forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com
WW1 Aircraft Modeling => Under Construction => Topic started by: PJ Fisher on September 20, 2022, 01:04:33 AM
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I am out of practice.
Hadn't snipped a single sprue since 2011, until I caught the bug for British two-seaters again this spring. In July I began anew with some basic hobby tools and this familiar fighter, which I figured would be accurate enough scale-wise so that I could get back into it without much tinkering. Quickly I discovered (at least for me) it's not like riding a bicycle... I need to relearn whatever skills I had (particularly painting) plus explore the many new techniques and accessories out there:
(https://i.imgur.com/U1VqJVom.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/PJnBWxvm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/PJnBWxv)
Customizing and scratch building are my favorite aspects of modelling, so I immediately started scraping the inner fuselage manually (using a flat blade as a draw knife) to the point of translucency in preparation of fitting a proper interior. Though I effectively accomplished this (note the shadow of the faintly molded footstep ring showing through in the second image below), I made the first of many mishaps by breaking off part of the top scarff-ring decking on one side of the fuselage:
(http://i.imgur.com/onWMxASm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/onWMxAS) (http://i.imgur.com/MRfVUwZm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/MRfVUwZ)
My second blunder soon followed. After some progress correcting casting flaws on the wings and thinning their trailing edges, I attempted to prime the surfaces with both an airbrush and paint that I'd never used before. I live in Manhattan where independent hobby shops are largely extinct. So, when I need supplies I trek to the old Red Caboose, which has operated out of a mid-town basement since the close of WWII. Here I discovered no one sells enamels anymore (Model Master was my former go-to). Their paint inventory was sparse. With few options I bought a jar of Tamiya X-21 Acrylic Flat Base, then unwittingly went to town 'priming' the Brisfit with this stuff (see image). Powder everywhere. It was literally like blowing flour with a fan. Thinking it was the airbrush, I kept at it until a solid base coat finally formed.
(http://i.imgur.com/rC4A5Vsm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/rC4A5Vs). (http://i.imgur.com/gUX0GV3m.jpg) (https://imgur.com/gUX0GV3)
Two major mistakes and I hadn't even glued anything together yet...
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Welcome back to the modeling bench PJ. Looking forward to following your build. The Brisfit is one of my favorites.
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Welcome back PJ :D
As a recent born again modeller I understand exactly where you are (Lovely choice of model by the way; I've been given one for the stash so I'll look forward to you showing me how it's done) ;)
Acrylics are something I've got used to brush painting, but learning to airbrush them . . . well that's a whole new can of worms. For what it's worth I use mainly Vallejo and I thin with distilled water or their own Vallejo thinner and I add a drop of flow enhancer or glaze medium which slows the drying down slightly so the paint isn't drying before it hits the model. (That's what it sounds like is happening to you although I'm no expert) Air pressure is about 20lbs and the airbrush is about 8 -10" away. Tamiya I think sprays best using it's own brand of thinners.
Stick with it and you'll get there
Paul
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As informative and entertaining as your newspaper clippings have been, PJ, I'm very pleased to see this pop up! And remember: any progress is good progress!
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For what it's worth I use mainly Vallejo and I thin with distilled water or their own Vallejo thinner and I add a drop of flow enhancer or glaze medium which slows the drying down slightly so the paint isn't drying before it hits the model. (That's what it sounds like is happening to you although I'm no expert) Air pressure is about 20lbs and the airbrush is about 8 -10" away. Tamiya I think sprays best using it's own brand of thinners.
Thanks for the advice! I'll try the flow enhancer for sure. I need to practice with the airbrush more but I'm probably too close and to heavy with the spray.
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You have chosen a rather ambitious kit. Well, yes it does build to a lovelive accurate model. Good luck and do not be discouraged. I remember that when I was thinning the walls in my Roden's Biff I cut the skin so much that it broke. But it is repairable. ;)
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Never mind the break from modelling - skills and techniques will come back with practice. I had a break of 30+ years and like you enjoyed conversions, but my first couple of efforts after picking up the hobby again were not much to write home about. Keep at it and make all the mistakes you need to - it will just mean that you will make fewer in future!
