Hi everyone! This one has been battling me in the painting stages, and boy, she fought me all the way.... but I wanted to post some progress to keep myself motivated...
The undersides were pre-shaded in light brown, and the light blue went down over the top. No dramas there.
I pre-shaded the upper fabric surfaces in a dark brown to start with. I mixed the lilac colour myself; whilst it looked more 'brown' in the cup, it came out quite...well... pink. I tried to adjust this with some brown oversprays, but it's still quite pink. Not wanting to have to re-start, I said "fine, pink it is", and moved to the green. Well, I was happier with the green mix that I made, but I stuffed up the feathered edges a few times. Arg. This meant I had to go heavier as I moved the edge masks, which meant I lost the pre-shading at the colour boundaries. This meant I had to go back with some more masking tape over the ribs and some post-shading to even the shading effect out. Even then it's a bit obvious. Arg. After all of that, here's how it came out:
So, gritting my teeth, next came the simulation of the ply fuselage. I used a base colour of very light tan (white with a dash of brown), and used oils to simulate the 'wood'. I use a mix of raw umber, burnt sienna, yellow ochre, black and white for this step, the aim being to have quite a significant contrast at this stage, knowing that subsequent stages of painting will really pull this effect back. Now, in the depths of winter here in Australia, it took well over a week and a half for the oils to try. See if you can spot the fingerprints where I 'tested' how dry the oil paints were (or weren't...)... sigh!! Here's how she looked at this point (the excessive contrast is deliberate and quite apparent at this point):
Next, I did some coatings of clear yellow, which helps to 'pull' the panels together visually a little more (noting there's still a little bit of contrast, which will again be 'pulled down' with washes and flat coats):
Next, the cowlings, again my own mix of grey with some pre-shading and tonal variations here and there:
At this stage, she looked like this:
Next, came some selective gloss coating with brush-painted Future, and decals. The future worked too well, and the decals stuck hard and fast once on the surface. Many decals got ripped at various points in trying to manoeuvre them into place, which is obvious if you look closely. Darn!). Some of the decals were also slightly out of register, sadly. Oh well, no going back now...
Then came another clear coat, and an oil wash. First, the wings (I made the aileron actuators from sheet styrene and wire, as the kit etched parts proved impossible to fold...):
And here is where she stands:
As you can see, the various stages and washes 'tone down' the panel contrast, but leave enough of a contrast for the model to be visually interesting, I think?
There's still more weathering to do, and some more effects i'll try with some thinned oils, but I am just happy that I have made it this far.
Given how long it's taken me to get to here, in the interests of trying to give myself a chance of more build completions this year, I have set myself a completion date of end of June, so we'll see how we go. I find that once I get to this stage, things generally tend to pick up pace to completion. Fingers crossed things from here don't give me as much grief as the painting stage...!
Thanks for looking - all comments, criticisms and feedback welcomed as always!
Cheers,
BC
