Well after a 2 hr session this morning (its my day off and i was up early!) the majority of the decal stripes are on. Theres a few more to go on once ive painted the canopy framing ,plus all the tiny stencils,roundels ,serials etc. Theres a few areas that need a touch up where the decals dont wrap around edges etc and the decal over the open doorway obviously needs to be cut off. Once all this is done theres not a lot left , mainly the wheels,rotors and tiny bits like the steps, grab handles and aerials. cheers tony
Latest progress on the puma- the canopy has been painted by hand , not a quick job as I had to do the frame lines 4 times , one in grey to give the interior colour ,then one in white as an undercoat for the orange followed by 2 coats of orange and various black stripes. Most of the tiny bits have been added too such as the steps , aerials ,tailskid ,winch hook and not forgetting the wheels. I was faced with a bit of a problem with the engine air filters above the cockpit , they are orange but have 6 or 7 mesh vents round them. How to paint this at this tiny size had me stumped so I decided to represent them using strips of black decal . I always save any bits of decal sheets that have black lines round the outside (only if covered with carrier film , some arent and are no good ) as these can be useful for all sorts, the larger Airfix sheets used to have a nice black line all round the edge. I cut them to size and put 7 of these on each filter , not easy as theyre only 1mm wide and 4mm long , and finished off by painting 2 grey lines across each one and painting the end of the filters to give the effect of the round baffle. I also added the cut pieces of cotton bud stem for the exhausts . Next job is to give it a matt coat then add the final bits - tailplane ,engine filters , aerials and the 'H' shaped one on the nose , with paintbrush bristles replacing the too thick plastic aerials. Anyhoo heres some pics cheers tony
Latest progress, although it doesnt seem like much is happening due to the last bits all being tiny and fiddly!! The airframe has had 2 coats of matt varnish and a couple of aerials added , along with the air filters. Ive added some pipework to the main rotor head from fuse wire , and this and the tail rotor have had the different coloured stripes painted on (I presume these are for re-assembly after maintenance , to make sure the rotor blades go back where they came from? maybe someone can enlighten us , Rick perhaps?) I can confirm that i really am losing my marbles as Ive just spent an hour making 3 windscreen wipers from nylon paintbrush bristles , and these have been added (If I say so myself they do look good though!) I am going to make a small base ,similar to the one i did for the Kamov Ka 15 with a concrete and tarmac apron , as in pic 2 of this excellent walkaround http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/paul_tosney/puma_hc1/index.php?Page=2 any ways here are some pics , cheers tony