Checking to see what molders had the best luck with. The Tips, Tricks or Traps. I’ve got a few from the CV2 Kit, plus a lot I didn’t attempt. Any good suggestions on the best sequence to add glue, paint and decals to these little things. I’ve tried several methods to vary degrees. Broken a few as well, so far Broken is greater than finished.
Remove all the parts and glue together, then paint and add decals. Broken many landing gear, a tail daggers (lost many of those, tiny little things).
PrePaint the parts add decals then assemble? Never tried this one.
Build the main pieces, paint, decal then the tiny bits,
???
I did find this old post, The best way to glue together Trumpeter 1/350 aircraft, the clear ones. Very helpful.
For the glue, I have dipped large parts like wings, etc parts in gel glue then added piecesm they seem to hold till it dries. I’ve tried the medium thick but it seems to give way and the wings start sagging. Ultra-thin, seem to dry to quickly. Clear parts I just use thin stuff that seems to work.
I started the SBD’s. This time around I’m using the Tamaya Thin Glue. The trick is to use a little disposable dental brush, which can keep the glue fresh and when dry throw it out. So far working well. Assembly of the major parts.
Put together a few more from various kits. Folded wings are a bit of a challenge; paint i think is latter WWII. In hindsight after painting, i could have added the insignia’s but they keep sticking to my fingers; lost a couple of propellers, and elevators, to who knows where. Landing gears keep breaking off. I’ll need to come up with a better plan.
I’ve been working on a 350 Hornet CV-8. I’m assembling an air wing of about 65 aircraft for the air wing and 16 B-25s. My approach has been to assemble the fuselage, cowling, and horizontal stabilizes for each of the air wing using Tamiya liquid glue. The rear horizontal stabilizers were fragil and were easily broken. My fix was to flood them with thin CA. Next install wings, paint, decal, add fiddle parts, weather, add some weathering, and call them done.
I will be handling the B -25’s similary. They have about 13 parts each, so there are going to be some procedural modifications.
Great tip, worked well and really locked in the Stabilizers so they didn’t break so easily.
I also put some B-25s together and after the fact i found they all where tail heavy. I wished i had put something (like a BB) in the nose. If you glue them down it doesn’t really matter.
