Lookin' the part!
**** DONE: 1/32 Fw 190D-9 - Allied Advance and Defense of the Reich WWII.
- Thread starter JKim
- Start date
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- Thread starter
- #182
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Danke schon! A quick update... I fit the gun sight into the opening in the cockpit coaming. I had to enlarge the opening a little bit to allow the MDC gun sight to pass through.
The prop blades have been painted and put through some initial weathering using the salt crystal method.
And here is the drop tank with some more weathering on it.
I'm having some trouble with the spinner spiral. The Eagle Cal decal sheet has four spiral sets (one black and three white). The black one intended for Yellow 11 was an early failure as I could not get the decal to lay down properly on the spiral. So I changed the background color of the spinner from white to black and tried one of the white spiral decals and was met with another failure. I made a copies of the decal sheet prior to this so I have some templates to cut a mask but it's hard to cut such a tight spiral using scissors. I have a couple more decal spirals to try and I'll probably have a go at cutting some masks.
The prop blades have been painted and put through some initial weathering using the salt crystal method.
And here is the drop tank with some more weathering on it.
I'm having some trouble with the spinner spiral. The Eagle Cal decal sheet has four spiral sets (one black and three white). The black one intended for Yellow 11 was an early failure as I could not get the decal to lay down properly on the spiral. So I changed the background color of the spinner from white to black and tried one of the white spiral decals and was met with another failure. I made a copies of the decal sheet prior to this so I have some templates to cut a mask but it's hard to cut such a tight spiral using scissors. I have a couple more decal spirals to try and I'll probably have a go at cutting some masks.
Crimea_River
Marshal
Two thumbs up.
Looks great
- Thread starter
- #186
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
It took me a bit of trial and error but I got the spinner spiral done finally. With two white spiral decals remaining as back-up, I decided to make use of the xerox copies of the decal sheet to fabricate a mask. My first try was attaching a piece of clear frisket paper on the decal sheet and using scissors to cut the spiral pattern out. This worked well on the 1/48 Ta 152 model. But I found it very difficult to cut the tight curve using scissors. And the adhesive on the frisket paper wasn't sufficient to hold the edges of the spiral down, especially on the tip of the spinner.
So I tried a different way. I put down a piece of 3M masking tape on my cutting board. I then taped the xerox of the spiral onto the masking tape using clear scotch tape. I used a new x-acto blade to cut through all three layers. I also restricted this mask to the tip portion because I found it hard to manipulate the entire spiral (in both decal and mask form) and decided to break the masking into two parts.
This mask was put onto the spinner. I then used thin strips of flexible White Tamiya tape (which is similar to black electrical tape) to extend the spiral around the spinner.
Black paint is sprayed onto the spinner.
Voila... the tape is lifted and the spiral is revealed. There are some rough edges where the paint has bled through but that can be easily touched up. More important is the shape of the spiral and it looks like this two-part masking method worked ok.
Here is the spinner after the touch-ups and a coat of gloss. The spinner will be weathered after the clear coat dries.
Some more views of the drop tank after weathering. The mounting braces and fuel lines have been attached.
So I tried a different way. I put down a piece of 3M masking tape on my cutting board. I then taped the xerox of the spiral onto the masking tape using clear scotch tape. I used a new x-acto blade to cut through all three layers. I also restricted this mask to the tip portion because I found it hard to manipulate the entire spiral (in both decal and mask form) and decided to break the masking into two parts.
This mask was put onto the spinner. I then used thin strips of flexible White Tamiya tape (which is similar to black electrical tape) to extend the spiral around the spinner.
Black paint is sprayed onto the spinner.
Voila... the tape is lifted and the spiral is revealed. There are some rough edges where the paint has bled through but that can be easily touched up. More important is the shape of the spiral and it looks like this two-part masking method worked ok.
Here is the spinner after the touch-ups and a coat of gloss. The spinner will be weathered after the clear coat dries.
Some more views of the drop tank after weathering. The mounting braces and fuel lines have been attached.
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Well done John.
How did you feel the flexible tape performed on the compound curves of the spinner?
If it worked well on such a difficult surface, it should be good for a number of applications I have in mind.
How did you feel the flexible tape performed on the compound curves of the spinner?
If it worked well on such a difficult surface, it should be good for a number of applications I have in mind.
Looks great so far John!
Crimea_River
Marshal
Love your paint work John. The spiral technique you landed on worked well for me on my He-219 as well.
- Thread starter
- #191
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Thanks guys! Terry... the white Tamiya tape works fairly well to mask curved lines as well as conform to curves. But it really isn't much different than the plastic black electrical tape that you can pick up at any hardware store. When working with small strips, it's hard to achieve tight curves because there isn't enough adhesive area to keep the tape in place. There was no way that a straight thin strip would hold the spiral pattern that's on the tip of the Dora spinner.
Andy... thanks! I guess great minds think alike!
Andy... thanks! I guess great minds think alike!
- Thread starter
- #192
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
A brief update on the Dora... the spinner has been weathered. The pins on the prop blades were snipped off so that I could insert them after the spinner backplate was glued onto the spinner. I can now glue the painted blades into the spinner.
While the glue on the prop dries, I painted and weathered the exhaust pipes.
