Thanks Carlos! It's a much maligned aircraft the Defiant, although a failure for it's intended purpose it was apparently a very study aircraft and a good gun platform. I do often wonder how history would have viewed it if Boulton-Paul had seen fit to put a few guns in the wings, as well as the turret.Stikpusher wrote:Excellent progress and update Stuart! Your Defiant is looking real good!
Thanks Bruce, my foot's feeling a lot better. It's not 100%, and I still have the pebble feel under my toes, but I managed a 7 mile walk today with no problem, which was good.speedgraflex wrote:Hi Stuart,
I hope your foot is better. Any chronic pain makes life difficult. Turning to your work bench, I like the results you achieved so far a great deal. I’m not simply writing that, mind you. I sincerely feel that a proper usage of brush paint truly adds a deep dimensional perspective to the representation of an aircraft. I have been thinking as of late about trying out a thin interference layer above the robin’s egg blue of Airfix kit plastic, perhaps a medium gray, just something to add a touch of character. I’m not sure if I have explained my thoughts properly.
At the moment, I have set aside an Airfix 1:72 Hawker Hurricane to be the test subject. I will attempt a brush painting process using medium gray Humbrol acrylics followed by the suggested scheme (and box paints) for the kit’s subject.
Long preamble over. My question is, have you ever prepared a layer or layers underneath the top coats, and was it worth the time? Look forward to your progress.
In answer to your question - yes. I've no experience with the old Airfix duck egg blue, but I've built enough Matchbox kits over the years to know not to paint over the kaleidoscope of colours they mould their kits in. A good neutral grey primer is always a good idea (you should prime acrylics anyway) to even everything out - especially when the plastic is a multiple of colours. I do like Humbrol's #1 primer, which brush paints well and is a nice medium grey, which matches their plastic, although these days I use Ultimate primer - mainly because I brought a massive bottle to test and might as well finish it off first. It's a good primer, but not quite as nice as the Humbrol as it's a few shades darker.
Does that help?