VKA-23 Spaceplane (USSR)

[Oceaneer99]

[I moved the painting discussion to the Tips and Techniques / Paint and Finish section of the forum]

    Topic: Thinning Paint for Airbrushing
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/SMF/index.php?topic=433.0

[Oceaneer99]

Argh!  I sprayed the second coat of orange on the control surfaces tonight.  After the paint dried, I removed the masking tape protecting the white portions, and found that the tape had reacted with the white paint!

It was ordinary blue painter's masking tape.  At first, I thought it had left a residue behind, but then realized that it actually left a rough pattern in the white paint.  I'm not sure if there was a chemical reaction or the white layer wasn't completely dry (after two days) for some reason.  I put a piece of Scotch tape on one wing to see how that reacts.

I think I will be able to sand the white paint smooth with very fine sandpaper and then use a gloss coat to restore the finish, but won't try this until I'm sure the orange is dry.

[lastvautour]

Masking is one of the problem areas in most projects. I currently use green masking tape to only so-so results. I hear that Tamiya masking products work very well with plastic kit builders. I have not used it myself. The reaction with the paint is new to me.

Lou

[Oceaneer99]

Lou,

Yes, I've never had problems with masking tape reaction before (just problems with bleeding under the tape).  The Scotch tape (transparent tape) also left marks, and I have successfully used that in the past with no marks, so I decided to do an all-stop.

I sanded down the model to a smooth surface and sprayed it with white lacquer primer.  So now I have a plain canvas and get to start over.  I have the Model Master Acryl colors and plan to try those out this time.  I've never airbrushed the Testors paints, but have had good success with a hand brush, so I'll give the airbrush a try.

The good part is that there is absolutely no wood grain remaining at this point. 

Garet

[Oceaneer99]

More problems... the Model Master paint airbrushed just fine, but I'd made a few putty touch-ups here and there, and there were a few spots where I had apparently sanded through the primer to the Tamiya paint.  In those spots, the Tamiya layer cracked and crazed after I put on the Model Master!  I also put a coat of Model Master on my Bristol spaceplane engines, without any primer in between, and that was a huge mess.

I sanded off all the problem areas, put a nice thick coat of white primer, and then two coats of Model Master flat white, thinned slightly.  It looks just fine now, and I'm letting it dry for a day before I start the orange control surfaces.

[Oceaneer99]

That day turned into four months!  I hand-brushed one orange control surface, which took many (6-7) coats and bled under the tape in places.  After that, I decided to go back to the airbrush.

A few days ago, I masked and painted all the black parts, leaving the control surfaces white to be painted orange later.  Ordinarily, I would have painted orange regions and then masked these before painting the black over the orange.  However, I was still wary after the Tamiya paint incident, so I decided to try it "backwards", using Model Master paints this time.

The black went on really well with the airbrush.  I used green automotive masking tape and really ran down the edge with a fingernail.  Except for a few minor spots, the color line is fairly sharp.

After a day of drying, I masked to leave the control surfaces exposed (except for the upper surfaces of the flaps: it was too tight near the rudders to try to paint these at the same time).  I airbrushed these with thinned Testors Model Master "International Orange".  I used about 20 psi and a medium airbrush tip.  At first, I set the tip to put out too much paint, which worked fine for the large black areas but was overpowering on the small orange parts.  Then I turned the flow down and was able to get really precise control and very thin coats which dried almost immediately.

Because of the unusual masking, there were a few thin white lines in between the orange and black.  I took my smallest brush, put on reading glasses, and fixed these by hand, which wasn't too hard.  The result is here:


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4018

The flap you see is the one I did by hand.  Now I have the difficult job of painting the one on the other side so that they match. 

After the orange is done, I need to do a lot of touch-up on the white parts.  I found some little pinhole sinkholes where something happened over the past few months.  I've filled these with putty but need to paint over.  I also need to touch up where the hand-brushed orange bled.

When the white is done, I'll mask and paint the canopy.  Then I need to make the decals, which are fairly simple ("CCCP" and the Soviet flag).

Garet

[lastvautour]

Excellent painting. Come to my house to do my stuff. The international orange really sets things off.

Lou

[Oceaneer99]

I finally dove in, masked the canopy and air-brushed Testors Model Master Acryl Gold paint (thinned with Acryl thinner).


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4343

To be honest, I'd avoided the masking because of the rounded corners.  But I halfway promised Lou that I'd clear out my backlog a bit. 

A week or two ago, I traced out the outlines rather roughly in pencil.  I used Tamiya modeler's masking tape, which is really nice, thin, sticky stuff.  I bought automotive (green) masking tape a while back, which was a big improvement over what I'd been using, but the Tamiya was even better.  It cost me about $3 for a 9mm wide refill roll (can't remember the total length, but enough to do many, many models).

I first masked to the outlines with square edges, then cut out radiuses in masking tape stuck down to a sheet of glass.  I used an index card cut to the right radius as a guide.  I stuck these down to the corners and carefully worked them down so that paint wouldn't bleed underneath.  I sprayed very lightly until I had a good coat on, then went a bit heavier.  The gold paint clogged frequently and won't go on quite as thin as usual paint as a result.

As to the decals, later Soviet spacecraft had a flag and "CCCP", but most of the early concepts seem to be drawn with a simple red star on each wing top.  I will likely go with the stars, and even have them drawn out in 1/72 scale from my Yak-1000 model.

Garet

[lastvautour]

Outstanding finish Garet. Your rounded canopy glass came out superb. I am still working on mine. I have not tried the Tamiya tape yet. Again, outstanding finish.

lou

[dave_t]

It looks very modern with the glossy paint, like some of the designs that are being tested now. Maybe the Russians should start researching this design again.

Anyway, what ever happened to the (real) Hy-Bird?

[Oceaneer99]

Dave,

I also built a model of the Hy-Bird, a solar/hydrogen powered airplane currently being built in France.

As to the VKA-23, it was a concept drawing similar to the X-20 Dynasoar that the US Air Force was working on at about the same time.  Your point about designs coming 'round again is interesting.  I looked at a Russian language site that had this design along with the Spiral, Buran, and other designs, alongside the European Hermes and others.  I read in Popular Science that the US Air Force was launching an unmanned spaceplane this month, but haven't heard any updates. update: it launched April 23 on an Atlas V.

Garet

[Oceaneer99]

I tried to print decals last night, but had some clogging in the print heads.  I eventually got them cleared, and printed out two versions before the printer ran out of ink.  I thought I had more ink, but I was out of the color that I used up, so I put in an order for more.  But I think I can use one of the sets I already printed.

This is my "new" printer (3 years old), which I have not used that much to print decals.  I'm much more used to my old printer (for which I have a lot of ink).

Garet

[Oceaneer99]

Per my usual, I destroyed one set of decals and ended up using my second set, but the VKA-23 is now complete!

There are two coats of Future on the paint, then the decals, then a light mist of spray lacquer, followed by another coat of Future acrylic.

Total construction time was 16 hours, which includes the time it took me to completely repaint the model after the first paint didn't work out.  Final paints were Testors Model Master Acryl.


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4397


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4396

[lastvautour]

You outdid yourself on this one. Although you take much longer than I do, your finished models are worth the wait. Congratulations on an excellent project.

Lou

[cliff strachan]

Garet, that's  one of the best finishes that I've seen. Very much like the professional travel agency models that we are all familiar with. It is a finish that I've been espiring to accomplish but with very little success. And thanks for the details concerning your masking techniques.
Cliff