Great work so far!
**** DONE: 1/48 Me262B-1a/U1 - The Jet Age.
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- Thread starter
- #82
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
I am battling a cold this week. That means more time at home but modeling isn't so fun when you are not feeling 100%. During my brief forays into the workshop, I did manage a little progress on my nightfighter.
I am using Eduard canopy masks. These are my favorite as the yellow kabuki tape offers the perfect combination of tackiness and flexibility for the job at hand. I am one of those that has a hard time with masking the old fashioned way. I can sit on a build for days just procrastinating on this one point so I elected to use these pre-cut masks to keep the build moving. As always, the Eduard masks were a perfect fit.
With the masks on, I could now mount the windscreen, which in turn meant I could take the fragile gunsight and mount it to the instrument panel. And wouldn't you know it. Soon after this picture was taken, those tiny reflector glass pieces were knocked loose by the windscreen. I couldn't even find em. I contemplated leaving them off since they may not be distinguishable through the closed canopy but my OCD kicked in and I replaced them.
The canopy is attached in the closed position and the little nose cap is glued onto the front end of the fuselage, signaling the end of major construction. Seams were primed with Mr Surfacer 1000 and tidied up.
First step in painting is the canopy frames which were painted dark gray to match the interior.
I am planning to do a little chipping on the engine nacelles as well as the walk/wear areas on the wing and fuselage near the cockpit. So a base coat of gloss black was applied to those areas.
A little hiccup here. The paint on the fuselage went down a little too grainy for my tastes. This has happened to me before and I'm guessing it has to do with the paint mixture and the distance between the airbrush and the model surface.
I'll try to do some wet sanding/polishing to get it smooth. If that is not successful, I will wipe it off and do her over.
I am using Eduard canopy masks. These are my favorite as the yellow kabuki tape offers the perfect combination of tackiness and flexibility for the job at hand. I am one of those that has a hard time with masking the old fashioned way. I can sit on a build for days just procrastinating on this one point so I elected to use these pre-cut masks to keep the build moving. As always, the Eduard masks were a perfect fit.
With the masks on, I could now mount the windscreen, which in turn meant I could take the fragile gunsight and mount it to the instrument panel. And wouldn't you know it. Soon after this picture was taken, those tiny reflector glass pieces were knocked loose by the windscreen. I couldn't even find em. I contemplated leaving them off since they may not be distinguishable through the closed canopy but my OCD kicked in and I replaced them.
The canopy is attached in the closed position and the little nose cap is glued onto the front end of the fuselage, signaling the end of major construction. Seams were primed with Mr Surfacer 1000 and tidied up.
First step in painting is the canopy frames which were painted dark gray to match the interior.
I am planning to do a little chipping on the engine nacelles as well as the walk/wear areas on the wing and fuselage near the cockpit. So a base coat of gloss black was applied to those areas.
A little hiccup here. The paint on the fuselage went down a little too grainy for my tastes. This has happened to me before and I'm guessing it has to do with the paint mixture and the distance between the airbrush and the model surface.
I'll try to do some wet sanding/polishing to get it smooth. If that is not successful, I will wipe it off and do her over.
Totalize
Tech Sergeant
Nice work John. Really like the landing gear work and the cockpit work as well. Looking forward to seeing this one completed.
- Thread starter
- #85
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
The black paint had a coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss over it in an attempt to smooth out the finish. After that was dry, I used very fine sandpaper (wet) and a soft t-shirt to try and buff out the graininess. Keep in mind that I am not looking for a perfect finish here. This will all be covered by the camo pattern. The important thing is a smooth surface.
After the buffing, I applied the metallic finish, Alclad Polished Aluminum. Notice the tiny scratches that the Alclad reveals. I'm not worried about this since my normal acrylic paints will cover these scratches. The application of Alclad also left some residual "dusting" which is visible on the engine nacelles. I don't know what happened there but it was easily wiped away with a soft cloth.
After the buffing, I applied the metallic finish, Alclad Polished Aluminum. Notice the tiny scratches that the Alclad reveals. I'm not worried about this since my normal acrylic paints will cover these scratches. The application of Alclad also left some residual "dusting" which is visible on the engine nacelles. I don't know what happened there but it was easily wiped away with a soft cloth.
Crimea_River
Marshal
Wow, that's a great example of how unforgiving that finish is. My Starfighter will demand a lot of attention to surface prep as I already knew.
Donivanp
Major
Looking really good there John. Mite getting the silver on.
Remember John, the canopy was hinged to one side so there should be much more wear on the side they can actually enter from as apposed to the other side. Just saying...
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Some really nice stuff going on here John, you have the touch my friend.
Sweet!
Catch22
Major
Looks fantastic John.
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Nice work John !
Amazing attention to detail!
- Thread starter
- #95
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Yes, that is true as shown by the picture on my header post! I'll keep that in mind when I chip the wing root/fuselage areas.
A coat of hairspray is applied to the metallic areas and left to dry. After this, I am ready for pre-shading. Using a very thinned gloss black, I trace the panel lines and then apply random squiggles with the panels to give the overlying color some depth. This works well with solid light colors such as white or light blue but not so well on darker colors. Since this nightfighter has a black painted bottom, this post-shading technique will probably not be very effective but I can always do some post-shading.
The upper fuselage is heavily mottled so I elected to only highlight the panel lines. The upper wings are solid colors so they get the squiggle treatment.
The little gun cowling off to the side is an extra piece that I pre-shaded to test what the bottom fuselage might look like. I'm going to try give it some depth by using varying shades of very dark gray instead of a monolithic black finish.
Crimea_River
Marshal
Looks great John. Go easy on that weathering though as these aircraft were just a few weeks old and saw limited hours.
- Thread starter
- #98
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Bottom painted very dark gray and post-shaded with an even darker gray.1
The upper surfaces of the wings and horizontal stabilizers were painted RLM 83 Green that was custom mixed from Tamiya and Gunze acrylics and compared to paint chips in a Japanese book.
Happy 4th of July!
The upper surfaces of the wings and horizontal stabilizers were painted RLM 83 Green that was custom mixed from Tamiya and Gunze acrylics and compared to paint chips in a Japanese book.
Happy 4th of July!
Looks great John, especially like the effect you've created on the bottom
