Kitty Hawk OS2U Kingfisher

[Peterpools]

Bill

Awesome technique - thanks for the pics and 'how to'.

 

[JohnB]

Gonna be a outstanding model Peter. I really look forward to seeing the finished bird.

[CANicoll]

Excellent tip!! Looking forward to seeing the result. I just gave away a huge handful of pipe cleaners.  Will have to see if the ones I have left are the 'good' ones or the 'bad' ones. 

[Bill_S]

Well, my experiment with the pipe cleaners had mixed results. On short, straight spans, it worked exactly as I planned.

Note: I'm spraying Mr. Color lacquers, I'm not sure if water based paints will soak the pipe cleaner or not.

On the longer, curved runs I was not so successful.

I attribute this to the pipe cleaner pulling away from the surface of the plastic.  As with anything, it's the small details...

This is not a good way to tape the pipe cleaner down: you can clearly see the pipe cleaner lifting away from the fuselage.

This, while not perfect, works much better.

The last two images are from my Birdcage Corsair; I'll be feathering edges on the fuselage of this one, too.

A second application on the Kingfisher:

I might give it another go with the white.

In the meantime, I got the rudder repainted. I'm happy with the result. I'm letting this cure for a day or two before I shoot the navy blue.

Next up: mounting the engine, installing and painting the cowl.

[Peterpools]

Bill

Thanks so much for all the closeup photographs on using the pipe cleaners - results look very good and just a bit of cleanup need where they tend to lift.

Red and white rudder stripes are now perfect  👍

 

[ScottsGT]

I’ve used Silly Putty rolled out on my bench into a 3/16 diameter “snake” and laid in place and then taped up to it with Tamiya tape.  When I spray/airbrush I make sure I’m spraying straight on or away from the painted side to give an edge that doesn’t looked masked. 

[CANicoll]

Bill,

Fantastic tutorial!  Thank you for all of the photographs and especially for showing what did and did not work.  So helpful to learn from - thank you!  I'm always looking for new ways to do things such as feathering the edges of paint.

Kingfisher is looking terrific, nice job on the paint.

Chris

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Bill, thanks for the pics on the pipe cleaner technique. Nice progress on your Kingfisher too. 

Carl

[Martinnfb]

Looking mighty fine. 

[HubertB]

Nice result on the rudder, Bill.

I am not totally convinced about the « pipe-cleaner technique », which looks to regularly irregular in my eyes, especially on the rear fuselage. As Scott mentioned, the Silly Putty technique, or lifted paper mask, could produce a more convincing faded effect, IMHO.

Hubert

[Bill_S]

13 hours ago, HubertB said:

Nice result on the rudder, Bill.

I am not totally convinced about the « pipe-cleaner technique », which looks to regularly irregular in my eyes, especially on the rear fuselage. As Scott mentioned, the Silly Putty technique, or lifted paper mask, could produce a more convincing faded effect, IMHO.

Hubert

At this point, I'm inclined to agree. I've got silly putty on order.

[Bill_S]

An issue. The engine/cowl assembly sits too far forward, leaving a large gap between the fuselage and the cowl flaps. The engine can't go any farther forward into the cowl, and the engine supports are fully seated into the firewall.

I drilled out the mounting holes and put in brass pins.

I cut off the ends of the engine supports and finished with this:

Canopy glass with blue over black.

[Peterpools]

Bill

Mighty nice air brush work. I'm still super jealous about the masks.

[DocRob]

I have to admit, I don't like the pipe cleaner spray results too much. The effect doesn't look right to my eye. That along with the difficulties, spraying around curved or hard angled contours, makes it a no use technique for me. With my last Corsair build, I was at the same point thinking about how to tackle this kind of camo, which in my case was tri tone. After some consideration, I tried to freehand the borders and this worked astonishingly well. Of course, I needed some correction spray passes, but was satisfied with the relatively sharp corner achievable with heavily thinned AK lacquers and a spraying angle, slightly away from the color border. It needs a bit of concentration to get it right and it's very easy to ruin the paintjob with one pull on the trigger.
Thank you for documenting this technique Bill and showing us the bare results to judge. 
BTW.: Nice fix with the cowling, seemingly a neuralgic point with radial driven planes. It looks good now and I guess, the brass pins make it very durable.

Cheers Rob

[JohnB]

42 minutes ago, DocRob said:

I have to admit, I don't like the pipe cleaner spray results too much. The effect doesn't look right to my eye. That along with the difficulties, spraying around curved or hard angled contours, makes it a no use technique for me. With my last Corsair build, I was at the same point thinking about how to tackle this kind of camo, which in my case was tri tone. After some consideration, I tried to freehand the borders and this worked astonishingly well. Of course, I needed some correction spray passes, but was satisfied with the relatively sharp corner achievable with heavily thinned AK lacquers and a spraying angle, slightly away from the color border. It needs a bit of concentration to get it right and it's very easy to ruin the paintjob with one pull on the trigger.
Thank you for documenting this technique Bill and showing us the bare results to judge. 
BTW.: Nice fix with the cowling, seemingly a neuralgic point with radial driven planes. It looks good now and I guess, the brass pins make it very durable.

Cheers Rob

That's my technique too Rob. I freehand all my camo'd birds using my old Paasche H. There's always some overspray that has to be touched up but that's no sweat.

The Kingfisher is coming along well Bill! Gonna be a beauty for sure.

[Bill_S]

Live and learn, I guess!

[KevinM]

I was going to do some cussing for you about the cowl but have decided to just say Nice fix and looking good Sir.(expensive kits that make one cuss)

[GazzaS]

If you want the best soft edge camo, you gotta use paper and either tape loops or bluetack/silly putty blobs.   Cut the paper to shape and use the tape loops or putty blobs to determine how far away from the surface the paper sits.   The higher your paper sits, the softer the edge is.  I had a feeling the pipe cleaners would let you down...   but I didn't want to be the wet blanket.

Tour new cowling fit looks much better.

[Peterpools]

I've seen free hand cammo work that was absolutely spectacular and takes a very special skill. Mine has been good over the years but nowhere near that level. These days, I favor paper masks, held off the model surface with rolled Tamiya tape - the soft edge effect is excellent. Goofs and clean ups I still do free hand. A few negative with paper cut masks is getting smooth and realistic curves without kinks and the masking does seem to take forever to do. But at this stage of the game, I'm nowhere as steady as I once was and the best way to go.  

 

[Bill_S]

Approaching the finish line...

[BlrwestSiR]

Very sharp looking Kingfisher Bill. 

[Peterpools]

Bill,

Awesome work .. your Kingfisher is looking so good as she approaches the finish line.

 

[KevinM]

Very Nice Bill!

[GazzaS]

Looks great!  You're smashing it!

[Bill_S]

A few fiddly bit remain, but they seem to take a long time. I added bracing wires to the main float; they're 0.013 in (0.33 mm) diameter piano wire.

What's left? the antenna mast and aerial wire, a few small lenses and a wash. Unfortunately, I leave mid-week for a month in Florida. This bird likely won't be complete until some time in April. I'm bringing a couple of 1/32 projects to keep me busy while I'm away - Academy F/A-18C and Trumpeter's F4F-4.