Academy A-10 first steps

 So I've been waiting for this for a while, and finally picked one up this morning and started immediately. 

The kit is beautifully moulded, in typical Academy fashion these days. There is a bunch of slide moulding, which can be really clever. But it still leaves seam lines to deal with  the trick is to ensure you check for them! Have a look at the following pictures to see them. The ones on the sides of the rear fuselage are so fine I've highlighted them with the dreaded red line. They will have to be dealt with.

The good part is that as a one piece moulding you will not have to worry about ghost seams or similar - the bad aide? Well, often slide moulding is done to preserve or include fine details. As the seam still needs to go you still risk damaging that detail when dealing with them! So care is needed

The first step for me is to run a line of dark paint along each seam line - this just means you can see exactly what you're doing when removing them, so as not to go overboard with the sanding sticks. 

Eduard A6M3 Hamp , 1/48th Scale

 

So here we are done. After the initial mottling I sat back and looked at the model, and whilst I really liked the mottled effect, I had to admit that it wasn't actually accurate. These aircraft weren't so much mottled as badly sprayed over their upper surfaces - the idea was to paint them dark green on top, not mottle the amber-grey. So I had to revisit it.

So the PS771 airbrush was loaded up with more Mr Color C124 green, and I carefully went over the model to deepen the mottle.

In the end I went back four or five times over the space of a day or so. It can become to formulaic and regular if you attempt this sort of thing in one sitting, so doing one pass and walking away for an hour before going back pays dividends in both keeping it random and allowing you closely monitor how heavily the overpainting is getting. 

Ultimately I was extremely happy with the result. I managed to incorporate the initial mottling into the overspray to achieve a highly variegated finish which matched what I was visualising very nicely. It's irregular and blotchy but heavy enough to look like a badly sprayed aircraft, not a heavy mottle.

I added a  wash to the model using payne's grey and raw umber oil paints mixed with odourless thinner. There's so much surface detail and riveting to highlight that a pin wash is not going to capture it well, so it was more a sludge wash totally covering the model with a wide Filbert brush, allowed to dry for an hour or so and then polished with lots of kitchen towel. 

The chipping was done with Ammo Of Mig 0194 flat aluminium applied with a fine brush, again building it up very gently over multiple sessions to try and achieve something I was happy with - heavy on the wing roots and around removable panels and fasteners elsewhere. Pretty happy with it although it could be refined more - something to work on! With the chipping done the model received two liberal coats of Mr Color GX114 super smooth flat coat with some GX112 mixed in to add a slight sheen. 

When the varnish was dry some areas of chipping and other wear had some Ammo oilbrusher earth dotted around and worked with a slightly moist brush to dull the shine down and make it look slightly more lived in!  Final weathering was drybrushed oils of various colours including my very favourite Starship filth, with some black and other browns for other stains and streaks. The pitot was made from Albion Alloys telescoping tube and painted before supergluing in place, and with the masking removed there was my Hamp. 

There's not enough good things you can say about Eduard toolings these days - they are an enthusiasts' dream. Superbly detailed inside and out, comprehensively researched and tooled as near perfectly as it's possible to be. At around £30 for this model in the UK, superb value for money as well! The decals are still a sticking point, they're getting better but I still think they are by far the worst aspect of modern Eduard kits. 

Hugely recommended, and an interesting addition to the Zero family, I can't wait for the Rufe!

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!