WnW Hannover Cl.II finished (with a footnote)

[mgunns]

Gary:

The laborious effort has paid off with maximum results.  A nice solution to a complex problem and the results couldn't have been any  better.  It will be interesting to see how this translates to the fuselage.  As Lance mentioned, this will be one impressive model, looking forward to more.

[Mike Norris]

Thanks to all for the kind words! Work continues on the fuselage with lots of masking/airbrushing ahead.

The technique you're using appears to work fine.  I may suggest considering if you can paint the surface underneath one of the lightest colors overall, then you have to paint one fewer colors with the stencils and any gaps between the colors would be one of the colors.  Just an idea.

Thanks for that Ken - that's exactly my plan. The upper surface colours were done that way, with the last two colours actually added by just masking the lozenges with small strips of Tamiya masking tape. I ended up only cutting two masks for the top.

The underside initially received a darker base colour (a faux pas on my part since I couldn't recognize the difference between X-17 and XF-17 when I mixed up and airbrushed it ). That got redone later, and I left some of the tiny gaps since they're not worth the effort to hide, being hard to see on the final build. That was my experimental practice "steep learning curve". Regardless of colour - all the visible gaps need painting out during the "touch-up" stage.

Cheers,
Gary

Hi Gary,
By using masks to paint several different colours, did you end up with any build up of paint 'ridges' at the lozenge edges?

Mike

[gedmundson]

[/quote]

Hi Gary,
By using masks to paint several different colours, did you end up with any build up of paint 'ridges' at the lozenge edges?

Mike
[/quote]

Hello Mike, there are no ridges that I can notice. I tend to add thin coats of Tamiya acrylic as I airbrush, and remove all masks immediately afterward. I also seal soon after with a light coat of X-22 gloss, so perhaps it helps in that regard.
Cheers,
Gary

[Mike Norris]

Hi Gary,
Thanks - I wondered as paint ridges can build up against any masking if too much paint is applied - thin coats is good.


Mike

[gedmundson]

A bit of progress to show from this past few days. As far as Frisket mask goes, I laid down one on each side, cut from a 1/32 scale print-off from the fuselage illustration in the instruction sheet. The right side was just a reversal of the left. This got the shape of the pattern established. Painted Mauve over dark yellow. Then I started to mask each lozenge individually with little strips of masking tape to start with the other three colours.

Still working on it, with touch-ups and corrections as I go. Very laborious. And the fuselage looks extremely clown-like.
Cheers,
Gary

[mgunns]

Hi Gary:

I'd say (write) it looks anything but clownlike.  Outstanding work and it all fits together nicely.  I have never seen Frisket paper, but have heard a lot about it.  I will have to scope out some art stores.
If I recall, you are going to paint some mist coats of blue over this.  Looks too good to do that.

[kensar]

Wow, that looks great, Gary.

[maddog]

Gary, that will really turn out to be tremendous. Congrats!

[gbrivio]

Excellent work on the fuselage paint scheme.
Ciao
Giuseppe

[Borsos]

You really did a fantastic job! 

When I visited a secret archive in the tunnels under the city of xxx (I am not supposed to tell) I found a yet unknown document from KoGenLuft Ernst von Hoeppner from December 1917 about painting German warplanes in 1918. It reads (translation by me) „Of course we are going to loose the war. And therefore of course we could paint all of our warplanes a red color. But we won‘t. I am giving the advice now to paint all warplanes in a camouflage pattern that looks as strange as possible and is going to be as difficult to reproduce on scale models as possible. This is going to be our revenge for decades! Harr harr (he actually writes „harr harr“ — strange person this von Hoeppner, don‘t you think?)“
Another question clarified. I am preparing an edition of this document, but that will take its time...

Best regards,
Andreas

[mess]

Nicely done, Gary!

[Alexis]

 



Alexis

[gedmundson]

Hi Gary:

I'd say (write) it looks anything but clownlike.  Outstanding work and it all fits together nicely.  I have never seen Frisket paper, but have heard a lot about it.  I will have to scope out some art stores.
If I recall, you are going to paint some mist coats of blue over this.  Looks too good to do that.

Thanks again Mark, and to add to our earlier chat, I won't be clouding over the finish with the blue. But I will weather it down a bit with a method yet to be determined...seems to be the way this build is going. Quite the adventure in painting :-)

[gedmundson]

You really did a fantastic job! 

When I visited a secret archive in the tunnels under the city of xxx (I am not supposed to tell) I found a yet unknown document from KoGenLuft Ernst von Hoeppner from December 1917 about painting German warplanes in 1918. It reads (translation by me) „Of course we are going to loose the war. And therefore of course we could paint all of our warplanes a red color. But we won‘t. I am giving the advice now to paint all warplanes in a camouflage pattern that looks as strange as possible and is going to be as difficult to reproduce on scale models as possible. This is going to be our revenge for decades! Harr harr (he actually writes „harr harr“ — strange person this von Hoeppner, don‘t you think?)“
Another question clarified. I am preparing an edition of this document, but that will take its time...

Best regards,
Andreas

Absolutely hilarious story, Andreas. You had me laughing out loud indeed. Glad you like to camo so far - let's hope I can do this model justice!

[gedmundson]

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to comment - I do appreciate the kind words and enjoy telling my story so far - it does keep changing as I learn new tricks and give up on my plans here and there!

Alexis

I have to thank you for your happy faces, Alexis. I don't think I've ever had that many....kinda like your version of a 20 gun salute :-)
Cheers,
Gary