Floats and Boats: Amphibious Aircraft Group Build

Rob,

Seeing your work is inspiring me to want to practice more.  

I was just informed a package arrived, so it might be my figures.

5 hours on the upper wing, now thats dedication.

Really great looking progress being posted by all, seriously inspiring work.

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Rob S,  your hinomaru on the wings ( I could be jumping the gun here and you still plan to work on them), but viewing them with a technical eye, am wondering why none of the outer edges are weathered like you have happening in the centers?  Other than that, looking fantastic!

regards,

Jack

Rob, holy cow !! That is a BIG kit. Your work so far is very impressive. I am really diggin' the worn look. Very realistic.

BK

plasticjunkie

Is that a Pete?

Yes Sir, it is. Good eye.

BK

Thanks Bish! I really attacked the upper wing this evening. About 5 hours of solid work to get the upper wing to a finished state. The paint chipping was compliments of silver and terra cotta art pencils. Also, no decals used yet!

Here's the wing with a basic, splotchy IJN green followed by a slightly lightened post-shade:

Roundel being stencilled with IJN  light green as a base to give the red something to work with:

Chipping and wear (note NO chipping on the ailerons as they are material, not metal):

the pair of floats:

Painted on striping (poor lighting in my study, sorry 'bout that ):

Test fit

I need to get to the engines next. More to follow.

PJ, really nice work there. You have done a real nice job on the chipping.

Rob, that is looking really impressive. I could tell that wing was big from the box, but wow, that is somthing else.

PJ, wow ! That just looks sooo good. Such great weathering. 

Rob, ooph !! That's  alot of "shading" effort there. It looks super nice. 

Both of you have just crushed it !!!

BK

Your preshading allways looks great Rob, I really need to learn how you do that.

Some progress on the Mavis. I got the under-wing painted. Quite a big job. All I'm doing today..LOL. Anyway, pre and post shaded and stencilled on the massive roundels.

The engine cowlings are just lightly pinned on and I will finish, fill and fully glue them on near the end.

It was crazy humid here today and you can see the water spots that hit the roundel! Had to stop and drain the system before carrying on.

Yeah, there are lots of factors that affected it. I think I went too big trying to do this whole monster in the technique. I'll try it again with a smaller plane in smaller areas.

Thanks scott.

Rob S.

So, PJ, what was you 'recipe' to get your scraped away reveal on the primer? I tried hairspray and Tamiya acrylic and it didn't work. Looks great! That's what I wanted to go for.

 

I don't know how long you waited but you have to be quick specially with the Tamiya acrylics. All I used was a semi stiff small flat brush and a toothpick that helps to break up the paint on tough spots. I started scraping within 30 minutes after application.

Did you spray a very thin hairspray coat? It has to be just right, not too heavy and not toot thin. It will not release if sprayed too thin. 

So, PJ, what was you 'recipe' to get your scraped away reveal on the primer? I tried hairspray and Tamiya acrylic and it didn't work. Looks great! That's what I wanted to go for.

Brandon, great looking bird. Cool and unusual subject plane too!

Wondferfull work Rob, Pj, and Brandon.  For me, I am sidelined until my figure order arrives.  One is on backorder so it may be awhile.

Oh wow BK and PJ, nice looking birds.

That's looking great BK. Is that a Pete?

I did some more work on the Seiran. I decanted some cheap hairspray and coated the areas to be distressed. From the pictures I have seen, the orange paint and red primer seemed to have a superior bond over the green paint but eventually even the primer failed in some spots where metal can be seen in period pictures.

After shooting the hairspray, Tamiya XF-11 IJN Green was sprayed. At the end, I added a drop of XF-71 which is a lighter green and sprayed selected panels for tonal variation.

Using a toothpick to break up the paint seal in some spots, then used a brush and tap water to distress the paint.

There is more weathereing to come but the undersides will have less distressing.

I mixed some Testors yellow and red till the color looked right and sprayed the wing ID stripes. I also painted the red and white markings on the floats. Tamiya includes the decals for these markings but I rather paint them.

I can fade them using the ab and some masking film was added here and there then pulled off with masking tape revealing a few small chips.

Still lots of more weathering to come. 

I finally have an update worth reporting. This kit is just complicated enough to make me assemble it in an order outside of the instuctions in order to get it painted correctly. So, at this point I have all the painting done. The colors are down, the decals are set, cleared, panel line wash and final flat coat is done. The paint came out pretty well on the kit so with that I am happy. 