Good start and never mind the odd repair - all good practice.
Stephen.
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Wow that scraping out of the fuselage to vac thinness is making me wonder why. shall be following along.
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Wow that scraping out of the fuselage to vac thinness is making me wonder why. shall be following along.
It seems labor intensive but it goes rather quick and is easy to maintain consistent thinness inside a cramped 1/72 fuselage. I ultimately ground a simple curve to one edge of the blade to account for the concave canopy and to keep from accidentally scoring the plastic. This idea worked well. I also tidied a few spots with a low-power roto-tool the wouldn't melt the plastic:
(http://i.imgur.com/B4VRtc5m.jpg) (https://imgur.com/B4VRtc5) (http://i.imgur.com/r1PinFMm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/r1PinFM)
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Thanks for the feedback and advice everyone. Much appreciated.
Not realizing yet I was setting myself up for trouble with my 'primer' coat I tended further to the wings. I first freed each aileron end with a micro-blade saw, and scored the hinge creases to make them positionable without having to detach them (economy of labor experiment). Then I sprayed everything with Tamiya's XF78 'Deck Tan', which is really too dark to use as clear-doped linen, despite my initial hopes. Roden rather subtly rendered the Brisfit's upper-wing surfaces, but their lower surfaces are disappointingly sub par - with recessed crevices where the ribs lines should be slightly raised. This needed fixing... and I had a solution.
Because my reference books are stuck in storage, I downloaded a random scale 3-view I found online. Next, the plan's printed rib lines were extended in pencil and the plastic wings were taped to the paper. This enabled me to simply plot where the ribs should be using a flexible straight edge and pencilling directly onto the wing.
(http://i.imgur.com/3nAFc7Pm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/3nAFc7P) (http://i.imgur.com/9frtZFWm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/9frtZFW)
Here's where my next mishap occurred. The lines drawn from the plan onto the lower wing surfaces didn't come close to aligning with Roden's molded lines on the upper surfaces. Even worse, the ailerons I had just sawn were too short compared to the plan (shown in image). After scolding myself for poor preparation I elected to go with Roden's interpretation and set about removing all the lines I had just drawn. It was during this minor moment of frustration, while literally rubbing with an eraser, I learned that the 'X-21 Acrylic Flat Base' I primed the wings with is no primer. It's simply (and obviously in retrospect) just an additive used to give other colored paints a matte effect. And so the pressure from the eraser caused the wing paint to shed in large flaking patches like crusty eggs from a skillet!
One step forward... three steps back.
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I am enjoying your comeback build greatly! Although not quite as drastic I have recently changed my building Venue and find a lot of techniques have gone astray after 25 years of building WW1 models exclusively! I think you are certainly making good progress and will persevere!
RAGIII
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Wow that scraping out of the fuselage to vac thinness is making me wonder why. shall be following along.
It seems labor intensive but it goes rather quick and is easy to maintain consistent thinness inside a cramped 1/72 fuselage. I ultimately ground a simple curve to one edge of the blade to account for the concave canopy and to keep from accidentally scoring the plastic. This idea worked well. I also tidied a few spots with a low-power roto-tool the wouldn't melt the plastic:
(http://i.imgur.com/B4VRtc5m.jpg) (https://imgur.com/B4VRtc5) (http://i.imgur.com/r1PinFMm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/r1PinFM)
Thank you.do you intend to detail the whole fuselage?
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Thank you.do you intend to detail the whole fuselage?
Hey T - I've already started on framing the visible areas of the cockpit (will share pix), and aim to replicate all the interior details including the instrument panel. I've also recently chosen the exact plane I want to model, which was fitted with a Hispano-Suiza rather than the standard Rolls Royce Falcon III, so I'll be lopping off the front end at some point for this conversion. Haven't decided yet if the full engine will be visible but I do have a photo of what it looks like uncowled so I might. But at the moment I'm really using this build as a re-entry testbed to get up to speed before I tackle more complicated builds. Happy to have any input you may want to share!
