with metallic paint, so the resulting paintjob is actually too thick. I should have started with a first layer (non-covering), wait until dry and add a second. The paint is visibly too thick, but I'm not gonna let that bother me.

Remaining work on both models : a clear gloss layer, then decals.

Camouflage touch-up and painted the landing gear.

Periscopes and antennae painted silver and gold.

Masking, any way you can

Masking can be done with masking tape, liquid mask, paper, stencils, or anything you happen to have lying around and you find handy to use. As long as it does the job of preventing paint to come in certain spots, you're doing it right.

A plastic bag is actually a lot easier to handle than a sheet of paper.

Making sure the plastic won't stretch or tear around the diving planes.

The Puma's interior is protected by a paper disc, secured in place with latex.

More tiny photo-etch

The remaining photo-etch parts on the submarine are tiny, but the radar dish is beautiful. I keep being surprised by how sturdy this tiny metal is. I dropped the radar dish on the ground, accidentally brushed against it with tweezers and bent it in the wrong direction and still it handles perfectly. No reason to stop trying to be careful though.

I only hope the looks won't diminish once it's all painted.

Submarine nose job

I painted the fully masked nose of the submarine "Hull red", which is supposed to be a brownish red. It turned out more brown than red, but I can live with how it turned out. Authenticity isn't my primary goal in these first few models.
I assume the colour turned out darker than my test on paper because of the black undercoat.

While painting, I attempted to keep the layer of paint as thin as possible and spray at an angle, away from the tape's edge, to avoid paint going underneath. It still went on rather wet, but the result is better than the Jaguar.

I didn't wait too long, since someone told me it's best to remove the tape while the paint is still wet, which would avoid the flakiness as seen on the Jaguar. Because I had to leave the house to do some last-minute Christmas shopping, I ended up removing the tape after 3 hours, although I would have preferred to do it after only 1 hour.

  

The end result is quite nice. The Tamiya tape did not leave any (adhesive) residue and the edge is very clean.
I wasn't careful enough removing the last piece of tape : you can see a small grey chip on the last picture above, where I damaged the black basecoat. Since I still have to paint the diving planes, I'll try to touch that up without you ever noticing.

Masking with tape and paper

The Russian submarine is to receive a red nose. Seems very fitting for the time of year, maybe I should call him Rudolf?

I started by putting Tamiya masking tape around the areas that need to be painted.
Make sure you really rub the tap against the model, to ensure as little paint as possible will creep under it. There's nothing more annoying than removing the masking tape and finding out you need to start over.

In the corners, where one piece of tape overlaps another, pay extra attention and really burnish it down. Because the bottom tape "pulls up" the top one, this is the most likely place where paint will seep underneath.
I measured the Tamiya tape at 0.008 mm thick (0.0035 inch).

(One "trick", which I won't use this time, is to spray a layer of "clear" alongside the tape)

Tamiya masking tape to identify the area to be painted.

Then I took a piece of paper and cut it roughly the shape of the upper part of the nose. It takes a lot of trial and error : tape the paper down on one side, fold it over to the other, cut it to the right length, tape it on the other side, make small incisions to more easily fold the paper, more cutting, taping, recutting and retaping, ...

Paper to cover bigger area's

The rest of the model is safe in one big piece of paper, folded around the hull and stapled shut. More tape is used to secure it near the front and we're ready for painting.

Don't go sparingly on the amount of paper you use. Best to cover the entire model. Don't think you only need to mask the first half, because you'll be able to direct the paintspray in one direction.
Trust me, I have bottles and tools all over my workbench, covered with tiny specs of paint, up ta half a meter away from where I'm painting. Better to be safe than sorry.

More paper to cover the rest of the model

All this masking, by the way, is the reason I have not yet added the antenna's, periscope and other details on the conning tower. I can safely do that when all masking, painting and varnishing is completed.

Always read the instructions - twice!

While studying how I was going to mask the nose of the submarine (so I can paint it red) I discovered I had forgotten to attach 2 pieces : the forward diving planes. (Feel free to correct me on the technical term)

Here we discover another advantage of airbrushing instead of handbrushing. The layer of paint on the model is really thin. This makes it possible to 1) paint an entire model with a few drops of paint, 2) leave all panel lines and other details intact and 3) makes it very easy to scrape away paint where you want to attach a piece, whether you forgot to add it or wanted to paint the base model first before adding details.

(The main reason to do complete assembly before painting is that glue sticks better without a layer of paint in between. If you've already painted it, scrape away paint where you want to add pieces. Don't forget to also scrape away paint on the back of the piece you're about to add, so the glue has all possible chance to bond thoroughly.)

