Drareg Naitsirhc

A rought paint : thinner ratio of the "witches´brew" is: 1 part Hataka Red Line paint 1 part MRP Acrylic Thinner 4 parts Mr. Levelling Thinner 2 parts Tamiya Lacquer Thinner For the future, I will buy more Hataka Red Line sets and hope, that the line will be expanded. There are still some serious gaps to fill, like modern French Armed Forces and Swiss Air Force paint sets to name but a few. Please try this for yourself and share your experience here. Have fun! Here two more pics which show the nice results, which took just a few minutes of time:

The result is looking convincing and was achieved in a very short time. The "witches brew" is very nice for fine line work with the airbrush and cloggig does not happen at all. It also can be used for large area painting, but due to its low viscosity it does not cover well and many coats are necessary. However, the finish is very smooth and adhesion on plastic is very good. Since it contains some thinners of the hot type, one might assume that the fumes will smell aggressively, but it is not the case fortunately.

Here the result after lifting the masking tape. Please note the misty coat along the edges, which shows the demarcation line quite easily for the next step. The ingredients for the following treatment are visible on this picture too. Now, I want to achieve a realistic smooth blending of the light and darker grey tones. With the original Hataka Thinner this is very tricky and time consuming job due to the feared tip clogging. I have experimented with a lot of thinners and fluids recently, but the new MRP Thinner changed life significantly. Now, I am using a highly diluted RAL7030 mixed with a formula, I call the "witches´brew". At first, I mix a small amount of Hataka RAL7012 Basalt Grey with the MRP Thinner in a 1:1 ratio and stirring it thoroughly. Then, I am adding the double amount of Mr. Levelling Thinner and again, a complete one minute stir is essential. Finally, a few drops of Tamiya Lacquer Thinner are aery dded and again, another well executed stir follows. The mix should be highly fluid and sprays beautifully. I am now spraying along the edge into the dary gray area.

As previously said, my goal is to produce a nice free hand sprayed camouflage pattern within a short time period. Next step is to mask the part, which shotd remain in RAL7030 Stone Grey. Masking and free hand spraying is looking quite contradictory, but see later what happens. Now, I am mixing RAL7012 Basalt Grey with the MRP Acrylic Thinner 2:1 and one or two drops of Flow Improver. A 1:1 mix also works and gives a smoother finish, but does not cover as good and need more coats. Now, I am spraying the Basalt Grey into the non masked area. Please avoid to spray directly onto the boarder of the masking tape. Apply only a slight misty coat here to avoid a buildup of too much paint here, which results in a nasty step later.

Many people bought Hataka Red Line Acrylics and are complaining about fast clogging of the airbrush needle. I find their paint sets very appealing and all what I have seen and heard about is, that their tones are quite accurate. Half a year ago, I bought the Modern Luftwaffe Paint Set Vol. 4 HTK-AS66. With their original thinner, I also experienced the clogging and since then, I tried many other thinning formulas for airbrushing with mixed success. I found their Lacquer Thinner quite good for airbrushing the acrylics, but adhesion was quite poor. I think, that I have found a very good manner of processing now, which should enable anybody doing free hand camouflage schemes without any problems quickly. A week ago, I held a workshop at the SMC 2017 near Eindhoven/ NL and all participants have replicated the easy workability successfully, which proved me that my excellent results were not gained by chance. Now, I would like to show how it works nicely. My airbrush of choice is the Harder & Steenbeck Infinity CR, which I have now since 5 years in use and I am very satisfied about. For this trial, I have fitted the 0,2mm needle/ nozzle combo, which is quite worn and looks more 0,3mm. But it is still working nicely. At first, I gave the test object a coat of RAL7030 Stone Grey mixed with the brand new MRP Thinner MRP-AT in a ratio of 2:1. I added a drop of Vallejo Airbrush Flow Improver, which works wonderfully. The new MRP Acrylic Thinner chimes together with Hataka Red Line colours nicely. The paint dries quickly and can be handled after 15 minutes. However, I let it dry overnight for forther treatment. Then, it can be smoothended with 6000 or 8000 grade Micromesh or just wiping with the finge

