Thanks RAGIII, I will do my very best!
So hello everyone, today some small things...
I'll start with the radio system, which could at least transmit Morse signals via the roll-out antenna. Some in the forum will certainly know more about this. Unfortunately you won't see much of it later, but it was still fun.
Let's go...
The device itself consists of 2 molded parts, a normal part and a transparent part:
I have no explanation for the details inside, but I interpreted the large vertical cylinder as a coil. Would it really have been copper colored? Presumably a protective layer over it? No matter, artistic freedom, for me it will be copper.
So black glossy primer and then added the copper (I masked the later adhesive surface between the halves, hence the thin bead all around):
The inner border should later have a metallic shimmer. Since the black primer is already there, now is the best time to do it. So mask copper coil and later display:
Coil demasked
I thought perhaps the electrical components were mounted on an insulating plate, perhaps Bakelite. I just imagined it to be shiny orange-brown. Brush work, I forgot the exact color, but it's not that important:
Then some grain with watercolor pencils and finally with Clear Orange, also painted over with a brush. The decal for the scale was also added (which was later "glazed" with clear varnish):
Luckily, I had pre-treated the adhesive surface with masking fluid, which makes it a little easier (better than damaging something when scraping with a blade):
Dry fit
Mask viewing window. If you look closely, the two halves don't fit together very well. After gluing, some sanding had to be done (not in the pics). But it works also better if the transparent part is protected in the window area.
Adding a layer of this "French Blue" (Tamiya XF-23). I always add some Clear (X-22), otherwise it looks too dull and matte. In this case about 2 parts blue and one part gloss varnish.
The rest was painting details, small washes on individual parts, playing with pigments, graphite pencil for the rivets... Here is the finished radio (unfortunately a bit difficult to photograph)
Just to compare the size, the thing is quite small...
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Even though the order seems a bit mixed up, here's an update on the supports between the wings.
All 8 pieces, already properly prepared:
The supports should be made of wood. The 5 ?rings? on each of the supports are supposed to represent linen straps, which were wrapped and glued on top for stiffening. At least that's how I understood it from the building instructions.
I wanted to make the supports as similar (not identical) as possible, so they should all go through the same steps in one operation. And it should be comfortable to set them aside to dry. A wooden stick should help.
The holes were drilled a little further and further and further until the supports could be inserted tightly:
The ends were then protected with masking fluid:
Brown color, an ocher tone, I think Desert Yellow (XF-59). Together with other components (more on these in subsequent posts).
Use of oil paint, essentially "burnt sienna". I also mixed some other shades of brown + black so that not all the supports look exactly the same (but on the pics the effect is hardly visible).
Sealed with TS13 after drying. The masking of the ends could then be removed.
The supports shouldn't end up looking too dull, which in my opinion doesn't fit with components that are supposed to have low air resistance.
Now to the linen straps. Decals are included in the kit. Even in 2 different colors. In the end we don't know the exact colors. We only know that there was a light and a dark version. I chose light. But I voted against decals. I think it would be very complicated to bring them all up convincingly (but maybe I'm wrong).
Masking was quite a challenge because the supports taper towards the ends. You have to fiddle for a really long time for the outer rings. I wanted to prevent the sprayed paint from running under the masking. Therefore two hints.
Firstly:
Work with absolute precision. Applying some tapes seemed to take forever. However, in the end it worked somehow.
Secondly:
Spray on with your airbrush from a long distance. This means that the paint particles are dry as soon as they hit the object. This gives the rings a slightly rougher/matter structure, which is in no way a problem with linen. And since the paint is almost dry when it hits the strut, nothing runs under the masing tape. The disadvantage is that you use a lot of paint for a few small rings.
Fits for me
Only 7 to go
Now the edges had to be set off a little. So the bands were painted with a kind of panel liner (I used Ammo Mig PLW Black Night A.MIG-1611). Allow to dry briefly.
The rings were then exposed again using Ammo Mig Enamel Odorless Thinner and a brush and the color was minimally smeared onto the wood. That took some of the shine off.
Finally, the ends were given a light blue (XF-23) paint (typical for the French machines).
To be honest, the net working time was certainly exceeding 1 hour per strut. I didn't expect that before.
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Just another note: The order in the construction report may seem a bit confusing, but I like to post completed construction phases, even if they took several weeks. Of course, I also continued working on other thingsin the meantime. That will be in subsequent posts.
Thanks a lot for watching,
Rafael
And as always for those who are curious, here are all my photos of the project including the latest status. However, unsorted, unedited, bad ones included, duplicate ones, from different angles and against different backgrounds
https://photos.app.goo.gl/6HJAoo86QpPWBft5A
