Weathering GB - 2/1/2011 - 1/31/2012

Daddy, thanks for the comment. I'm so far behind on all my projects...I haven't been able to pull the airbrush out lately so the Hellcat is still just hanging around waitin' for me. Great technique for painting exposed metal, very convincing and the same can be said for your lights. Your P-38 is looking really good!

Casper, I certainly don't envy you the preshade job on the 109! There are a lot of lines on that guy! To me, preshading is tedious but the effect looks good and your 109 is looking great!

oddmanrush

Casper, I certainly don't envy you the preshade job on the 109! There are a lot of lines on that guy! To me, preshading is tedious but the effect looks good and your 109 is looking great!

A question for the group ...

Couldn't the pre-shading be done easier with thinned paint and a brush, say 1/8th" wide ? ...

Thanks,

pepper

Been a while since I came up on scope...lots of life getting in the way of having a good time.  I finally took a little time to do some airbrushing.  I had originally intended to do a heavily weathered Hartmann winter (white) G-6, but discovered I had the wrong canopy, so I went to plan B and will go another more generic route.  I wasn't the happiest with mottling and I may go back and play with that a bit.  Hopefully, I will have a chance to do more over the next few days.

pepper kay

 

oddmanrush:

 

Casper, I certainly don't envy you the preshade job on the 109! There are a lot of lines on that guy! To me, preshading is tedious but the effect looks good and your 109 is looking great!

 

 

A question for the group ...

Couldn't the pre-shading be done easier with thinned paint and a brush, say 1/8th" wide ? ...

Thanks,

pepper

It certainly could if you wanted to. One time I preshaded with a Sharpie ***DO NOT DO THAT*** I learned the hard way. The ink reacts with the Tamiya acrylic as well as the dull coat I applied. The Sharpie actually begins to show through.

Any how, I've never tried with a brush but it may lessen the tediousness and hand cramping I get when doing it with an AB.

Actually the pre-shading with the AB wasn't to bad. It was the first time I used the tan fine spray tip with the Aztek and after a while I got used to it and was able to get the spray to about 2mm.

Cheers

All the decalling is done. I'll apply a gloss coat to prepare for the oil wash and weathering. Also yet to add the undercarriage and greeblies under the wings. I think the paint scheme makes much more sense with the decals applied. Hey Doogs your 109 had some nice work on the antenna wires with little attachments and such, how did you make those?

Cheers

 Looking good there Hutch and Casper.

Applied a sealing gloss coat. Next is the weathering, apart from the engine and cockpit (which have already been done).

The notes on this plane say she was involved in the Battle of Britain and saw heavy service between 1939-40 so I'll be applying quite dirty, sooty washes and some shrapnel nicks and such.

Cheers

After a bit of testing I've started on some weathering. A thinned oil wash is daubed on making sure I full all the cracks and holes;

Using a dry piece of paper towel to remove the excess I then use a dry brush to clean up making sure I use a front to back stroke;

The brush also helps to bypass and coat around details and protrusions.

Cheers

Weathering is all finished for the moment. I've simulated general grime with streaking and some paint chipping in various areas of wear and tear.

Now onto the diorama.

Cheers

Casper - that E-4 looks fantastic! Overall, how did you find the Eduard kit? I know that most of my issues stemmed directly from the awful fit of the engine cowl, so it looks like leaving it off was definitely the way to go!

You calling it done, then? If so I'll get a pic up on the front page!

DoogsATX

Casper - that E-4 looks fantastic! Overall, how did you find the Eduard kit? I know that most of my issues stemmed directly from the awful fit of the engine cowl, so it looks like leaving it off was definitely the way to go!

You calling it done, then? If so I'll get a pic up on the front page!

