Monday, February 2, 2026

Estes Semi-Scale Saturn V, Kit #K-39, Part 28, Oops! I Screwed Up!

I usually have good results using the Scotch tape masks. Not this time!
The instructions said to "use a very fine brush" to paint the areas where the system tunnels are into the black areas. I decided to mask for the black areas.
 

Scotch tape was used for the borders of the black areas. The rest of the larger white areas were covered with brown tape and copy paper. 

I got paint bleeds at the tunnel ends. A glue fillet would have blocked the the paint. The off-white cardstock absorbed the black paint.
Bits of the cardstock wraps were torn off when the tape was lifted. I was careful - I removed some of the tape tackiness before sticking it on the model by pressing and removing it on my pantleg. 
I didn't apply glue fillets on the long system tunnels. The side  edges weren't smooth and the paint got underneath.

On the left you can see where the cardstock was lifted.
The mask in the right side picture came out okay. 

I'm not happy with the way it turned out. There's really no way to fix it unless I pulled off the old cardstock and tunnel details and tried again. I won't be doing that.
 
After the problems cutting the fin slots and this bad mask, this build is a "bust". 
Another glitch in a future post.

No comments:

Post a Comment