thanks 68GT. It's a cute little kit.

I had some people (RealRedBaron included) ask how I did my brush painting and get a varied finish instead of just one plain color. I must add that I am still learning, but pleased with my technique so far. (maximize the pictures to get the best detail!!) I decided to show a step-by-step on how I go from this:

to THIS:

First, paint the area one solid color, with thin paint and no brush strokes. Thinning the paint by dipping the tip of your brush in thinner works for me, but experiment for yourself to find the best way for you. Its OK if this first coat is a bit translucent in some areas, we will cover this up in the next step. What you dont want it blobby brush strikes and thick paint that fills in/obscures panel lines.

next you add a bit of white to the base color you used and (dont use a fancy brush for this) scrub/dry-brush the center of the panels. Dont put too much paint on the brush for this step, you are not covering up the base coat, just clouding the centers of the panels. Also dont get this paint too thin or you will take off the base coat and have bare plastic! With the same technique, add a bit more white to the mix for fabric covered surfaces. The paint will be rough at this stage, that is OK. That is fixed after all the paint has been applied.

the next step is the newest one I added, and am still experimenting with. I take a darker shade of the base coat and lightly dry-brush along panel lines. As soon as you see a change of color along the line, that is enough. The paint drys a darker color than it looks when wet. This will give you a stark outline of all the panels. This is OK, because we will get rid of this in the next step.

then mix a medium shade of you color (does not have to match any of the other coats, paint never faded evenly) and blend the lines in. You do not have to stay within panels, but  just kinda give the whole area a good scrub. Do not be too heavy handed or you will cover up the shading and the lightened colors. If you do it right, you should get an appearance of a pre-shaded paint job with a post shading of the panels.

The paint job has nice color now, but is rough, right? This is easily fixed with a quick and careful scrubbing with 0000 steel wool. This levels out the paint but might take some paint off of higher areas if you are not careful. If so, just dab the appropriate color over the bare spot. The color does not have to match! The surface  should now have a semi-gloss type sheen. You can apply a clear coat for decals if you wish, but I found I was able to add decals right over the smoothed paint and they snuggled down with no silvering.

I hope those directions were clear, if not tell me and I will try to clarify for you.

OWL

well done!

my first kit was a 1:72 clip-together hobbyboss p-40M

i'll have to practice that technique.

the directions were clear enough for me!

life kept me busy for a bit (yay college!) so I haven't been able to upload my finished pics until now. Please be patient with the poor quality background/use of flash. I am building in my dorm room and no longer have a fancy backyard and cookie sheet for a back-drop. I present to you my F4F "Wildcat".

OWL

Hey Owl, good to see a Wildcat! I just got one in 1/32, it's an old Revell kit. Lots of raised panels and rivets but beautifully detailed!

Now technically it is an F-4F Wildcat but I'm going to build it as the Royal navy "Martlet" variation. Can I still be let in as a "Wildcat" entry?

Cheers

Casper the Chihuahua

Hey Owl, good to see a Wildcat! I just got one in 1/32, it's an old Revell kit. Lots of raised panels and rivets but beautifully detailed!

Now technically it is an F-4F Wildcat but I'm going to build it as the Royal navy "Martlet" variation. Can I still be let in as a "Wildcat" entry?

Cheers

thanks Casper, it was a very quick build and fun to paint!

as for the F4F, Im gonna say no to the "martlet". To build the foreign-named planes, it has to be an odd-animal. For example, if the Israelis named their mirage 2000 "panther" , the entry would work only if you built it as an Israeli "panther" and not a french "Mirage", does that make sense?

Miss Owl.. looking good on the Cat.. !

i do gotta ask.. you got a roomate in the dorm? how does the modeling play into the room living ? roomie like paint fumes?? lol.. also.. I would assume your prolly the only female scale model builder on campass ??.. the world wonders..

p38jl

Miss Owl.. looking good on the Cat.. !

i do gotta ask.. you got a roomate in the dorm? how does the modeling play into the room living ? roomie like paint fumes?? lol.. also.. I would assume your prolly the only female scale model builder on campass ??.. the world wonders..

The roomie said she doesn't mind,  she's a creative person too, and said she also gets "geeky" about certain things and to not be surprised when it happens. But I do make sure to have my window cracked so the fumes can escape and I stay on my own side of the room. And I'm still the only active modeler I know, but I did get one of my friends hooked. Dunno if shes worked on her kits at all though since school started up...

cool.. I was curious how that was working.. being that Modeling( the plastic kind ) is not predominatly  a female hobby...

Rock on !

