+++ FINISHED! +++ Dornier Do 24T, Luftwaffe Seenotgruppe 3, 1942 (Italeri 1/72)

[jrlx]

Thank you, Ced! Very kind, as always!

 

The black primer produces a surface finish that is a joy to look at but it is also ruthlessly revealing of all imperfections. I'll have to go over a few spots and joins and apply another layer of primer before proceeding with the painting.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[The Spadgent]

On 12/02/2018 at 1:03 AM, jrlx said:

 

I love this shot.

a lot. 

 

JJ

[jrlx]

11 minutes ago, The Spadgent said:

I love this shot.

a lot. 

 

JJ

Thanks! It's still far from finished...

[Christer A]

After reading through the entire thread from start to finish I'm  very impressed with what you've accomplished so far.

Eagerly looking forward to the next update!

(and possible to acquire one for myself, to make the sole Swedish example)

[bbudde]

Great work Jaime. She would also look very nice in black, I guess. Good idea to paint the main parts seperated as it is big. Bigger than you would think at a first glance and you can paint the camo on the upper sponsons much easier. Cheers

[TheBaron]

Steaming along nicely Jaime.

[jrlx]

On 2/16/2018 at 12:01, Christer A said:

After reading through the entire thread from start to finish I'm  very impressed with what you've accomplished so far.

Eagerly looking forward to the next update!

(and possible to acquire one for myself, to make the sole Swedish example)

 

On 2/16/2018 at 12:16, bbudde said:

Great work Jaime. She would also look very nice in black, I guess. Good idea to paint the main parts seperated as it is big. Bigger than you would think at a first glance and you can paint the camo on the upper sponsons much easier. Cheers

 

On 2/16/2018 at 18:23, TheBaron said:

Steaming along nicely Jaime.

Christer, Benedikt, Tony, thanks very much for the kind words and interest!

 

I still have to update the thread with the work done earlier in the week, but it's just one or two pictures showing the results of the second phase of seam treatment after the primer application. I didn't manage to do any further work since Tuesday.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[bbudde]

Everything's ok Jaime. Post whenever you like. I'll get that, if I want to. Cheers

Edited February 19, 2018 by bbudde

[CedB]

I second what Benedikt said Jaime - post when you're ready - I know, when life gets in the way of modelling, posting on BM can be an added pressure.

Enjoy the modelling and update us as and when you're ready and able.

[jrlx]

20 hours ago, bbudde said:

Everything's ok Jaime. Post whenever you like. I'll get that, if I want to. Cheers

 

17 hours ago, CedB said:

I second what Benedikt said Jaime - post when you're ready - I know, when life gets in the way of modelling, posting on BM can be an added pressure.

Enjoy the modelling and update us as and when you're ready and able.

Thanks for the support and interest, Gents! Much appreciated!

 

Jaime

[jrlx]

Dear all,

 

I've been extremely busy since mid-February with the day job and German classes, and used the limited available modelling time for slowly progress with this build instead of updating the build thread. I only managed to work on week-ends, since at night, on work days, I was always too tired to consider a session of seam treatment or airbrushing as an exciting prospect.

 

Anyway, I'm now enjoying a holiday week away from home, and can finally update this thread.

 

As said above, after applying the first layer of black primer it was evident that several joins and surfaces needed improvement. First, I sanded all the top and bottom surfaces of the wing with medium grain micromesh, as these surfaces had a slightly rough texture. This sanding resulted in smooth surfaces. Next, I had to improve the seams between the three sections of the wing and between the sponsons and fuselage, as well as a few other spots on the fuselage. For this I sanded the joins with 500-grit wet & dry, followed by the application of PPP.

 

Here's the fuselage after sanding and application of PPP:

IMAG5250

 

IMAG5251

 

Unfortunately, after letting the PPP dry, I didn't find the results convincing. So, I decided to improve the same joins using Squadron's white putty, diluted with enamel thinner, and applied with a brush.

 

Here are the wing and fuselage, while the putty dried:

IMAG5252

 

I also applied white putty to the engine nacelles, to improve the joins and sink marks, as PPP didn't seem to have solved the problems:

IMAG5254

 

After letting the putty dry and sanding the excess, here's how the fuselage looked:

IMAG5262

 

IMAG5263

 

The wing looked equally battered, after the additional treatment of the seams between the wing sections:

IMAG5264

 

IMAG5265

 

The following pictures show one of the joins at closer inspection (top and bottom views):

IMAG5267

 

IMAG5266

 

The end result on the engine nacelles:

IMAG5268

 

The results were not perfect but there was an improvement, which was revealed after applying the second coat of black primer:

IMAG5275

 

I decided that the joins were now good enough to proceed to the painting phase, which will be initiated in the following post.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

 

[Brandy]

Nice to see this one back in progress. I hadn't heard of white putty thinned with enamel thinner before, I'll make a note of that as it seems to work pretty well!

 

Ian

[CedB]

Good work Jaime and pleased to see you overcame the PPP issues.  

[jrlx]

16 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Nice to see this one back in progress. I hadn't heard of white putty thinned with enamel thinner before, I'll make a note of that as it seems to work pretty well!

 

Ian

 

11 hours ago, CedB said:

Good work Jaime and pleased to see you overcame the PPP issues.  

Ian, Ced, thanks for the interest and support. I'm still updating this thread. Hopefully I'll post some more pictures tonight.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

Here's another post, to bring the thread up to date with the work already done.

