Revell 1/350 Tirpitz WIP - PE question

[kyledehart5]

Well I’m sorry to see this happen. I totally agree about the decal film. I don’t even keep mine near the bench. It’s stashed in a drawer after a near miss where I noticed just in time. Still can’t wait to see it when you get back to it.

[moparmadness]

Hello everyone. Quick question for the ship experts. This particular kit came with a wood deck veneer. Is this an accurate color for the deck, or were the DKM ships stained a darker color?

[themongoose]

That looks pretty good. What I’ve learned is that the wood aged and more than anything the color depended on the holy stoning and when it was done. It tended to grey over time as well.
Here’s what I did with the H-Class and Tirpitz





Back in minutes with the Tirpitz. Didn’t have it in recent photo history.

[themongoose]

[moparmadness]

Nov 20, 2024 22:09:56 GMT -5 themongoose said:

That looks pretty good. What I’ve learned is that the wood aged and more than anything the color depended on the holy stoning and when it was done. It tended to grey over time as well.
Here’s what I did with the H-Class and Tirpitz





Back in minutes with the Tirpitz. Didn’t have it in recent photo history.

Thanks for the info! I guess I’ll keep it as-is since I won’t be weathering this one.

[moparmadness]

Nov 20, 2024 22:14:27 GMT -5 themongoose said:

I never knew they had a 3 color camo livery.

[themongoose]

Nov 20, 2024 22:52:34 GMT -5 moparmadness said:

Nov 20, 2024 22:14:27 GMT -5 themongoose said:

I never knew they had a 3 color camo livery.

I think that Tirpitz  had the most camo schemes ever in the German navy. She was actually painted with a cityscape at one point in time. This one was when she was in the fjord in Norway before she was sunk.

[madhatter]

Nov 13, 2024 18:23:15 GMT -5 moparmadness said:

So I stripped the paint down to the plastic, I’m just going to repaint it. I couldn’t get over the cracked paint. I know that’s the only thing I’ll notice every time I look at the ship. But, I’m gonna put this one on the back burner for a little while. This episode burnt my Tirpitz mojo out, because painting that hull took hours and hours. I’ll get it going again, but I’m too aggravated with it at the moment. I might shift to my 1/350 Dragon Scharnhorst lol.

So the big lesson here is CHECK and RECHECK the chemicals you apply to your model before you use them!

crappola - I didn't see this post until now, so ignore my previous statement of being able to fix it without issue as clearly, there's been some.

Its funny you mention the Dragon Scharnhorst as I too have that kit in an unfinished state and even better, its due to paint issues. However, mine are a result of using the wrong colour and thankfully not as a result of chemical reactions - although that's also happened to me in the past.

Hope you can come back to this one day soon

[moparmadness]

Nov 20, 2024 23:19:49 GMT -5 madhatter said:

Nov 13, 2024 18:23:15 GMT -5 moparmadness said:

So I stripped the paint down to the plastic, I’m just going to repaint it. I couldn’t get over the cracked paint. I know that’s the only thing I’ll notice every time I look at the ship. But, I’m gonna put this one on the back burner for a little while. This episode burnt my Tirpitz mojo out, because painting that hull took hours and hours. I’ll get it going again, but I’m too aggravated with it at the moment. I might shift to my 1/350 Dragon Scharnhorst lol.

So the big lesson here is CHECK and RECHECK the chemicals you apply to your model before you use them!

crappola - I didn't see this post until now, so ignore my previous statement of being able to fix it without issue as clearly, there's been some.

Its funny you mention the Dragon Scharnhorst as I too have that kit in an unfinished state and even better, its due to paint issues. However, mine are a result of using the wrong colour and thankfully not as a result of chemical reactions - although that's also happened to me in the past.

Hope you can come back to this one day soon

That Scharn looks like it’s going to be a great kit to work on.

[tcoat]

Nov 20, 2024 23:06:02 GMT -5 themongoose said:

Nov 20, 2024 22:52:34 GMT -5 moparmadness said:

I never knew they had a 3 color camo livery.

I think that Tirpitz  had the most camo schemes ever in the German navy. She was actually painted with a cityscape at one point in time. This one was when she was in the fjord in Norway before she was sunk.

Yeah when modeling it you really need to ask yourself "What time of what day do I want to do". That crew must have been so sick and tired of paint.

[moparmadness]

Planning the sequence of operations for this project is brain numbing. Question for the ship experts, is it better to put a primer over the photo etch frets before I glue any PE on, or wait until everything is assembled?

[tcoat]

Nov 21, 2024 14:00:16 GMT -5 moparmadness said:

Planning the sequence of operations for this project is brain numbing. Question for the ship experts, is it better to put a primer over the photo etch frets before I glue any PE on, or wait until everything is assembled?

Even the best primers struggle to hold onto etch so I always paint after glue or else the paint seems to just flake off and you end up with nicely glued flakes. You may get away with flat etch pieces but even the slightest flex can crack and flake off the paint.

[moparmadness]

Nov 21, 2024 14:30:41 GMT -5 tcoat said:

Nov 21, 2024 14:00:16 GMT -5 moparmadness said:

Planning the sequence of operations for this project is brain numbing. Question for the ship experts, is it better to put a primer over the photo etch frets before I glue any PE on, or wait until everything is assembled?

Even the best primers struggle to hold onto etch so I always paint after glue or else the paint seems to just flake off and you end up with nicely glued flakes. You may get away with flat etch pieces but even the slightest flex can crack and flake off the paint.

Thank you.  That's a good point.  I've heard "etching primer" puts a bite into the metal and takes some abuse, but I've also heard its pretty thick and can eliminate small detail.

[themongoose]

Nov 21, 2024 14:00:16 GMT -5 moparmadness said:

Planning the sequence of operations for this project is brain numbing. Question for the ship experts, is it better to put a primer over the photo etch frets before I glue any PE on, or wait until everything is assembled?