Very cool Owl, I've never thought of doing pre-shading with a brush but I can't agree with your excellent results.

Funny, somehow I was thinking a martlet was maybe the British term for a martin, a small mink/weasel like animal (which would have been an odd animal) until I did a websearch and found out it's something completly different.

  The myriad of  distractions going on in my corner of the world are getting under control(?) . That and a mild dose of builders slump( similar to writers block) have slowed my desk time quite a bit lately.  Now that my Hellcat build is finished ,I can focus on the Bulldog.

 Started work on the engine by giving the cylinders a wash of flat black, followed with a dry brush of steel. I used  that color for a little tonal variation with the other metallic colors found on a typical engine. Also note ,I drilled out the exhaust and intake ports for a more positive locators when I mount the exhaust stacks and intake runners. I wish all scale radial engines came as separate cylinders and crankcase. Much easier to work the detail on them. 

The molded push rods and intake runners were way off register so I clipped them off and drilled out there mounting locations. Haven't yet decided what I'll use as replacement , either wire or stretched sprue. I'll also add an ignition wire harness.

Put on a coat of automotive sanding primer to spot flaws and help fill smooth exterior surfaces. The biggest challenge will be recreating any lost rib detail as there are not many panel lines to scribe. 

 Howard

nice work daddy1! That will be one nicely detailed little engine, for sure!

OWL

CallSignOWL

nice work daddy1! That will be one nicely detailed little engine, for sure!

 

OWL

Miss Owl,

I enjoyed your little brush painting 101, certainly considering the fact that you use the paints you use. I can anly imagine the results you would get using acrylics with better self levelling properties like the revell aqua i use myself. Not to mention wanting to see you doing the same thing using my new AB...You would rock girl!

Anyways...

Dropping by to let y'all over yonder know that I am still alive and still working on my F5 Tiger... Been slow going as i have had a few tough weeks at work and home....you know the drill I started out spraying the entire model neutral grey, then masking off with tamyia tape, cutting out a camo scheme and spraying light ghost grey next as you see.

Next up will be the blue grey third color... Will post Wips as they come soon people, bear with me please

Richard

Daddy: Gee how did I miss you, great work! The engine looks fantastic.

Richard: Nice F-5! Love the Tamiya tape, I remember years ago trying to use the standard tan masking tape- yuck

I need to finish the Shark, I tried to scrub off the sludge wash and ended up ripping off some of the decals so I got a little ahem... upset and set the thing aside. I think I'm going to try to just lay down a dark sludge wash over top of the one there, not sure when I'll get to it though.

 Got some more work done on the engine. This is the tedious part of building a radial engine aircraft, so much is visible even with the cowl on and even with a 9cyl. R-1340, that's 18 plug wires , 18 push rods , etc. 

 Any way , heres the pics . 

 Many pics of the R-1340 I've found , show a seperate ignition ring and wires on the back side of the engine for those plugs. 

 I'm going to use straight pins for the push rods. Even though the Bulldog had black push rods , I'm going to leave them polished bare metal for contrast against the cylinders. 

 I'll use .063 solder for the intake runners and also leave them in the natural metal. 

Haven't yet decided on the exhausts but will be either solder or wire for them.

BTW- Owl- Do you have access to chalk pastels? Applied with fine tip make up brushes in darker shades along the panel lines, lighter shades in the center of panels. Works great for some subtle post shading. 

 Howard

haha, thanks Kermit!  btw, that Tiger is coming along nicely. Cant wait to see more!

Gamera: I hope things go better for you on that Dark Shark, I was looking forward to that.

daddy1: Lovely work on the engines! I wired a B-25 radial earlier this summer....talk abut tedious! But it adds awesome detail, that's for sure. I don't have pastels though, and even if I did, I would worry about them smearing. My models tend to get handled a lot.

p38jl

Miss Owl..  I would assume your prolly the only female scale model builder on campass ??.. the world wonders..

 I've got my 8yr old daughter putting together snap-together s. She enjoys having her model collection displayed alongside daddy's. Once a boy in her class said " Girls don't build model planes!". I looked at him and sternly pointed out, "She does!". 

 I hope to get her started on glue and paint kits soon. I've got a 1/72 Revell X-15 (one of my all-time favorite winged wonders)  in the stash that would be perfect. Not much to do in the cockpit since you won't see hardly anything through those tiny windows, it's one color (black), and simple to assemble and decal. Had planned on restoring an old built up Monogram B-52 as the launch bird , but since that kit is being reissued as such, why not pass on the X-15 kit to my future astronaut (that's her dream) princess .

