F4U-1A Corsair Tamiya 1/32

[Martinnfb]

x2, that chrome brings the the otherwise dull tail gear assembly back to life. 

[DocRob]

12 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Nice work on the panel lines using Flory washes. I've used them for years and they work great and like you said, 100% removable if need be.

Tail wheel assembly looks spot on the money as well.

 

12 hours ago, GazzaS said:

That looks very fine, Rob!  Those washes really did a nice job. 

 

7 hours ago, HubertB said:

She is really looking the part, Rob 👍

Thank you amigos, I do like the Flory washes for everything, except a completely clean aircraft with only some panel lines and rivets to pronounce. But they are good for all grades of dirtyness. 
In the moment, I ponder, how to continue. I will apply some chipping to the fuselage, oil leaking, exhaust smoke, some mud splatters around the wheels, but maybe, I start with some more post shading with oils for the darker sections, to create more depth to the surfaces.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Sorry, double post due to failing internet connection.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

7 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

x2, that chrome brings the the otherwise dull tail gear assembly back to life. 

Thanks Martin, I tried all my chrome colors and found them not qualified for the job and remembered then, that I bought a roll of chrome tape lately. What better moment to check it out. The dull assembly will receive furthr love with some chipping and some oil dots.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Some more weathering done. I've seen many corsair builds, where the whingroots were weathered and chipped like hell and the fuselage, nada, not a bit. I did some brush chipping with interior green and then added a variety of other stuff, to let especially the top color look a bit more interesting. I used AK's pencils in different grey and blue shades, creating chips and various dots everywhere. I used an old brush and dry brushed some of the intermediate blue for highlighting onto the darker blue. Then I used Tamiya's weathering pastels in different light colors and dabbed these onto the rivet lines and then brushed them smooth. This simulates an oil canning effect a bit and can best be seen in the spine section of the plane. I dabbed more pastels onto the upper parts of the fuselage to resemble sun bleached parts. Fine sandpaper was carefully used for some abrasion effects.
I like the result now and will wait for a day or two and decide then, if I find something is left out. Weathering has to be logical and well believable distributed, where it helps to lean back and evaluate a bit.
The results show better to the real eye than on the photos, but I will show some anyway.

Cheers Rob

[harv]

Looking fantastic ! I've yet to try the pencils....harv 

[GazzaS]

I like that chipping, Rob.  I have some of those pencils, but here is my experience:  Dry pencils, means nothing sticks to the paint.  Pencils dipped in water go dull so fast that I cannot make fine marks.

 

Or perhaps it is my surface?  On aircraft, I work with a polished surface as much as I can.

 

How do you do it?

[Peterpools]

Rob

Weathering is looking so go and so realistic. Like Gaz, I've never tried sing pencils and have been thinking of giving them a try.  

 

[DocRob]

An hour ago, I almost binned the Corsair. I hate fails and I hate re-dos and after removing a lot of masking material, I almost reached that point, but told myself to lean back and take a deep breath.
What happened, I don't know exactly. I had residues on all the transparent parts, which were masked with the most possible care. No bleedings, but possibly grey misted residues from the lacquer colors and their thinners, which went through the masking material. 
I also masked the radiator openings around the cowlings with blue tack, that went goo and is very hard to remove. It took about an hour to get rid of half of it.

The good thing, I wear a respirator mask. I don't want to know, what these stuff would have made with my brain without it.
I tried to clean the canopy with a cotton swab and wooden toothpicks and it worked luckily. The greater problem were the other transparent parts, like windscreen, lower fuselage window, and armor glass with gunsight, which were glued in place. I carefully removed them and cleaned them.

Before all these troubles, I matte coated the plane with Tamiya's flat clear lacquer, but it was still too shiny for my taste, maybe semi matte, but not flat. Out with the Pledge after drying, added 30% of Tamiya X Flat clear (never more) and sprayed again.
Now the Corsair looks like this.

To relax a bit, I continued with the undercarriage, which received some washes, followed by iron pigments rubbed on, to get a painted metal feel and finally, I had to re do the pistons, which were chrome taped. The tape is not made to adhere to small diameter parts, as it loosened itself and I had to remove it. Instead, I used my trusty Uschi chrome pigments to let them shine a bit.

