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75th Anniversary of 1942 (World at War)

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  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: AandF in the Badger State
Posted by checkmateking02 on Saturday, November 18, 2017 12:03 PM

Fine looking progress, Eric.  Nice work.

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Berkeley CA/St. Paul MN
Posted by EBergerud on Monday, November 20, 2017 4:23 AM

 

More on the Guadalcanal bound Wildcat. As noted earlier, this is going to be another exercise in “black basing.” (If you haven't heard the term, check Ytube under Doog's Models and watch his first video – about 8 minutes, called Black Basing for an introduction. The idea is to dispense with preshading but also amplify tonal variations – just what we want on a plane that's bound for heavy weathering.) The first stage is to paint the primed plane (which is black) with tones of your base color – one of mine is lighter, another darker, the last the base coat – up very close and in very small quantity. The result looks like a bunch of squiggles. Doog does it better, but this is a fair representation of the stage called “Mottling”

 

 

 

 mottle by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

 

 

After that's done you go over the assigned area (in my case the 2/3 of the area of the Wildcat that's light blue-gray) with a heavily diluted base color. You don't want to finish off the variations in tone – that would be like putting on a base coat over a preshaded model and hiding the preshade. (Sound familiar?) In my case, I'm very pleased with an irregular surface because of what's coming next. The first pic is overall, the second a detail.

 

 base by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

 base1 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

This looks good to me for now – there's a lot more coming. (Next, of course, will be mottling and base coating the sea gray bottom surfaces – but we'll let that dry overnight first.)

 

 

 

No guarantees on this however. A couple months back I did a 1/48 Tamiya Beaufighter for the RAF GB – it was my first shot at black basing. Here's a detail, and the whole deal. I like it.

 

 PicFtDet by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

 picrtabr! by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

 

 

Golden High Flow continues to impress me mightily. Black basing is all about “painting small” - very heavily diluted paints, very low psi, mottling done at maybe an inch away from the kit: base is even more diluted but done with a little higher psi and from about three inches. Doog uses Gunze, Tamiya or the new Eastern European lacquer-acrylic that is very like the Japanese brands. Those solvent based paints do indeed excel at that kind of detail painting. Water based acrylics like Vallejo Model Air have real trouble here. You can do it, but the balance of viscosity and psi without getting tip dry is tough. High Flow blows through this kind of thing with zero trouble. It is extremely hard to get tip dry with High Flow – I'm sure there's retarder in there – the stuff is also pretty thin. And its also made by the planet's best producer of acrylic paints. Anyway, go to Blick and buy one bottle of High Flow neutral gray – a lovely color that will be useful anywhere – and try it. Because its agent is polymer you get a kind of film on the model – which is what real paint does. (I don't like solvents, but Tamiya is great paint. If there's one thing I don't like about it, it's that when you paint something properly it looks like the material has changed color. Water based acrylics looks like there's paint over the surface. Real machines, especially with matte surface, look like there's paint over the surface. In practice, by the time weathering is done, the difference (never great) is gone completely. This is terrific paint. For four bucks you can't lose. (Most airbrush companies sell it – along with my beloved Madea Iwata Com.Art.. Amazon sells it, but it's all mixed in with large size bottles, collections etc. Try Blick Arts – terrific site for tons of things at rock bottom prices. A 1 ounce bottle of Neutral Gray is about $4.00 – and nearly twice the volume of most modeling paints. Some of the mixing colors which have very complex pigments are more, but you don't need them unless you want to mix paints. There's about 45 colors – I have about 25. The titanium white and carbon black – two Golden standards – have tremendous opacity.) Golden has several videos on Ytube but it's all aimed at the art crowd. There's a lot to be learned but watching. I'm only now beginning to see how a lot of art techniques like glazing would work super for weathering.

 

 

 

Eric

 

 

 

 

A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and won't sink with you in it.

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Posted by Bish on Monday, November 20, 2017 6:15 AM

Nicework there Eric. I still can't get the hang of black baseing. It ends up either being so subtle youcan hardly see it or covered over completly. You seem to have nailed it.

I am a Norfolk man and i glory in being so

 

On the bench: Airfix 1/72nd Harrier GR.3/Fujimi 1/72nd Ju 87D-3

  • Member since
    September 2016
  • From: Albany, New York
Posted by ManCityFan on Monday, November 20, 2017 11:12 AM

Hey Eric, watching your build with intense interest.  A very interesting technique.  I am a fan of Golden products, so glad you are finding them useful.  The art store I go to praises them to no end, so I know they are quality products. 

