PZL P.11c - Polish Fighter - IBG - 1/32

[DocRob]

6 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Brush-painting is heavily underrated. I use to do everything with brush, but got lazy and comfortable. Great work Rob, this technique is little scary to watch at the beginning , but I already know that the depth you can achieve with patience and careful layering will pay off at the end.

Thank you Martin, I love my airbrush and the results, I can achieve with it. I started using an airbrush long before I reentered modelling to work on paper for posters or stop motion animations, but it's like with all the techniques, all have their pros and cons and if you have a wide palette at hand, you can use them in very creative ways. I love to explore new techniques and skills and sometimes, I choose my subjects only to learn new stuff. 
You are absolutely right about, how underrated brush painting is, maybe because of bad memories in the teens, while ruining heaps of plastic and glue with bad paintjobs.
I started to be more interested into brush painting, when I saw some videos in the net, about sci-fi model painting and stored what I had seen for later.

I lately started a build, which was only brush painted on the outside, to achieve a nice layering and weathering effect, but the Ammo Knight was painted with acrylics.
With brush painting, it's about to learn it's limitations and to use it to maximum benefits. It pays, to take an unconventional look at, how to achieve a certain result.

 BTW. Thanks for the pic Martin. Interesting to see, that the spine, behind the cockpit is much shorter than on mine.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

So very well said and how true

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[HubertB]

6 hours ago, DocRob said:

...

 BTW. Thanks for the pic Martin. Interesting to see, that the spine, behind the cockpit is much shorter than on mine.

Cheers Rob

That's because what you are seeing is an -a, not a -c version.

The -c was significantly different, with, among changes, the dorsal spine, a taller fin and rudder, an engine the thrust-line of which was lowered by 30 cms, a higher position of the seat in the cockpit (the two latter mods to improve pilot's vision), a different engine, a larger cwoling, etc...

I love your experiments with oil paint. Learning a lot with this !

Hubert.

PS: I have to ask ....

 

Is it done yet ?

[DocRob]

16 minutes ago, HubertB said:

Is it done yet ?

Am I Kai or do you push all of us lately Hubert? 

Thank you for the information about the different models, there was quite an evolution to the -C model to be seen.

20 minutes ago, HubertB said:

I love your experiments with oil paint. Learning a lot with this !

Same with me here, I'm learning a lot with using the oils. It's quite essential to use larger brushes and work with very fine brushstrokes as to not remove paint, unwanted. Light stokes also ensure, that the oil colors are spread fine and equally. I dab on the oils and then start to spread them in different directions, finally with the airflow.
You can accentuate panels with defined strokes of a flat brush.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The second layer of oil colors is applied, I used the oils in a darker and almost paste like consistence. It was dabbed on and spread with a flat brush in different directions. It is not so easy to maintain a relatively even distribution of the color, one brush stroke with too much force and you have to restart the area.
The paste like color needs to be spread further, but this will be done after an overnight drying time..
For the wings, I used a thinner mix of color and accentuated the tin fairings panels with targeted flat brush strokes.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

WOW, looking simply fantastic. The very light mottling effect you are achieving has 'weathering' written all over it.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[Kaireckstadt]

Simply stunning work Rob! 

[GazzaS]

Rob, I really like the way the modulation plays out in the corrugated areas.  Perhaps your next build should be Tante Ju.

[DocRob]

11 hours ago, Peterpools said:

WOW, looking simply fantastic. The very light mottling effect you are achieving has 'weathering' written all over it.

 

11 hours ago, Kaireckstadt said:

Simply stunning work Rob! 

 

3 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Rob, I really like the way the modulation plays out in the corrugated areas.  Perhaps your next build should be Tante Ju.

Muchas gracias Amigos, I'm not completely satisfied with the outcome in the moment, I want to spread the color more even onto the fuselage, but decided to let it dry overnight, as it is easy to abrase too much of the color. Working with oils is not always about applying color, its about removing applied colors as well. Hard to explain, but sometimes I work with a color free brush and after half a minute, I remove the accumulated paint from some strokes with a paper towel.

@GazzaS I don't have a Tante Ju in my stash and don't plan to purchase one, albeit it's a fascinating airframe. I may go back to the roots with a Junkers D.1 build.
My D.1 will be finished in NMF and since a long time, I thought about trying AK's True Metal waxes rubbed into the surface for painting.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

After another zillion brushstrokes, which barely touched the surface, I think, I got where I wanted to be, more or less. I will let the oils dry for some days and re-evaluate, before I seal the oil color with varnish.
It's really hard to get the color show on the photo as in real live. For the following pics, I used my Lumix camera instead of the Iphone and tried to get the lighting and white balance right (Idid that with the Iphone as well). It came closer to the applied color, but still has a hue in it. My interpretation of the Polish brown, seems hard to capture.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Absolutely brilliant work and the slightly mottle appearance replicates light weathering perfectly.

White balance and hue; if you're shooting in JPEG and not RAW, just set the WB for the lighting that is illuminating the model; incandescent, or fluorescent. What hue are you seeing? If it's a bit warm, just add a bit of blue (cooler) or too cool, then a bit a yellow (warm. Hope this helps

Keep 'em comin

Peter

 

[Kaireckstadt]

Simply stunning Rob! 