The tyres were airbrushed in two different near blacks, one for the flanks and one for the running surface and than pronounced with pigments., which is my usual practice. The wheels are from Eduard and much better than these rubber thingies supplied with the kit.

Cheers Rob

 

 

[harv]

You handled it well and it looks fantastic 👏....harv

[GazzaS]

Looks excellent, Rob!  I' ve never heard of using metal pigments on painted lg parts...   but damn, I like the results.  That canopy residue...   could it be from the Flory washes?  It certainly looks like dirt in the photos.

 

I have learned the hard way to avoid anything that can use capillary around/even near masking.  I attached the masked and painted windscreen of an FW 190 with Tamiya extra thin, and made certain to avoid getting near the unpainted area.  But still, Mr. Tamiya found a way to get under my mask and ruin a pane.  I was devastated.

[Peterpools]

Rob

Great save and so glad you took a deep breath and a long-needed break. A while back, I had experienced the same with my F4B Phantom and you had the same on the kit you were building as well. Geez, I wish I could remember which kit it was. I'm starting to think other then gluing the windscreens in place, paint the balance of the cockpit glass off the model, when using solvent paints. I don't think water based paints would exhibit these issues. 

I'm also thinking Gaz is onto something as well. 

Gear looks brilliants as does the underside weathering.

 

[DocRob]

13 hours ago, harv said:

You handled it well and it looks fantastic 👏....harv

Thanks Harv, let's see how it looks in the end, I don't like unpleasant surprises that late in a build.

12 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Looks excellent, Rob!  I' ve never heard of using metal pigments on painted lg parts...   but damn, I like the results.  That canopy residue...   could it be from the Flory washes?  It certainly looks like dirt in the photos.

 

I have learned the hard way to avoid anything that can use capillary around/even near masking.  I attached the masked and painted windscreen of an FW 190 with Tamiya extra thin, and made certain to avoid getting near the unpainted area.  But still, Mr. Tamiya found a way to get under my mask and ruin a pane.  I was devastated.

Thank you Gary, I often use metal pigment onto painted parts. It may not sound right, but it somehow looks so, giving these parts a metallic appearance. mostly I finger rub a tiny bit of Uschi van der Rosten steel pigment carefully onto the surface. With the delicate undercarriage, I use a flat brush. I refined the technique with this build and relly liked the results.

Tamiya extra thin has it's ways to creep everywhere if you are not careful. In my case there is no capilar effect. The residues are sometimes in the middle of the panes and in the case of the armored glass, where masked off completely with the windshield. What little bleeding there was on the borders of the masks was color and it was easy taken care off with a toothpick.
I think it's lacquer / thinner fumes, because for example the lower fuselage window was masked from the outside and the residues were on the inside and that with the cockpit opening masked but of course not air tight.
The Flory wash couldn't be the culprit, as I didn't smear it onto the windshield.

9 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Great save and so glad you took a deep breath and a long-needed break. A while back, I had experienced the same with my F4B Phantom and you had the same on the kit you were building as well. Geez, I wish I could remember which kit it was. I'm starting to think other then gluing the windscreens in place, paint the balance of the cockpit glass off the model, when using solvent paints. I don't think water based paints would exhibit these issues. 

I'm also thinking Gaz is onto something as well. 

Gear looks brilliants as does the underside weathering.

Thank you Peter, I remember the discussion we had. I think it was on my KI-61 Hien build, where I first used lacquers for airbrushing. I took very great care with my masking, but somehow the thinner seemed to have gone through. Painting the cockpit glass of the model might help, if you remove the masks quickly. The downside is, it will always look different, if you don't go through all the weathering stages with the canopy. Next time when I have an extra canopy, I will try, if a bath of Pledge will alter the situation. I haven't done it with the Corsair, because the clear parts were absolutely crystal clear and I saw no need.
I never had these issues using acrylics.

Cheers Rob

 

[DocRob]

On 12/17/2022 at 8:32 PM, GazzaS said:

I like that chipping, Rob.  I have some of those pencils, but here is my experience:  Dry pencils, means nothing sticks to the paint.  Pencils dipped in water go dull so fast that I cannot make fine marks.

 

On 12/18/2022 at 1:35 PM, Peterpools said:

Weathering is looking so go and so realistic. Like Gaz, I've never tried sing pencils and have been thinking of giving them a try.