Thanks for the explanation of your process.

Dwayne or Dman or just D.  All comments are welcome on my builds. 

  • Member since
    July 2014
Posted by modelcrazy on Monday, November 20, 2017 11:42 AM

Ih Check,

I will not be finishing the Hurricane. Italari sent me the new wing parts tree alright but they were exactly the same that came in the kit. I suspect that the fuselage halves are the wrong version for the kit. Since the kit was free to start with and it too 14 weeks to get the parts from Italari, I won't be perusing another tree from them.

I'm glad I was able to complete the Zero.

I'm serching my stash for something for a 1943 GB. It will probably be 1/72 German or Russian armor.

Steve

Steve

Building a kit from your stash is like cutting a head off a Hydra, two more take it's place.

 

 

http://www.spamodeler.com/forum/

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Berkeley CA/St. Paul MN
Posted by EBergerud on Monday, November 20, 2017 3:48 PM

MC: I've never run into a model I couldn't finish but I've had a couple I shouldn't have finished and it's disappointing. ( I don't do several kits at once so I don't have any hangar queens. Not good at multi-tasking I guess.) Nothing like spending several hours and then finding out that something doesn't fit, or is broken or is warped. When I think of some of the old kits coming from Eastern Europe I ran into, it's a miracle I stayed in the hobby. There's always the new tool Airfix Hurricane I. I've bought several new tool Airfix kits but I still haven't made one. (I was thinking of taking the P-40 B/C and using other decals and have it serve as an RAF mount in the desert: "Killer" Caldwell flew a plane like it and I think was the leading P-40 ace of the war. I went with the Guadalcanal Wildcat because I wrote a book about the campaign and interviewed many of the pilots.) I heard the Italeri Hurricane was a good kit - Tamiya did a co-box of it. I hope that Italeri can make good models because I've got one on deck - the 1/72 Sunderland. The kit's real live new tool Italeri (not one of their reboxes - although they have reboxed some of the Accurate Miniature gems of the 90s). It's also complicated and whopping big for a 72. It will be a "project" and I've got my fingers crossed.

I think 72 is better for planes than armor but a well made kit is always a treat. (My first armor kit was a 1/72 Stug - the only Stug I've made. Looks pretty good really.) As always my stash is too large so I won't be doing it, but one could think of splitting the difference and picking up a 1/48 Tamiya tank. The part count is well down from the 1/35s, but the kits get high praise at Armorama. Good for dios for one thing. Tamiya is putting out 1/48 vehicles you'd find at an airstrip - trying to tempt us into aircraft dioramas. Tamiya makes all of the German tanks of importance in the East along with a KV1 and JS2 "Stalin" - but oddly no T-34. (All about $23). Hobby Boss does make a T-34 and a KV1 for $18. I bet a big tank - like a Tiger - would come off well in 1/48. Eric

 

A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and won't sink with you in it.

  • Member since
    July 2014
Posted by modelcrazy on Monday, November 20, 2017 4:15 PM

Thanks Eric,

I still have the Hurri but my interest has defiantly waned on it because of the mis-fitting parts. I think I have the Airfix 1/72 hurri somewhere on my wishlist (out of about 100 kits) so, someday. My wife likes me to give her a wishlist for my birthday, Christmas and just cause presents so I print out pages and pages of dreams. I have switched to (with the exception of what’s in my stash) 1/72 for WW1 and WW2 fighters, 1/144 for WW2 bombers and modern AC and 1/72 for armor. I just don't have the room for anything else.

Steve

Building a kit from your stash is like cutting a head off a Hydra, two more take it's place.

 

 

http://www.spamodeler.com/forum/

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Berkeley CA/St. Paul MN
Posted by EBergerud on Monday, November 20, 2017 10:25 PM
With you on the room situation. I remember a few years back there was a fine modeler on our board that did nothing but Revell/Monogram kits. He was good and they looked great. After completion and photos he through them away - no place to put them. (I've got the Revell Ju-52 and it's very large. A lot of the 48s are hefty.) I just finished a dio here - after my next dio, the tank will go into some corner and the dio into the trash - I've only got room for two dios. I think this hobby is ideally requires a nice big midwest style basement. I know a gent who has 80 ship models in his - his basement is also bigger than my house. More than one kit I've got has gone into the eBay merry-go-round. I've got a Dragon Elephant - could sell that and try out the 1/48 Tamiya version. Eric

 

A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and won't sink with you in it.

