Moebius Models Flying Sub 1/32nd Scale


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i'm tellin' ya!...
it's A Frame Up And it's Full Of Holes!
Welcome back troops and troopettes.
Another day, another headache in the hellhole...dontchaknow.
So then, to begin the nitty gritty stuff in no particular order, it's the internal framework thingumydowhatsit.
So parts located, unceremoniously chopped from the sprue and given a bath.
These be they...

Nicely moulded thingies except for the inevitable dip hole problem.
I do believe the sorta proper term is something like moulding discs.
if I recall correctly, these are the marks made by the rod ends that assist in pushing the plastic out of the tooling.
An unfortunate side effect of injection moulding but a necessary part of the process.
Dealing with the wee buggers is also necessary on parts that are going to be in plain view.
Like this lot.

So then, first is the obvious filler application for the dips and leaving the ones sticking above the surface well alone.

So how to make these things go away.
Well seeing as all the discs are in areas that are not easy to get at, i'll introduce you to my saving grace...Riffler files!

Or to put it another way, double ended needle files with a bend in them.

Now with only a small amount of faffing about we go from the before to the after in short order.



Now one wee tip for those who run into the clogged file problem and taking down filler putty, it's a foregone conclusion you will,
The best piece of cleaning kit you can have is a small brass or steel brush.
Brass is my preference, they are also known as suede brushes.

One other thing I always keep on hand is a small jar of cellulose thinners or acetone.
By small I mean about the size of an airbrush paint jar.
Once the file gets clogged, a quick stir round in the jar, a run over with the brush, a dab on some tissue paper and presto, your back in business.

Now the frame uprights had the same disc problem but no big deal really.
Same fill/file deal but on these, some rough edges around the holes tend to appear after filing down.
A rat tail needle file given a quick spin around the hole edge sorts that.







Now the one thing about this deal, all the framework edges have to remain sharp.
So I found it best to start with the wide flat faces first to remove the mould lines.
Once sorted and smoothed with good old 400 grit and a final go over with 800 grit,
the frame upright sides were given a run across a hard rubber sanding block with some well soaked 800 grit wet and dry on it.
This polished down the sides nicely and kept the angles sharp.
One more bath to clean off the sanding gunk and good to go on the assembly.

So parts all clean and dry, floor plate dry fitted to the fuselage hull bottom and all parts dry fitted.
Fit was all good so the stick it together on a permanent basis stuff was applied.







One last job, a few nibs of filler around the center ring to clear that up then sand/clean and ready for paint.

So the paint list on the destruction sheet recommends a steel colour.
Well the paints listed are all Testors which are practically unavailable in any form on this side of the pond.
No biggie really but in the screenies and so forth, the frame appears just sort of a matt dark grey.
Ah what the hell, diving into the enamel paint stack and came out with gunmetal and medium matt grey.

Made up mix of about 80/20 of gunmetal and grey respectively and airbrushed on.



Ok, not too bad, now the little thing that seems to happen when you mix metallic's and matt paint.
Something I learned by accident a long, long time ago.
Now I like a metallic finish but not a pure metallic as such for this deal.
Something in between you might say.
Now when it's all dry it looks a bit like this.

so then just using a soft cloth or tissue, a gentle rubdown and then there's this...



Now that's the sorta thing I was going for.
Just a very slight sheen without using varnishes.
Nothing earth shattering I grant you but it's something different.

So now to the rather nice deck plate.
Colour listed for this is a blue so looking at the screen caps, seems to be a sort of mid or french blue.
Or somewhere there about's anyway.
Now there is an aftermarket decal mob that do a one piece vynil decal in metallic blue.
So nicking that idea and having some medium/dark metallic blue in a rattle can I thought, ah why not.
Dark deck, shiny and metallic.
Very irwin Allen from what I recall so off we go.

First the deck plate was given a going over with some 800 grit to make a clean and keyed surface that paint will stick to like a barmaid to a sailor on payday.
Oddly enough this showed up the nice detail on the hexagonal sections.
Then the masking up, consisting of standard masking tape lumps and a strip of Jammydog 2mm masking tape in one length around the edge.
Tamiya primer white then several coats of enamel metallic blue.
Allow to settle then pull tape.















Sharp as a razor and not a smidgen of bleed under where it matters...NiCE!

So leaving that the hell alone to dry off, time to slap a few bits together.
Namely the back bulkhead and front window frame bits on the hull/fuselage.
Now one thing showed up here, that being a slight gap both sides on the rear bulkhead.
Not a big problem though and solved, at least structurally speaking, with some 1.5mm square strip which will hold it well enough and give a backing to any filler.











Beefing it up a bit on the rear bulkhead plate is going to be a needy measure as the rear hatch will be spring loaded to allow access to the switches for lighting and charging socket for the onboard batteries.
But that's another part of this meandering tale to be told in another update.
Go easy until next time me merry mob o' modelers!


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