 

On 12/17/2022 at 4:08 PM, harv said:

Looking fantastic ! I've yet to try the pencils....harv 

Sorry amigos, I've overseen the pencil thing, too much things to do in the moment. 
I use the AK pencils since some time and I do like them. Like Gary said not a lot sticks to the surface, when you use them dry, but you can highlight panel borders with them. On the Corsair, I used them dry for the dotting and there are differences between the pencils, some leave bigger marks than others, means are softer. I then blend them either with a flat brush or my fingertips and if that's not enough, a dampened cotton swab. 
With other builds, I used them with a dampened tip and that's where they really shine. You can dab them on and blend them with moist brushes or swabs. They work almost like a multi-colored wash then and this is what i really like. You can work with a palette of colors, which keeps it interesting to the eye.

One example is the inside of this Skoda RSO drivers door, where I used the dampened pencils and blended them, simulating light and shadow

Or again the interior of the Ammo Knight, where I used them dry and dampened. Of course a matte surface helps, on a high gloss polished surface nothing sticks.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Thanks Rob

Thanks for the mini tutorial - some to try not to far down the road

 

[Martinnfb]

Nice save on the clear parts Rob, I understand the frustration related to such a setback especially at the finish line. She's looking mighty fine 👍

Cheers

Martin

[Bomber_County]

Rob good save, the only clear parts if any I add before spraying is the windshield, looking phenomenal…….

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Nice save on the clear parts Rob, I understand the frustration related to such a setback especially at the finish line. She's looking mighty fine 👍

 

9 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Rob good save, the only clear parts if any I add before spraying is the windshield, looking phenomenal…….

Thank you amigos, I still have to re glue the clear parts in place, without destroying the paintjob. To pry off the clear parts for cleaning and polishing was very difficult, as I like my glued parts to stay in place, normally.

The main canopy was airbrushed off the plane and it was affected a lot, Phil.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

All this clear glass staining is starting to be an issue. I decided to use the both Mr Color and MRP on the P-40 as I bought the specific colors for the build. If I wind up with clear staining, another good reason to make the switch to acrylics. See what happens.

 

[DocRob]

5 hours ago, Peterpools said:

All this clear glass staining is starting to be an issue. I decided to use the both Mr Color and MRP on the P-40 as I bought the specific colors for the build. If I wind up with clear staining, another good reason to make the switch to acrylics. See what happens.

It is Peter, but with the good results I had using lacquer paints, I'm not willing to give up easily. I will test a bit around with Pledge coatings and maybe, I will have some more ideas.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

After a lot of swearing, cleaning up the gooey mess into which the blue tack turned, which I used for masking the cooling fairings, I finally finished with these issues and did something more productive. I added the landing gear, a trouble free affair and the landing gear doors, which still need a bit of weathering to fit in.

Then I cleaned the clear parts and refitted them, luckily without any issues.

...and now it starts to look like a Corsair, but still a lot of things to do.

Cheers Rob

[harv]

Very nice ....harv  🏆

[Peterpools]

Rob

Looking mighty good and glad you've have resolved the issues.

I'm still plugging along with the color cotes for the P-40 but unexpected house issues have put a stop to any work for a while. 🙁

 

[DocRob]

13 hours ago, harv said:

Very nice ....harv  🏆

 

13 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Looking mighty good and glad you've have resolved the issues.

I'm still plugging along with the color cotes for the P-40 but unexpected house issues have put a stop to any work for a while. 🙁

Thank you Harv and Peter, I think the worst was peeling off the gooed blue tack for more than two hours with some tiny residues still sitting in the crevices. Never again, I will mix blue tack with lacquers, other than superficial and only for short term coverings.

I had some water related house issues too, the last days, but got them solved with the help of a stethoscope and a metal searching device and plumber stuff. Christmas time without having water in our second house wouldn't have been an option, so I had some 1/1 scale re-modeling .

I wish you luck with your painting stage looming. This masking-lacquer issue is still nagging, but luckily was resolvable.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Lately it always seems to be one thing or another. Just glad you were able to remove all the blue tack and keep the Corsair on track.

More important is resolving the water issue in your home. Hopefully it's not a leak or broken pipe.

We had some scary plumbing issues at home the past few days and the plumbers did a good job resolving the issues and we're back to normal.

Painting should be starting this afternoon as we look a major storm square in the eyes for the next 24 hours starting this evening. Heavy rain and wind gusts up to 60 mph