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GWH Hawk 81C AVG decals. 02/18/23


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Ernie

That it does. 

What really drives me crazy is when comparing paints with FS numbers or the common WWII colors, no two paint manufactures colors are the same. I always wondered how this could be. There must hopefully be a formula for each color.

 

 

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Been picking away at color mixes, and to my eyes, I’ve found a pretty convincing grey and I think I nailed the brown. That brown has khaki, field grey, hull red and white in it. A mishmash of whatever to make something convincing to my eyes. 
Brown from before compared to now. I expect it’ll come to life after some patchwork and washes. 

14A9F55F-9A81-4E7E-8FB4-BD3CC7C9543B.jpeg

8EEF005D-B939-49E2-B1D8-A8A1C3482FD9.jpeg

29490D1B-37C6-419A-B69E-59D59BD97747.jpeg

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7 hours ago, Daywalker said:

I like your "brown" color, has that sandy sun -burned look to it.  

Thanks. It’s certainly ugly enough and I think, a decent base to start from. It’ll get uglier after I go at it with some variations. 

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Something you usually see way, way overdone on models is the gun residue. But these birds really look like hammered shit. 
Plus major lead deposits from the exhaust.

Just WOW!

Also notice all have their flaps UP when parked.  Much like Spitfires, Hurricanes, and DC-3s.

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Mixed up a bottle of green, and have it a very small test squirt.  I think we nailed the basic colors. 
 

I found these mixes on an archived post on the Britmodeler Forum, and gave them a try. As mixed, they were close, but still too dark for my liking, so I played with them a bit more and am happy where we are here. There is room to lighten up the mixes somewhat and then completely trash the surfaces in high traffic areas.  Quite honestly, I never realized that the AVG birds, especially the first 100 machines, were so incredibly hammered. 
These colors are quite a bit lighter than the recommended mix, so there’s room to play.
 

9C652AE8-5FF2-4444-A6DB-1964E0E5D71A.jpeg

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Here are the mixes I found. Note that to me, the grey is way off, more like traditional RAF “Sky” than was used by US builders of RAF aircraft. 
 

DuPont 71-009:  brown.   4:  XF49. 
                                            4:  XF2       
                                             1:   XF65    
                                             1:   XF9

DuPont 71-013:  green  9:   XF65    
                                         3:   XF61   
                                         3:   XF2

DuPont 71-021:  grey.   3:  XF20   
                                        2:  XF12   
                                        1:   XF2

These got me to what I consider is VERY close   Y’all need to play around more after that because obviously they are all too dark, and the grey bottom is way too, well, Sky  

 

 

 

 

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Ernie

Been following along - step by step and day by day. I am pretty amazed at how you resolved a lot of the issues I needed to tackle but in quite a different way. GWH did a terrible job on the elongated PE parts by the leading edge - fit is really poor. Can't understand why just not mold them in plastic. I filled mine in with Evergreen strip - not perfect but looked a lot better. Also, nice going on some fancy seam and filling work on the wing fillet - bad choice again by GWH where they chose to make the joint seam - just made for a lot more work. I'm sure it had to do with mold limitations but there surely could have been a better way. 

Color wise, you made some nice choices based your final mixes being aimed at a weathered, operational look. When I was doing my paint research, I did find the references on Britmodeler, which were thoroughly thought out and look good. Since My P-40 wasn't going to be weathered, I kept going and eventually found the documented research I used. It's all in the look you want to model to convey.

  

 

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1 hour ago, Peterpools said:

Ernie

Been following along - step by step and day by day. I am pretty amazed at how you resolved a lot of the issues I needed to tackle but in quite a different way. GWH did a terrible job on the elongated PE parts by the leading edge - fit is really poor. Can't understand why just not mold them in plastic. I filled mine in with Evergreen strip - not perfect but looked a lot better. Also, nice going on some fancy seam and filling work on the wing fillet - bad choice again by GWH where they chose to make the joint seam - just made for a lot more work. I'm sure it had to do with mold limitations but there surely could have been a better way. 

Color wise, you made some nice choices based your final mixes being aimed at a weathered, operational look. When I was doing my paint research, I did find the references on Britmodeler, which were thoroughly thought out and look good. Since My P-40 wasn't going to be weathered, I kept going and eventually found the documented research I used. It's all in the look you want to model to convey.

  

 

Thanks, Peter.  Some of the seams on the model are in prototypical places, and I’m taking a different approach and leaving some of them, along with toning down others.  I have an idea that if I can pull it off, it’ll add to the “hard usage” look I’m aiming for.  If I miss the mark, I’ll just have a decent display case model.

There are a couple areas on the cowl attach area and the ammo box access panels in front of the windscreen, where, to me, a tinny bit of imperfection will be better for my goals. Same with the wing fillets where they meet the cowl.  That’s a high traffic area and I’m hoping a bit of disorder there might add to it.  
I may be sniffing too much glue here. We’ll soon find out.

I also purposely banged up the ammo box hatches on the underside of the wing as well, and left the small hinged panels on the top of the wing slightly proud in a spot or two. I’m hoping I’ll be able to pull off a bashed in and slammed shut look. If it don’t work, on with the Evergreen. 
 

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28 minutes ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Ernie, after seeing your pics I have to agree that I never knew how battered these planes got. 

I'm used to seeing USMC Corsairs looking sandblasted and worn but didn't realize the AVG planes got as beat. But it makes sense. 

It surprised me as well. But it makes sense when you look at the fact that this group was in existence for barely a year, and they used up or destroyed almost every single one of the original 100 aircraft they were issued from Camco. Plus a bunch of E’s they received in 1942.  They were almost like a Flying Circus, hopping from base to base, staying just out of range of the Japanese advance.   
My next one I build will have to have the engine open. 

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17 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Ern,

    I really like these new colors.  There's plenty of room to play with them.

Thanks, Gazz. I’m a bit out of my comfort zone with a hard edge camo and all, but  hopefully I won’t bork it up

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5 minutes ago, MikeMaben said:

Some help maybe ? Don't think this is colorized ...

Jcnqi45.jpg

That brown has become almost white-tan in places.

And the background of the cartoon tiger has always been gotten wrong by decal makers.  It is inevitably portrayed in black, where in fact, after application, a varnish was applied over top, which discolored the surface and turned it dark.

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6 hours ago, Clunkmeister said:

Thanks, Gazz. I’m a bit out of my comfort zone with a hard edge camo and all, but  hopefully I won’t bork it up

From the latest historical pics, looks like you could have hand painted some of it.

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21 hours ago, GazzaS said:

From the latest historical pics, looks like you could have hand painted some of it.

Yes, I see that. Crazy!

I did pop a seam on the turtledeck, so fixed it along with a skim of brushed on Mr. Surfacer 500, I’ll let it cure overnight, the touch up that area tomorrow.

I put some oils on paper towels to sit overnight, and will do some staining as well….

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