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Hi again all,
Having frustrated myself for blundering the Brisfit's wings from the outset, I set them aside and focused on the interior fuselage. Since Irish linen covered most WWI British planes I searched online for images of raw, unbleached, and undoped samples on which i could mix a custom base paint color (recognizing the variables involved):
(https://i.imgur.com/ILWLiGHm.jpg).(https://i.imgur.com/Wec56xQm.jpg).(https://i.imgur.com/a2fPrIzm.jpg).(https://i.imgur.com/BlnKlzbm.jpg)
After some testing I settled on a hue that felt right, mixed a large volume (for ongoing use), then sprayed both fuselage halves. Next, still relying on the same random 3-view plan I cribbed online, I went about framing the interior by lightly tracing the linen-paint where the various wooden elements should go (measured with calipers). To replicate the woodwork I relied on good ol' Evergreen strips that I pre-sprayed with a wood-looking Tamiya followed by a clear orange coat to simulate varnish. After some progress I noticed the 'lumber' I was using seemed too large compared to the printed plans (first image below). This reminded me of my earlier rib-alignment trouble and how these same plans didn't match Roden's molds. To rectify this I opted to fit the opposing fuselage half with dimensionally smaller lumber then compare the two (second image below). Clearly the smaller framing was truer to scale. "Measure twice, cut once", my old man use to say! In another moment of self-reflection I recognized that, even though this build is just a 'warmup' test bed, my entire approach has been clouded by an element of laziness and impatience. So I stepped away for a bit then went back and ripped out the interior framing I had glued into the first fuselage half. This proved easy because it was all resting atop the same bloody useless non-stick 'primer coat' I had ignorantly applied to the wings!
(http://i.imgur.com/m1vQY8gm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/m1vQY8g).(http://i.imgur.com/oyf7kQdm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/oyf7kQd).(http://i.imgur.com/pNRRH15m.jpg) (https://imgur.com/pNRRH15)
One reassuring takeaway from this session: because I no longer trusted my poorly sourced 3-view I motivated myself to consult the Imperial War Museum archive and download the actual side-elevation blueprint of the original F2b (file# Q 68352, if anyone wants a copy). Then for fun I casually overlaid a snapshot of my revised work on the blueprint (third image above). Thankfully they match well enough; however, I really should have taken the time to prep properly from the start before executing anything. In retrospect, I should have skinned the fuselage plastic even thinner, particularly the bottom, and excised entirely the decking for the Lewis gun. Measure twice, cut once!
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Testbed or not, I think you're doing a terrific job here Paul.
Thanks for sharing your insights and experiences.
Willem
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Lovely Frame work on the interior!
RAGIII
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Hey gang,
My next session involved rigging the fuselage framing. First I lined up the fuselage halves for a sense of how much would actually be seen. The image below also shows how translucent the fuselage sides have become. For the rigging I used strands of dark-grey hair from a wig bought at a party costume store over near Central Park. I used this 'wig rig' method several times in the past and remain happy with it. Simply snip one strand and gently stretch it before use. The 'wires' were strung through the 'hairline' joints between the woodwork then tautened using super glue applied with a snip of steel guitar string. The glue also acts to fill the joints which can then be retouched with paint if needed. One minor setback here - because i currently don't have much by way of supplies I used regular crazy glue from the corner hardware store. This proved too thick and tiny amounts accumulated in the corners (visible in 2nd image), so I've since ordered thinner hobby glue. I suppose for the future I could also attach the hair strands to the ends of the wooden elements before glueing the framing in place. This would eliminate about 1/2 the later glue application and lessen any need for paint touch ups.
