After a rather lengthy break, I am back on with this. The reason for the break was the usual stumbling block which I have finally got the confidence to proceed with. To explain. The nose glazing had some very lightly inscribed framework on which I felt would be difficult to mask off or paint freehand so hit upon the bright idea of sanding it off completely, polishing the glazing and the working out how to put the framing back on. The sanding and polishing went well and after a dip or two in Johnson's, the nose was ready to have the faming reinstated BUT, how to do this?
Well, at first, I had a break of about 8 months to think about it, then considered my options. As I had by now intended to spray the aircraft, the framing really needed to be sprayed too as the paint I am using is ready thinned for spraying and is not easily brush painted, so I could:
1. Make the framing out of sprayed Tamiya tape or sticky label, cut it into strips and stuck on. I disregarded option 1 almost immediately as I felt the medium would be too thick and I would have prominent 'bumps' where the tape crossed over at junctions, plus it would not conform to the curves on the glazing easily.
2. Make the framework out of sprayed bare metal foil cut into thin strips and stuck onto the glazing. I have used this before and knew it would be thin enough and easy to apply to the curves of the glazing BUT would it take and hold the paint?
3. I could cover the whole nose in bare metal foil and cut the framework out, effectively making my own mask, then spray the nose, peeling the foil mask off once the whole thing had been sprayed and finished.
Option 3 sounded like a lot of fiddly work so I decided to give option 2 a go. Accordingly, I sprayed a strip of foil, gave it a coat or 2 of Johnsons to seal it and then some matt varnish. Once completely dry, I put a new blade in my knife and had a go at cutting thin strips. There was a bit of 'silvering at the edges and when 'burnishing' the foil onto the nose with a cocktail stick rubbed smooth with 1200 grit wet 'n' dry (the slightest little lump, bump or splinter will tear the foil), the paint sadly didn't hold too well. Although it would be a grand way of doing a very well weathered nose glazing, this was not what I wanted to achieve so it was option 2 then.
Tonight, I bit the bullet, covered the nose in foil and began the painstaking process of slowly cutting away the strips that would make up the framework, first marking the rough lines in with pencil. TO MY SURPRISE, I thoroughly enjoyed the process. Taking it nice and steady and gradually getting each 'frame' to the correct thickness, I sliced and pared away minute strips of the foil, burnishing the edges back down once I had taken enough off. It will take another couple of nights before I am done but at last I am making progress and have discovered another thing I can do! So as not to waste the foil, I used the rest of the strip I had sprayed and filled in the areas it did not cover with 'raw' foil. I hope you can see the results of my work and also the heavy chipping effect of my experiment.
Hopefully it may inspire some of you who have not used the foil before to pluck up the courage and have a go. It's wonderful stuff and I really don't know why I've been such a baby about it.