After a modelling hiatus, I’m starting a build of Eduard’s nice little Avia B-534. The kit is very nice and has some great surface detail. Unfortunately, mine came with some molding errors, and the wings and fuselage halves had some very nasty marks on them. I spent a lot of time sanding to get rid of the marks without damaging the delicate surface detail, and so far I think I’ve managed to get rid of most of it. If I come across more marks, I’ll have to address them.
So far I’ve cleaned up some of the cockpit, assembled some of the fiddly bits, and worked on assembling and aligning the fragile parts for the underside. Because a lot of the interior is visible after the fuselage halves are closed, I’m putting a lot of effort into getting everything just right. [8-|] I hope to begin priming soon, and will be using Model Master Metalizer for the first time to get the effect of painted aluminum that was applied to the real thing. I’ve done a lot of test fitting, and I can see there will be a few spots that are difficult to get just right. So far it’s been a fun build to plan out, and I hope to have some more substantial updates soon. Thanks for looking!
Well, besides the cold (It’s Wisconsin, so no biggie) the weather this past week has been good for airbrushing lacquers, which I paint with a side door partly open to vent the fumes. It’s the only part of this hobby that is “weather permitting” for me, so it’s nice when the weather cooperates! I put down a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1500 (amazing stuff!) after cleaning up the cockpit parts and fuselage halves. I was nervous about trying Model Master Metalizers for the first time, but picked up some of their non-buffing stuff at the LHS, and was really happy I did! I definitely have a list of things to do differently next time, but the paint came out smoothly, sat down neatly, and the final appearance, while a little monotone (I tried and failed to accent the panels with a slightly darker shade of aluminum) is acceptable.
Once the paint dried, I started detail painting and getting the sub-assemblies together. If it looks good when everything is together, painted, and weathered, I’ll take better cockpit photos with a real camera, but for now, here’s a pic from my phone’s camera of the progress so far. Thanks for looking!
