Have you ever had one of those builds that just started off terrible and went downhill from there. This was mine. As my wife said “Well you’ve built a lot better”. Absolutely nothing wrong with this kit other than operator error. Lessons learned. 1 Don’t use those big decals. 20/20 hindsight I should’ve painted the yellow and the white stripes. However by the time I figured that out I already had glosscoat on it and model master acrylic does not stick well to that …at least with masking. 2. I won’t glue the canopies on before painting again. Every time I have tried this something always gets on the inside of the canopy. 3. I give up on laser glue. I used that to glue all the canopies and windows in. Apparently I got too much on and it ran after I cured it. The windows didn’t look bad when I masked them but after I took the masks off the extra glue must have hardened and turned opaque. Back to elmers for me. 4 Don’t finish a model when your sick. Positives: the decals on this kit were old and when they hit water they literally shattered however Tamiya service got me a new set pronto. I used detailer wash for the first time and it worked like a charm. Well anyway here’s an example of what not to do. Oh well it was a learning experience
I always use Weldbond for canopies and glass. Stronger bond than Elmer’s but same chemical process. Plus a huge jug is like 8 bucks - I go through 1 every couple years. They don’t usually have it at Home Depot/Lowe’s but they do have it at Ace/TrueValue. Also works well for gluing painted stowage to a painted tank hull/turret. Definitely worth the money.
regardless of the frustrations, it looks like you beat it into submission and Dinah looks really good. Chalk it up to a learning experience, and I look forward to being inspired by your next set of mistakes.
Very nice looking Dinah. Appears to me that your build is more of an excellent example of recovery rather than a series of mishaps. Kudos to a job well done.
And I haven’t used decals for leading edge ID bands or the ‘bandage’ markings in years. They just never worked for me, yours look far and away better than anything I was able to accomplish with them.
I am rather certain that really good models are made not by modelers who don’t have goofs, but those that are smarter than the rest of us at fixing them! Carry on, GM! I recently had something inside a canopy, a lot of dust, really. I fixed it by drilling a hole in the side of the cockpit and then I stuck my air nozzle in it and blew the dust to kingdom come. Very satisfying, and the small hole can not be seen after filling and painting. Of course, sometimes these kinds of operations CAN go horribly wrong, but there is always another kit, right?[*-)]
You are a far braver soul than I. I have visions of a massive crack in the canopy if I tried something like that. I’m definately on the lower end of the spectrum for fixing “goofs” It always amazes me what people can do with their models in terms of scratch building or repairs.
