A big thank you first of all must go to Matthew for making this happen and getting the Retrieval Boat produced on a limited run for all us 'MI' out there that have wanted to get our hands on them (I am sure I am not alone!)
Well, my little trio of Fleet dropships arrived this morning in fine form (big thanks Matthew for the heads up). They were in excellent condition and to be perfectly honest the casting quality considerably exceeded my expectations.
There is of course some cleaning up to do on the parts which is entirely expected with them being produced in resin. So, with that in mind I thought I would start a kind of diary running right here where I can pass on any tips (or mishaps!), so that the rest of you can avoid my mistakes (or benefit from my successes should they happen) :wink:
I will include pictures as I go (weather and wife permitting), but for now a few words of caution:
Stage 1: Preparation
The parts, for mine anyway, were in excellent condition. However, for those of you that might not work with resin all that much there are a couple of housekeeping tasks that needed to be taken care of first.
1. Wash ALL of the parts thoroughly in warm soapy water before you do anything else. I cannot emphasise this enough. This particular model I found to be especially tacky on the surface with what I am assuming was release agent from the casting. Either way, it needs to be cleaned off.
You may find, as I did that this is not enough to remove it entirely and after they have dried, some of the parts still have a slightly 'tacky' feel to them. You can help reduce this further by giving them a gentle wipe with a cloth with either some acrylic thinner on it (such as Tamiya X20a) or better still, save your pennies and use some of the wife/girlfriends/own nail polish remover (the former in my case!). This will help and does not damage the surface of the resin.
2. Once cleaned as best as you can, repeat the start of stage 1 and wash the whole lot again in warm soapy water, giving it a good scrub with a toothbrush (NOT the one you are using on your teeth obviously!)
Stage 2: More Preparation
Check all the parts for excess resin, there will always be some, even if only from where the resin was injected and expelled from the mould. The resin used seems quite robust unlike the softer polyeurethane resin used by Forgeworld. It does however produce a lot of dust when cut or filed and believe me you do not want to breathe that crap in (you can trust me on this subject!).
I highly recommend wearing a filter mask for this stage.
To clean the excess resin away I used a modellers razor saw to remove the bulk along the two wings and the engine pieces, then finished with a flat file. Note: there are a couple of small grooves on the underside of the two outer beams that come out from the main body. These are different sizes to help identify which side each beam should go on as they should match up.
Once all the parts were cleaned and filed .... they needed a wash again to remove the fine dust that had got stuck in any of the detailing (I bet you can see a theme emerging here!)
The good news though was that was it for the prep.
Next stage: Assembly (coming)
Best regards
Carl
Well, my little trio of Fleet dropships arrived this morning in fine form (big thanks Matthew for the heads up). They were in excellent condition and to be perfectly honest the casting quality considerably exceeded my expectations.
There is of course some cleaning up to do on the parts which is entirely expected with them being produced in resin. So, with that in mind I thought I would start a kind of diary running right here where I can pass on any tips (or mishaps!), so that the rest of you can avoid my mistakes (or benefit from my successes should they happen) :wink:
I will include pictures as I go (weather and wife permitting), but for now a few words of caution:
Stage 1: Preparation
The parts, for mine anyway, were in excellent condition. However, for those of you that might not work with resin all that much there are a couple of housekeeping tasks that needed to be taken care of first.
1. Wash ALL of the parts thoroughly in warm soapy water before you do anything else. I cannot emphasise this enough. This particular model I found to be especially tacky on the surface with what I am assuming was release agent from the casting. Either way, it needs to be cleaned off.
You may find, as I did that this is not enough to remove it entirely and after they have dried, some of the parts still have a slightly 'tacky' feel to them. You can help reduce this further by giving them a gentle wipe with a cloth with either some acrylic thinner on it (such as Tamiya X20a) or better still, save your pennies and use some of the wife/girlfriends/own nail polish remover (the former in my case!). This will help and does not damage the surface of the resin.
2. Once cleaned as best as you can, repeat the start of stage 1 and wash the whole lot again in warm soapy water, giving it a good scrub with a toothbrush (NOT the one you are using on your teeth obviously!)
Stage 2: More Preparation
Check all the parts for excess resin, there will always be some, even if only from where the resin was injected and expelled from the mould. The resin used seems quite robust unlike the softer polyeurethane resin used by Forgeworld. It does however produce a lot of dust when cut or filed and believe me you do not want to breathe that crap in (you can trust me on this subject!).
I highly recommend wearing a filter mask for this stage.
To clean the excess resin away I used a modellers razor saw to remove the bulk along the two wings and the engine pieces, then finished with a flat file. Note: there are a couple of small grooves on the underside of the two outer beams that come out from the main body. These are different sizes to help identify which side each beam should go on as they should match up.
Once all the parts were cleaned and filed .... they needed a wash again to remove the fine dust that had got stuck in any of the detailing (I bet you can see a theme emerging here!)
The good news though was that was it for the prep.
Next stage: Assembly (coming)
Best regards
Carl