Not having used the engine cowl, I'm not suprised it's a crappy fit. Overall the engine assembly wasn't too bad but the method of attaching it to the ammunition box then to the front of the office left a lot to be desired. It all relied on a 100% accurate angle of two engine braces and support struts. This then dictated how the engine (with the exhausts attached) slid in the fuselage and then how that went together. I decided to attach the exhausts afterwards for masking reasons and I'm glad I did. My two halves would not have met together if I had of built the bird their way. All in all a fun kit, lots of nice details, now it's on to building the diorama.

Cheers

Casper- Interesting how the Reich's warbirds can look so sinister. I like it. Sorry to here about the poor fit of the cowl. Still a great job on the E-4.

I've got some weathering pics of the Lightning.

Started by adding oil streaks and stains using a mix of black and brown from my daughters watercolors.

I'd pic up a generous amount of both colors on a brush then apply to likely oily spots. Then with a damp flat brush ,pull the color in direction of airflow and/or gravity. 

Also added some streaks with Prismacolor pencils.

Material for the mud stains and general dirt kicked/splashed up around Henderson Field.

I made a dry pastel "mud" mix of various tans and browns. I also added a few drops of dish soap and a couple drops of  white glue to the water  for a wet wash of mud later . Hopefully the glue will make the pastel wash more permanent . 

First a dry brush of ModelMaster dark earth together with the "mud" mix. 

Then a wet brush dipped in the dry pastel mix to create a heavy wash. Using  the broad flat brush to move and distribute the wash around. 

Allowing the wash to dry, followed with a dry dusting of the pastel mix.

I also worked the pastels onto the wing walk areas. I figure the crews would often track mud and dirt to those areas. 

Started the exhaust stains working in black and brown pastels followed by tans, grays , and finally a little white.

Finishing up the last fiddly details, and this build will be complete.

Casper the Chihuahua

 

DoogsATX:

 

Casper - that E-4 looks fantastic! Overall, how did you find the Eduard kit? I know that most of my issues stemmed directly from the awful fit of the engine cowl, so it looks like leaving it off was definitely the way to go!

You calling it done, then? If so I'll get a pic up on the front page!

 

 

Not having used the engine cowl, I'm not suprised it's a crappy fit. Overall the engine assembly wasn't too bad but the method of attaching it to the ammunition box then to the front of the office left a lot to be desired. It all relied on a 100% accurate angle of two engine braces and support struts. This then dictated how the engine (with the exhausts attached) slid in the fuselage and then how that went together. I decided to attach the exhausts afterwards for masking reasons and I'm glad I did. My two halves would not have met together if I had of built the bird their way. All in all a fun kit, lots of nice details, now it's on to building the diorama.

Cheers

I really need to make a point of getting to that Cyber-Hobby E-4 sometime soon. Curious to see how it compares...but I really like how they borrow the same method as Tamiya uses for its Spits...basically build the rest of the plane, then attach the engine/framing/cowl. 

Ta-daaa!  

This ones complete! 

Looks like she just flew in from Henderson Field. One beautiful fighter plane, even all dirtied up.

 This will be one of the fav's on my shelf for a long time.

 Howard

that is one outstanding Lighting, daddy1!

Great job.  Compare with my Corsair which didn't make the GB but came from the same theatre of war:

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So, heres my knighthawk so far. Not sure how to go about weathering it though. Any suggestions?

Never really done weathering and i dont want to screw up the paint.

Scorpiomikey

Never really done weathering and i dont want to screw up the paint.

The birds are kept pretty clean ... I think I'd do a panel wash to lightly accent the panel lines, then dust the landing gear ...

Any much more and it would not look like the real deal ...

pepper

PS  This is IMHO only :-) ...

Thanks pepper. im thinking about putting some scraping around the refuelling door too.

Scorpiomikey

Thanks pepper. im thinking about putting some scraping around the refuelling door too.