 

With the priming done, I was ready to start painting. However, I decided to use this build to test some flying boat weathering techniques, which are described in the magazine I mentioned in a previous post. To get a feel for the kind of weathering to apply, I looked at pictures of real aircraft. The following are some of the most useful and are all linked from dornier24.com

 

The following four pictures show where the crew used to walk: on the sponsons, walkway on top of the fuselage and in front of the cockpit and on top of the wing between the engines. These areas are visibly worn in the pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

The following two pictures show the weathering of the hull and along the float line:

 

 

Based on these pictures, I decided to weather the aircraft as follows:

• chipping of the areas where the crew walked, with a mix of visible metal and primer coat
• dark grime along the float line
• chipping of the hull, due to friction with sea water, again with a mix of visible metal and primer coat
• dark grime and stains on the hull: stronger along panel lines and generally stained on random panels
• darker panel lines on the top camouflage
• general faint effect of the top camouflage due to salt water

 

I'll use a combination of techniques, learnt in the said magazine, which imply the use of a few new weathering products.

 

To start with, I applied a coat of Alclad Aluminium to the areas subject to chipping: the top surface of the wings and the engine nacelles...

IMAG5277

 

...the top surface of the sponsons and the fuselage walkways...

IMAG5278

 

...and the hull and bottom surfaces of the sponsons:

IMAG5279

 

After letting the aluminium paint dry for a few hours, I applied two coats of chipping fluid over the aluminium, giving about one hour drying time between these coats. When the second coat was dry, I painted the metal areas with RLM02, which I guess was the primer colour used in Luftwaffe aircraft. I also applied matte white paint to the areas that will be later painted yellow: the underwing tips and the aft fuselage band.

 

Here are the results:

IMAG5280

 

IMAG5281

 

IMAG5283

 

IMAG5282

 

The RLM02 dried for just about 20 or 30 minutes, before I chipped the areas using a stiff brush and the tip of a toothpick. I chipped the surfaces quite a lot, so that I could later get a good mix of metal and primer chipping, without going over the top in the finished model:

IMAG5288

 

IMAG5286

 

IMAG5287

 

I think the effect is very realistic.

 

I'll leave the remaining work for another post.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

[neil5208]

Nice chipping effect, how do you find the chipping fluid as opposed to other methods 

[The Spadgent]

Glad to see this one up and running again. Nice paintwork btw. 

 

John

[jrlx]

19 hours ago, neil5208 said:

Nice chipping effect, how do you find the chipping fluid as opposed to other methods 

Thank you, Neil! Regarding chipping techniques, I've tried using dry-brushing with silver paint, silver-coloured art pencils and chipping fluid. I think the first two are usable for small areas and produce good scratch effects but chipping fluid is the best option for larger areas and for more realistic paint-chipping effects. However, chipping of the paint layer must be done when the paint has just dried. If the paint is too dry, it won't be possible to do any chipping.

 

17 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Glad to see this one up and running again. Nice paintwork btw. 

 

John

Thanks for your interest and kind words, John! Your black-cat build was one of the inspirations behind my trying these weathering techniques

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

Before proceeding to painting the underside colour, I had to mask the white areas of the wing tips and tail band. However, a better analysis of pictures of the real aircraft showed that the white paint used as primer for the yellow tail band should be closer to the tail plane. So, I had to correct this first.

 

I applied some masking tape to protect the fuselage in front of the area to correct:

IMAG5284

 

Next, I applied matte white closer to the tail plane and matte black to correct the previously white-painted area in front:

IMAG5285

 

The paint was left to dry for a few hours and, then, I masked the tail band area. First, I applied narrow strips of masking tape to delimit the area. The horizontal strips had a length equal to the tail band decal width, and were used to ensure the proper width for the tail band, which will be painted with RLM04 Yellow:

IMAG5291

 

IMAG5292

 

Then, the area was totally covered with tape:

IMAG5293

 

Next, the underwing tips were masked. First, I marked the limits of the future yellow area with masking tape:

IMAG5294

 

Then, the area was totally masked, including around the wing edges:

IMAG5295

 

After finishing the masking, I applied two coats of chipping fluid to the undersides of the hull and sponsons.

 

Now, I was ready to apply the underside colour: RLM65 light blue.

 

These are the results after painting:

IMAG5296

 

IMAG5297

 

I also painted all the small parts that had to be painted RLM65, which took me some time. So, when I got back to the fuselage, to chip the hull and undersides of the sponsons, the paint was already a bit too dry. Even so, I managed to chip it and produce some effects that I think are good enough and not too exaggerated. Anyway, I would advise to start chipping immediately after the paint is dry to the touch.

 

Here is a general view of the chipping of the hull and sponsons, showing a good mix of metal and primer coat (RLM02) chips. The chipping is not as extensive as in the first phase of chipping the primer coat (shown in the previous post), but that was also my intention, as I didn't want an exaggerated effect:

IMAG5298

 

The following series of pictures show detailed views of the chipping results:

IMAG5299

 

IMAG5300

 

IMAG5301

 

IMAG5302

 

IMAG5303

 

IMAG5304

 

That's all for now. The thread is now up to date. I'll only be able to do further work next week, when I'm back home.

 

Till then, all comments are welcome. Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

[Christer A]

That chipping turned out excellent!

[amblypygid]

Great progress, Jaime. That chipping is really nice.

[CedB]

Very realistic chipping Jaime, you can be very pleased with that. 

Great job  

[jrlx]

@Christer A

@amblypygid

@CedB

 

Gents, thank you very much for the very kind words  😊

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

[bbudde]

Hello Jaime, as above very pleasant.  Good to see something from you here again. Cheers Benedikt.

[jrlx]

3 hours ago, bbudde said:

Hello Jaime, as above very pleasant.  Good to see something from you here again. Cheers Benedikt.

Thank you very much, Benedikt! You're too kind!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime