SPA Modeler

Amazing work indeed on the spinner nose.

Thanks guys! That attention to detail is what drives us eh? Sometimes to the point of distraction. I don't know if I can live with those little paint blobs on the spinner. I tried buffing them out with Micromesh but wasn't 100% successful. I can try to incorporate them into chipping marks but we'll have to see how that looks. Worst case is that I wipe the spinner and give it another go. Not too difficult especially since I have the Montex spiral masks. Just more time and effort.

The work on the exhausts may seem excessive but I wanted to avoid the spray-and-done approach. Applying the rust-colored "chipping" and highlighting the tips in black helps break up the row of exhausts visually into individual pipes. And that adds one layer of complexity that wasn't there before. Hopefully, the different layers work together to make our eyes think they are seeing something heftier than a piece of plastic.

John! Your work is phenomenal! Have you shared any of the photos with Henri? I bet he would be so excited to see the attention you have given here.



What color are your hydraulic lines for the landing gear? I’m preparing ideas for the Do-17 including colors necessary for hydraulics and electrical systems.

Also, would you detail the absolutely STUNNING work on the interior propeller hub assembly?

Thanks Bruce! The landing gear brake lines were painted either very dark grey or black. I'm assuming that the big line that is molded into the wheel wells is the brake line so I painted them dark grey not yellow like I did the last build.

And no, I haven't shared any pics with Henri. I figured he has the best modelers in the world using his stuff... I'm assuming he's got some great pics. But I love his work so I'd do anything to support his products... I'll think about sending him some photos.

Speaking of the HD props... here is what the prop looks like mounted without the spinner.


I was able to repair the spinner to my satisfaction. I still need to think about weathering it a bit but not sure how to do it considering the two contrasting colors. I did put a dark wash to make the rivets stand out more.



I'm very close to painting. In preparation, I've masked off the wheel wells with foam and the flap opening with tape. Not sure which I want to do first... top or bottom? Thinking about doing the bottom first as I would rather deal with green overspray on the red than the red overspray on the green. Or would I? I'll think about it. A short trip up to LA to meet my niece's fiance! We'll get back to Red 1 in a couple of days.

Wouh!
Can hardly wait for the main painting session to start!

Have a great time in LA!

- Kari

speedgraflex wrote:I officially nominate you as equal to those who make the best models in the world, and I believe I am not alone in assessing this.

Could not agree more!

- Kari

I third that motion above...

Thanks guys! Very flattered but I'm just another dude who is obsessed with plastic. Back at home after spending a few days in LA. Your points about painting sequence are very interesting, Bruce. Yes, I tend to follow the original painting sequence but only because I assume they followed the same basic rule: lighter colors first and darker colors on top. But even that rule gets violated frequently in order to achieve the result I need with the tools that I have. For example, dark hard-edged mottles on a lighter background will get painted in the reverse order. The dark gets painted first and the mottle pattern is created with blobs of Blu-Tack and lighter color is sprayed on top of that. I find this easier to do than cutting out the mottle on a tape mask.

More than the original painting order, I consider the transitions first. If the transitions are hard then order, to me, is largely irrelevant and is largely arbitrary, maybe established by ease of masking. In the case of Red 1, there is a hard demarcation between the bottom and top so I don't feel restricted to a particular order. If that makes any sense.

Yes, the 262 build has been re-started and posted to LSP. There will be lots of work cleaning up the wing/fuselage joints so I won't be doing any major updates soon.

I had a brilliant idea of using children's clay to make the spinner removal. This clay dries into a stiff foam-like substance. My thought was to put a small amount of this clay into the spinner and then press the prop hub into it. Let it dry and the hardened clay would form a "receptacle" for the hub, giving enough friction to hold the spinner in place. It worked... for a few minutes. After only a couple of removals, the tight fit of the dry foam got too loose to hold the spinner in place. Back to the drawing board.


I am using Gunze acrylics for the RLM 82/83 top side colors. So I wanted to test these out on the canopy. Red 1 had some noticeable chipping on the canopy so a coat of Tamiya AS-12 (silver in a spray can decanted into the airbrush) was put over a black base.


After hairsrpay was applied and left to dry, the preshading was done.


The canopy is mostly RLM 82 with just the rear portion in the darker RLM 83.


The chipping worked out well using the hairspray. Much better than the MIG stuff.


All of the seams on the Dora have been addressed so she is ready for painting.


I still have not decided whether to do the top or bottom first but I am going to do hairspray chipping at the wing root so again I used Tamiya AS-12 over black as the base metal color. Metallic finishes are unforgiving when it comes to underlying flaws so this is a good test to see how successful the wing root repair was.



The canopy frame has been given a layer of salt fading.