Here’s the most intensive I get with PE - soak the sheet in apple cider vinegar for roughly a day, scrub gently with a soft bristle toothbrush once or twice while it soaks, rinse well and pat dry, if you want to paint it right away, then blow dry it, decant automotive etching primer into your airbrush, spray a light coat over the photo, let that dry for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on what it says on the can, then spray a light coat of the color you need for the ship. This will have pretty good adhesion you can bend it, and you can get away with placing it once or twice without the paint coming off. You can’t scrub on it or end up with a pair of tweezers sliding around on it. Then apply with a couple thin sections of PVA glue to hold it in place. From there you can apply CA. If you don’t want to use the PVA glue then use thin strips of tape to hold it in place. When you want to remove the tape, you just put a little bit of the  CA accelerator on it, and the tape falls right off without affecting your paint. The absolute key to this whole process is super thin coats of both the etch primer and the color coat. Usually the edge primer I’ll only do one coat. The color coat I will do two very thin coats to get coverage. Then if I need to do a little touchup once it’s on the model it’s not overdone and the paint isn’t making the PE look thick 

for parts with lots of bends and glue joints I will do the bending and gluing before etch primer if it’s something I can put on tape or hold with an alligator clip.

when I just have a small photo edge sheet for like a cockpit, then I just go ahead and spray it with etch primer, then I apply the color coat, and then I’ll do any bending and placement on the model. Usually there’s a little bit of touchup required for this.

[moparmadness]

Nov 21, 2024 18:31:28 GMT -5 themongoose said:

Nov 21, 2024 14:00:16 GMT -5 moparmadness said:

Planning the sequence of operations for this project is brain numbing. Question for the ship experts, is it better to put a primer over the photo etch frets before I glue any PE on, or wait until everything is assembled?

Here’s the most intensive I get with PE - soak the sheet in apple cider vinegar for roughly a day, scrub gently with a soft bristle toothbrush once or twice while it soaks, rinse well and pat dry, if you want to paint it right away, then blow dry it, decant automotive etching primer into your airbrush, spray a light coat over the photo, let that dry for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on what it says on the can, then spray a light coat of the color you need for the ship. This will have pretty good adhesion you can bend it, and you can get away with placing it once or twice without the paint coming off. You can’t scrub on it or end up with a pair of tweezers sliding around on it. Then apply with a couple thin sections of PVA glue to hold it in place. From there you can apply CA. If you don’t want to use the PVA glue then use thin strips of tape to hold it in place. When you want to remove the tape, you just put a little bit of the  CA accelerator on it, and the tape falls right off without affecting your paint. The absolute key to this whole process is super thin coats of both the etch primer and the color coat. Usually the edge primer I’ll only do one coat. The color coat I will do two very thin coats to get coverage. Then if I need to do a little touchup once it’s on the model it’s not overdone and the paint isn’t making the PE look thick 

when I just have a small photo edge sheet for like a cockpit, then I just go ahead and spray it with etch primer, then I apply the color coat, and then I’ll do any bending and placement on the model. Usually there’s a little bit of touchup required for this.

I like the idea of decanting it into an airbrush. That way, I would have much more control over the amount of spray. My concern with the hull is, I’ll have it repainted, have the wood veneer deck put on, and then there’s a few photo etch details that need to go on. Those will definitely have to be pre-painted on the fret. Sounds like that would be a good time to use that etching primer. Other photo etch components I will add during construction then paint when I have a complete assembly ready to go, like a turret, superstructure, etc…

[moparmadness]

Nov 21, 2024 18:37:23 GMT -5 moparmadness said:

Nov 21, 2024 18:31:28 GMT -5 themongoose said:

Here’s the most intensive I get with PE - soak the sheet in apple cider vinegar for roughly a day, scrub gently with a soft bristle toothbrush once or twice while it soaks, rinse well and pat dry, if you want to paint it right away, then blow dry it, decant automotive etching primer into your airbrush, spray a light coat over the photo, let that dry for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on what it says on the can, then spray a light coat of the color you need for the ship. This will have pretty good adhesion you can bend it, and you can get away with placing it once or twice without the paint coming off. You can’t scrub on it or end up with a pair of tweezers sliding around on it. Then apply with a couple thin sections of PVA glue to hold it in place. From there you can apply CA. If you don’t want to use the PVA glue then use thin strips of tape to hold it in place. When you want to remove the tape, you just put a little bit of the  CA accelerator on it, and the tape falls right off without affecting your paint. The absolute key to this whole process is super thin coats of both the etch primer and the color coat. Usually the edge primer I’ll only do one coat. The color coat I will do two very thin coats to get coverage. Then if I need to do a little touchup once it’s on the model it’s not overdone and the paint isn’t making the PE look thick 

when I just have a small photo edge sheet for like a cockpit, then I just go ahead and spray it with etch primer, then I apply the color coat, and then I’ll do any bending and placement on the model. Usually there’s a little bit of touchup required for this.

I like the idea of decanting it into an airbrush. That way, I would have much more control over the amount of spray. My concern with the hull is, I’ll have it repainted, have the wood veneer deck put on, and then there’s a few photo etch details that need to go on. Those will definitely have to be pre-painted on the fret. Sounds like that would be a good time to use that etching primer. Other photo etch components I will add during construction then paint when I have a complete assembly ready to go, like a turret, superstructure, etc…

Also, what is the benefit of soaking it an apple cider vinegar? Does it rough up the surface for the paint to stick better?

[themongoose]

The acidity starts etching the metal just like the primer. apple cider is a weak acid. I think it preps the metal so the etch really gets into the metal and grips better. I tell my kids not to touch the bottle on my work bench 😆