AFV Club Valentine MkI 04/03/14 FINALLY FINISHED!!

[wbill76]

Maybe the barrel's plastic had a defect that didn't get revealed until the cleaner went to work? You should be able to find a suitable replacement metal barrel considering it's the same 2-pdr barrel used in the Matilda II, IIRC?

[Deleted]

The barrel is metal and not plastic, I have never known mr muscle to do this, however I have saved the situation by ordering a set from Eureka which gives me some tow ropes too. I actually went with the early barrel instead of the later one as most of the refs I have show that one used. So it's back on track when it arrives.

[Deleted]

Ha ha! nice one Dicky, it shouldn't take too long to arrive. Here is the damage done to the barrel, ignore the slight bend in the barrel that's me trying to get it out of the mantlet!

[danb.]

Well done old chap the Valentine is looking awesome loving the bling and the ref pics great blog so far

Dan B

[Teabone]

Nov 15, 2013 2:56:03 GMT -5 @snipersmudge said:

Well I've had a bit of a disaster with the valentine, I sprayed the model but was not happy with the colours so decided to strip it back and start again. SO using my usual method of mr muscle oven cleaner it got a liberal coating and was left for a few hours. On cleaning the paint off I found that the mr muscle had eaten away at the flipping barrel!!

Never had this happen before so am scratching my head as to why it happened. Bit of a bugger really so I'm on the hunt for a new barrel and this is in the pile of doom until I do!

Pete

Kowabunga that is very discouraging at that point in the game, not real familial with Mr. Muscle but I do know that aluminum can be very sensitive to certain chemical reactions with salt and it happens rather quickly.  If Mr. Muscle contains salt and or copper material in its makeup it could do what you are seeing.

Bones

[wouter]

sorry to read the mishap sniper...how did the Mr. Muscle work out on the etch?

I tried it once to strip my full etch Afrika Tiger I and ended up ruining the whole model (apparantly it ate away the ca glue, ending up losing a lot of the etch)

Hope you can recover things ^^

Cheers

[Deleted]

cheers guys interesting Bones i never thought of that. Wouter it didn't do anything to the etch strangely enough

[Teabone]

Nov 17, 2013 7:10:40 GMT -5 @snipersmudge said:

cheers guys interesting Bones i never thought of that. Wouter it didn't do anything to the etch strangely enough

Pete & Wouter

I had one of those Kowabunga moments just the other day, when painting resin parts I have found that the mold release like to reject paint so I have been trying to clean resin with lacquer thinner before assembly to assist the paint adhesion.  Not knowing what might affect any given material I always that a throw away piece and expose it first to check on reaction.  I got no indication the resin would be harmed so I tossed a bunch of parts in a jar with the thinner for 5 minutes and found that I had forgot about one part that had broken when removed from the casting block and I had repaired it with CA glue and found out that CA glue does not like the thinner in any way, had to dissemble the parts from the bubbled up CA glue mess.

Bones

[possum]

Valentine looks fantastic, sorry about the paint problems but I'm sure it will be as good as the build.

[Deleted]

Well the replacement barrel turned up this morning so I can now get back to the Valentine. It's a Eureka item which comes with a set of very nice tow ropes and it's an earlier type barrel. Two seconds to fit and I feel much happier now!



Now I 've just got to get the colour to my liking now.

[deafpanzer]

Yeah it looks much better now... more please? Love the rivets...

[bullardino]

The replacement barrel looks great

Now, please, don't strip it again

[Deleted]

Nov 19, 2013 10:29:46 GMT -5 bullardino said:

The replacement barrel looks great

Now, please, don't strip it again

Ha! no chance of that Luigi I promise!

[wbill76]

Nice replacement barrel, always a good thing when they go that easy.

[Deleted]

Here's the model with some paint on, I used a mix of tamiya colours for the main G3 colour. 3 parts XF62 & 2 parts XF59 for the grey I used panzer aces dark rubber and a dash of black then painted the hard edged pattern with a brush. Looks much better than my first attempt. After a gloss it was ready for decals, no problem I though but wait the model again kicked me in the delicate parts again!







The kit decals look lovely on the sheet but try and use em and you will be fighting an uphill battle. They just disintegrated before my eyes! No matter what I tried they just broke up. I just could not get them off the backing paper without disaster striking!!



So once again the model will be put away until I can find some alternative decals, sigh! who said modelling is relaxing?

[bullardino]

Oh my... I had the same experience once with the decals of a plane. I ended up reprinting them by myself.

[deafpanzer]

Decals are NOT my favorite part... often we have no control over those decals. Sorry about this but trust you will fixed easily.

Love the camo job by the way!

[robbo]

Shame about the decals as the paint job is really very good mate

[Tim Stevens]

Pete,

Thanks for the colour mix, have been trying to find a khaki green or even understand what it is! So Tammy Olive Drab and Desert Yellow. Stands to reason really.

Nice recovery on the barrel, but shame about the decals. As I am going for option C, Britain 1939 look and will have option A decals spare would you like me to send them to you? If so message me your address and I will get them off to you.

Tim

[Leon]

The replacement barrel looks aces as does the camo Pete.Hope you can get the decs sorted.

[tonylee-Rest In Peace]

Snipe my AFV Club decals were garbage with the M-40 but I pieced them back together on the model and got away with it.
When I got another AFV M-40 to convert to the M-43 I first coated the decals with Micro Decal Film and it worked like a charm.

Really nice camo work my friend.

Tony lee

[bbd468]

Hey Pete, absolutely love the paint job fella! Bloody well done sir.

[wbill76]

You can't catch a break on this one! Nice job on the paint scheme though, at least you can take comfort in that!

[TRM]

WOW..Nice work here Pete! Sad to say I have been out of it lately and have missed out on a lot of good stuff going on!! Glad I got my head out of my arse long enough to swing by!! Sorry about the decals, I am sure you will have this rectified soon for sure!!

[Deleted]

Nov 20, 2013 19:18:14 GMT -5 tonylee-Rest In Peace said:

Snipe my AFV Club decals were garbage with the M-40 but I pieced them back together on the model and got away with it.
When I got another AFV M-40 to convert to the M-43 I first coated the decals with Micro Decal Film and it worked like a charm.

Really nice camo work my friend.

Tony lee

Very good idea Tony will give it a go next time, Tim PM inbound matey!

[Teabone]

Nov 21, 2013 13:36:42 GMT -5 @snipersmudge said:

Nov 20, 2013 19:18:14 GMT -5 tonylee-Rest In Peace said:

Snipe my AFV Club decals were garbage with the M-40 but I pieced them back together on the model and got away with it.
When I got another AFV M-40 to convert to the M-43 I first coated the decals with Micro Decal Film and it worked like a charm.

Really nice camo work my friend.

Tony lee

Very good idea Tony will give it a go next time, Tim PM inbound matey!

Pete

I am not familiar with the product Tony is using for a coating but I have been able to save decals with a coat of Future before trying to apply them, suggest drying 24 hours first.

Bones

[Deleted]

Teabone cheers mate I'm testing the decals I did not use with future at the moment. Thanks to Tim I now have some replacements so if the experiment goes according to plan I will be able to decal the model in a few days.

[Tim Stevens]

Pete,

Glad to be of assistance, now get on and finish it..

Tim

[Deleted]

Well my test with spraying klear on some of the original decals didn't work so before I use the decals Tim kindly sent me I'm going to get some of that micro decal film Tony mentioned. I expect it will perform better as it's made for that purpose. So builds again on hold!

This one's really sucking the life out of me!

[Deano]

Mighty fine build and camo job Pete , gonna look great all weathered up .

Deano