**** DONE: 1/48 B-25C 41-12971 345th BG 499th BS "Dirty Dora" , Heavy Hitters GB

[ozhawk40]

Thanks lads, heres the latest progress.

Pic 1 Painted the bottom neutral gray and then went on to mask off and paint the upper surfaces Olive drab.

Pic 2 Another view.

Pic 3 After spraying the Olive Drab I painted a light over-spray of faded Olive drab to the upper surfaces only to give the impression of severe fading on the top surface.

Pic 4 The control surfaces, ailerons and rudders/elevators that were fabric covered were painted another different shade. The fabric control surfaces faded at a different rate that painted aluminium.

Pic 5 Here you can see the different shades on the wing. The trim tab has been left the regular out of the bottle shade. I'm trying to give the impression of fixes and replacements. I;ll be doing a few other bits and pieces later.

Pic 6 Masks for the engine cowls came with the kit.

Pic 7 Sprayed the first coat blue. Not sure of the exact shade. Dirty Dora blue is a mix of Insignia Blue and white. It also faded badly, so hard to say what is was.

Pic 8 To simulate the fading, I over-sprayed the top half of the cowls with a lighter shade of the same paint - I mixed some white into the cup and kept going. A little bit of over-spray in the wrong places, but not bad. Masks off - Phew! Fingers crossed the bat will turn out too!

End of update.

Cheers

Peter

 

[Lucky13]

Bl**dy awesome Peter, stunning work mate!

 

[ozhawk40]

Thanks Jan

Got some more done tonight.

Pic 1 Vinyl masks supplied by AM go on okay for the bat. A bit tricky to get lined up. The detail is added by decal later, so let's hope it comes out okay.

Pic 2 Same process as the blue for the cowls. Original blue coat, followed by light over-spray to top with a lighter shade made by adding white.

Pic 3 Unmasked. I need to shade the olive drab a bit more on the top of the nose, but otherwise okay I think.

Goodnight! 8)

 

[DBII]

nice work

DBII

 

[Lucky13]

Niiiiiice work man!

 

[B-17engineer]

Hot sh!t !!

 

[Airframes]

Bazzin' job Peter! Should look brill when completed mate!

 

[bemay]

awesome

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Something tells my you've all the bits there to make a bloody big bomber. She go'na look great Pete,

 

[ozhawk40]

Thanks Dave, Jan, Harrison, T, Bruce and Vic! 8)

Couple of small fix ups done to shading today and painted the bottom quarter of the verticals white. The vertical stabilizers on the outside I have left unfaded, as it appears these may have been repainted fully at some point in the operational life of Dora.

Next task is to paint the red propeller warning stripe (although there is a decal) and do some "patchwork" where I can see some obvious areas of fresh paint in the photos of Dora. Seems to be a patch under the cockpit window on the starboard side , possibly for previous crew details, and where the mission symbols are located on the port side. This partly obliterates the red prop line.

That will basically complete the paint job. Hopefully on track for the first clear coat later on today.

Cheers

Peter

 

[Wayne Little]

Well done so far Peter!!

 

[Crimea_River]

Looks great!

 

[ozhawk40]

Thanks Wayne and CR


Pic 1and 2 Two main reference photos for detail.

Pic 3 Added the prop warning stripe. Colour chosen was MM British Crimson, which seems to look the part. While measuring up this strip it became apparent that the kit supplied masks for the bat wings are too short. The blue area should extend back to the stripe, but falls short by 3-4mm. I can't do anything about this as the decals won't fit the area of the masks if I change the length of the bat wings.

Pic 4 Looking at the port side there are a couple of areas where new paint has been used to cover the red stripe and paint out some detail near the cockpit window. Measuring carefully where the decals will be placed, I replicated these areas.

Pic 5 On the starboard side there is a rectangle of paint a different shade, so I also replicated this. I will shade this a bit later to bring it closer in shade to the surrounding area.

Cheers for now.

Peter

 

[bemay]

THAT LOOKS OUTSTANDING PETER THE OF THE BAT REALY SETS IT OFF THE ONE THING ABOUT THE B-25 GUNSHIPS IS THAT THEY WERE SO COLOURFUL!

 

[Lucky13]

Fantastic!

 

[Airframes]

Neat work mate, looks very smart. Did you use flash for the pics? Just wondering, as the O.D. looks quite pale on my monitor.

 

[ozhawk40]

Neat work mate, looks very smart. Did you use flash for the pics? Just wondering, as the O.D. looks quite pale on my monitor.

Thanks Terry. No, I don't use the flash. It does look slighter paler. My camera auto corrects for low light, and so this is the result. The colour looks a bit washed out. If I have more time I can adjust the camera settings to manual and fiddle until it's right, but then it will be wrong the next day because the lighting will be different! Isn't technology marvelous!

Cheers

Peter

 

[Airframes]

No probs mate, I thought that might be the case. Great things, these all-singing-all-dancing dgital camera gizmos, but when it comes to shooting under artificial light, they can be too bl**dy clever! Ah, the days of lighting the subject, whacking an 80A or 80B filter on the lens, checking exposure and depth of field, and shooting away......

 

[lesofprimus]

Frickin thing is comin along great Peter, I like the faded look ur giving her, real realistic...

 

[Wildcat]

Stunning work Pete!!