Polikarpov Po-2 1/48 ICM-Eduard, post-war civil version, Hungary - FINISHED

Started by Csaba · 222 · 2 years ago
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    Csaba said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    I did not abandon the project, but I was simply too busy with living my life. Luckily, the pandemic is under control in this part of the world, so life is pretty much back to normal, but my mind is not. It has been a tough period, and I really had a hard time to sit down and spend time on modeling. This week is the usual autumn school break here, and I had a lot of surplus holiday to be used before the end of the year, so I decided to take the whole week off, and send the small ones to daycare ( those are open during the school break, luckily). Finally, I had a few days for myself, home alone. It helped to clear the brain fog a bit, but it will be a long journey to get back to normal.

    I managed to do the panel line washes and the decals. The panel lines are not the best in some areas, and I also found problems on the yellow surfaces, but decided to leave it like this. If I start fixing the yellow layer at this stage, the model will end up as a hangar queen, or even worse, in the trash. I used the trusty artist oil paint set for the washes, and the previously described laser printed decals.
    I also managed to paint a few small parts, so actually only a few small steps are left before final assembly and rigging.

    1 additional image. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Nice to see this project coming together, my friend @pikofix!
    All looking perfect at the pics.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    To me all areas look fine, Csaba @pikofix
    No need to redo the yellow.
    A break from time to time is an absolute need, great that you can spend some time by yourself and focus on modelling.

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    Csaba said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Yes, Spiros @fiveten it is good to be back. 🙂

    Take a look at this larger photo John @johnb - I marked two areas, one of them is a speckled part, probably an overspray from black, the other one looks like a half fingerprint, again, with black paint. I guess I should not do modelling late at night with artificial light, and then these things would not stay unnoticed until too late. But that is not an option for now. :/

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    George R Blair Jr said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    I think this is coming along nicely, Csaba (@pikofix). It would be a shame not to finish such a striking airplane, especially when the problems are mostly invisible. I always wonder why I never notice speckles, etc when I have just finished painting, and the paint and airbrush are still sitting there, ready to go. You get done painting, look it over for anything that needs to be fixed, pronounce it ready to go, put everything away, and then find the problem down the road. Besides, maybe the black speckles were on the real plane. That's my story...and I'm sticking to it.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    It's the MML (Modeling Murphy's Law) that cause discrepancies to be noticed until it's too late, my friend @pikofix!
    One thing for sure: you are not alone, happens to many of us, yours truly definitely included!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    It was not noticeable on the previous pictures, Csaba @pikofix
    Those are indeed the Murphy results mostly happening at the and occur to all of us like mentioned by Spiros @fiveten
    At least they are on the bottom side, so hardly visibly when being displayed.

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    Csaba said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Yes, these are not showstoppers, but still annoying rookie mistakes. Today I discovered a small silvering as well on the decals, I am trying to fix it right now. Luckily, I did not varnish them immediately after application. It seems that having limited time for modelling is not that bad after all. 🙂

    I found some quite crazy sounding ideas for fixing silvering, including careful application of Tamiya´s extra thin cement or nitrocellulose thinner over the decals. I have chosen a somewhat more traditional method, using a blade to slice the silvered section, and using decal softener on top of that part of the decals. We will see the results tomorrow morning.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Nitrocellulose (and Tamiya thin glue to a lesser extend) are very aggressive to most decals, my friend @pikofix, which makes the idea to just apply a teenytiny amount over the problematic area very attractive...

    However, having tried this method a few times in the past with like liquids, usually (if not always) the result was a destroyed decal (decals tended to shrink to themselves upon coming into contact with such liquids). Of course, it might just be me...

    I believe your chosen method is very good and towards the safe side.

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    Csaba said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    A generous application of softener and a fresh blade did the trick, and most of the silvering is gone. There are still tiny bubbles, but the final layer of varnish will hide those, based on my past experiences.

