DocRob

Wow Phil, nice work with the help of a magnifier. Bummer, that the interior detail will be lost in the shadows. Cheers Rob

Sure, a zillion pictures up to a half build vessel on January first and on some of the pics, I forgot to remove the December issue of a newspaper or the Advent decoration . Never got so closed to approved frauding . Cheers Rob

Funky Thang Cheers Rob

Nice idea about the scuffing, Gary. I like the first picture a lot with black scuffing on the side of the fuselage and lighter scuffing through the soot. Your non Hartmann, enters the plane from the left side obviously. The white scuffing in the wing areas, I find a bit too much . Cheers Rob

The third color is applied. Again, no issues with AK's Sea Blue. It sprays perfectly and I was able to build up the color out of many translucent layers until it had the desired effect. Interestingly the sea blue dried relatively glossy, compared with the other two colors, but that's no issue for me, as I will flat coat my work in the end. The sea blue rendered sometimes very bluish, sometimes very brownish on my pictures, so I chose one, which looks halfway correct to my eye. While building the Corsair, I considered leaving the outer wings and tail wings unmounted until after the painting stage. It would have made painting a lot easier and I would recommend it to everyone building a tri color Corsair. Cheers Rob

First colors are on, at least preliminary. First I sprayed Insignia White heavily thinned in very translucent layers until i got something like a 3/4 coverage. I decided to airbrush the camo free handed, therefore, I wanted the borders between colors not entirely finished, as the color may be too dense there to let the pre shading shine through equally. After masking off the inner wing sections it was time for Intermediate Blue, which I sprayed a tin little bit closer to the desired density, specially, where it borders the white. I don't want to perform too many corrections in this area later. The AK Real Colors spray exceptionably well, with good coverage and a nice flow in the airbrush, when thinned with Mr. Leveling Thinner. The white was sputtering tiny drops on some occasions and I don't understand why. The mixing ratio was the same like with the blue. Of course, I started and stopped spraying off the model, but I have two or three tiny dots, which will be addressed later. Interestingly, the Intermedite Blue looks greyer in the jar, than sprayed, where it has the right blueish tint to my eye. Here you can clearly see the effect of the multi colored pre shading, especially on the wing ends. Cheers Rob

I'm expectant too and it will not be easy to have the pre shading showing through equally with a tri tone camo free handed or with Panzer putty for soft transitions, which need some overspray in the meeting areas. This technique, I used on monochrome or hard edged paintjobs, where it is easier to perform. Cheers Rob

Thank you amigos, I hope, the camera will lead to better pictures . Cheers Rob

Thanks Martin, amazing stuff and something in the gallery, I've seen before right here . Cheers Rob

Pre shading time or how do I let my plane look silly . I have used a multiple color pre shading approach on different builds and always liked the effect. Black shading looks mostly too stark to me and using blue and brown in this case compliments the camo colors. To let the effect work, it's absolutely essential, to work in very translucent layers onto the pre shading until you reach the desired effect. I hope, I can achieve this, never used AK's Real Colors before on wings and a fuselage. Panel lines got airbrushed in blue for harsh contrasts. Followed by red brown for other panels and structural lines and some panel accentuation. At last some red brown splatter, applied with a splatter mask, to break the monotony in the larger panels. Funky, isn't it ? Cheers Rob

This new delivery is not directly connected with modelling, but will be used for hopefully better modelling pics and others of course. Sinc three years, I was waiting for a new photo camera from Panasonic Lumix, as the new high tech models have video written all over them. With a good price tag, I decided to opt instead for a Lumix G9, the last of the brand ultimately dedicated to photography, albeit a decent video camera too. I know about the shortcomings of the micro four third, like unreliable, slow autofocus, bad depth of field rendering, ... but the system has a lot of benefits too and I own a lot of lenses for the system like the Leica macro on the picture. The new one has among many things a huge viewfinder, which I find very important, a top display, which is handy for tripod photography and advanced stuff, like in camera image stacking. Cheers Rob

Amaizing stuff, love the washing machine and the bike. Who produces that stuff? Cheers Rob

This becomes better with every update, Gary. I like the weathering and the blending of the decals and markings. Good to hear, the 1ManArmy masks work well, as I willuse them on my actual Corsair build, which means soon, hopefully. Cheers Rob

Hmm, good question, I don't know. Well I have to finish the Corsair first and the later winter will be reserved for the rigging of the Duchess of Kingston. If I take part, I think a December start would suit me better to squeeze the Schnellboot S-38 in. Cheers Rob

Alien, the best sci-fi movie ever, Aliens, one of the best creature horror movies ever. I praise the time, when sci-fi got dirty. I remember having seen Alien, fileteen years of age when it came out and the shock shelled audience after the movie leaving the cinema quitely. Some staff member offered 'After Aliens' refreshing towels foiled with a dedicated Alien print. Luckily no uniform CGI in these golden years of cinema. Nice haul Carl, but the colors .

Thanks Peter, but the effect of wear will not show that stark under the tri tone camo, but it will be a weathered bird. Cheers Rob

The next step after letting the hairspray thoroughly dry on the aluminum coat was to apply the primer color, interior yellow-green and let dry again. Then it was chipping time. I dampened the area with water, applied with a flat brush and let it soak for some minutes. After that, I used the same flat brush and abrased the interior green, emphasizing panels and areas of heavier wear. In some areas, I used wetted sandpaper as an addition. This may look like a bit overdone, but there will be pre shading on top, followed by the surface color, which will largely reduce the effect, as it only shows in later to chip areas. After drying, I will save the primer chipping with a gloss coat and proceed with pre shading. One question remains, were the middle flaps made by aluminum or cloth coated? Cheers Rob

This looks very promising, seems to be a nice kit, at least at first sight. Cheers Rob

Thanks Carl, your finish looks great, let's see, how mine turns out. Cheers Rob

Thank you Kevin, that is interesting material. I wouldn't use pure black for a prop in general. I rarely ever black in modeling. The propeller will be sprayed NATO black. Cheers Rob

I use the direct upload function, the forum supplies and like it a lot, even more after the PhotoBucket-disaster. What I do is to run my pics through the batch function of IrfanView, where I reduce the size of my pics to about 100-200 KB and apply my logo automatically. Works great for me. Cheers Rob

Very nice progress with the washes applied. I like the grade of dirtyness, it looks right to my eye. Your idea about adding a lengthening guide for the HGW belts is great, I hope they will read this. I usually build up the longer belts from the middle on, fiddling in the end buckles last and then glue the middle with the possibility to adjust the length a bit, after checking with the pilots seat as reference. Cheers Rob

Glad yours doesn't turn into a lawn dart, John. Your Starfighter looks absolutely beautiful and crisp in it's finish. If I ever build one, it can only be in NMF, which let the plane look so pure. Cheers Rob

How are the odds, that the stash additions got build ever, compared to the slots, Hubert ? Cheers Rob

I considered this technique too, as it is less tedious, then to mask all spars, then pre shade, ... . On my finished builds, I went the hard way, because I envisioned, the spars are prominent and should look highlighted, instead of darkened. On translucent linen, you could argue, that it's cast shadow, which looks darker, but with opaque surfaces, I don't know. On most planes of the time, there are enforcement strips applied, which might cast a slight shadow too. I looked at many historical pictures and have to say, on some the risen spars look lighter and on some darker, hmm. I might get persuaded to try the easier method for my next build, because the effect looks good in the end. Cheers Rob