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Moebius....Dragonfly SST

10K views 58 replies 15 participants last post by  WOI 
#1 · (Edited)
Fantastic Kit and Loved the show! I spent many of Saturday mornings With Jonny Quest and the gang. The kit is great, simple and easy to put together.

A Quick little review of the kit-


I know there is going to be excellent builds of this kit so I wanted to take a different approach and light mine up. Wired up some leds, one for the thruster and I will have one or two for the cockpit and window area in the fuselage.
 
#4 · (Edited)
The kit does not come with landing gear so for the after market side of things I will be doing a vacuform kit of the landing skid as seen in the Jonny Quest ending credits.



Someday may have to print out a Jack Armstrong decal for the "JA" that's on the tail of the Dragonfly.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Today drilled out the fuselage windows with my pin vise and then cleaned up the window openings with a sharp #11 blade and a couple of strokes with sandpaper on the inside to clean up the rest. Then I tested the windows with an led to see where i need to place it inside the fuselage and Tamiya tape is used to mask off the canopy windows.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Time to button her up!Went back in and secured the leds with hot glue and glued both halves together with the aid of clamps. Fit is great no misalignment or tail warping. Light blocking- I do not light block on the inside as I prefer light blocking the outside of the models. This way I like the glow of the inside of the white plastic when the leds shine on it.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Next up on the to do list is to tidy up the wires and put the Dragonfly on a Round 2 Universal dome base. I prefer the dome bases when i light a model as it makes it easy to hide the 9 volt battery and speaking of battery I do not have a switch to turn it on and off. I think a switch is more of a hassle and just plugging in the battery just simplifies everything. With the aid of the sanding stick got the fuselage sanded and put on all the remaining kit parts.
 
#10 · (Edited)
For the Round 2 Polar lights dome I have to omit the solid metal rod and replace it with a K & S aluminum rod same diameter to fish down the wires to the battery plug. Primer duty begins on the dragonfly, tape off the stand and I will shoot a couple of coat of primer on. I use cheap automotive primer straight out of the can for priming a model. To finish light blocking I will go back in with either flat black rattle can or load up the airbrush and address the light leaks.
 
#11 · (Edited)
So With a couple of coats of primer on now it is time to light block it. Krylon Fusion flat black was used. Just a couple coats the light leaks are gone. I am spray a couple of heavy coats at the canopy where I have the windows masked off so with the added thickness of paint I can make window frames just by building up the paint.
 
#13 · (Edited)
If you paint white for the fuselage color i recommend painting in layers and that way the black base coat can act as shadows and shading but Once I get all the light leaks taking care of i will give a final coat of grey primer then preshade the panel lines and go with a base coat of a light grey mixed with some white. Personally I don't care for a solid white aircraft that is just my preference. I know it is an animated vehicle but i want to have a real aircraft feel to it.

The only light leaks i have left is the engine section which I am Addressing.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Still had some minor light leak around the small fins and canopy area. To fix this I used Tulip fabric paint. This paint is thick and can fill small gaps and cracks where putty would be a hassle and since it is thick makes a good light blocker. Next I am going to put down one more final coat of grey primer and then begin painting.
 
#15 · (Edited)
Working on mine today. Not thrilled with the textured plastic (I'm guessing it has something to do with how the Chinese add the klunky recessed panel lines, because the 350 TOS Enterprise's saucer has the same texture). I sanded the whole thing to smooth it out a little.

Makes me wonder why every airplane model I buy has perfectly smooth skin and very VERY fine panel lines.
 
#17 · (Edited)
The Art of pre-shading.....Pre-shading is a method of darkening areas, such as panel lines, shadow areas around detail and control surfaces, prior to the main color coats. Pre-shading is very simple, take your airbrush and at low setting say 10-15psi and draw the panel lines on the kit and you can pre-shade anything such as monsters/figures, tanks, starships etc.... I like to use greys with a little black mixed in which I think gives a more realistic shadow/definition that using straight black.
 
#20 · (Edited)
The dreaded seams.... Now this is my view on this matter and the secret to eliminating seams is.........Wet Sanding

Again It doesn't matter what you are building Starships, figure/monsters, cars ships and planes and tanks this technique can be applied to all aspect of model construction. When building a model try not use putty, now I'm not saying never to use putty because it does has it place and it needs to be used to fill scratches./imperfections etc.... For the fuselage I clamp it together and once I got a good bond I was ready to wet sand. wet sanding is easy, get a bucket or bowl of water and some wet/dry 220 sandpaper or different grades of your choosing and submerge kit and sandpaper and begin sanding. When you wet sand it keeps the sanding dust off and makes seams you sanded disappear and smooth like glass. You may have to rescribe a few panel lines but that should not be an issue. Also the key to sanding is in a circular motion not up and down or side by side. When sanding just remember the teachings of Mr. Miyagi "Wax on, Wax off".
 
#21 · (Edited)
After the preshading now it is time for the base coat. I am using a light grey with white added. First pass is with Vallejo light grey with some white. After this coat I will use liquitex basic light grey mixed with white as I prefer the pigment better. When I thin paints I use this home brew method
that Genesis Models came up with. If you watch the video the cost of the material is about $30 and last a long time mixes well with just about any acrylic paint brand. I had to tweak the formula for myself but it is great stuff and highly recommend it. When I mix paints for airbrushing I prefer them to be thin and transparent I like to build up the paint basically like a filter which is
a technique that involves applying a number of thin transparent colors evenly over a surface. These colors will add hues while giving depth and making it more realistic.
 
#22 · (Edited)
I am notorious for changing my mind on paint when i paint models. I did not like the light grey at all and was not looking right to me. So I tested some colors out and i am now going with Model Master Duck Egg Blue. I think this is a great color and it keeps it realistic while catching the cartoon feel. Next some some post shading and some panel highlights.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Your welcome! The hobby should be fun and informative and I love to help out fellow modelers any way I can.

The Needle..... Moebius does give two needles for the Dragonfly which is a good thing and since I broke mine off not once but twice I decided to replace the Dragonfly needle with a sewing needle. You can pick up sewing needles at any craft store, they have all different sizes and have many uses for models.
 
#25 · (Edited)
Re-drilled the the needle nose and superglue the sewing needle in the Dragonfly. On Superglue I like to use a toothpick for the applicator and superglue can go a long way and I personally use a gap filling medium type and I use a micro paintbrush for accelerator. Next up took some Aves Apoxie sculpt and blended the new needle to the hull.
 
#26 · (Edited)
In the final stretch- I use a lot of ink for airbrushing as I like the weathering effect that can be achieved. I use Liquitex and daler rowney ink they are acrylic and airbrush ready, all you have to do is shake up the ink well and pour into you airbrush cup and shoot it on the model. So I took my airbrush and Daler Rowney grey ink and post shade the panels and panel lines which gives it a very subtle look and very little weathering on the fuselage and wings. I personally like the used look rather than the weathered look when it comes to models. Up next is to shoot the Dragonfly with some Future to seal it and remove the masks.
 
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