[DocRob]

21 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

Absolutely brilliant work and the slightly mottle appearance replicates light weathering perfectly.

White balance and hue; if you're shooting in JPEG and not RAW, just set the WB for the lighting that is illuminating the model; incandescent, or fluorescent. What hue are you seeing? If it's a bit warm, just add a bit of blue (cooler) or too cool, then a bit a yellow (warm. Hope this helps

Thanks Peter, I'm shooting JPEG, I generally hate post processing pictures, but may have to go that route more frequent in the future. My dogma in photography is, I make the the picture, the moment I capture it and that's it. It's the old analog thinking (of course there was post processing too), but digital possibilities has changed the game. Nearly everything is possible with post processing, except, taking the right picture at the right moment, with the good focal angle, with the actual metering. No picture is objective, but capturing them in one moment, while pressing the trigger makes them authentic.

You might argue against my thinking, pointing out, JPEG algorithms are post processing itself and you are right, but that's the Compromise I found for myself, after working with analogue material seemed no more appropriate.

For the pictures above, I used the correct custom WB-setting for the LED lighting, which is given. The hue, a slightly greenish tint, is caused by the micro 4/3 chip on my Lumix camera, it's not true to real colors. I know, I can correct the hue in the camera, but I don't want to, as it's only visible under some extreme conditions, macroing models unfortunately, is one of them.
It doesn't miss by a lot, but it's distinctive, I can tell you, as I work with that color for days now .
When using the Lumix, I try to get all the variables right, which I'm not doing with my Iphone. I use the Pro Cam App for the phone, which allows to adjust many parameters. With that, I use a different approach. I adjust the pic on the screen as long, till it looks right. Impossible with the Iphone, but close enough for most purposes.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Completely agree with your thought process and in camera procedure. For me it's quite different, as photography is a passion and I go the full route from filed work to printing. I always shoot with a Nikon Z7 (a Nikon shooter since the 1970's), shoot always in manual and in RAW. I enjoy doing post work in both Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.  Your images are beautifully done: clear and sharp and that's all that counts.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[harv]

3 hours ago, Kaireckstadt said:

Simply stunning Rob! 

Couldn't agree more.....harv 

[belugawhaleman]

Looks terrific so far! Also like the pictures.

[GazzaS]

Excellent job, Rob!  Not sure how the color looks like on your end, but things will look more brown if you put it on a grassy base or something.

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, harv said:

Couldn't agree more.....harv 

Thanks Harv

15 hours ago, belugawhaleman said:

Looks terrific so far! Also like the pictures.

I'm glad you like it, thank you. Maybe my 1/16 Chinese Tankette will be next with an oil paint job. I remember yours and liked it a lot.

5 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Excellent job, Rob!  Not sure how the color looks like on your end, but things will look more brown if you put it on a grassy base or something.

Thanks Gaz, the actual color tends a little more to the brown side and looks ok to me. If I don't like it after varnishing, I may put a filter on, let's see.
Also thank you for trying to force me into a dio build . No way with this one, where I haven't even a pilot figure.

Cheers Rob

[BlrwestSiR]

Catching up with your build Rob and the brush techniques you're using on it. Then I have to process the photography lessons mixed in between from you and Peter. Lots to digest. 

Combined, its making for a very informative build and some great looking results there. 

Carl

[DocRob]

After a looooong drying time of more than a week, I gloss coated the PZL with Tamiya LP clear. The first coat was just misted onto the oil color, to reduce the possibility of unwanted reactions between the oil colors and the varnish. Then I sprayed two liberal coats of gloss coat, to finally seal the oil colors and let, guess what, dry for some time.

Up to the decals now, which performed good, given the problematic surface with the corrugated texture. I used Micro Set to apply the decals and then half a litre of Micro Sol, to let them settle into the surface, accompanied by a hairdryer. The lower national insignia are really large and took some time to apply correctly.

Then the wings were mounted onto the fuselage with the struts.

That's where I am right now.

I then refined the exhaust ring with various dabbed on pigments and will let it be until the final assembly, where it will be evaluated.

 

Cheers Rob

 

 

[GazzaS]

Looks great Rob.  I've always liked the Polish insignia.  Guess I just prefer the angular insignia to little circles.  The paint looks awesome.  Preferable to a uniform coating.

[Kaireckstadt]

Great progress Rob! Like Gary said: I also like the insignia! 

[DocRob]

Thank you @GazzaS and @Kaireckstadt. The angular insignia do look different. I'm glad, the decals went on well. Masking and spraying would have been equally difficult, given the corrugated surface. 
The Polish Khaki is not an utterly attractive color, but it was the cause, why I chose the PZL for my oil color experiment. I wouldn't try it on a splinter camoed Viggen .

Cheers Rob

[belugawhaleman]

Looking great Rob!

[DocRob]

Today, after the decal solutions dried over night, I sprayed a semi matte clear coat on. First only misting onto the decals, as the Levelling thinner, which I used for the semi matte Tamiya LP varnish, can be aggressive to decals. After drying of the first coat, the whole plane was sealed. 

For Huberts (and mine) well being, I painted at least the push rod fairings black , to be a bit more on the authentic side.

Cheers Rob