Now comes the fun bit. I have to install all the PE rigging. Looking over what photos exist of this bird the PE looks correct but is going to be a PITA to put on. I have to make and paint the dolly yet, but I want the kit out the way before I do that.

Anyway, here is what it looks like before I begin the PE rigging.

BK

Thanks guys. Yeah, that 'reply' button thing happens to me many time too. 

BrandonK

PJ, sometimes that happens

Agreed, but it dosn't matter. I just go to the next post up and reply to that one. They all go the the bottom anyway and it's not a problem unless I want to quote you.

I think it's your massive sig line with all your badges, which I think is cool.

Steve

Edit: Oops, at least you had a massive sig line.

Thanks BK. I also told him it may be his account but wanted to double check.

plasticjunkie

Looks really good Rob.

Toshi PM me and said that none of my threads (Floatplane GB, Japanese GB and aircraft section) have a reply box on the bottom, therefore he couldn't leave feedback. I can see the reply boxes on my screen and wonder if anyone else can look and verify that the reply boxes are there. The aircraft section thread is about the Seiran WIP.

Thanks in advance for checking for me! This is really weird.

 

BK

Holy cow Rob, that looks simply stunning. Quite the amazing job you've done.

BK

Rob that is quite an awe inspiring speed at which you work!  Your results are also excellent!  Love the weathering!

Looks really good Rob.

Toshi PM me and said that none of my threads (Floatplane GB, Japanese GB and aircraft section) have a reply box on the bottom, therefore he couldn't leave feedback. I can see the reply boxes on my screen and wonder if anyone else can look and verify that the reply boxes are there. The aircraft section thread is about the Seiran WIP.

Thanks in advance for checking for me! This is really weird.

Looks awesome Rob 

Great looking so far plastic. I tried the hairspray method on the Mavis and it didn't work. I also tried an acrylic on Future and got the same result. I've made the hairspray think work in the past, but, for some reason, It didn't go. Anyway, no problem. I decided to use the under-sprayed aluminum and red as a preshade and 'faded' the IJN green on. I used a red and silver pencil to add chipping detail.

This is going to be a NO DECAL build as well. All the decals are basic geometric shapes and line, so, I'm going to mask/stencil everything. This is a first for me.

Finished 'rising sun' roundel and a glimpse of the weathering thus far.

The bottom is basic.

The fuselage is done. The wing, however, is going to be mammoth project in itself. I'll hit that tomorrow night.

PJ, grear idea on the tube and needle, Ill have to log that into my mods memory. The paint work you doing is very cool as well and I can already imagine the worn look this is going to have under the IJN green. SO cool. !!!

BK

I normally would have been done a long time ago but baby sitting my granddaugter is a full time job so modeling takes the back seat.

Here's where I'm at now. I wasn't happy with Tamiya's pitot tube so I made my own out from brass tubing and a syringe needle cut with a Dremel wheel.

Glued up with Gorilla Gel Super Glue

The flaps had mold release marks so some PPP filled in the holes.

Thank God for Eduard canopy mask, it's a time and hair saver!

IJN seaplanes had red primer for anti corrosion control so I used some Floquil oxide red primer color and added a few drops of Testors red to kill the brownish tint and sprayed the Seiran.

I used a soft old t shirt piece with a tiny bit of Rub N Buff to polish the paint and add just a hint of a metallic sheen.

My Seiran is modeled after one that was found in Nagoya and had an unusual scheme. Apparently is was used for testing and little is known about it but the combination looks very interesting. I mixed my own orange color using Testors red and yellow and sprayed the undersides of the float and the lower tail feathers and wings only. I thinned it to make it more transparent and the panel centers were sprayed fading out to the edges as part of the weathering to come.

Next will be hairspray then IJN Green then comes the chipping and fading.

Real G, huge thanks for all the insight. Yes, the blisters were a bit of a pain, but, were 'persuaded' to settle down. I am having more success, though, than I thought I would have. My bracing struts actually worked out without any mod AND the big wing acually sits square on the pedestal mounts. I'm super pleased with that. Yes, plasticj, I'm going to have no choice but to install the big wing after the massive paint job.

As for the paint job, well, scouring the internets for some references, but, they are few. Most guys are doing the typical paint chipped schemes. Now, with the size of this, I'll have to remain subtle with the weathering as to not get tempted to over-do it.

As for weaponry Real? I concur...the kit and all online references state she could handle quite a load, but, good 'ole Hasegawa, as usual, included nothing. I wonder if there's a Hasegawa 'Japanese' weapons kit out there just like their myriad other weapons kits!!