Progress status of my entry, AFV Club M10 tank destroy.

Zsolt,
Your Chaffee looks promising. I'd hate to not see it complete. If you can't meet the deadline, I will give everyone a 2 week extension.

Gaz

Zsolt. Nice work on the Chaffee so far. I hope you can finish in time.

Tim, a decal flight deck was not what I expected. What a great idea. They all look fantastic. The red and white stripe section just calls out for a sign 'crash qui'

Tim,
A decal for the flight deck will solve a lot of issues. My personal favourite Regia Marina marking is the red and white stripes.

Gaz

AAAARRRRRRRGHH!

Having carefully trimmed the Alps-printed decal from its white background, I placed it in warm water... and the damned thing started to disintigrate! I’ve used these decals with perfect results before, but I noticed that this one had a skein of micro cracks, and tiny bits just started falling off even before I slid it from the backing paper. I applied it to the deck anyway, but it looked so sad I immediately took it off.


I’ve written for a replacement...

Tim,

Bummer. Hope you get a replacement quickly.

Mark

Wow. Certainly not something you want to happen Tim. Lucky it was not when it had set to the deck. Hope the replacement arrives soon.

Thanks, Peter.

Dan Arute of Flight Deck Decals responded to my plea about the defective Aquila deck marking with a free replacement decal - much appreciated! I applied it yesterday evening with the utmost care... soaked it in warm distilled water just long enough to loosen it from the backing, slid it off gently with a soft, wide brush to the glossed surface. As before it fit perfectly so no adjustment was required, and I didn’t use any setting solution.


It was definitely better this time, but those nasty little white spots still appeared on the deck!



Both decals had started out perfectly printed, but I noticed that the water compromised the delicate inks which started to wrinkle, crack, and flake away almost immediately when immersed.

I am experimenting with remnants of the first failed decal, cutting out little squares of the undamaged areas. I’ll try tonight to use them as patches to fix the second deck. I sure hope this works, because despite difficulties, I really love the look of this deck!

Really sorry to see that again Tim. Maybe this is a bad batch run and replacements will all be the same? Maybe Dan needs to check his supplier.

If it doesn't work out and you have one of the originals left, try spraying lacquer on the decal first to seal it. Let it dry thoroughly. Then settle the decal on a wet kitchen sponge instead of immersing it. Hopefully that will hold the ink together as you transfer it.

Getting ready to hit Anzio Annie with paint in a bit. I have decided to give a base of dark gray, followed by an overspray of dark yellow to mostly cover the gray from visible angles. All the period pics of Annie/Leopold I have seen do not show the dark brown patches as on the Leopold now. If anything, the areas of gray paint around the railway markings indicate to me the gun was gray (which it would have been) and was given an appropriate color for Italy before being sent to Anzio. But no dark brown.

I won't be replicating the framework for attaching camo as I neither have time nor good photo references. Also not a masochist.

Tim,
Sorry about your decal trouble. I find it interesting that you use distilled water. And I like Peter’s suggestion to use a spice.

Gaz

Shell,
I like the way you have divined the right colours for Annie! Can’t wait to see.

Gaz

These are some of the pics I am using from various sources:









Last pic is shortly after her capture; you can see how the stencils on the carriages show gray underneath and look as if they were masked off when the light color was applied.

Thanks Peter. The clear coat and sponge approach sounds smart, and I may try it if I get a third deck to try... but the patch attempts on the second one have been fairly successful so far; perhaps I can divert attention a bit more with airplanes on the deck and pass off the remaining spottiness as weathering!

Gary, I always use distilled water when applying acrylic paints or decals just in case the minerals in tap water might cause problems. I don't know if it is necessary, but at least it is one more variable that I can control!

Based. A little light, but it will be covered by the dark yellow.

Looks sweet, Shell!

Gaz

Success! My efforts to patch the dings on the Aquila’s flight deck with parts of the first decal worked just fine with the colors matching precisely and the seams nearly invisible. Yes! The remaining small white dots are almost imperceptible – I can pass them off as wear marks on a well-used flight deck. With the aircraft aboard they will be unnoticeable.

Speaking of aircraft, the kit came with ten airplanes, which are miniscule but still clearly recognizable as Reggiane Re.2000 fighters. Go GHQ!


I painted them Tamiya Field Grey with Gull Grey canopies. The fuselage bands were tiny strips sliced from the white sections of some spare decals.

Next step: clear coat, aircraft aboard, and done!

Yes, Annie is looking sweet Shell.

Glad the fix worked for you Tim. Nice set of 10 x 'fly' or are they even that big!

Tim.

What! Roman axes on the wings of those planes LOL!

Nice work.

Mark

Nice carrier planes, Tim! I was w0ndering if there were any with the kit.

Thems is tiny!!

Shell,
Looking good. I always wondered about the paint scheme myself. It seems the dark brown was applied when it was shipped stateside. That's my theory.

Tim,
Great work as always. I need to find some of my GHQ ships from the 1980's. We stopped gaming after we graduated from HS so I still have some, if I remember correctly, in the blister packs.

Take care,
Don "Lakota"

UGH

Unbelievably, after having gingerly applied the second deck decal and painstakingly patched it to an almost perfect appearance, it all went wrong again – this time under the airbrushed Future clear coat.



As I gently misted the clear coat to protect the deck, pale green cracks appeared as the decal inks apparently reacted to the acrylic Future – the same which I had used successfully on the Ryujo build using another of Dan Arute’s decals.

What is strange is that it appears to be a wholly different issue from the earlier experience of the ink flaking away leaving white spots. In any event, this time the problem is even worse and the decal cannot be retrieved.

Oh, well. Seen from a low angle, the little carrier still looks pretty good.



I'm calling this one finished.

Tim,
Wow! I can't imagine how much trouble a guy can have with two different decals. And turning green...that's the weirdest.

FWIW it looks great from the side!

Gaz

I need to practice more painting on more of the markings and avoiding decals whenever possible.

I have a Hasegawa N1-K2 George that is almost done except for one decal; the yellow fuselage band decided to be a bastard. Had lots of Tamiya decals come apart.

Speaking of which, I will not be able to finish Annie quite as she looked as I 1) misplaced the decals, 2) found them and discovered they are missing the markings for the carriages, and 3) the Peddinghaus set may not arrive in time for the deadline. Since this really only affects the carriages, I only have to retouch those when I get the decals; the gun itself will essentially be finished. Also not finishing the base completely (just assembling it) as I want to merge it with another Dragon rail kit I have to consolidate my display area, as I also have to accommodate a number of Trumpeter trains as well.

Oh crap, Tim. How many black cats have crossed your path, ladders have you walked under, etc.... you can't get a break here.