Eye In The Sky GB - January 2010 - October 2010

VERY NICE!!! I'm with you Aggie, the more weathering, the better. I just wish I was better at weathering. Yours looks awesome!

As promised, some pictures of my Storch.  It is painted in a standard Luftwaffe splinter scheme with a white wash applied over for winterizing.  It is weathering with diluted oils, I think a bit too much in that regard so it no longer really looks like my reference photos, but I like the effect nevertheless.  (The dirtier the better is my opinion).

I have a bit of a fit issue on the upper glass, probably more a result of builder error than kit error.  I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to do to fix the mis-fit between the wings and the glass piece but I'll work on it once the wings are set and fully cured.

I am roughly three-quarters done with my second build, a Tamiya Storch like the one that Vance completed earlier.  And silly me, I've yet to take a single picture!  It's been such a painless build overall and has gone so smoothly that I just forgot to take pictures, DOH!!! Anyway, she's built up in the same scheme that Vance did his in and is now awaiting weathering and final construction.  I promise to take some pictures and post them by the weekend!

jmabx

Beautiful Mossie!!! Looking forward to seeing it unmasked!

Beautiful work!!!

Beautiful Mossie!!! Looking forward to seeing it unmasked!

Looking good B17pilot! All that Canadian plywood, and I have yet to build a Mosquito! Although I do have on in the stash. (It'll look good next to my 1/72 Beaufighter whenever I get around to it!)

Nice job on the Mossie!  I've always liked the look of that warbird.

Looking sweet, Pilot!! 

Art

Made some progress on my Mossie.  Got the decals on and they're drying. Tomorrow it'll get a another coat of Future,and some weathering, then a flat coat and all the small parts.  Almost done with her.

simpilot34

Art overall it looks great mate!!!! I understand about wanting to leave it be and negate the inevitable fingers through the ordanance and struts. Only if it was an acrylic flat.....Q-tip and alchohol would do the trick with no dame to the clear bits.

Lessons learned.

Art

Art overall it looks great mate!!!! I understand about wanting to leave it be and negate the inevitable fingers through the ordanance and struts. Only if it was an acrylic flat.....Q-tip and alchohol would do the trick with no dame to the clear bits.

jmabx

Sweet lookin' plane, Art!   Love the paint... too bad about the windows. If it makes you feel any better, I've done it before too.

If you feel up to it, mask around those windows and wet sand them with some 800 grit paper and maybe follow up with a light wet sanding of a finer grit like 1200. The idea is to smooth out that flat coat some. Once it feels nice and smooth, just brush some Future on those windows. Even if it's still hazy, the Future will make it look much better. I know it sounds like a pain in the butt, but the hardest part is masking around the windows and you don't even have to be perfect at that because you can touch up any spots of paint you might have damaged while sanding with a small brush. HTH

Now... after seeing yours, I need to get one!

Thanks for the suggestion and the complements, Jeremy. I'm probably going to let her be. By the time I'd finish the polishing, I'd have to start gluing all of the bits & pieces that I would have broken off with my ham-handed butterfingers.

Discretion being the better part of valor, I think I'l leave well enough alone. If it was a low-wing a/c, I'd go for it.

Art

Sweet lookin' plane, Art!   Love the paint... too bad about the windows. If it makes you feel any better, I've done it before too.

If you feel up to it, mask around those windows and wet sand them with some 800 grit paper and maybe follow up with a light wet sanding of a finer grit like 1200. The idea is to smooth out that flat coat some. Once it feels nice and smooth, just brush some Future on those windows. Even if it's still hazy, the Future will make it look much better. I know it sounds like a pain in the butt, but the hardest part is masking around the windows and you don't even have to be perfect at that because you can touch up any spots of paint you might have damaged while sanding with a small brush. HTH

Now... after seeing yours, I need to get one!

Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

Art

Art Love the paint job !!!! Very well done. Actually most of the Peacekeeper pictures I have seen, the windscreens and even the side windows looked pretty beat up with scratches and crazing. And considering the conditions they flew in that would be a likely thing to have happen to them. Over all I would say its a build to be proud of

It's a very nice job on the paint scheme and the shark mouth.  Morning dew on the windows, I like it!

Could just say its the morning dew on the windows.

Nice paint job!!  Good job on it!

    I just thought about something.  With my flat / fogged windows, my "Eye In The Sky" build is frickin blind.

Art

Well..... I finally finished my Peacekeep / Porter.

Today, I pulled one of the dumbest stunts that I've done in quite a while.

In the past I've only used Future on my clear pieces. This is the first build that I've ever used a sealer or top coat. I painted the a/c and then removed the mask and did all of my touch-ups. I sealed it with Future and applied my decals. I then did a top coat of Future. Everything looked great, especially the windshield and windows.

Then I sprayed my FLAT LACQUER finish coat WITH NO MASK on the clear parts.

Now it looks like my Peacekeeper will be flying strictly IFR flight rules.

Here's the kicker. For 30+ years I was a furniture and cabinetmaker. I've sprayed DRUMs of lacquer. As a matter of fact I've sprayed so much lacquer that I have serious lung problems even after using a respirator during that time. Oh well, ya win some & ya lose some.

One other thing that I've learned. It's a PITA to take pics of high wing models.

Art

I am looking forward to seeing her again Sub!!!!

Alright gents, I hit modeler's block a few months back and didn't do anything for a while, but to night I dusted off the Vigilante and gave my airbrush a much needed thorough cleaning. Now the first coat of paint is on. I decided to give up on the idea of masking the leading edges and just do those last (LOTS more masking that way, but at least the other paint shouldn't peel off the way the metalic paint does.) I will try to get some pictures in the next few days to put up.

I love the work everyone else has been doing on here, though! That Arado and Taifan are fantastic!

Steven that is an outstanding build mate!!!!!!!! Beautiful work!!!

Aggieman, awesome work!!. I love the rigging technique, I have a couple of kits that I've been holding off on because of the rigging. I really want that kit. Man, I remember that Kingfisher kit from when I was a kid. That was quite a few years ago.

I'm still waiting on some stencil decals for my Peacekeeper / Porter build. I'm about to just say heck with it and make my own.

Art

Aggieman, that is a nice build!!  Makes me want to go try one of those kits.  I got one of those Kingfisher models a year or so ago from ebay, had to fight for it too.  Going to do it in the markings from the USS Texas.

Mossie update:  got the gear finished and attached to the plane, no pics yet.  Going to get a gloss clear coat on her tomorrow with decals to follow next week as I am out of town this weekend.

You know, that float thing kinda has me eye-balling eBay looking for, most particularly, an old Monogram Kingfisher.  The only other floater I'd built was a PBY-3 Catalina but this Arado was particularly challenging with the bracing wires and I'd kinda like to attempt another float plane.  But for now a week off or so and then I'm tackling that tiny Tamiya Storch.

Great work Steven... she's a beauty!  

I love the weathering and the beaching dolly. Man, I'm such a sucker for a plane on floats! Well done sir! 

Here she is!

Aggie that is looking great!!!! Rigging looks nice and tight as it should be!!! Beautiful work!!!

For something to be stolen it first must be owned, don't you think?  But seriously, the technique is one I saw here while following a WWI build, so it's not really mine.  It works pretty well, though, so I encourage you to use this technique.

Aggieman thats a great idea for rigging and it looks like it would add strength to the model as well. I may have to steal that from you on a build I have going, if you dont mind of course.