The critical wing to fuselage attachment was tackled next. Fit wasn't the best, especially at the wing roots so I'll have to take a few days to sand/putty/sand those joints. The biggest gap is on the bottom of the rear fuselage but that shouldn't be hard to fix since it is easy to reach.
Brain fart... I neglected to attach the windscreen to protect the Revi gunsight and the intensive work to glue the wings on knocked the reflector glass pieces off. I found one of them on a piece of masking tape holding the wings to the fuselage. Using that piece as a model, I cut a few extra reflectors out of clear plastic sheet.
And finally... here is the completed prop assembly.
While the glue on the prop dries, I painted and weathered the exhaust pipes.
The critical wing to fuselage attachment was tackled next. Fit wasn't the best, especially at the wing roots so I'll have to take a few days to sand/putty/sand those joints. The biggest gap is on the bottom of the rear fuselage but that shouldn't be hard to fix since it is easy to reach.
Brain fart... I neglected to attach the windscreen to protect the Revi gunsight and the intensive work to glue the wings on knocked the reflector glass pieces off. I found one of them on a piece of masking tape holding the wings to the fuselage. Using that piece as a model, I cut a few extra reflectors out of clear plastic sheet.
And finally... here is the completed prop assembly.
Good work John.
Crimea_River
Marshal
How about a tutorial on how you weathered the prop and spinner.
- Thread starter
- #196
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of the weathering process... just the after shots. But I'd be happy to describe the weathering process. Next time, I'll try to remember to photograph the process for a better guide.
For the spinner, after the spiral was painted, I gave it a clear gloss coat. A brown pastel wash was applied to the recessed details. A lighter brown is good here since it will provide contrast with both the white and the black. A flat coat was applied to seal the wash. Some chipping was done with colored pencils. I like chipping with multiple colors as this gives a nice worn/dirty effect. For the spinner I used silver on the black portions, standard graphite pencil on the white portions and a little bit of brown all over. The chipping effects of the pencils are not very permanent and will be altered by repeated handling. I don't mind this and will simply "refresh" the chipping at the end.
At this point, I wanted to try some dry pigments. I taped off the back half of the spinner at the panel line and applied an ochre pigment along the tape line. Using a stiff, flat paint brush, I blended the pigment in, always working back to front parallel to the airflow. After this was done, I taped off the front half of the spinner and did the same but worked the pigment front to back. This gave the spinner an overall ochre tint that I thought was a bit heavy. So I brushed the paint brush back and forth to try and reduce the effect which didn't do much. So I wet the brush slightly and brushed it back and forth, which gave a nice subtle streaking effect.
For the spinner, after the spiral was painted, I gave it a clear gloss coat. A brown pastel wash was applied to the recessed details. A lighter brown is good here since it will provide contrast with both the white and the black. A flat coat was applied to seal the wash. Some chipping was done with colored pencils. I like chipping with multiple colors as this gives a nice worn/dirty effect. For the spinner I used silver on the black portions, standard graphite pencil on the white portions and a little bit of brown all over. The chipping effects of the pencils are not very permanent and will be altered by repeated handling. I don't mind this and will simply "refresh" the chipping at the end.
At this point, I wanted to try some dry pigments. I taped off the back half of the spinner at the panel line and applied an ochre pigment along the tape line. Using a stiff, flat paint brush, I blended the pigment in, always working back to front parallel to the airflow. After this was done, I taped off the front half of the spinner and did the same but worked the pigment front to back. This gave the spinner an overall ochre tint that I thought was a bit heavy. So I brushed the paint brush back and forth to try and reduce the effect which didn't do much. So I wet the brush slightly and brushed it back and forth, which gave a nice subtle streaking effect.
- Thread starter
- #198
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
The prop blades were a little more complicated since I was experimenting with the salt chipping method. I had to start over after the decals had already been applied. After the initial black-green color was applied to the blades, I wet the surface of each blade and sprinkled salt crystals onto the blade. After the water had evaporated, I sprayed a slightly lighter green onto the front edge of each blade. The salt was removed. I repeated the salt application. But instead of green onto the front edge, I used a highly diluted grey to put transverse streaks on the blades. I have done this before without the salt but I thought the effect was a little too stark so I used the salt chipping as a screen to tone down the effect. A flat coat was applied to seal the blades. Chipping was done with green and brown colored pencils. No silver here since the Dora VS-111 prop featured wooden blades.
I'll try to remember to document the weathering a little better on my next build... it'd be much better with pictures.
I'll try to remember to document the weathering a little better on my next build... it'd be much better with pictures.
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Thanks for the information on the tape John. It's more or less what I suspected - useful in some areas, but probably more aimed at car modellers.
The images are not showing on post #192 - just image icon boxes are shown. I eventually viewed them, via 'Photobucket', by viewing each one in a new tab, but it took time to do so. Much better, quicker, and easier to up-load direct to the forum - especially for the 'Finished' threads. If the images can't be viewed conveniently for judging, then the judging can't be completed.
The images are not showing on post #192 - just image icon boxes are shown. I eventually viewed them, via 'Photobucket', by viewing each one in a new tab, but it took time to do so. Much better, quicker, and easier to up-load direct to the forum - especially for the 'Finished' threads. If the images can't be viewed conveniently for judging, then the judging can't be completed.
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