  • Member since
    July 2014
Posted by modelcrazy on Monday, November 20, 2017 10:35 PM

Yeah, I've sold a few built and un-built on eBay and a few went to a museum, the rest are on my shelves or boxes. I would like to donate most of them to the Vets home but they don't have room either, so I'm going small LOL.

Steve

Building a kit from your stash is like cutting a head off a Hydra, two more take it's place.

 

 

http://www.spamodeler.com/forum/

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: AandF in the Badger State
Posted by checkmateking02 on Tuesday, November 21, 2017 3:56 PM

Fascinating procedure, Eric.  Turned out very good-looking.

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: AandF in the Badger State
Posted by checkmateking02 on Tuesday, November 21, 2017 4:00 PM

modelcrazy

Ih Check,

I will not be finishing the Hurricane. Italari sent me the new wing parts tree alright but they were exactly the same that came in the kit. I suspect that the fuselage halves are the wrong version for the kit. Since the kit was free to start with and it too 14 weeks to get the parts from Italari, I won't be perusing another tree from them.

I'm glad I was able to complete the Zero.

I'm serching my stash for something for a 1943 GB. It will probably be 1/72 German or Russian armor.

Steve

 

 
Sorry to hear about this trouble, Steve.  Some kits just seem to be a problem from the get-go.  
 
Glad that you participated in the GB.  You're productions are always great!
 
Yeah, I'm planning on launching a '43 GB, as soon as we pick up the new computer.  Bought an Asus from Best Buy last Friday, but it's taking a while for them to download the old hard drive to the new unit.  And that's where the '43 GB badge was located when the old machine fell off the perch.

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Posted by Bish on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 1:54 AM

Looking forwardto the next GB thread going up check, already decided what i am doing, in fact i know what i am doing for the next 3. Will be another armour build next year and planning on an early start this time.

I am a Norfolk man and i glory in being so

 

On the bench: Airfix 1/72nd Harrier GR.3/Fujimi 1/72nd Ju 87D-3

  • Member since
    July 2014
Posted by modelcrazy on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 8:11 AM

Yeah, I'm thinking the AMT 1/48 HS-129 or Dragon's 1/35 Flak 88.

Steve

Building a kit from your stash is like cutting a head off a Hydra, two more take it's place.

 

 

http://www.spamodeler.com/forum/

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Berkeley CA/St. Paul MN
Posted by EBergerud on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 4:51 PM

43 build....That'll be Tasca Sherman M4A1(Italy), Airfix C-47 (New Guinea), Tamiya Panther D (Kursk - this is one of Tamiya's super new tool kits out in late 2016) and I hope a DML T-34 (Kursk). But first I owe the RAF GB an Italeri Sunderland. I may get guilty after the Sunderland and build a ship - hopefully my sanity will prevent it.

More on the Cactus AF Wildcat. I mottled the lower surfaces - light sea gray - almost neutral in tone really. And then applied the base gray. Everything painted on this build is done with Golden High Flows.

 botmottl by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 Botbase by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

Want to point out something neat about black basing. As Doog notes, very little paint is used. Check the very fine detail (not bad for a late 90s kit) that's very clear despite priming, mottling and base coat (excuse the photo - up close at night, and light gray turned a little brown):

 wingdet by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

Here is the plane with it's early war two tone camo. A lot of line drawings show a very soft camo - the photos from Guadalcanal show a much harder version. I did go with Archer's rendition of the blue-gray. Most have more blue in them - his has more gray. I like the look. Note - this is far from done and we're looking for a very heavy fade.

 2tone by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

Eric

 

 

A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and won't sink with you in it.

  • Member since
    April 2005
  • From: Australia
Posted by taxtp on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 9:08 PM
Nice so far Eric. I like the way you support your models with appropriate comment and reference. I haven't tried the mottled undercoat, maybe my airbrushing technique is bad enough to not need it :) Cheers Tony

I'm just taking it one GB at a time.

