This one is now complete - a unique scheme of one of Adlof Galland's mounts from the Battle of Britain in August 1940.
Since the last update, I applied decals, gloss coat, usual weathering with black-brown mix, colored pencils, flat coat and some pastels for exhaust and gun smoke.
As a recap, this one was completely OOB with the exception of Master barrels for the guns and a quickboost gunsite that I had in my parts box. The gun barrels molded with the kit are actually not too bad but the gunsite is pretty weak compared to the quickboost.
Three new techniques were attempted. First, I applied the decals directly to the paint without a gloss coat. I was convinced that the paint surface was plenty smooth but many of the decals silvered, which required more recovery work. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Even without the gloss coat, I was not happy with the decals, which were from Eduard (not Cartograph) and had shiny, thick film.
The second new technique was making the cones on the antenna wire. I heated cardstock over a candle then poked it with a needle to form the cone. After cutting to shape, they threaded pretty easily onto the EZline antenna wire.
The third new technique was that I masked the fabric surfaces and sprayed a very light postshade around the edges of the recessed areas. I used a heavily thinned red brown for the yellow areas and black for the rest. I'm very happy with how this turned out - subtle but very nice.
One last comment - massive props to the modelers that routinely work in 1/32 and superdetail the cockpits, engines, landing gear, etc. I'm not sure I have quite that much patience or craftmanship skill yet -- still learning.
Thanks for following along and enjoy the photos.
