Hasegawa Morane-Saulnier MS-406C

I have actually finished a model recently, but it is liable to be the last completion prior to the LVAD cardiac surgery. It is by no means a great model, because it was snakebit from just about the first act of construction.

This is the Hasegawa MS-406. I found two Hasegawa kits and a Heller one in the box (I suspect I got this from a fellow IPMS-Seattle member). Over the course of the build, just about every dangly bit broke off. The antenna, the pitot, the tailwheel. One of the pugs got ahold of it during the painting process and swallowed one of those bits. The Hasegawa kit is well engineered and the fit is just fine.

Painting was a little tricky due to the number of colors in the camo. But at least it worked its way through the paint queue without major trauma. A bit of pebbling which required some careful buffing. The canopy masking took some time to remove; not sure if that was due to the number of months it was attached to the model, but that is certainly a possibility.

When I got to the decals, a Berna sheet, the adhesive was either too little or plain nonexistent. When I shot the matte topcoat, it actually blew some of the decals off and they floated to the floor. I was able to replace them with kit decals, which (thankfully) were pretty close in color to the Berna sheet. The markings are from GC 1/17, Escadrille 2 in the Vichy Air Force, based in Paris in 1940.

So, it’s…. finished. Not a great one, but the models get displayed on this blog however they turn out.

This is completed model #515 (13 aircraft, 1 ordnance, 3 vehicles this year), finished in September of 2019.

Paint session (MiG-29, Su-24, Eurofighter, Tornado)

I finally got a chance to do a bit of airbrushing this week. It didn’t eliminate the backup in the queue but it did make a dent at least. It being November, it was pretty damn cold out in the garage. My fingers were barely functional by the time I cleaned things up and headed upstairs.

Three colors cycled through the brush today. First came a matte coat on the latest finished model, a Hasegawa MS-406. There were some issues, but not with the paint. The Berna decals did not adhere very well to the model, and one fuselage roundel actually got blown off the side and floated to the floor! I’m in the process of replacing that – not particularly easy, given the many color variations of the French Blue that exists on various decal sheets. I don’t know if I got a bad Berna batch. The matte coat went on without issue.

Next came some Xtracolor X564 (Russian cockpit green). This went onto two recent construction efforts: a MiG-29 and Su-24. No problems there.

Finally, some Xtracolor X141 White onto wheel wells, inside gear doors, landing gear of the Eurofighter and Tornado.

Construction (Eurofighter, Tornado)

Still having some issues that are preventing much in the way of model production, but I have gotten some basic construction done. No painting as of yet, but the queue is overflowing and I’m going to have to deal with that sometime soon. No medical appointments until next Friday so I’ll try to get some things painted before then.

The construction to summarize today is pointed directly at two decal sheets I’ve purchased in the last year. First comes a Tornado, which will get one of the retirement specials from the Xtradecal sheet. Next comes a Eurofighter, which will carry the RAF100 special from Model Art.

Major construction is done. Some seam cleanup will be required, but I’ve gotten the canopies masked and attached. So there is no real bar to painting the wheel wells, gear, and doors White. Therefore, it joins the vast – and lengthening - paint queue.

I don’t want to turn this into a medical blog, but here is an update to my situation. The decision has been made to install an LVAD (left ventricular assist device) as a temporary bridge to stabilize the heart cath numbers and get to the next step, a heart transplant (yeesh). This is not the preferred alternative, apparently, because it requires the same sort of sternum entry and rib-spreading, just like a transplant and a multiple bypass. I’m meeting with the surgeon this Friday.