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Berkeley CA/St. Paul MN
Posted by EBergerud on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 9:26 PM
I may have been a little lite on the base coat this time - but I'm going to see how it works. There will be both oils and pigments coming and drybrushing is actually a very good way to alter a base color slightly. Actually there is one definite advantage to black basing. "Painting small" is tricky and it is taking time to master it. You have to airbrush carefully and also get the viscosity/psi balance right. But once that's done, most people would be much more handy at the brush for any purpose. I could certainly see doing soft camo freehand. Modeling with a minimum amount of masking sounds neat to me. Eric

 

A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and won't sink with you in it.

  • Member since
    April 2014
  • From: Australia
Posted by lostagain on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 9:26 PM

Hi Eric,
Thought the Panzer dio finished well. But I can see what you mean about the snow though, I like your idea of doing windswept snow from the undamaged side. Had a look at the Precision krycell site and they show that happening in one of their videos.
So now the Wildcat is on its way too and starting well. I had a quick look at Doog’s site and his how tos intending to get a background on blackbasing, instead I ended up looking at his guides and discussions on model photography. Used a couple of his tips in the photo later on, think it lightened it up a bit.
I like how the blackbasing is coming along, the colour variation and faded look is great. But you say there is still more to come…
And the Tamiya 1/48 armour kits are great on detail. As well as this Marder, I built the JS-2 for the weekend build last year and both went together beautifully.
 
Dan,
The Stuka is racing together and nicely too. That canopy masking must have been great fun! Good to see the balsa rig out – wouldn’t be one of your builds without it – I found it indispensable for my vacform, thank you.
 
So with other stuff taking up my time, I have only added a few scratches, a bit of metallic paint and a bit of lead pencil for some metal edges. So now it is ready for sealing, then I will try my first hairspray/white overwash…
Piers

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: AandF in the Badger State
Posted by checkmateking02 on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 10:28 PM

Even unfinished, that is a very nice result, Eric.  It's very interesting and really attracts the eye very well.

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: AandF in the Badger State
Posted by checkmateking02 on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 10:35 PM

That is a very nice finish, Piers.  Excellent work.

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Posted by Bish on Thursday, November 23, 2017 2:06 AM

Really nicely done Eric.

I am a Norfolk man and i glory in being so

 

On the bench: Airfix 1/72nd Harrier GR.3/Fujimi 1/72nd Ju 87D-3

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Posted by Bish on Thursday, November 23, 2017 2:07 AM

Looking good Piers, can't wait to see that white wash.

I am a Norfolk man and i glory in being so

 

On the bench: Airfix 1/72nd Harrier GR.3/Fujimi 1/72nd Ju 87D-3

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Berkeley CA/St. Paul MN
Posted by EBergerud on Saturday, November 25, 2017 4:55 AM

 

A little progress over the holidays. Put on the decals – one very small one was annihilated but as there seems not to have been one solid “party line” on how the aircraft on Cactus were given markings, we'll say that a tiny marking saying “US NAVY F4F4” is only on one side of the tail.

 

 

I'm looking at Doog's weathering he did on a splendid job of a 1/32 Tamiya Corsair, and he lightened the fabric control surfaces a little. I've looked at this before and am not really sure what to do. I did find a post by a USN guru and he said that the fabric surfaces on the two color planes would have been a little lighter. However, he said that the dope didn't really fade as much as it disintegrated – therefore ground crews would “redope” the control surfaces when needed. So I lightened the color just a bit (I may darken the blue gray) but I also gave both top and bottom a solid base coat and eliminating the tonal differences. The effect definitely points out that the fabric and metal look different and that's the point. I didn't change the gray color – just gave a more solid coat.

 

 

 control1 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

 control2 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

Eric

 

 

A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and won't sink with you in it.

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: AandF in the Badger State
Posted by checkmateking02 on Saturday, November 25, 2017 2:03 PM

Fine work, Eric.  It's looking very good.

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Berkeley CA/St. Paul MN
Posted by EBergerud on Monday, November 27, 2017 1:50 AM

Moving along. Just did some salt fading. Some people use salt for chipping but I think other methods better for that. However, it makes for an interesting fade. You wet the model and cover it with salt. Mist it with a highly thinned gray acrylic filter. Let dry. Wash off salt. Repeat process with a another mist of a brownish filter. You're not trying to change the color – just add in an extra variable. Meanwhile the salt is keeping the mist off some parts of the surface – adding another variable. The salt also creates a kind of a salty white filter all of its own. The result is not dramatic but you can tell it. The detail picture shows the irregular surface colors and even texture. These pics are all taken at night. The two faded examples are still distinctly blue-gray – it's a little more blue than the color you see under the salt on the first pic. I get better ones down the road.