    Spiros, @fiveten did you try these aggressive solutions on decals? I have seen YouTube videos demonstrating these chemicals, but mostly on unpainted test pieces. Everyone said that these should be the very last thing to try, and only if all other methods fail.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Yes, I have, my friend @pikofix and, guess what, I had no good luck with them...
    I have also tried mixing an amount of such liquids with "standard" decal softener, in the case of stubborn decals. This "trick" seems to add some punch to the decal softener, however one must be equally careful...

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    George R Blair Jr said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    I agree with Spiros, Csaba (@pikofix). I would use the tried and true method of puncturing the silvered areas and re-applying decal solution. If you want something stronger, I have used a decal solution designed for trains. It is called Solvaset, is made by Walthers, and is very strong. I have applied it to thin decals and had them roll into a ball. I put some on a decal once and actually heard the decal scream (just kidding). I sometimes use Solvaset on thicker decals, but it can also work on decals that are already on a model and dry. Be cautious about getting it on the paint, as I have heard some modelers say it can mar the finish. Also, I never work on models or computers after 9 pm, I tend to make too many stupid mistakes when I am tired.

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    Csaba said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    "Also, I never work on models or computers after 9 pm, I tend to make too many stupid mistakes when I am tired."

    George, @gblair I had to laugh when I looked at the time now - 9pm here. Usually this is the time when I can sit down and start doing something else than taking care of the kids, household and preparing for the next day. Unfortunately this will be the setup for the foreseeable future.
    I bought a set of Mr. Mark Softer and Setter long time ago, and still using that for the thicker decals. I heard about Solvaset earlier, but so far I managed to solve my problems with the Mr. Mark products.
    Spiros, @fiveten thanks for the information, good to know that those chemicals are indeed dangerous. Maybe one day I will try them on a test piece for fun.

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    Csaba said 3 years ago:

    I am working on the final details before assembly. Yay!
    I painted a few small details on the plane, and prepared the last, tiny components. I have a Russian Po-2 pilots operating handbook somewhere, I should look up why it has so many Venturi tubes. Two of them seems to be a combined Venturi-Pitot tube, the other smaller one a simple Venturi tube. I guess the two combined ones are for the speed/altimeter/VSI on the two instrument panels, but I wonder what the third one did. Did the Po-2 had basic gyro instruments by default, and that tube was used to drive those instruments? It would be an interesting thing to investigate, since I still have two other Po-2 kits waiting for assembly. I want to modify one of those kits as single seat crop duster, and I have seen on the reference photos, that some details (such as the number of these tubes) are different compared to the standard version.

    I have to replace the parallel struts of the horizontal stabiliser with a metal or plastic starch built version. These were poorly made in the kit, and was impossible to clean without breaking them. Luckily, I have a lot of styrene and metal rods in my spares box.

    Memories are also coming back, the first time I have seen a Po-2 flying was in 1996. Our local flying club hosted the European championships in glider aerobatics, and we organised a small GA airshow on the last day. All of us volunteered for working during the championship and the airshow, and we had great time, living in the airport for two weeks, and working from early morning until the late evening. The organisers managed to get some cool GA planes for the final airshow, so we could see an An-2 towing 5 gliders simultaneously, a glider lifted up by a helicopter and released a few hundred meters high to make aerobatics, and a few classic planes as well - including a Po-2 in flying conditions. I remember that I really wanted to take a few photos of it, so I asked the guys to cover me for 15 minutes and ran to the runway when we heard the typical sound of the old plane approaching. Well, I was used to faster planes, and I managed to get to runway way before the Po-2 arrived… 🙂 It was much slower than I expected.
    However, it was great to see it in real life. It was surprisingly agile in the air, despite its age and modest engine power. I can try to find the old photos, but I am not sure if I have them in digitalised format.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years ago:

    It will be really interesting to find the use of the third venturi tube, my friend @pikofix! Those are little details I love in modeling (and hate it when discovered too late, ie wrong details for the version I build 🙂 ).
    I m sure the flying Po-2 would be quite a sight!
    Looking forward to your final details and assembly!