Howard 

 Couldn't wait to post a pic of the straight pin push rods. Definately keeping the polished bare metal look,even though back would be prototypically correct. Have to use some artistic license here, they look too cool all shiny and bright. It is ,after all, a racer. 

 I've also got the intake runners started. Just need to gently bend them to the cylinder heads. Again, I'll be keeping them bare metal. I like the aluminum look of the solder.

 After I get all the detail parts made and attached I'll do a little detail painting on bolt heads and the like , then a light wash of black/umber to add a touch of griminess. Not much, just enough to make it look a little used.

Howard

Daddy1 ahhh goodie pictures I have to agree with you, I would leave the push rods and exhaust alone as they will be much more noticeable in their natural state. I do envy your detail work sir.

Mr Dad,

That is some engine detailing there! Dontcha just love cramming a square inch full of scratched goodies...

Well boyz n girlz..... I finished the basic camo job on the F5..... and to be honest i am not too happy with it. Deciding on cutting out the squigly lines on the model instead of cutting thin stripes of tape off model proved to be a poor one... There is cut marks all over the model

Sooo.......

Not my best model ever..... not even in my top 50 but ah well....ill just finish it..... trying to get all the marks out by lightly sanding and futuring and take my losses here:

I would say a typical case of not really having your mind on things and trying to take short cuts... Sometimes it works...usually it dont

Still like the colors though

Richard

Kermit Looks good from here, so not to despair. Have had this happen a few times and found a bit of careful sanding and an aplication of future fixed those cuts right up. I only see one cut that might be a problem on the left intake. Gotta love them Freedon Fighters ya know.

vetteman42

Kermit Looks good from here, so not to despair. Have had this happen a few times and found a bit of careful sanding and an aplication of future fixed those cuts right up. I only see one cut that might be a problem on the left intake. Gotta love them Freedon Fighters ya know.

 I remember not being thrilled when the aggressors came up to Kadena AB from Clark AB back in the late 70s. I was assigned to the 18th TFW , 18th FMS , with 'Nam veteran F-4Cs and Ds. The aggressor F-5s and T-38s were pretty to see, but we always seemed to have a few over G inspections to pull on our Phantoms when they left. What a chore! BTW- The aggressors even flew a couple T-33s in from time to time. They looked sharp in those colors.

 I've got the engine tacked on for a little mock up to figure out where to drill the exhaust ports in the cowl.

Have seen variation in exhaust arrangement from reference pics , but this is what I'm going with.

Howard

Going to be side lined in a bit because I busted the left landing gear strut on the bearcat and can't find the missing piece.  I'll just see how far I can get until I get a replacement.

looking good Kermit & Daddy1!

heres the P-39, almost finished....

Mr. Baron,

Thanks man And your P39 nis coming along nicely too! I take it you brush painted the whites and reds freehanded?.... I would urge you to invest in a roll of tamyia tape or the blue 3M tape i hear people about. Not that your work is bad but using the tape will virtually eliminate all paint bleeding and make the lines crisp and straighth. But do carry on soldier!

And as for me.... My apologies for the bad lighting....just busted a light and using a blue led light in the photobooth untill i can get a replacement reflector....

The F5 has been fully decalled now... next up is putting her legs on and spray an overall dull coat on to eliminate the future shinyness a bit... Getting close to the finish line

Thanks for watching peeps

Richard

Wow, nice work guys! I lose track of this thread and come back to see all kinds of cool stuff going on

Kermit: yes i brush painted the red/white. and i did you tape, (electrical tape!) i have blue masking tape now.

Well the P-39 is finished! it was a very slow build, because i was stupid enough to paint before assembleing!

Its defiently my best model yet, im very happy with the outcome, and i tried out many new techniques, eg. sctratch built cockpit detail, seatbelts, brake lines, spray paint.

the photos were taken on my table i made in woodwork at school, where do all you guys take your "finised pics"?

as always comments are appreciated

here are the pictures:

 I would like one of these two to be on the front page please, Miss OWL.

oooh, looking good kermit!

RRB: that is a very nice Airacobra. I can see the improvements you have been making. good job! Though I find it interesting the bars on the US insignia dont have the blue border...

thanks!

hmm, never thought about that?...

Miss Host, Guys,...

This tiger is ready to stalk prey:

Not without flaw and definately not my best but she sure looks nice and agress(or)ive, shark mouth and all

Fun build though slightly dated... the markings provided by Revell Germany still make it a real looker. Thanks to all for your kind comments and thanks to Miss Owl for hosting a great GB idea

Richard

sweet build kermit!! Love it.

The front page will be updated with your build. Thanks for joining in!