SPA Modeler

Nice fix to the "Alien" blood spill. Afterwards one can never see what was there.

As the painting of this project goes forward, I am more and more intrigued by this method. I think in 1/48 it might be wasted, but on 1/32 & 1/35 aircraft builds, it works much better.

BlackSheep214 wrote:I just love watching this all come together.

Thank you! I hope it turns out ok!

Stikpusher wrote:Nice fix to the "Alien" blood spill. Afterwards one can never see what was there.

As the painting of this project goes forward, I am more and more intrigued by this method. I think in 1/48 it might be wasted, but on 1/32 & 1/35 aircraft builds, it works much better.

I've found that the mottling pre-shading technique works very well in 1/48 scale, which has been my primary focus in terms of kits built.


1/48 Hasegawa Bf109K-4


1/48 Zoukei-Mura Ta152H-1


1/48 Airfix Spitfire Mk 22/24

Thank you Bruce! Your description of the painting process as layering is very apt. The pre-shading, the camo coat and then the post-paint weathering techniques all add up to a combined effect. Recognition of certain things, such as the tonal crush that can occur after visually disparate colors and contrast are lined up next to each other, require adjustments that may look wrong at the time of application but will gradually shift as the other layers are applied. The goal, at least in my mind, is to trick the eye into thinking it is looking at something older, heavier, more substantial than the styrene plastic it actually is. It's a learning process of which I am in the middle of. Still learning, adjusting and trying to make each build a little better than the previous one.

As for curing... I think your experiences line up with mine. I will definitely give more time for lacquers and enamels to dry than acrylics. I find that Tamiya (and Gunze) acrylics DRY very fast. Fast enough that I can do certain things to the painted finish within hours of application. That is not to say that the paint is CURED though. If I need the security of a CURED finish for heavy duty masking or if I want to polish a paint coat with Micromesh, I will usually let the paint cure for at least 24 hours.

Black 1 is under temporary hold again as my season-ending outing at Barrett Lake is scheduled for this Saturday. I'll try and continue the paint process sometime next week!

Nice save on the Alien drip. What a way to improvise the cover up like it didn't happen. Well done!
I would have thought it would be harder on 1/72 than 1/48 scale.

Thanks for the comments guys... always appreciated. I had a few hours on Sunday afternoon to do more paintwork on Black 1. Got lots of the camo done!

Before starting on the spraying, I attended to a small detail. The tail of Black 1 was painted yellow by Dortenmann to give the boys from his squadron a bright flag to follow. I assume that the Werk Number and swastika were masked off prior to the yellow and so I prepared masks to be applied to the tail before I spray the yellow. This will preserve the factory camo as a background for the Werk Number and swastika.


Ok... on to the camo painting. The horizontal tail stabs were masked off to prevent overspray. I like to use Post-Its as much as possible since they are much less stickier than tape and less likely to pull up the somewhat delicate thinned RLM 76.


After the RLM 82 Light Green was sprayed onto the horizontal tail parts, I sprayed the RLM 82 on the port wing root, which had been hairsprayed, as well as the upper fuselage.


After the Light Green was finished, the RLM 83 Dark Green went on, starting with the tail again.



My intention was to leave some traces of the RLM 75 along the borders of the 82/83 but it just didn't look right to me. So I ended up covering all of the underlying RLM 75.



Some of the lighter "irregularities" that you see are airbrush runs that dried flatter than the surrounding coats and will be eliminated with a clear coat. This happens occasionally when spraying highly thinned paint mixtures.



A look at the bottom with the masks removed. It looks like working on top of the soft t-shirt has helped keep scratches off the bottom.



The majority of the RLM82/83 camo has been applied. The mottling has not yet been applied. Mottling is a very tricky deal for me. Paint mixtures need to be just right to avoid sputtering (too thick) or running (too thin). So I'm keeping it as a separate step.



I can now do the wing root chipping. There have been multiple coats of paint and lots of elapsed time on that starboard wing root so I'm curious if I'll be able get the hairspray layer to react with water.



The rear fuselage has lots of paint work to be done. After I do some mottling on the spine and vertical tail, I'll give it a layer of hairspray so that I can show some wear on the yellow tail. The masks for the Werk Number and swastika will go on prior to the yellow but before or after the hairspray, I don't know. The black and white fuselage bands also need to be added.

There are many "ideas" that I have when it comes to modeling that never see the light of day. There is a separation between thought and execution and I will retreat from an idea if I do not have the skill to execute it correctly. I couldn't pull off the traces of the RLM 75 along the RLM 82/83 demarcation areas but the wing root area should reveal some RLM 75. And I can also do some mottling in RLM 75 along the sides of the fuselage and tail, which might be more likely places for residual RLM 75 to show up anyways.

Every word. I feel that push pull between visualization and execution continuously, that is why I like to sketch ideas out, and definitely applies to choosing the kit as well.