SPA Modeler

Bruce, thank you for weighing in with that great reference photo!

And Kahuna, thank you for your advice, as well.

Seriously. Much appreciated. Very much appreciated.

That’ll be the plan. I’ll bring that 65 up, and probably not blend it too much after I do the marbling, so that when I put that mottling on there it’ll have some of that nice tonal variation with the black underneath too. I’m stoked.

I was pleasantly surprised this morning when Mrs. Kenny X informed me that the humidity was only at 50%. It looked muggy outside, through the window. So I was able to get some painting done this morning before I signed-in to work.

Here’s the first coat:


Here’s the second coat:


Here’s the third coat:


And another coat:


And another:


And after a few more:


So what I did was, first I mixed three drops of plain old Tamiya XF23 and Tamiya thinner. I can’t remember exactly how much thinner I used, but it was a lot. The paint was Olsen Twins thin. I sprayed the first two coats with that, in a random, haphazard, mottled pattern.

After that, I mixed three more drops of XF23 with one drop of XF2, to get that nice RLM 65 that I’m so fond of. Then sprayed that in the same random, mottled pattern, right over top of the work I’d already done, and kept very slowly building up the opacity that way, coat after coat.

I guess where we’re at here, is the “It Looks Like Shit” stage that I’ve hear some Black-Basers refer to, vis: that stage where you’ve completed the marble coats and it’s time to start blending it with blend coats.

Please note: I did not come up with this technique myself. I learned about it on the Internet.

Anyhow, I’ll be spraying the blend coats on after while.

A few thoughts. This is the first airplane I’ve tried this technique on. Previously, I sprayed (or brushed) airplanes with the same general idea as you’d use when painting your living room: “Get the color on there in a nice, even, flat coat.” This often lead me to bomb paint onto the airplane, especially when I first began working with my airbrush. And you can certainly get a good finish that way, lots of people are doing that right now, and it’s great. However, speaking purely in terms of personal preference, I like this method better. It forces me to concentrate, and get surgical with my airbrush. Work small. And it also affords me a laissez-fair type of freedom that I didn’t know inneeded, namely- the freedom to be haphazard, to let variety in tones exist, and play with them. It all comes down to this- I’m having more fun painting this way. So there we go. I’m glad I’ve tried it.

Okay, so that’s it for this morning...

OH! Except for one more thing!! Don’t want to forget this:



That’s for our pal Bruce. Bruce, if you haven’t heard The Fugs, go download that record, it’s great!

Alright! I’ll be back later with another update. In the meantime, gotta get back to work.

Excellent Kenny, just excellent! Take your time with this because it's easy to dial up the opacity of the paint to get more coverage and then lose a lot of the subtle effects that you are slowly building up. I also developed my technique based on what others have done and like you, I was greatly influenced by Doog's exposition of the black-basing technique. I simply inversed his technique. Black basing is mottling light onto dark. Mine is dark onto light PLUS the addition of panel line pre-shading, which I am a big proponent of.

You should get a really cool result with this so keep going!

The Fugs, yes yess yesss

I have this from my Dad’s collection:



“Olsen Twins Thin” is perfect.

What you wrote and John’s reply are perfect.

I was wondering what to add, actually. Lately I have been thinking angles when I paint, instead of top down even coverage maneuvering to an angle to draw the color over each area.

I like what is happening here!

John,

Thank you for the encouragement and the advice! I definitely took my time with the blend coats, and was very careful. And yessir, I got turned-on to this technique from Doogs’ videos. Mostly because his explanation of the concept, vis: building the opacity up little by little on an extremely localized level was easy for me to understand.

Now, in terms of what you’re doing, I get the concept, I get how you flipped it, but man, when I think about tying to pre-shade, my mind goes completely blank like when a math problem suddenly becomes too difficult for me to solve. That stuff requires a level of talent, patience, and control that is way over my head. That’s part of the reason why I appreciate looking at the results so much when I see models finished like that. It can be very beautiful.

Bruce,

I have not heard that record! I’ll check it out! You know me- I’m always looking for new stuff to listen to. And thank you for the good word, too.

Okay! Here’s the results of my lunch break blend coats:



Ive opted to stop here, and begin focusing on the tail and fuselage sides. I am very happy with how this came out, and I’m willing to wager that some of the variation -hopefully not all of it- will get tamped down a bit when I spray this bad boy with clear. So no more blending on these surfaces.

This is proving to be a really enjoyable experiment.

Mate that is looking good.

I am still a “room painter” by nature but this technique needs more investigation methinks!

Great work.

Regards,

Well it sure looks good. It certainly gives a nice weathered appearance.

But I will bring up this point- Galland only flew that particular aircraft for a short time span, a few months at most. I would not go too heavy on weathering or wear and tear. He was the unit commander and photos of his aircraft show them to be in fairly good condition. Used but not overused.

Kahuna- thank you!!

Carlos- You gotnit, my man. “Used but not over-used” is indeed what I’m shooting for with this one. I’m not gonna make it look beat to hell. Just, you know, like it’s seen some shit but it’s in great shape, like.

I like where you took the finish... I read Carlos’s response earlier and thought immediately that yes I agree.... buuuuuuut methinks the underside of any piece of machinery is a place where engine oils, grease and lines or streaks of oil and grease would appear. I assume Galland flew harder than most if not all his compatriots..... buuuuut yes the photos do show a very polished aircraft; the steed of a leader....

Yes, it was still on the battlefront not in a showroom!