SPA Modeler

Thank you Stuart and Kari. This morning saw more sanding and filling of the engine nacelles to wing joins and so far it's looking acceptable to me. I've started cutting the casting blocks from the 004 engine, cleaned the parts up a little bit and started test fitting. All I've gotta say is that these engines are works of art right out of the box. LOTS of detail:

The three main parts:



and all together:

That is going to look real nice when it is done.

Paul wrote:That is going to look real nice when it is done.

Ok....made a little progress on the engine. I black based all three parts separately and shot the compressor section and ignitor sections with Testors Aluminum enamel but it was waaaay too grainy for my tastes. So I was in search of a more smooth and true aluminum look without it having that automotive aluminum intake manifold texture to it. What I found next was by pure (and a lot of us run into this in modeling) accident. My wife is a mosaic artist and uses all kinds of paints and things of that nature in her "builds". She was working with some letter decorations last night and was showing off this neat acrylic silver paint that she had and once I saw it there was a "ding". The light bulb came on.

So I used her silver paint over the enamel that I had already sprayed on and after that had dried I used some Mig Dark Wash (which folks, I haven't found a better wash out there yet for coverage and bringing the most out of details) and the results were mind blowing to me:

Here are the materials:



and here are the results on the 004 engine. I've still got a lot of detail work and detail painting to do but THIS.........is gonna WORK. I'll end up dulling it down and re-shading some of it to make it more accurate but we'll get to that when we get there.

Is that a crafting paint like you'll find at Michaels or Hobby Lobby? How did it airbrush and what did you use for thinner?

Yes siree it is. I thinned it with Testors Acrylic AB thinner and it ran through the airbrush perfectly.

Acrylic metallics from the local craft store... check
Thins well with Testors Acrylic Airbrush Thinner... check
In need of new metallics for various projects... check

The good thing about this stuff is that it's already glossy so it makes it easier when you apply the wash over it. The wash just flows like a river on it.

A good job for the moment, your six to stay out of sight

sergio wrote:A good job for the moment, your six to stay out of sight

Will be getting back on this one shortly folks.