US CARRIER AVIATION GROUP BUILD 2013

Clemens- here's your quick detail painting tute: 

Use a good color reference source, a #000 or smaller fine-point brush and tons of patience.  

Work in a well-lit area.   You have to be able to see the material in order to do the work.

Avoid caffeine and sugary drinks that might make your hand unsteady.

Brace your painting hand and the work to avoid shaky hands.

If you have an optivisor-type headset, you may find that useful.   I don't use one, I rely on my Mk.1 eyeball set.

A peaceful setting helps avoid distractions.

Above all else, be patient.   Frustration breeds mistakes.

Really, that's it.   I take this stuff super-slow, working on one section at a time until it's finished before I move onto another section.   I did the IP cowls and side panels one night, the rear cockpit the next night and the front section last night.   I won't do detail work like this if I'm in a bad mood or don't feel interested in it at the time because that leads to mistakes.

Checkmate, you don't know how much I appreciate those tips. Hope the post is not technically copyrighted because I copied, pasted, and filed under my new 'sanding and filling' tips file! Thank you, sir.

Clemens, thanks for chiming in. Glad to hear yours is coming along well. Still waiting for weekend pics. :)

Dre, perhaps redundant as I commenting in your other thread, but that cockpit is worthy of praise redundancy IMO. It is awesome.

Thanks for the good vibes guys, but I can't help but regard the cockpit work as little more than 3-D painting by numbers.   I look the photos and paint the corresponding things the same colors, that's it.

Marty, on the othra hand, is scratchbuilding the interior of his model, casting new resin bits and making it into a different version altogether- that is praiseworthy work IMO.

(sorry to be a downer, i've had a frustrating afternoon and a few )

Nope, no copyrights!  And, you're welcome.  Hope it goes well.

Thank you for the tut, Dre!

Greg: I just completed the pre-shading. I'll spray the actual paint on tomorrow so I am afraid you have to wait for another day...

Cheers, Clemens

I just finished spraying the light gray and masked everything and I'll spray the blue-gray in a few hours (no time atm).

Here are some pics of the kitten with the pre-shading (Gunze H401 Dark Gray) done:

I hope the pre-shading is good enough, as it was my first attempt at this technique...

Cheers, Clemens 

I got both colors on now, but my camera's battery is empty...

I'll post some pics tomorrow though.

Sorry...

Never tried pre-shading, will be quite interested to be able to watch your first go at this, Clemens.

I reckon we all have to try something the first time, right? Looking like a good preshade to me, based on my vast knowledge of same (looking at pictures here for a month)

Here's an update on my S-3A Viking,  got a chance Sunday night to finish sanding/priming and got the beginning colors on it,  next is to tape for the gull gray.

This hsa been a fun build so far,  not looking forward to the red lined gear doors and the sonar buoy area  but the decals should be fun.

John

Looking good, John!

I'll post an update on my kitten as well when I'm home (1 hour), so stay tuned!

Clemens

OK guys, here's the update:

I sprayed the underside of the Wildcat in Light Gray and the top in a 1:1 mix of Navy Blue and Neutral Gray.

I removed all the masking and took some pics for ya:

Some close-ups of the pre-shading (it's a bit stronger than on the pic)

There's not only good news sadly...

Scratches on the engine cowling (should be an easy fix):

And now the really bad part: There are some really bad fingerprints on both sides of the fuse...

This looks much worse in person:

And on the other side as well:

I hope someone of you can help me sorting that out (it looks really bad), as I don't want my whole model ruined by some stupid fingerprints...

Cheers, Clemens

Looking very nice, there, Clemens. Sorry about the fingerprints.

A light, careful sanding should take care of most of it--though I fear you probably won't escape having to do at least some touchups. If the paint doesn't quite match, a bit of drybrushing should even it out. Of course, on the real things little touchups were done all the time.

I manged to get rid of the fingerprints by sanding the surface smooth with some really fine sandpaper, but I also lost several rivets by doing this. It's not such a big problem, as it is right on the areas where a decal is placed (the numbers on the side of the fuse). The surface is not perfectly smooth, but I think it is good enough. I just have to find a way of "recreating" the rivets. There are still little raised spots were they were, but nothing you could call rivets... I am thinking of just trying to do a slight pin-washing and then painting the "rivets" in a slightly other shade of blue...

Any help with this would be appreciated...

Cheers, Clemens

Here are some pics of the areas I sanded:

The surface is now much smoother, but I lost a lot of rivets as well. If you have any ideas on how to simulate rivets, please let me know.

Cheers, Clemens 

SchattenSpartan

The surface is now much smoother, but I lost a lot of rivets as well. If you have any ideas on how to simulate rivets, please let me know.

Cheers, Clemens 

For areas like that where the rivets are pronounced and not too finely-spaced, I've found white glue works very well for restoring rivets. Dab a toothpick in white glue and touch it to the surface, and it should give you something very close. With practice you can do whole lines quite quickly.

If you don't like the effect, just wipe away (when wet) or, when dry, just pop them off with the toothpick and try again.

That sanding looks to have to done the trick on those fingerprints, Clemens.

You might be able to recreate the rivets with tiny dots of glue, otherwise using paint to simulate them is a good idea.

Too bad you have to do this touch up work as that paint looks good.

Thank you for the tips, guys! I'll give the glue a go. Would Revell canopy glue work as well? It has the same characteristics as white-glue, but dries a bit faster.