(http://i.imgur.com/gDsWnWIm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/gDsWnWI) (http://i.imgur.com/0yLfL7Zm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/0yLfL7Z)
Then I revisited the wings, which were recovered with Tamiya 'Deck Tan' and corrected rib pencilling. I still needed to rectify Roden's pooly molded under surfaces, which have indentations where the raised ribs should be. To emulate ribbing in the past, I've laboriously glued styrene strips then sanded and filled accordingly. It's a common technique that must be rendered subtly in 1/72 scale. Alternatively, this time I chose to try applying dry-transfer decal strips directly over the pencilled lines. The concept of accenting scale rib-taping and underwing surface highlights/shadow has really evolved since I was last active. Theoretically, because this particular build is to be finished in PC-10, there should be no sunlight coming through to create shadow. As such, I opted for white stripes to emulate the direct appearance of actual rib tape over doped linen. The dry-transfers were sourced from Woodland Scenics, which offers them in varying width and color. I've never tried this technique before, and as you can see in the second image below my work started off rather sloppy, with some transfers off register, nonparallel, or unevenly applied. Good news is, before burnishing them into place, the transfers can be removed by lightly scraping with a knife. I kept experimenting with how to apply the stuff and eventually got to a point where I was satisfied for this test-bed model.
(https://i.imgur.com/AteFycNm.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/DZgsLqem.jpg) (https://imgur.com/DZgsLqe) (http://i.imgur.com/li4LAOom.jpg) (https://imgur.com/li4LAOo)
My next move was to apply a light coat of the custom clear-doped-linen pigment concocted during my previous session. This was not only thinned but mixed with a Tamiya cleat coat to create a proper glaze. Here's where another big blunder occurred - my Tamiya clear proved to be lacquer and, instead of enhancing the acrylic mix as intended, it coagulated into an ooze that clogged my near-virginal airbrush. I'm not smart enough to understand the hows and whys of it all but after unclogging the airbrush I attempted a new mix, which applied properly. After drying, the surfaces were gently rubbed with two varying grits of a buffering sponge that removed some paint imperfections and raised areas. A second thinner coat was applied, which brought the contrasting tones of the canvas and tape to a harmonious balance. The aim being to achieve simple visual variance of intensity... like wearing a white shirt while being able to see a white undershirt beneath it. Following this was a thin warming coat of clear yellow to suggest the 'doped' effect.
(http://i.imgur.com/xRmIePkm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/xRmIePk) (http://i.imgur.com/iKLTzTCm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/iKLTzTC) (http://i.imgur.com/ZCcg6rVm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/ZCcg6rV)
Rather than overaggerating the wing effect I want this build to look clean, and the subtly raised thickness of the dry transfer suggests a three-dimensionality that water-based decals can't achieve, while covering Roden's casting flaws. Looks like I need to go back with a touch more of the clear yellow to even out my inconsistent airbrushing. Halfway through I questioned if the rib tapes looked too wide for scale but they look to match up acceptably with those on the actual plane (third image above). Overall I'm happy with the results of this untested approach.
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Welcome back!
We all make the odd hiccup here and there but fast learning is a benefit and this looks set to be a great model.
Don't forget that the linen was taut, and as such there should be no raised, or recessed, ribs on the undersurfaces, just a difference in hue with the rib tapes showing lighter with PC10 upper surfaces as you have correctly depicted.
I'm looking forward to seeing this one progress.
Ian
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Thanks Ian, for your feedback. I agree. I'm trying to develop an approach employing a suggestive subtlety rather than expressive representation. Long way to go.
Though there's definitely something going on with this particular Brisfit I've been referencing!:
(http://i.imgur.com/C9Tqxk3m.jpg) (https://imgur.com/C9Tqxk3)
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The outlining of the ribs and spars in the photo is caused by high air pressure under the wing, which is what keeps the aeroplane aloft.
The model is coming along nicely, looking forward to seeing it finished.
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That definitely is the Airfix Bristol in flight! :)
An alternative to rubbing the transfers onto the model would be to transfer to clear decal film. Then apply the decals as per usual. This works particularly well if the surface is not exactly smooth.
