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M-497 "Black Beetle" - Jet powered train


gavino200

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I think you may be thinking about using future/futura floor shine on clear parts. It coats them (it’s basically a clear water based acrylic) and can help clear up any small scratches or scrapes. It also is said to prevent CA glue fogging. I’ve never tested it as I’m a little skeptical as the ca glue should bond and set up on the plastic or clear acrylic coat. But one of those things to test.

 

I have played with it some on clear and painted parts and it does help make things look very polished, but the issue I have using it for that it makes things look very polished which a plane canopy may be but most clear windows and bits on structures are not. What it does look good for is for trains like the rapit that are buffed out to a shiny gloss.

 

cheers

 

jeff

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No favorite brands of epoxy. Gorilla glues are good but you pay for the name brands.

 

ive never been a fan of the syringe dispensers as they have hardened up on me. Cute but more of a pain to me to use than just squeezing out fro two tubes.

 

jeff

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10 hours ago, cteno4 said:

I think you may be thinking about using future/futura floor shine on clear parts. It coats them (it’s basically a clear water based acrylic) and can help clear up any small scratches or scrapes. It also is said to prevent CA glue fogging. I’ve never tested it as I’m a little skeptical as the ca glue should bond and set up on the plastic or clear acrylic coat. But one of those things to test.

 

I have played with it some on clear and painted parts and it does help make things look very polished, but the issue I have using it for that it makes things look very polished which a plane canopy may be but most clear windows and bits on structures are not. What it does look good for is for trains like the rapit that are buffed out to a shiny gloss.

 

 

It would be interesting to try it on Gavins front shroud thingy -- on the inside on the clear glass parts.  After they are inserted and glued in, coat them, and then use the CA on the resin piece to glue it to the shell and see if the coating helped against fogging on the inside where the fumes could gather.

 

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I would test first to see if it’s true on scrap. Once really glued on there it’s going to be really hard to remove. Some other futura tests are on my list, I need to pick up some scrap passenger cars to test it out on for my rapit to give it that heavy clearcoat gloss it has. Want to see how it looks on the windows to see if I need to coat it w.o the windows in. After I can torture the test with CA fog!

 

CA glue can even put that light fog on painted surfaces under the right circumstances (I’ve seen it along the edge of some joints), I think you just notice it a lot more on the clear as CA dries a bit white/clear. It will really grab oily fingerprints (more moisture trapped there so you get it to react well on the fingerprint). It’s the big CSI trick to get prints, especially off odder surfaces just fog it with CA glue and they show up! Preserves them nicely then as well.

 

Low humidity helps as you dont have much surface moisture so less chance thenfog can settle and react before it dissipates. Air circulation helps as well to not build up a local fog concentration. Folks that use a lot of CA glue to seal woodworking bits say in dry places like the us southwest they can leave a jar open a long time w.o any curing.

 

Epoxy should work great here if he gets it mixed well. It would probably be the strongest bond on that sort of joint and it fills the cracks in well!

 

jeff

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7 hours ago, chadbag said:

 

 

It would be interesting to try it on Gavins front shroud thingy -- on the inside on the clear glass parts.  After they are inserted and glued in, coat them, and then use the CA on the resin piece to glue it to the shell and see if the coating helped against fogging on the inside where the fumes could gather.

 

 

Nope. The windows are easily removed. But In any case they're just pieces of plexi-glass. Easy to test. Just put some CA in a small box and place a small piece of plexi over it. 

 

 

Do you have a link for the product?

 

Edited by gavino200
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Window frames reconstituted using plastic putty. I'm not sure this would be robust enough for a permanent solution But It's probably the sort of technique used in making the resin cast in the first place. I'd like to try making my own resin pieces in future. In fact using the purchased resin pieces on this project is sort of cheating. But I've got to start somewhere. Baby steps.

 

The frames are not quite thin enough yet. A little more filing is needed.

 

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Edited by gavino200
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Nicely repaired Gavin!

 

Now called pledge floor gloss - original, its plain old future floor shine acrylic floor wax. You can get it at Walmart. Pledge took over future, but sposta be the same. I had a very old bottle of futura and I finally dumped it, but some think it can last forever. I have a fairly new bottle of pledge to play with but have not had time to experiment lately.