 

 salt1 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

 salt2 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

 saltdet by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

 

Check the pic of this Wildcat flying near Guadalcanal. You can see the surface is very irregular in color and shading, with control surfaces a little lighter. What you don't see is a lot of chipping. Try to think of this in color and maybe it helps explain what I'm up to.

 

 f4fair by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 Time for some oils I guess.

 Eric

 

A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and won't sink with you in it.

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Posted by Bish on Monday, November 27, 2017 3:29 AM

Eric, really nice job there and thanks for the little tut. Theres a guy at the model club i belong to that uses salt for fading, has done some great work on black schemes, but nice to see how its done.

Those acrylic filters, are they just home made useing normal paint or ready made ones.

I am a Norfolk man and i glory in being so

 

On the bench: Airfix 1/72nd Harrier GR.3/Fujimi 1/72nd Ju 87D-3

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Colorado Springs
Posted by mawright20 on Monday, November 27, 2017 9:10 AM

Eric,   Nice work on the Wildcat. I'm a fan of Beaufighters. Adding an Airfix kit Dornier 17 to this GB. Any advice is welcome.  Mike

 

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  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Berkeley CA/St. Paul MN
Posted by EBergerud on Monday, November 27, 2017 4:16 PM

Bish: I use very little commercial weathering stuff, although now that Wilder and Vallejo are coming out with acrylic stuff I'll get some. My collection of AK enamel bottles sits unused - I really have gotten used to water based acrylic modeling. I still use oils thinned with stuff called Gamsol (made by the bigtime US art house producer Gamblin) and it has almost no smell. So I've spent hundred on Tamiya/Gunze/AK products I won't use. But its worth it to me. (I don't have a proper spray booth so if I use anything strong, the smell lingers, which doesn't make me popular.) Aside from that although I admire Mig and Wilder for filling a market and making some money (and their products do contain some chemical boosters that make them slightly more effective), there's a kind of satisfaction of using home-brew. Ten years ago every wash or filter or mud treatment was home brew and people did ok. People like Greenwald deserve thanks for figuring out the value of pigments from chalk and use of colored pencils. (I don't use home brew paint thinner - that's a very bad idea with Golden or Vallejo paints.) If you make your own stuff you have to understand what its for. So my acrylic filter is a color mix of High Flows thinned to about 30% paint with Airbrush Extender. Doog, who's certainly a better modeler, would use a thinned filter of Gunze and Mr. Levelling Thinner. Indeed, I doubt Doog would approve of doing black basing with water based paints because the solvent based types are better at "painting small". Doog also encourages people to take chances, so I'm betting that I can use his techniques with water based paints. We'll see.  

Maw: best of luck on the Flying Pencil. It's a very cool airplane and one of the "new" Airfix kits. I haven't bought that one - I figure I should try to actually make one of the four I already own. (And they've just come out with a very cool Walrus in 1/48.) Hope you can figure out what ails you pics because its a kit on my "maybe" list.

Eric

 

A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and won't sink with you in it.

  • Member since
    April 2005
  • From: Australia
Posted by taxtp on Monday, November 27, 2017 7:01 PM
I'm loving your F4F Eric. CMK - I'd like to change my subject for this GB please. I have a Coree Productions 1/32 figure of Hans-Joachim Marseille, who dominated the skies of North Africa in 1942. I'll take the opportunity to squeeze in another figure. The F2A Buffalo will have to wait a bit longer, but it's off the plan now. Cheers Tony

I'm just taking it one GB at a time.

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: AandF in the Badger State
Posted by checkmateking02 on Monday, November 27, 2017 7:06 PM

That is a very effective technique, Eric.  It duplicates the effect in the b&w photo exceptionally well.

I'll take care of that, Tony.  Thanks for another contribution.

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: AandF in the Badger State
Posted by checkmateking02 on Monday, November 27, 2017 7:12 PM

Welcome to the GB, mawright20.  Good to have you join up.  Nice choice, too.  I've updated the front page with your build.  Thanks!

 

 

 

 

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