That'd be a good idea ... you know those boomers don't hit the mark every single time ... I imagine they've missed, at least once in awhile and doing so would certainly chip the paint a bit around the refueling door ... maybe a wee bit around the fuel tanks in the fuse and wings too and a touch around the cockpit ...

pepper

Hey Doogs, sign me up.  I started building a 1/48 Hasegawa F/A-18C in the middle of April for the Hornet's Nest GB but I'm planning on weathering the heck out of it.  I'm gonna use some products that I haven't used before to see if I can get that dirty carrier plane look.  Here's where I'm at so far:

pepper kay

 

Scorpiomikey:

 

Thanks pepper. im thinking about putting some scraping around the refuelling door too.

 

 

That'd be a good idea ... you know those boomers don't hit the mark every single time ... I imagine they've missed, at least once in awhile and doing so would certainly chip the paint a bit around the refueling door ... maybe a wee bit around the fuel tanks in the fuse and wings too and a touch around the cockpit ...

pepper

 While the boomers are very good at a very difficult procedure under the best of conditions, no they don't hit the mark every time. 

 While I was stationed with the 18th TFW on Okinawa during the 70s, one of my jobs as a fuel sys. tech. on our Phantoms was to ops check the the IFR . The task basically consisted of inserting a refueling probe ( as on the KCs but with a pair of handles instead), then pressing a button to make sure the disconnect  worked. That's a simplistic description ,but I remember seeing some pretty good scuffs down the backs of our F-4s due to misses by the boomer and/or Phantom crew.

 One technique I've used to replicate this look is to blunt the end of a toothpick. Dip it into aluminum paint. Blot off the excess( trying to "chip/scratch" the paint ,not put big blobs) . Then aim at the fuel door as if you were a boomer trying to connect to the reciever aircraft and make a few misses . The effect looks great and adds a bit of weathering to a modern combat plane many don't think of.

 Practice on some scrap to get the feel of how the aluminum rubs off the toothpick onto the model.  

 BTW- There were a couple of our birds that had a refueling scuff all the way back and down the side. Some off those misses could be really bad misses due to one thing or another.  Also, not all the scuffs/scratches went down to bare metal , some just scuffed the top coats of paint .

 Hope this helps , it's an easy technique to do. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Howard

Awesome, cheers for the help guys. I did see one peice of video of an F-15 refueling and the boom operater drew a few pictures on his wing before he got it to connect. Looked quite nasty.

Scorpiomikey

Awesome, cheers for the help guys. I did see one peice of video of an F-15 refueling and the boom operater drew a few pictures on his wing before he got it to connect. Looked quite nasty.

 Imagine what it would be like , in rough air , on an aircraft where the IFR is in front of the windscreen , such as the A-10 or B-58. To see that big , round chunk of aluminum hovering around in front of your face. At least the Navy and Marines have stuck with the probe and drogue method of air refueling. Maybe why. 

 Like I said those boomers do a very difficult task. In all kinds of weather, day or night. They also have one of the most panoramic views out of an airplane window.  Got to see Yosemite National Park from the boomer station, on a KC-135 orientation flight out of Castle AFB after I came back from my tour with the 18th . Simply beautiful. 

 Howard 

I finally got the Mini Art Industrial wall set in the post. Didn't realise they were vacform until I gottem but oh well!

This shows a general rough layout of the Bf 109 diorama.

It will be busied up with all sorts of doodads but for the moment this gives me a good idea of where everything may sit.

Cheers

Casper oh but I think this is gonna be cool

 Is your 109 1/48 scale ?

vetteman42

Casper oh but I think this is gonna be cool

 Is your 109 1/48 scale ?

Nope, she's 1/32!

Cheers

vetteman42

Casper oh but I think this is gonna be cool

 Is your 109 1/48 scale ?

Fly-n-hi

Hey Doogs, sign me up.  I started building a 1/48 Hasegawa F/A-18C in the middle of April for the Hornet's Nest GB but I'm planning on weathering the heck out of it.  

Added! Looking forward to it - Hornets always seem to weather up better than most modern aircraft!