SPA Modeler

Thanks for the insightful comments guys! Comments, especially positive ones, inspire me to do more and do better. To answer your question about the wheel wells Bruce... the foam is simply to help block out the overspray from the RLM 76 sprayed on the bottom. It is held in place by friction. The piece of foam is larger than the opening so you stuff it into place and it stays put. What I've done previously is to take wads of tissue paper and stuff them gently into the wheel well openings. Using a stiff paint brush dipped in water, I push the tissue into place. Dampened tissue is easier to tamp down into the wheel well and as it dries it expands a little bit, stiffens and forms a neat little plug. Kinda like paper mache. With all of the wiring in the wheel well of the Dora, I wanted to try a different way of masking the wheel well openings and settled on the foam plugs.

I did a little more work on Black 1. I've sprayed the port wing root and the outlines of the upper surface camo pattern with RLM 75. Dora Number 210003 was repainted during her long career and I'm trying capture some of that in this build. The upper surfaces of 210003 were originally in RLM 75 Grey Violet and RLM 83 Dark Green. When 210003 became Black 1, the upper surfaces were converted to RLM 82 Light Green and RLM 83 Dark Green.


I want to show hints of RLM 75 peeking through the oversprayed RLM 82 and the most likely place where this would show up would be at the wing roots where most of the paint wear occurred. The starboard wing roots will be in RLM 83 Dark Green so there would be no RLM 75 underneath. The port wing root will RLM 82 over the RLM 75 so I'm going to do two-layer chipping here to expose both the airframe metal AND RLM 75. The RLM 75 is allowed to dry first.


Water will dissolve the hairspray layer between the metal color and the RLM 75. Brushing small amounts of water over the area using a stiff paint brush, irregular patches of RLM 75 become dislodged, revealing the metal color underneath... a very convincing paint chipping effect.


I'll allow this little patch to dry and then I'll seal it with a clear coat. Afterwards, I'll put on another layer of hairspray so that I can chip away the top color of RLM 82. This should reveal a little of the airframe metal and the RLM 75.

I need to concentrate on Black 1 and put away the Stormtrooper for a while. I lost a little bit of focus during this step which resulted in some staining of the RLM 76 on the fuselage sides that is visible in the photos. There is an even bigger stain on the starboard fuselage that I'll have to repair next before moving on.

Hi Bruce! If you want to see the full build of The Wog build, I'd be happy to send you a link via PM. Let me know. I didn't like how the weathering turned out on that one but it was a good learning experience using new techniques including two-layer chipping.

The stains on the fuselage sides were caused by my careless during the chipping. As you remove the outer layer by rubbing the area with a wet brush, that paint starts staining the water. I guess I dripped some "dirty" water onto the fuselage sides. I was also playing with the Stormtrooper guns, rubbing pencil lead onto certain areas to create a metallic effect. Dirty fingers at this stage of painting the Dora = potential trouble so I'll have to check for finger prints or smudges.

I can't satisfactorily repair the stains by just spraying RLM 76 over them. This will create an unnatural and noticeable spot of color around the stains. What I'll do is re-prime the general area using a Neutral Gray, doing another mottle over that and then re-applying the RLM 76. It should be a seamless fix.

I did not use any sort of mask when applying the RLM 75 to the port wing root. Another advantage to shooting highly-thinned paint mixtures is the increase control of the spray. Since it is so dilute, a little overspray is unnoticeable so you can get away with not using masks in certain situations.

John,

Yes. Please send me the link to the Wog build. That will be a big help in seeing how you handled the zinc chromate interior colors in addition to the weathering effects. Beautiful work!!

Hmmm. Thanks for explaining, as I was having trouble associating what "drip" meant in context of what I was seeing. Thank you for also detailing how you will repair the small areas that are being affected by this. I applaud your integrity in williling to share these issues as your work progresses!! One key element of a progressive build instead of a summary is the ability for the reader to contemplate choices dictated by circumstances. When I lose control of the zen state I find during Model building, I find my way back to this by reviewing project builds. Your Ta 152H-1 is a mantra in a way (forgive mixing zen and mantra like this but I do feel a meditation when building).

