SPA Modeler

mustang1989 wrote:Good Lord man!!!!!!!!!!! This is totally off the charts!!!! Hats off to you for such splendid builds.

John, you are killing me! I am going to stop building models from now on!

The 109 looks better than most one sees in those magazines! As you used Tamiya paints; what did you use to dilute them? What pressure for airbrushing? Can you send it over to me?

I could not resist to post some of your pictures on SPAModeler´s Facebook page! Those are sooooo good!

Thanks for the positive feedback! It's very encouraging to hear. I have a long way to go before I consider myself an expert or advanced modeler but I am enjoying the journey.

Thomas_M wrote:John, you are killing me! I am going to stop building models from now on!

The 109 looks better than most one sees in those magazines! As you used Tamiya paints; what did you use to dilute them? What pressure for airbrushing? Can you send it over to me?

Thanks Thomas! I've had good results using 90% isopropyl alcohol to thin Tamiya and Gunze Sangyo acrylics. I use a more diluted mix when shooting from an airbrush. I apply my camo colors at about a 4:1 thinner to paint ratio. This ensures a very smooth finish and allows me to modulate the effect of my preshading with a high degree of control. The drawback is that it takes much longer to establish a finished coat and the thinned paint is more fragile when dry and is easily chipped/scratched.

Here is something different from my normal WWII fare. I made this for one of my two daughters. They are both fans of Hayao Miyazaki and this is a model from Miyazaki's anime film, Castle in the Sky.

Your shading and highlighting really brings this anime subject to life. Especially the character figures.

Thanks! It was my first attempt at painting figures. Thankfully, this was a bit easier since I did not have to be realistic. Animated characters are easier to paint than real people.

Ok... back to WWII fighter planes! I completed the Hasegawa 1/48 Ki-45 Toryu in late 2015. I usually have in my mind's eye, something particular that I want to accomplish on a build. With this plane, it was trying to capture the intricate mottling pattern on the Toryu. I didn't have much confidence in being able to spray by free hand the tight mottle shapes so I tried something different... I drew the mottling patterns using a light green colored pencil and then used those marks as a guide for my airbrushing efforts. It didn't come off completely as envisioned as the pencil often scraped the delicate, highly-thinned paint off the model. The wings were completed in this manner but after I got the hang of the mottle shapes, I did them freehand on the fuselage so you'll see some differences in the edge hardness. Indicative of my modeling habits of the time, my weathering effort was not very complete consisting of some chipping on the topside and leaving the bottom a bit too clean in my opinion.












The build was very straightforward and problem-free, characteristic of the Hasegawa 1/48 line of aircraft models. I did go out of my way to bury a very nice resin cockpit upgrade by CMK. I am an admitted sucker for aftermarket upgrades and this combined with my preference of showing all panels and canopies closed doesn't make much sense but that's just me.






Some shots of the mottle painting process...

No more words! I am giving up!
Hope my wife will teach me to crochet as a new hobby...

Given that Zoukei-mura is about to release this aircraft in 1/32 scale I better should start trying to improve my mediocre airbrushing skills! Thanks for explaining your magic!

Fantastic work. The interior, the exterior, the weathering... all superb