Great work you have going on there!
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I think your linen and rib effect is perfect as is. I’ve seen many models where they are extremely exaggerated - yours are spot on.
Thanks for the tip about the transfers, I’ve been masking and spraying to achive that effect, which is very tedious. Will definitelt have a go with the transfers. I may also suggest trying a linen-coloured pen, which is much quicker but also more difficult to get straight and equal lines.
Nice to see someone using hair for rigging, I think it’s better than any other alternative I’ve tested (except maybe for some control wires or aerial antennas where hair is too thick).
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That definitely is the Airfix Bristol in flight!
...took me a while to get that joke! hahahahah
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...also suggest trying a linen-coloured pen, which is much quicker but also more difficult to get straight and equal lines...
I've used colored pencils in the past for highlight and shade, and I've tried a brown sharpie as an undercolor for rib-shadow effect, which worked ok for 1/72nd scale. What brand of pen do you recommend for a lighter color?
Nice to see someone using hair for rigging, I think it’s better than any other alternative I’ve tested
The synthetic hair can be stretched a little to become quite thin and glues effortlessly. I also just picked up a steel-grey colored wig. If you or anyone else would care to try some just PM me and I can post a bunch in an envelope no charge. I have more than I'll ever need.
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Great work, and I'm enjoying following this.
Warren
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Great progress PJ. Can't wait to try WigRig.
I have pretty much switched over to Vallejo paints. I have found sticking with a base of paints that are all compatible with each other gets rid of a lot of mishaps. I use Tamiya fine white primer and do my CDL in two stages, similar to yours. Future is a great friend.
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/jj307/Allanscott31/P1010010_fcKTqZ1MNKxx2BNrFBwpW5.jpg) (https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/jj307/Allanscott31/P1010010_fcKTqZ1MNKxx2BNrFBwpW5.jpg)
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/jj307/Allanscott31/P1010035(8).jpg) (https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/jj307/Allanscott31/P1010035(8).jpg)
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/jj307/Allanscott31/P1010024_8ASG2CeqhcBicpLk3CMtWZ.jpg) (https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/jj307/Allanscott31/P1010024_8ASG2CeqhcBicpLk3CMtWZ.jpg)
Applying dry transfers to clear decal first works wonders.
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Hey, thanks for sharing. Convincing weathering too.
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I've used colored pencils in the past for highlight and shade, and I've tried a brown sharpie as an undercolor for rib-shadow effect, which worked ok for 1/72nd scale. What brand of pen do you recommend for a lighter color?
The synthetic hair can be stretched a little to become quite thin and glues effortlessly. I also just picked up a steel-grey colored wig. If you or anyone else would care to try some just PM me and I can post a bunch in an envelope no charge. I have more than I'll ever need.
I’m sorry, I did not see your reply! I should come here more often. I’m using these pens, which I actually bought to make rib tapes on lozenge since I find using decals extremely tedious.
In case the image disappears: Uni Posca 0.7mm by mitsubishi. The tan is much lighter in real life (the blue as well), but may be too dark anyway for this purpose. I shall give it a go and show the results.
(https://i.imgur.com/qx8Xg0u.jpg)
They can make just the right width for 1/72, the width being slightly dependent on how you draw. With a bit of practice it’s possible to make perfectly consistent lines. Here’s my first attempt (some lines are imperfect - I was impatient!) - the crashed Albatros awaiting repairs has pen-drawn rib tapes, the other Eduard decals.
(https://i.imgur.com/Yxe0Whr.jpg)
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I just might take you up on your kind offer! :)
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Allan, that’s a lovely Camel. Like the Nieuport too, but the Camel is something extra.
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Hey, thanks torbiorn. Definitely potential with these paint pens! I've done some under-shading with Sharpies, but have never used a pen to overpaint. I will pick up a few.
Just message me if you'd care to try a rigging sample.
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The bracing wires and your rib painting look excellent. The pens are an interesting idea, looking forward to seeing your experience with them 8)
RAGIII