Dre: The touch-up work should't be a huge problem as I don't have to get the exact same shade of blue, as I'll put a lot of stuff on top of that paint:

1. Gloss coat
2. Decals (the plane's ID-code is right on top of that areas)
3. Another gloss coat 
4. Oil-washing
5. You guessed right, another gloss coat
6. Flat coat
7. Some light chipping

I think the color difference can't be really noticed after all of that.

I learned a lot since joining the forum and I think my attempts get better everytime!

Cheers, Clemens

If I were you, I'd do the chipping along the way of all that clear coating- a little at a time in between layers so that when its all done the chips are slightly different 'ages'.   That might bring out some nice subtle variations to the weathering (depending on how beat up you plan on going).

Also, that's a lot of layers of coatings.   You could drop that final gloss coat and go straight to flat and save a little surface detail.   Each successive layer of paint, pigments and coatings softens whatever surface details there are...

Canopy glue ought to work but limit the handling in those areas.   I don't know of a wet decal would cause the canopy glue to melt or not, CA might be better?

Nice save with getting rid of the fingerprints, Clemens.  

I appreciate the tip for restoring rivets, too!  I've never known quite how to handle them, when they get sanded away.

I Thank you for the tips, Dre!

I'll do some chipping right after the second clear coat (right after the decals) and then some more after the washing. And I'll drop the last gloss coat, like you said.

Just a quick question: What would you recommend for the chipping? I want my Wildcat to look like it's been through some combat missions already, but not beaten up too badly...

Cheers, Clemens

I like that you shared your boo-boo with us, Clemens. I learned some stuff. Good save! Is it common for folks to share mistakes and fixes during GB's? I think it's just great.

And I really like the white glue/rivet idea too.

John, that Viking is looking good. I'm pretty much baffled by masking, could you explain how you did the red on the nacelle fronts? They really look good and I wouldn't know where to start.

Greg

I like that you shared your boo-boo with us, Clemens. I learned some stuff. Good save! Is it common for folks to share mistakes and fixes during GB's? I think it's just great.

I think that's part of the fun of GB's. Since everybody's watching in "real time" (more or less), you get to see what works as well as what doesn't. Personally, I often learn more from the "saves" than from the smooth, straight builds where everything goes as planned. (Though, to be fair, I'd wish the smooth build for everyone involved.)

That Viking is looking good, Falconmod.   An S3-A was one of the last 1/72 models I built back in the 80's... might even be that same kit.   To echo the earlier question- how did you do those nacelle scallops?   That's nice and tidy work.

Clemens, I'm not too good with aircraft chipping and weathering- I'm much more accustomed to beating up tanks and using gross measures to make them look "lived in".   Aircraft, not so much...

But....  I understand that the Navy is very particular about corrosion and oxidation, so I'd guess that an operational carrier aircraft would have lots of little touch up paint splotches instead of metallic chipping on the exterior surfaces and the usual amount of surface and edge wear in the cockpit.  

also, chipping and general usage wear occur from different things, so wing root boot scuffs will look different than object impact dings and both require a different technique to simulate...  so silver pencils, sponges and stiff brush stippling can all be used at one time or another.

Once you get the decals on, you can add a drop of paint in that flat coat and use it both for flattening and for sun fading...  now is the time to really think to through the final look and to begin incorporating those things into existing steps of the finishing process.   Do the little things along the way so that they aren't the last step and so that they integrated within the overall weathered model.

Dre-  thanks, its coming along.  the scallops I kind of did free hand.  After I pulled the styrene sheet over the nacelle I left it on the nacelle and drew on it with a pencil the where stretched attachment points go and then cut it out with a small finger nail scissors.

S-3A Update:  last night I got it taped up so I could get the gull gray on it.  So now onto all the little paint jobs, nav lights, leading edge yellow  and my personal favorite the red outlines on the gear doors and the sonar area on the bottom of the fuselage. And not to forget the buff colored radome.  Wish me luck.    

John

Looking really nice, John! I can't wait to see more of your Viking!

The painting of your Viking is very impressive, John.  Especially the red scallops.  Nice work.

Thanks checkmateking02-  Actually the red scallops are FOD covers that I vacuum formed and painted red.  I still have to put the squadron number on them and the hold down straps.

John

Update time...   I've left the cockpit alone for now and have turned my attentions to the other innards of this kit- the intake trunks and engines.

Here's a little of the inner detail of these engines...

and the afterburner faces have been painted, washed and drybrushed...

The intake trunks have the requisite sink holes, 5 per piece so some filling and sanding was needed.

I've decided to try something new (to me) on these intake pieces..   I'll paint them with the heaviest, whitest interior latex paint I could find.   At Lowe's, I found a quart of this Valspar paint that suits my needs- superwhite, glossy and acrylic.

The theory for this is simple- literally pour the latex through the intakes and let gravity sort it out for the smoothest, most blemish-free intakes this side of resin.  To that end, I made a simple drying box and did the deeds with the parts...

Sadly, it worked too well has I have runs and heavy blobs to deal with so the parts are soaking in SimpleGreen cleaner to remove the first run paint.   I'm determined to make this work, one way or another as the paint does work well for this (when it doesn't run).

Those engines look superb, Dre!

Those paint problems on the intakes must be no fun at all, but I'm sure you can get them to look awesome as well!