Mhm. Back on planet Earth again! Tamiya AS-12 looks pretty amazing as bare metal underneath, and you have nailed the powdery feel of late war Luftwaffe greys beautifully!

Quick question for John... after the black "marbling", I presume that your top coats are slightly to quite thin and translucent to allow the black to show thru from underneath?

speedgraflex wrote:Hmmm. Thanks for explaining, as I was having trouble associating what "drip" meant in context of what I was seeing.

A more accurate description for the stains on the port fuselage side would be marks from the wet brush. During the chipping process, the brush loads up with both water and removed paint particulates, creating a dirty mix which needs to be removed from the model by dabbing it on a paper towel or something. The starboard side was an obvious drip stain but I didn't include a photo of it. Flat paint finishes, especially lighter colors like RLM76 can be stained quite easily so I need to be more careful.

Stikpusher wrote:Quick question for John... after the black "marbling", I presume that your top coats are slightly to quite thin and translucent to allow the black to show thru from underneath?

Yes, my top coats are VERY thin. I play around with my ratios but I am shooting my camo colors at approximately 3:1 to 4:1 thinner to paint ratio. Noticeably more watery than the milk consistency that is often recommended. This allows more control in dialing in the pre-shading effects. It also lays the paint on beautifully without any grain. On the negative side is that it takes more time/patience to establish a given color. And the finish can be more fragile and prone to scratches and damage from masking.

That is evolving very, very nicely. I've seen that multi layer-chipping on some 32nd Navy plane builds like the Corsair with Zinc Cromate Yellow and Aluminum showing through. The 75/83 scheme was, as you've mentioned, the basic factory paint. I assume on those late-war fighters they spared the primer (RLM 02) on the fuseage and wings and used it only on parts that were exposed to corrosive conditions like the wheel wells and landing gear. If I remember correctly that was the reason why on late German fighters the paint started to wear earlier than on early ones.
I also think that some of the under-wing panels on the Ta 152 were made of plywood, can you confirm that for the D-9?

Thanks for explaining your method here John. Perhaps one day I'll try it myself...

mostrich wrote:That is evolving very, very nicely. I've seen that multi layer-chipping on some 32nd Navy plane builds like the Corsair with Zinc Cromate Yellow and Aluminum showing through. The 75/83 scheme was, as you've mentioned, the basic factory paint. I assume on those late-war fighters they spared the primer (RLM 02) on the fuseage and wings and used it only on parts that were exposed to corrosive conditions like the wheel wells and landing gear. If I remember correctly that was the reason why on late German fighters the paint started to wear earlier than on early ones.
I also think that some of the under-wing panels on the Ta 152 were made of plywood, can you confirm that for the D-9?

I believe that later D-9 utilized some wood components. Plywood flaps were documented on some Doras. Though not technically a D-9, the D-13 restoration also revealed some wood such as the large circular panel on the bottom of the fuselage.

The painting on Black 1 continues. First I want to fix the stains that were created during the chipping process. Here is the big drip on the starboard side. Like Alien acid blood, it seems to have eaten through to the hairspray layer at the wingroot.


After verifying that the stain caused no marring on the surface, I prep the area by spraying around the stain with Tamiya Neutral Grey.


A little bit of black is scribbled onto the grey.


Finally, the RLM 76 is sprayed over the "patch". Can't even tell right?


The staining on the port side was comparatively minor and I decided to forgo the base treatment and see if a judicious spraying of RLM 76 would suffice. Inadvertent staining is not always a bad thing and can sometimes be incorporated into the build as long as the mistake "fits" the build.


A little bit of RLM 76 was enough to fix the port side.


After the repairs, I sprayed the port wing root with hairspray for the next chipping layer. While that dried, I thought I'd spray on some RLM 82 Light Green onto the upper wings using the previously sprayed lines as a guide. I'm hoping that a few spots of RLM 75 will show through at the border of the RLM 82/83.


A closer look at the RLM 82 sprayed onto the wings.

I just love watching this all come together.