Gently scraping away paint where the diving plane will be attached.

Since I wrote the tip about superglue (found here), I started applying this tip also for regular glue.
In this particular case, if I were to add glue directly to the hull and accidentally apply too much, it would damage the paintjob, or at least leave visible marks of my clumsiness. By placing a drop of glue on a CD and then gently dipping the piece in it, I have a much finer control over how much glue goes where.

Place a drop of glue on a CD, then dip in the piece to be attached.
One single CD will probably serve several years.

I turned the sub on it's side, using it's own display stand, and put the port fin in it's place with tweezers (after dipping it in the glue). I did the starboard side only 2 minutes later. I really like how fast the glue becomes strong enough to handle the model without the freshly attached piece falling out of alignment.

(I'm using "UHU Plast special" liquid cement with a needle applicator. Revell has a similar bottle, also with needle, with probably the exact same content. I try to stay away from the "regular" less-liquid glues.)

No steady hands

Time for some brushpainting. I haven't done this in over 10 years and my hands aren't really steady for doing the tiny details. Nonetheless, I painted the details on the inside of the Puma (just the seats, steering wheels and some kind of grille on the dashboard), so I can close it up soon and continue building on the outside.
(I must remember to try some weathering on the floor, before actually closing it up)

I painted with the Vallejo air black, which is a little too runny for brushpainting, but for inside details it's good enough. It's clear though, I will need two versions of several paints (black and white for starters) because the "model air" version has better ground pigments for airbrushing, but is too runny for handbrushing, requiring the normal "model color" for the small details or touchups.

It's still necessary to thin the normal paint, because it's very thick straight from the bottle. All this means is you'll be getting more paint for your money in the 17ml bottles. :-)

I picked up the above painter's palette at Dille & Kamille. Not sure if it's meant for painting, or serving snacks, but it's very handy, easily washable and cheap. It's easier than a flat wooden palette (suitable for thick oil paints) because the recesses are better for very fluid paint.

All the submarine parts are dry, so I assembled the propellor cap and attached the entire housing to the back of the model. I think the photo-etch propellor looks really nice.

Short session

Put a third and final layer of white primer on the inside of the Puma. No issues with the white paint again.

Cut off all the blades of the plastic propellor, since the photo-etch propellor installed nicely. Since I had to load black primer in the airbrush to paint it anyway, I lightly sanded the nose of the submarine (where dust had gotten on the model while painting) and touched up the entire nose. It looks a lot better now.
Needle-tip went dry again, but at least we're having results. Practice, practice, practice.

Next time, I'll be experimenting with clear varnish (gloss or matt, yet to be decided) for the Puma as well as the submarine.

Photo-etch

Photo-etch (or "PE" for ease of typing) parts are small frames with tiny little parts made from metal. The term "photo-etch" refers to the process that makes these frames, but no need to go into detail about that. They are generally used to create extremely small or thin parts, which would be too delicate in plastic - or simply impossible to make.
You often find PE parts in aftermarket kits to add superdetails to existing models : railings, grab handles, antenna's, ... which aren't always in scale when made in plastic.

I intended to experiment with PE later in my "modelling career", but was surprised to find a small photo-etch frame in the submarine kit. It consists of the propeller, some antenna-blades and the nameplate for the display stand.

The PE version of the propellor is optional, since the kit contains a plastic version. (seen below, the rightmost part), but I want to grab this chance to work with it for the first time. It would be a waste not to try it.

The building instructions tell you to cut off the plastic propellor, but best to wait with that until you've successfully removed the PE one and folded it into shape.
This is one of the things about PE : you have to fold them into the right shape. Not all parts, but more often than not, folding is necessary and you need to do this really carefully. (special tools can be found for it)

The PE frame is usually packed in (self-adhesive) plastic. Do not remove this! It will help you when cutting off the part, to prevent it from flying off your desk onto the floor, where it will be eaten by the carpet monster. (Tip: keep your workbench away from carpet, if possible)
Cut through the plastic wrapping to remove the part. Use a sharp hobby knife and avoid using sprue cutters, as these are not intended for cutting metal.

I removed the propellor, peeled off the protecting plastic and  gently bent the propellor blades. It's extremely thin, but feels stronger than I had feared. Handle with extreme care though.

(Sorry for the picture quality, I seem unable to get my camera to focus on small parts)

Below you see the part in it's place, inside the propellor housing. It's still missing it's cap, since I decided to play safe and not remove the propellor blades until the PE one was in place. The cap is now painted black and drying. Although the plastic one, once painted gold, would probably have looked okay, the PE result will always look extra sharp.