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Pledge-Floor-Gloss-Original-27-Fluid-Ounces/15136693

 

cheers

 

jeff

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34 minutes ago, serotta1972 said:

That's a beast of a train you have there.  

 

It sure is. It's one of the ugliest locos I've ever seen. Maybe the ugliest!

Edited by gavino200
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First attempt at skirting. Close but no cigar. I messed up the cutting at the first wheel well. But it was good enough for a test. I think I'll file about half a mm off the front mask to give more ground clearance. I doesn't snag, but it's too close for comfort.

 

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I had another go at it. The wheel wells aren't perfect. But I'm going to try to adjust and repair them to get them smoother before I think about doing this again. For me this is a difficult process. The chopping tools turned out not to be precise enough. Also, the only marking method that worked was scoring with a blade, shading the cut with pencil or felt and wiping away the excess. To make the bevel I scored the underside twice with a blade and bent the styrene along the line. I did the wheel well cuts by hand. Hopefully I can clean them up a bit. 

 

That's it for now. It took me all day and I'm exhausted.

 

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Edited by gavino200
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A little working with a cylinder file and some 2000 grit sandpaper and I think it's smooth enough. I love working with styrene. This is only a provisional fitting. I'll join the panels better on the final fitting. First I need to wait for the replacement front mask, or definitively fix the front window frames if a replacement doesn't arrive.

 

In the meantime I'm going to use the failed skirting pieces on the practice shell to work on masking technique and prepare making tape for the final painting.

 

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Edited by gavino200
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Finally received my replacement parts. This time they've been cast out of a slightly different material. The cast quality is better. Oddly, the seller did a better job finishing the jets than last time, but did a much less thorough finish on the mask. No big deal. 

 

Now to drag this project over the finish line.

 

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Edited by gavino200
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I did a little work on this today. I finally succeeded with the "art of mixing epoxy". However the epoxy came undone after a few days. It would probably help if I roughed up the plastic a bit. I did that but I moved to using CA. It's effective so far and didn't fog up the plexiglass as I feared. 

 

I had to make new skirting. The first pair of skirts have been tested and removed too many times and are a bit beat up now. Fortunately I can use them and the old nose piece on the practice shell to practice painting and decal placement. I'm going to try to make some kind of jig to help with bending the skirting at the fold line in a more even fashion.

 

The production piece is downstairs on the layout. The nose is adjusted and tested and clears all tracks and junctions. 

 

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Edited by gavino200
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I gave the glued nose piece on the practice shell a stress test. I was able to break the nose free with a decent bit of force. It's probably fairly safe but I wasn't fully happy with it. So I went for a "belt and suspenders" approach and added two lag screws to fix the nose on more securely. It's  strongly secured now. 

 

Next step: painting and decal application on the practice shell. Then paint/decals on the project shell.

 

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Masked up and ready for paint. I'm trying kiha's technique of painting first with the base color so that any bleed through will be the color of the surroundings, rather than then masked color. 

I'll probably try to get the painting done this weekend and leave the decals for another time. 

 

A couple of things I need to research. 

1. How long do I need to leave one coat of acrylic paint dry/cure before painting another layer over it (no handling)

2. I need to learn how much I can or need to thin clear coat, and what solvent is best. 

3. I need to watch some YouTube videos about decal application to try to avoid making unnecessary basic errors.

 

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Painting is complete. I'm trying to learn now how to clear coat. I'm using the practice shell to experiment with. First attempt was not successful. I'm using Vallejo gloss varnish mixed 8 to 2 with Tamiya thinner. I think maybe these products might not be compatible. The clear coat congeals very easily, so it's hard to use on low flow. I'm going to order some Tamiya clear coat before going any further so that at least I'll know the products are compatible.

 

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The clear coat is on. It's not perfect but hopefully it's good enough. I'm going to leave it cure and attempt the decals next week.

 

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The decals are on. The logos and lettering were quite straightforward. The black pin striping however was extremely hard. I had to do some small touch ups and freehand part for the curved lining with a 7-0 brush and Tamiya black paint. It's not perfect but I think it's acceptable. I'll leave it a week and then satin finish clear coat it. 

 

I'll also use the spare jet set and shell to experiment with methods for fixing the jets to the top of the cab.

 

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