Model Of The Month: BSG Raptor finished!

[mcusanelli]

Greetings! Finally got some time to post some pics of my build of Revell-Fan's beautiful Colonial Raptor. The model went together like a dream! Everything fit perfectly, great instructions, no problems at all....That is, nothing attributed to the kit -It's actually a minor miracle it looks as good as it does. In my impatience to finish it, I made the mistake of sealing it with a coat of my favorite finish -Krylon Triple-Thick clear Gloss....on a humid, misty Long Island day. The whole model frosted over. Everything! Wrecked. So I tried to apply some heat with a hair dryer, and this actually worked pretty good, but not completely . So I hand brushed a bunch of coats of Future Floor Finish - I figured it fixes up lousy clear parts, and there was nothing to loose at this point. Well, it worked out great! It cleared up the finish, and made the color look really nice! The model has a semi- gloss sheen now, not correct, I know, but I generally finish most of my models with Future anyway, to preserve them. I guess time will tell if it the two finishes react to each other, but for now I'm happy. The canopy was the other screw up. It went together just fine, but I botched the touch up on the edges....So I Sharpied it solid black. The edge coloring was done with Apple Barrel and Folk Art acrylic paints mixed to match. Hope you like it! Thanks to Revell-Fan for generously giving us all these awesome models. The last shot shows paper and plastic living happily together.
Best,
Mike

[sgoti]

Sweet- So Say We All!

Nice job!! I really like what you did with the main cockpit glass, great looking craft!

[mcusanelli]

Thank you ! After I colored the canopy black, the Sharpie dried kinda glossy, and the coats of Future really made it shine. I've tried it on card models before, with horrible results, but because this thing had so much Krylon on it, it didn't hurt the paper. Good thing!

[treadhead1952]

Wow! Excellent job! Sure looks the part and I like the save you managed on the finish.

[ekuth]

Model Of The Month and Front Page.

So Says The Imperious Leader of This Forum.

[Rhaven Blaack]

You did an OUTSTANDING job. It looks even better then mine.

CONGRATULATIONS for making Model of the Month!!!

[ThunderChild]

Nice models, I also really like what you did to the canopy on the Raptor.
Congrats on MOTM!

[Revell-Fan]

WOW!!! What a great job. I'm glad that you had no problems with the kit; however, I think that the front foot is missing???

Anyway, A great build! Congratulations! A well-deserved MotM!

And thank you for presenting your model.

P.S.: Wait till the hangar bay is released!

[Danscrew]

Hé Mcusanelli..........your model is great.

Have you vaporised something on it ? Looks like it's varnish.

[mcusanelli]

Thanks guys! This is very exciting, and very appreciated. Yeah, after the screw - ups, I brushed about 5 or 6 coats of Furture ( Also called Johnson's Clear) to fix it. That's why this is so awesome, at one point I thought I'd have to trash it. Glad I didn't

Congrats and job well done! I think you might to document that finishing technique, it looks great!

[mcusanelli]

Thanks Zathros,
I seal the paper with 2 coats of Krylon Triple thick gloss, before I build, and usually, a coat after I'm finished to protect it. This time I used the same method, only thing different is the coats of Future to fix it. Just a nice soft brush to apply it, a thin coat at a time, gradually building up coats untill everything looked even. Future is amazing stuff, it 'self - levels' out and doesn't leave brush marks, and it never yellows. Only thing is, the printed model sheets have to be sealed with a non water based spray first, or they will run.....found that out the hard way! I only recommend this on a paper model as a last resort. I guess it worked so well because the paper had so much Krylon on it that the Future never made contact with the actual papers surface. It's a nice trick to keep up your sleeve to rescue a ruined finish, though! Hope this helps someone out of a modeling jam.

[BadJackDaniels]

Great job, congratulations !!!!!
When you get my enterprise NCC-1701A and start assembling it, put the walkthrough.

Originally Posted by mcusanelli

Thanks Zathros,
I seal the paper with 2 coats of Krylon Triple thick gloss, before I build, and usually, a coat after I'm finished to protect it. This time I used the same method, only thing different is the coats of Future to fix it. Just a nice soft brush to apply it, a thin coat at a time, gradually building up coats untill everything looked even. Future is amazing stuff, it 'self - levels' out and doesn't leave brush marks, and it never yellows. Only thing is, the printed model sheets have to be sealed with a non water based spray first, or they will run.....found that out the hard way! I only recommend this on a paper model as a last resort. I guess it worked so well because the paper had so much Krylon on it that the Future never made contact with the actual papers surface. It's a nice trick to keep up your sleeve to rescue a ruined finish, though! Hope this helps someone out of a modeling jam.

That is a great tidbit of information. I am trying to drum it into my head, I love the picture with the Viper next to it. I still ave the whole series on my DVR in case I need a fix.