Submarine - priming finished

The submarine is now completely primed in black. Since the primer covers nicely, I don't think I'll need to add anymore paint to it, except a layer of gloss before I apply the decals.
The paint covers nicely, without obscuring any details. There are a few places where a nitpicky modeller would start over, but for my first model, I'm not going to bother to reach perfection.

It's still trial and error on the airbrush: sometimes it flows nicely, sometimes it sputters, sometimes nothing comes out at all. With the black paint, it's easy to see what you're doing and what's happening (or not). This will be a lot harder if I'm spraying - for instance - gloss clear, since it'll be difficult to see on the model if you're actually delivering something to the surface or if nothing's happening.
More practice will make this easier, I suppose.

(I may need a stronger desklamp to better see which part becomes wet, indicating at least something has reached the model)

I did another try with the white primer as well. I assumed it would be as bad as the grey, so I thinned it 1:2 (1 part paint, 2 parts thinner) which actually turned out to be too much. It sprayed really nicely, but you can see - in the photo below - that the paint has run down from the vertical surfaces, pooling up in the corners, indicating it was thinned TOO heavily. Not to worry, it was the first layer and it's on the inside of the Puma, so no real harm done. I'll try the second layer with less thinner and see how it goes.

Airbrush - some success!

Armed with some new confirmation about airbrush behaviour, I decided to give it another go.

• Air will bubble in the cup if the nozzle is not fitting well in the airbrush body. 

"Fingertight" on the nozzle cap did not quite cut it in my case. I screwed it on tighter (with the provided mini-wrench) while the compressor was on and immediately noticed the bubbles becoming smaller. One more slight turn and the paintcup was bubble-free.

1 - 0 (my first victory).

• The main reason for no paint coming out is "tip-dry".
  (Another reason might be the paint not being thinned enough)

This can be fixed by regularly cleaning the tip of the needle with a small cotton swab dipped in cleaner.

• Dark paints appear to be a lot easier to paint than lighter ones.

The main reason I started building the submarine is because it needs to be painted black. I thinned the Vallejo black primer about 1:1 with Vallejo thinner (stick to the same brand, just for safety).
I started out with the 8 wheels for the Puma (seen below on toothpicks) to test the flow, which came out fine. I had to clean the needle after 4 wheels, then the rest went ok.

A little overzealous, I immediately started painting the sub, which went rather well actually. I did have to clean the tip 4 or 5 times, but it becomes a habit and isn't really that much work. I managed to do 3/4 of the sub before the needle had to be removed for more throrough cleaning. I ran out of place to hold it anyway, so better quit while I'm ahead. A few spots will need a second layer, but better wait and add more later, then spray too much at once and cause runs, which are harder to clean up.

2 - 0 (we're on a roll!)

Feeling good about my first success, I cleaned the brush for a colour change and filled with grey primer. The Jaguar is now also completely primed, but still this paint is fighting me for every inch. I can barely paint the top of this mini-model before it stops doing anything, cleaning the tip or not (compare this to at least half of the submarine in one go)

2 - 1 (time to call it quits and maybe call the shop for more ideas)

Is the difference between paints really THIS much? If the lighter paints are such a hassle, I am NOT looking forward to completely painting the Enterprise with white primer. To be continued ....

(The paintcup on this Revell airbrush is rather small, so painting a complete kit will take several refills)

Another new project

Since the airbrushing isn't going as well as I'd want, I started a new project (Yes, ANOTHER one) : HobbyBoss' "Russian Navy Project 955 Borei-Yuri Dolgoruky SSBN".
The main reason is that the black primer seems easiest to paint, unlike the lightgrey and white. Forums confirm that darker paint is usually easier to airbrush than lighter colours.

Since the only black model I have is the Russian submarine, I decided to start that one. After a coat of black primer, it won't be needing much more than a gloss layer and a little red on the nose.

The kit consists of 1 sprue with 24 parts, 2 hull halves and a display stand. There aren't many parts, probably because it would be a bad idea to have much detail on the outside of a submarine. They're meant to be smooth, make little noise and reflect as little sonar-waves as possible.

There is 1 photo-etch frame with some antenna-blades, a propeller and the nameplate.

The 3-step instructions are very clear. There's a coloured paintmap, even though the bulk of the thing is just plain black. The decal-sheet contains mostly the white stripes, broken up in short runs to make placement easier.

I started by giving the entire thing a thorough wash in the sink (it IS a submersible, after all) with some detergent and assembled the hull a couple of hours later.

The seem along the entire hull is noticeable, but I probably won't bother trying to completely remove it, since filling and sanding would probably remove a lot of the detail-lines. The nose wouldn't really stay together, but some creative rubber band placement persuaded it.