Mark Posted February 3, 2008 Author Share Posted February 3, 2008 (edited) Hi Nick, who's not been paying attention then.... ...but in keeping with the fine traditions of Britmodeller, all four will be UK themed. There's the two RAF ones, then two USAF ones that were based in England during WWII. Anyway, work continues apace and the engine(s) are now all photographed and cut, pasted and copied onto white card in order that you all think I've actually built four of the damn things!! Yes, a bit Matrixy, I must admit! But there are seriously four of them, and here they are: ____________________________________________________________________________ Now that the engines are all complete I should really share a few techniques that were utilised in the construction and painting of them. The engines themselves were just sprayed Aluminium from the Alclad II range of paints, then when dry the reduction gear housing at the front was painted US Engine Grey from the Xtracolor range of enamels. The detail of the engine was picked out with black and then the whole assembly given a wash with Windsor and Newton Burnt Umber and Black oil paints, heavily thinned with white spirit. Once dry, the whole thing was lightly dry-brushed with silver to pick out the small details such as bolt heads etc. The wiring was achieved by using standard UK telephone wire, stripped from its insulation, then given a good sanding with a fine grade of wet 'n' dry to get rid of the nickel plate and show the copper itself. The wire was fitted into very small pieces of brass tubing to act as collars which were then super glued to the ignition harness ring, surrounding the gear reduction housing. the wires themselves being pre-cut and bent to shape to fit prior to super-gluing them in place. Further detail painting was completed after the ignition wires were set in place. Small slivers of Bare Metal Foil were cut and used as brackets between the occassional pair of wires. Now that the engines and cockpit assemblies are complete, the next phase of building will see the main airfarme components come together quite quickly. But that won't be tonight, I'm off to the pub! Edited February 3, 2008 by busdriver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted February 6, 2008 Author Share Posted February 6, 2008 Hi everyone, A bit more progress tonight. One of the Razorbacks has had the fuselage halves assembled. The cowling and engine, wings and the tailplanes have all been assembled now and attached which makes this particular one ready for painting! I'll be doing the other three over the next few days and post some more pics over the weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwart Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Fantastic work on those engines geezer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted March 3, 2008 Author Share Posted March 3, 2008 Hi to you all! OK, I'm fully refreshed after skiing with the kids for a week in the French Alps and on my return I once again entered Southwick Model Centre and sat at the workbench wondering why on earth I ever decided on doing four simultaneous builds! I might just get into a simple OOB project in the near future as a diversion away from the Thunderbolts! Anyway, progress has been fairly swift now that the detailing of the interior and engines is complete, so it was time to hide it all away between the fuselage halves and get the main airframe components together. The photographs show the four P-47s in various states of progress, ranging from a bare plastic razorback, which will be completed as an RAF Thunderbolt 1, from Freightdog's Brits Abroad decal sheet. The second one has been sprayed gloss black undercoat for the Alclad II finish. For this I decanted some Tamiya TS-14 Gloss Black from the aerosol into a film canister, then poured it into the airbrush. This paint is great and dries very quickly for a gloss paint, it's then an excellent base for the Alclad II. This aircraft will be a Duxford based USAF aircraft, the final scheme has yet to be decided. The third P-47, a bubbletop, has the Alclad II sprayed on and for the final finish I used White Aluminium. This one will also be finished as an RAF Thunderbolt using The Freightdogs decal sheet. The fourth one is nearing completion with the cowling and rudder painted white, some of the panels have been sprayed a slightly darker shade of aluminium and the upper nose area has been painted purple! Yes, purple! This aircraft was a squadron hack at RAF Duxford and is to have a black and white checked cowling with red flashes of detail, it looks pretty smart on the decal sheet instructions! Anyway, here are the pics and hope you like them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Gibson Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Hi Nick, who's not been paying attention then....Anyway, work continues apace and the engine(s) are now all photographed and cut, pasted and copied onto white card in order that you all think I've actually built four of the damn things!! Yes, a bit Matrixy, I must admit! But there are seriously four of them, and here they are: ____________________________________________________________________________ Now that the engines are all complete I should really share a few techniques that were utilised in the construction and painting of them. The engines themselves were just sprayed Aluminium from the Alclad II range of paints, then when dry the reduction gear housing at the front was painted US Engine Grey from the Xtracolor range of enamels. The detail of the engine was picked out with black and then the whole assembly given a wash with Windsor and Newton Burnt Umber and Black oil paints, heavily thinned with white spirit. Once dry, the whole thing was lightly dry-brushed with silver to pick out the small details such as bolt heads etc. The wiring was achieved by using standard UK telephone wire, stripped from its insulation, then given a good sanding with a fine grade of wet 'n' dry to get rid of the nickel plate and show the copper itself. The wire was fitted into very small pieces of brass tubing to act as collars which were then super glued to the ignition harness ring, surrounding the gear reduction housing. the wires themselves being pre-cut and bent to shape to fit prior to super-gluing them in place. Further detail painting was completed after the ignition wires were set in place. Small slivers of Bare Metal Foil were cut and used as brackets between the occassional pair of wires. Now that the engines and cockpit assemblies are complete, the next phase of building will see the main airfarme components come together quite quickly. But that won't be tonight, I'm off to the pub! Hi John, That's the best wiring job I can remember seeing. Would you oblige by showing a pic looking from up to down. TIA Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted March 3, 2008 Author Share Posted March 3, 2008 Err, who's John? If you're referring to my engines, then it's Mark here! Thanks for your kind words Dave. Unfortunately the engines are all wrapped inside their cowlings now, sio sorry, no other pics than the ones that I have posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Gibson Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 Err, who's John?If you're referring to my engines, then it's Mark here! Thanks for your kind words Dave. Unfortunately the engines are all wrapped inside their cowlings now, sio sorry, no other pics than the ones that I have posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Gibson Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 Err, who's John?If you're referring to my engines, then it's Mark here! Thanks for your kind words Dave. Unfortunately the engines are all wrapped inside their cowlings now, sio sorry, no other pics than the ones that I have posted. Sorry about that Mark. I'll blame the format of the forum rather than my own stupidity. Pity about those engines being closed up now. A fine piece of modelling. Regards, Dave (I think) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
periklis_sale Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 Mark this is an amazing job on the engines!!! What also looks amazing are the photos!!!! Can you share your secret for the photos? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted March 5, 2008 Author Share Posted March 5, 2008 Hi Periklis, thanks for your comments. No secrets about the phots, just a good camera set-up with studio lighting. I use a Nikon D200 with a 105mm macro lens, a Mecablitz flash head with a softbox. Nice plain backgrounds, tripod and a bit of tweaking in Photoshop prior to putting them on the web. Hope that helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
periklis_sale Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 heers mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted March 14, 2008 Author Share Posted March 14, 2008 (edited) Hi to you all, hope all's well in your own respective modelling world's. I have to admit to having had a bit of a deviation and have started a nice and shiny executive jet, the Falcon 10, which is on another thread here. But the Thunderbolts are still under constant attention and here's the latest stage that I've got to. This one is the 83FS 78FG Hack aircraft based at RAF Duxford. The decals are fantastic, very thin and easy to work with, I would certainly recommend them, available here. The photographs, for some unknown reason, show the coaming or glare panel as a blue colour, but I have photoshopped it a bit to show the real purple colour it is painted in but even after doing that, the real thing is still a bit more purply! Anyone have any ideas why, under studio flash, the colour would show blue instead of the actual purple colour? Nick? I've attached another 'untouched' shot for comparison. Anyway, here she is... And here's the original image where you can clearly see the different glare panel colour. Off to work now, see ya! Edited March 14, 2008 by busdriver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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