SPA Modeler

Great stuff Kenny,

You are streets ahead of me in your painting techniques. Not afraid to try new things and stick with them until you get them “just so”. I, on the other hand, tend to stick to the same methods (truth be told I am not confident in my abilities). I applaud you and enjoy watching you work.

Regards,

I Like it,

again, black basing is the way going forward!

(except if painting a bright red plane)

- Kari

Thanks Kahuna and Kari!

And Kahuna, here’s a tip, just off the cuff. Take it FWIW. The moment I become confident in my work is the moment I switch it up and experiment.

“What if I used Hull Red and Deck Tan under the RLM65 to maybe vary the tones a little in certain places?”

“Oh Lord, why don’t we? It may not work out but who cares- that’s what Windex is for.”

And off I go. And somehow, it works! I think it’s because the discomfort of uncharted territory makes me work slowly and carefully, but somehow relaxes me too (and I don’t know why that is).

What I’m saying is, I got better by constantly moving out of the comfort zone. Now, in the past I have failed miserably *cough* Corsair I and Corsair II *cough cough* but I learned. If it’s a real challenge, I have a paint mule. And a tank to try things out on LOL and that helps. Building armor helps.

Kari, there has to be a way to black base a fireapple red airplane. Has to be. Maybe like this: Hull Red first. Then Deck Tan marbled on top of that. Then white marbled into that, hopefully bringing the base opacity up half-way. Then your Red. All paints heavily thinned. I want to try this now...

I love your attitude, Kenny. It mirrors mine in many ways. No failures... just learning opportunities. The moment I stop learning and trying new things is when modeling ceases to be a creative process and I hope that never happens. The brush painted wheel wells look really good and I'm sure you have some ideas to make them even better. One of things I'm obsessing over are the tires. I want to make them look interesting but it's hard when I have no tread pattern to work off of. I'll probably try a few different things and when they don't work out, I wipe and start again.

I find bright primary colors the most difficult to pull off. I'll have lots of red to deal with on my Dora since the JV44 aircraft had the characteristic red and white striped bottoms. In my experience, reds are hard to establish without using a light background. So I'll probably use white as a base, mask off the stripes and then put the red over that.

KennyX wrote:
Kari, there has to be a way to black base a fireapple red airplane. Has to be. Maybe like this: Hull Red first. Then Deck Tan marbled on top of that. Then white marbled into that, hopefully bringing the base opacity up half-way. Then your Red. All paints heavily thinned. I want to try this now...

Man thanks Kenny, that is indeed an intriguing approach! I really would want to finnish my red captured butcher bird project! Though I start to realize the only way forward with it, is to scratch the current build as a lessons learned thingy and start from square one with a brand new kit.

- Kari

Kari, I’m gonna try this on a section of my paint mule later on in the next few days and report back with how it went.

Got the sides painted;


And I sprayed another blend coat in select places on the bottom to knock back some of the tonal variation, as I wasn’t happy with the amount of modulation when compared to the sides of the fuselage:


This, I feel, is better.

I like this look better. Being new to black basing myself I am watching your work on this with great interest.
It s a great technique to use, especially on monotone areas or schemes. But I wonder on the amount to use to depict newer or more aged subjects. Seeing what you did here is a great example for altering that appearance.

Stikpusher wrote:I like this look better. Being new to black basing myself I am watching your work on this with great interest.
It s a great technique to use, especially on monotone areas or schemes. But I wonder on the amount to use to depict newer or more aged subjects. Seeing what you did here is a great example for altering that appearance.

I’m glad what I’m doing is helping you, Carlos. That’s great!

I’m getting used to the blending bit, myself. It can be ticklish business depending on your style, your subject, and so forth.

Like with me. For some reason I like my Messerschmitts only lightly weathered. Not showroom sparkling, but not beat up. “Lightly weathered but well maintained” is what I go for with these particular aircraft. No idea why. But at any rate, I want tonal variation and a little dirtiness in appropriate areas, but not too much of either. So I’ll blend, let it dry overnight, and blend again if I feel like I fell short when I look at it the next day. See, the thing I’ve noticed is that you have to let the paint from the blend coat sit and set up a while, because you’ll always lose a bit more modulation than you think. So I feel too little is better than too much. I can always come back the next day and add another.

This here, I think I hit this dead on the nose on the first go, so that was fortunate:


That is EXACTLY what I wanted.

Now, when planning out what I’m doing with my Corsair and Mustang, that’ll be different. There’ll be more modulation but not too much, as I’ll be fading with oils.

KennyX wrote:Thanks Kahuna and Kari!

And Kahuna, here’s a tip, just off the cuff. Take it FWIW. The moment I become confident in my work is the moment I switch it up and experiment.

“What if I used Hull Red and Deck Tan under the RLM65 to maybe vary the tones a little in certain places?”

“Oh Lord, why don’t we? It may not work out but who cares- that’s what Windex is for.”

And off I go. And somehow, it works! I think it’s because the discomfort of uncharted territory makes me work slowly and carefully, but somehow relaxes me too (and I don’t know why that is).

What I’m saying is, I got better by constantly moving out of the comfort zone. Now, in the past I have failed miserably *cough* Corsair I and Corsair II *cough cough* but I learned. If it’s a real challenge, I have a paint mule. And a tank to try things out on LOL and that helps. Building armor helps.

Kari, there has to be a way to black base a fireapple red airplane. Has to be. Maybe like this: Hull Red first. Then Deck Tan marbled on top of that. Then white marbled into that, hopefully bringing the base opacity up half-way. Then your Red. All paints heavily thinned. I want to try this now...

Bob Ross would describe it as Happy Accidents.