Enter keywords or a search phrase below:
For giggles recently I picked up an old Revell 1/72 SPAD X III from the LHS bargain table and thought I try my hand at brush painting the small biplane model and free handing the camouflage.
It went together easily enough and my paint mixing and free hand brushing looked OK.
I've only built a couple of biplanes and this little model whetted my appetite for another more involved WW I aircraft. I picked up the Eduard 1/48 weekend edition SPAD X III in French ace Rene Fonck's markings. I've used Eduard's photo etch, but never built one of their kits. Even in 1/48 WW I fighters aren't large models and after my brush painting experiment from before I thought I'd try it again. The plastic is molded very thin and it is softer than I'm normally used to. When joining the fuselage to the lower wing the fit was fine but the soft wing struts really didn't like cement much and the starboard lower wing kept wanting to bend out of alignment as the cement set up. I was pleased with the overall brush painting although I didn't get the camo patterns exactly right. I used semi-gloss clear overcoat on the struts to get a varnished wood look. When I went to mount the landing gear, part of the starboard wing joint gave way and the wing began to sag. Attaching the landing gear seemed to bring it back into line. I decided to rig the model before I mounted the top wing. Using my standard used guitar string sections, the rigging was straight forward. When I went to attach the top wing, I couldn't get the struts to line up with the mount holes on the top wing's underside at all. Apparently although that starboard wing eyeballed OK, it wasn't right. I ended up trimming the tops of the struts flush and just gluing the wing on making sure all the stuff around the cockpit matched up. The aileron control rods were flexible enough to bend to fit in the slots. The wing has stayed on long enough to take photographs. I didn't weather the top wing as much as I wanted to because of the problem and I'm not sure the markings and the camo patterns would ever overlap like I have them. Overall though the hand brushing experiment went OK. I certainly wouldn't hand brush a WW 2 aircraft or a modern jet, but for these subjects it seems to work fine.
I've only built a couple of biplanes and this little model whetted my appetite for another more involved WW I aircraft. I picked up the Eduard 1/48 weekend edition SPAD X III in French ace Rene Fonck's markings. I've used Eduard's photo etch, but never built one of their kits.
Even in 1/48 WW I fighters aren't large models and after my brush painting experiment from before I thought I'd try it again.
The plastic is molded very thin and it is softer than I'm normally used to. When joining the fuselage to the lower wing the fit was fine but the soft wing struts really didn't like cement much and the starboard lower wing kept wanting to bend out of alignment as the cement set up. I was pleased with the overall brush painting although I didn't get the camo patterns exactly right. I used semi-gloss clear overcoat on the struts to get a varnished wood look. When I went to mount the landing gear, part of the starboard wing joint gave way and the wing began to sag. Attaching the landing gear seemed to bring it back into line. I decided to rig the model before I mounted the top wing. Using my standard used guitar string sections, the rigging was straight forward. When I went to attach the top wing, I couldn't get the struts to line up with the mount holes on the top wing's underside at all. Apparently although that starboard wing eyeballed OK, it wasn't right. I ended up trimming the tops of the struts flush and just gluing the wing on making sure all the stuff around the cockpit matched up. The aileron control rods were flexible enough to bend to fit in the slots. The wing has stayed on long enough to take photographs. I didn't weather the top wing as much as I wanted to because of the problem and I'm not sure the markings and the camo patterns would ever overlap like I have them. Overall though the hand brushing experiment went OK. I certainly wouldn't hand brush a WW 2 aircraft or a modern jet, but for these subjects it seems to work fine.
The plastic is molded very thin and it is softer than I'm normally used to. When joining the fuselage to the lower wing the fit was fine but the soft wing struts really didn't like cement much and the starboard lower wing kept wanting to bend out of alignment as the cement set up.
I was pleased with the overall brush painting although I didn't get the camo patterns exactly right. I used semi-gloss clear overcoat on the struts to get a varnished wood look.
When I went to mount the landing gear, part of the starboard wing joint gave way and the wing began to sag. Attaching the landing gear seemed to bring it back into line.
I decided to rig the model before I mounted the top wing. Using my standard used guitar string sections, the rigging was straight forward.
When I went to attach the top wing, I couldn't get the struts to line up with the mount holes on the top wing's underside at all. Apparently although that starboard wing eyeballed OK, it wasn't right. I ended up trimming the tops of the struts flush and just gluing the wing on making sure all the stuff around the cockpit matched up. The aileron control rods were flexible enough to bend to fit in the slots. The wing has stayed on long enough to take photographs. I didn't weather the top wing as much as I wanted to because of the problem and I'm not sure the markings and the camo patterns would ever overlap like I have them. Overall though the hand brushing experiment went OK. I certainly wouldn't hand brush a WW 2 aircraft or a modern jet, but for these subjects it seems to work fine.
When I went to attach the top wing, I couldn't get the struts to line up with the mount holes on the top wing's underside at all. Apparently although that starboard wing eyeballed OK, it wasn't right. I ended up trimming the tops of the struts flush and just gluing the wing on making sure all the stuff around the cockpit matched up. The aileron control rods were flexible enough to bend to fit in the slots. The wing has stayed on long enough to take photographs.
I didn't weather the top wing as much as I wanted to because of the problem and I'm not sure the markings and the camo patterns would ever overlap like I have them. Overall though the hand brushing experiment went OK. I certainly wouldn't hand brush a WW 2 aircraft or a modern jet, but for these subjects it seems to work fine.
Mike
"Grumman on a Navy Airplane is like Sterling on Silver."
Looks pretty darn good to me. I like the idea of rigging before the upper wing is glued in place. I may have to try that if I ever get around to one of the biplanes in my stash.
F is for FIRE, That burns down the whole town!
U is for URANIUM... BOMBS!
N is for NO SURVIVORS...
- Plankton
LSM
Those look pretty darned sharp! Nice work.
Excellent! Hats off to the hand brushers!
I find WW1 planes take well to handbrushed painting. Of course, that is the way the prototypes were usually painted, too.
Don Stauffer in Minnesota
Brush painting WWI aircraft is perfectly fine! The camo had hard edges, so a good hand with a brush will look a lot like the originals.
More to the point, the two Spads in this thread look fantastic!
Regards,
-Drew
Build what you like; like what you build.
On the Bench: Too Much
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.