Monday Paint!

 Nothing much to report today, except for a few hours this morning using my GSI PS-771 airbrush to apply the field applied topside green. Carefully sprayed around all the marking to make it look, well, field applied! And then an overspray of the green all over the topsides to blend it in. I think the real thing may have had a heavier mottle, but I'm stopping here for aesthetics! 

Gloss coat before washes next, see you soon!

Hamp Paintwork

 And so to paint! Initially the model was given a solid coat of AK Real Colours RC303 Amber Grey

With this done postshading was done using a lighter shade, in this case Mr Color H45 Sail Color

Mostly this was misted into panels, with some picked out specifically.

Then a darker colour was sprayed on, here using Mr Color H369 Dark Earth. This was not sprayed into panels as such, but more a general and random collection of lines and faded areas not following the detail for the most part. Both post shading colours were picked to hopefully by sympathetic to the base colour, in the hope that the result would be visible but not too starkly, and wouldn't need so much work to blend it in.

With this done the model had misted coats of the base colour applied to blend the shading in and make it look like weathered paint rather than something applied afterward. This requires care to not over - or - underdo it. 

As much of the base marking were than sprayed as possible using masks made on my Silhouette cutter and sprayed with lacquers. Although I did use the kit decals for the tail number and makers plaque on the rear fuselage.

All paints were thinned with Mr Color Rapid Thinner on this model so far. 

Hamp Day Six

 A few days where little got done due to work and, on Thursday at least, extreme tiredness (I hate earlies!), but plodding through an hour or so's work per night on tidy up, seem checking and some masking and stuff. 

Obviously the engine and cowling will be popped off prior to painting! I just like adding them for pictures. The plan is to complete the model with all markings in the overall amber grey with all markings added (mainly sprayed on) and then spray the dark green mottle on top to allow it to look field applied.

I'm trying out a more complete assembly before painting here. For twenty or more years I've ribbed my good friend Craig Sargent on how incredibly complete he gets his models before painting. . . it always looks like a recipe for disaster to me, with so many fragile parts to work around. But on the other hand he is one of the very best modellers I know, so there must be SOMETHING in it, right?!? So we'll see how clumsy I am, and how much I'll break painting it!

See you after paint. . . I hope.

Hamp Day Three

 I have to say, this being my second one of these this year, that unless something pretty spectacular happens in the next two months, of the kits I've built in 2022, this is going to be my KOTY. It's simply delightful. Two tiny dabs of filler on the fuselage in front of the windscreen on the top. And I could have avoided that with more care. 

And on the underside, a shim of .25mm plastic sheet at the rear of the lower wing join was all that was needed to make fit pretty much perfect. 

And with that most of the assembly is done in three days from opening the box. Some details, canopy and masking, and we're off to the paintshop.

Stay tuned!

Zero Sum Game From Eduard

 Earlier in the year I picked up the Eduard A6M Zero kit. I generally don't have much interest in Japanese WWII subjects - nothing against them, just never really moved me that much. So I thought I'd do the Zero as a palate cleanser, knowing that being a new tool Eduard product I would have few problems building it!

It turned out to be one of my favourite subjects of the last few years, an incredibly enjoyable build and one of the most rewarding painting and weathering jobs I'd done in a long while. It just went right. It also piqued my interest in the subject matter, so when the Type 32 "Hamp" was released this month, I grabbed one from Andy at Antics, and with my ast project finished earlier today I set about it. And here we are.

As you can see, not much to say at this point, just a few hours spent gluing bits together, but the detail levels on Eduard's latest toolings are little short of spectacular.

And then some paint added to start things off - all Mr Color lacquers and some Tamiya lacquer in this case, to set the base for detail painting and weathering. I'm not using much of the included etch on this one, I'll see how paint and decals look in the relatively small cockpit. See you soon!

 Is Klear Still Viable in 2021?

Simple premise - I first saw Klear used by the late Ted Taylor in Scale Models International more than 35 years ago. I was 14-15 at the time and wondered what this wonder gloss he was using was. Imagine my surprise when I found that you got it in the cleaning section of the Supermarket! And it was as good brushes as airbrushed?!? I was still three-four years from my first serious forays into airbrushing so it seemed perfect.

You know what? It was brilliant - once I'd worked out that you didn't use white spirit as a thinner or brush cleaner it clicked into place. And ever since I've been using it almost constantly for various things in modelling - I've certainly never applied it to any linoleum! One thing I have rarely used it for in years is glossing prior to decals. I simply moved into lacquers and my processes changed. I tend to go back to it when glossing large models as it it easy to apply in large quick coats than lacquers in my experience, less demanding of that wet edge, less likely to get vortex grit in sharp corners on large subjects. But largely not used anymore day to day.

Yesterday I was at a low motivational point, and decided to experiment with it as a gloss finish again, using some test pieces ad painting over Tamiya acrylics. I had been playing with greys and green for a while, so decided to gloss them up. The process was simple - the paint was applied (thinned with Tamiya lacquer thinner) and very lightly wet sanded with Trizact 3000 to smooth it. Then two light coats of Klear at low pressure thinned again with Tamiya lacquer thinner, and again sanded between and at the end with Trizact. 

The basic gloss. Certainly good enough for any decal application. Almost fool-proof application at low (10-12psi) pressure, the thinner keys it to the gloss, dries hard in a couple of hours. Another coat, another polish, done. Absolutely solid, hard coat and nice shine - more coats will, of course build more shine.

Then I decided to polish one of the test pieces with Turtle Wax Light-To-Medium polishing compound. The paint and plastic prep was nowhere as thorough as I'd do for an actual gloss finish - but I think the results are clear. It's as good as any other gloss I've cut and polished. 

My verdict? Yes, it's still totally viable and useable in 2021 as a glossing medium. It's no more or less risky than any other paint coat (i.e. basically anything that goes wrong will be something You've done, not the product - and I've failed in applying finishes many times in my modelling career - if you're not failing occasionally you're probably not pushing or learning).

Still useful, still relevant. Will I go back to using it regularly? Probably not, but it's a nice tool and skill set to refresh yourself with, and I may try it a few times on upcoming builds and see where it goes. 

Airfix Beaufort

 Airfix 1/72nd Beaufort Mk.1

Great box art invites the modeller in!

So, time to get this thing started! The one thing I had decided to do fairly early on was to give the model a full rivet job. I can generally take or leave rivets in small scales, but I wanted to busy this one up some using simple techniques. so out came the pencil, some straight edges and dymo tape and the RB Models riveter!

The basic tools of combat when riveting.

You can use straight edges for long runs of rivets, but in all honestly, as long as you have some sort of guide line like an adjacent panel, you can work slowly and carefully freehand - if your rivet wheel isn't overly sloppy it won't tend to wander. But using a straight edge gives an insurance of sorts, so your choice!

I prefer to do most riveting before assembly commences, individual parts have fewer corners and awkward spots to deal with. I stay away from thing like seam lines on fuselage halves - I'll do them after sanding the seams to make all the detail marry up.

And the results - I didn't follow any plans for this, so it's basically an "added interest" feature that is imagineered from the detail provided. I couldn't find any plans covering rivet patterns, so as long as it busies up the surface, I'm happy. A light oil paint wash highlights the panel detail and rivets for the camera.