The last few months have kept me from the bench and the forums and therefore haven't posted much of anything.
As a warm up, sharing something from a build I did late last year. One of the many Bandai 1/144 models. My goal with this one was to treat this as much as possible like a large scale model.
These things are so tiny especially in my meathook hands.
![tiny](https://photos.galacticcowboy.net/photogallery/_data/i/upload/2021/10/20/20211020184347-8dbfc518-me.jpg)
Like all modern Bandai models, clean assembly just happens. So we'll skip that and go into painting. I used filming models photos for inspiration.
Here I painted the nose with a mix of lemon yellow and clear orange. I didn't mix it thoroughly which gave it a look of discoloration due to age and exposure. Everything was so small that I couldn't mask and did it all free hand.
![yellow gray and more](https://photos.galacticcowboy.net/photogallery/_data/i/upload/2021/10/20/20211020184525-32f97960-xl.jpg)
The canopy and cockpit outline is a mix of Medium Sea Grey plus Azure to give it that blueish hue. A thinned version of that mix was used to create a pinwash that I used to color the panels on top of the engines. Finally the center gray strip is plain Medium Sea Grey. I created the wear by hitting it with the tip of a toothpick while it was no longer wet but not yet dry.
I really didn't like the stickers so I scanned and cleaned them up before printing them on waterslide paper. This was my first attempt at this so I printed several different copies of the decals. Which turned out to be fortuitous as each decal took several attempts to apply well. Decals were used for all the red markings.
![used decal sheet](https://photos.galacticcowboy.net/photogallery/_data/i/upload/2021/10/20/20211020184701-a1a931f7-xl.jpg)
As it turned out this waterslide paper is particularly susceptible to even the gentlest decal solution. They would literally start to dissolve on the model.
![waterslide](https://photos.galacticcowboy.net/photogallery/_data/i/upload/2021/10/20/20211020184631-db62a8af-xl.jpg)
Turns out this was a great way to create a well worn look! Talk about serendipity!
![additional decaling](https://photos.galacticcowboy.net/photogallery/_data/i/upload/2021/10/20/20211020184719-fcc6b55c-xl.jpg)
Applied light grey pinwash to make panel lines stand out more. Then did a very light brown wash over the entire model to give it a sense of use and grime.
And of course had to show my custom template for painting the the engine exhaust. ![Wink](http://cs.finescale.com/emoticons/emotion-5.gif)
![card 1](https://photos.galacticcowboy.net/photogallery/_data/i/upload/2021/10/20/20211020184806-345c216b-xl.jpg)
![card 2](https://photos.galacticcowboy.net/photogallery/_data/i/upload/2021/10/20/20211020184821-7588c08e-xl.jpg)
Then pastels, and yadda, yadda. Enough of that stuff, onto the final model!
![x 1](https://photos.galacticcowboy.net/photogallery/_data/i/upload/2021/11/04/20211104142903-54c905d3-xl.jpg)
![x 2](https://photos.galacticcowboy.net/photogallery/_data/i/upload/2021/10/20/20211020184833-5a86d4e3-xl.jpg)
![x4](https://photos.galacticcowboy.net/photogallery/_data/i/upload/2021/10/20/20211020184845-4f71516e-xl.jpg)
![x 3](https://photos.galacticcowboy.net/photogallery/_data/i/upload/2021/11/23/20211123001918-ab04bebc-xl.jpg)
Really pleased with how much detail I crammed into a model this small.
![tiny 2](https://photos.galacticcowboy.net/photogallery/_data/i/upload/2021/10/20/20211020184403-42986b0d-me.jpg)
Reviewing this build has got the boiler fired up. Really want to get some new builds finished and posted!