Revell H-291 by speedgraflex

[speedgraflex]

I’m giving this thread just a little push to the top of the active builds even though the only thing I’ve done is put all of the parts I’m building together on a sheet of white board for now. I’m still not fully ready to paint over half of the red cowling with the brown overall color; I’m thinking I’ll add an interference layer of white primer to knock back the red which is so dominant. I’m also a little bit bummed out that I’m going backwards not forwards by doing this. What might happen in the end will be a solid black cowling and exterior cockpit to match the existing photo. I’m kicking myself for choosing to go this route, though. This has been a fun build for me and I don’t want to get bogged down here.

[Stuart]

As long as you're having fun Bruce, that's all that matters!

[speedgraflex]

Thank you, Stuart! I just realized that’s a photo of Barker and a Snipe!

[speedgraflex]

From Marius (translated from German):

Within the machine tooling industry around 1916, during World War I, machines were predominantly painted in functional, dark colors to conceal dirt, oil, and soot.

Main color: Dark gray/Gray: Gray was already a very common color for machine tools at this time.

Alternative: Black/Very dark gray: Black was also widely used in the early 20th century, as it effectively hid oily dirt.
Machine green: Darker shades of green (similar to reseda green or olive green) were also common, especially for more precise machines.

Paint properties: The paints used were mostly oil-based, lead-containing paints that had to be resistant to machine oil and cutting fluids.

Finish: The surfaces were often not high-gloss, but rather semi-gloss or matte, as they were often hand-painted or quickly overpainted.

Context 1916 (World War I): Due to the high demand for armaments, machines were often manufactured or repaired under time pressure. Therefore, simple, quick-drying paints were used. The paint served purely to protect the cast iron and to provide aesthetic uniformity in the factory hall. Light colors or hammered finishes were still uncommon in machine tool manufacturing at this time.

[BlackSheep214]

That is very useful information. Gotta pin that somewhere.

[speedgraflex]

I thought so too, Tom, which is why I posted it here!

[speedgraflex]

Gents, the image below is from a series of French photography museum autochromes of WWI aircraft and scenes that I’m collecting from online sources, so I’m dropping one here.



The way the painted canvas colors blend softly is really important to visualize and may be difficult to achieve; however, I’m also happy to see what 1917 looks like in color. The intensity of color is modulated by the soft European light, as always this light appears champagne bottled, softly warm and softly casual and of course strikingly vintage.

[Stikpusher]

Man that’s a beautiful photo. I wonder how challenging it was to do autochrome photography at that time. It has such a soft look to it.

[speedgraflex]

I knew you would dig it, Carlos. I'm going to have to learn about the process.

[speedgraflex]

I was finally able to take advantage of both time and beautiful weather to set up my airbrush and compressor al fresco and prime the cowling. I used Mr. Finisher 1500 at a relatively reasonable psi level. There was a bit of a breeze today and I didn’t want the spray to harden before reaching its destination. Beating back the red did take more than one coat. The first two passes left a pinkish color. I didn’t want any red tones left as I want to bring the surface color back to a neutral one. Now I’ll let the paint de-gas and cure before the next day.