Since a couple of years, my airbrushes of choice are exclusively H&S. I sold my Iwata Revolution and Sotar/ 20/20, because these actually have no advantages over the Evolution or Infinity. Only the cleaning process is more inticate and spare parts are much more expensive, at least in Germany. My airbrushes in use are a 1st gen. Evolution, which is now 18 years old and still going strong with a 0,15mm needle/nozzle set for fine weathering and staining purposed.. Myfirst Infinity now is almost 10 years in use and I fitted a 0,4mm needle/ nozzle for general purpose and metal paint finishes with great results. For free hand camouflage schemes and fine line work I use an Infinity CR 0,2mm, my favourite airbrush. I know colleagues, who swear on their 400,--€ + Iwata Custom Microns, but honestly said, the results are not a small tad better, than with the H&S ones! To my experience, the choice of high quality paint range combined with the appropriate thinner (which sometimes must not be the original brand one!) is at least as essential as a quality airbrush! A state-of-the art airbrush filled with old fashioned (and outdated!) Revell or Humbrol Enamels will cause worse results, than a medicore airbrush, which is spraying high quality paints, like the Mr. Paint.sk or Hataka Orange line. As an example, Ammo of MIG paints thinned with the original brand thinner causes fast clogging of the needle, thus the workflow is interrupted frequently and fine line work nearly is impossible. Thinning the Ammo of MiG paints with the Orange line thinner from Hataka works like a miracle. Clogging is gone and fine line sprying results are stunning! Either a H&S or Iwata airbrush is a good choice, but don´t underestimate the right choice of the paint/ thinner combination as well!

Did some trials with Hataka again. Mr. Leveling Thinner works well, if you use much of them. In case you thin not enough, you will have a lumpy mass. Thin more and stir well after the mix has the consistency of milk or so. I got some very nice results with this mixture and the H&S Evolution with 0.15mm tip. BTW, Hataka will release some laquer colour sets as well in their new orange line.

I did some trials with Hataka this weekend. I posted a small topic about the (interesting) results here http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/296524-hataka-paints-made-in-poland/

after a small break, the work is continuing with the construction of the front fuselage maintennance doors

The avionic bays are now completely installed and wired. It was timeconsuming and quite a demanding work. But I am satisfied and it is worth the pain!

I would much more like to see progress on their 1:32 F-4E and F-5A/B projects.

Now, the avionic bay devices are being painted. These are the ones from the bay beside the radome.

Now, the main instrument board is finished:

Superb model! The model was published in a recent Meng Air Modellers issue, won gold at last year´s KMK Scale World and silver during ESM at Nieuwegein last weekend. The builder is just 23 years old and one of the few upcoming hopeful modellers in Germany.

At the ESM at Nieuwegein/ NL last saturday, I met Danny Coremans and he is expecting the first test shots soon. The release is scheduled for Spring next year probably. His new Lightning book is expected for sale at Telford.

The cockpit tub and Bay 5 area now is fully painted and weathered

A year ago I bought one jar of FS34079 and did some trial runs with different thinners in my H&S Infinity. I never had with any paints such bad results. It was impossible to spray a constant flow longer than 2 or 3 seconds. I also have used their own thinner, but result was the same. I gave it to a colleague and he experienced the same and binned it. Referring to a thread in the Czech Modelforum, a Hataka official stated, that there was an "old formula". Accordingly, it seems they reworked the paints and may be I will give the a second chance. http://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=97311&start=30

And here is the back side of Bay 5 painted and weathered. At ARC and in Jake Melampy´s book, I have learned that Bay 5 in FY84/85/86 F-15Cs are painted in white.

The right side of Bay 5 is finished:

The right cockpit sidewall also is painted now. The color of the cockpit tub and sidewall on the real F-15C normally is FS36231. I have used a mixture of Agama Acrylics consisting of 4 parts FS36231 and 1 part FS36320. To add volume, the recessed parts of the sidewall are painted in a darker shade of grey. The borderlines are threatenend with highly diluted Black acrylic color to add contrast. After a light coat of Ammo of MIG Clear Satin (I love this stuff!!!), I did a pin wash around all the tiny details with Xtracrylix RAF Black diluted with Revell Aqua Color Clean. Be careful to use this mixture sparsely on the brush, because the Aqua Clean bites into the acrylic undersurface, if too much of it is loaded. For this, I use a 000 brush and after absorption of the mixture, I am wiping off the brush one or two times on a piece of a newspaper. If used properly, nice effects are the result! Afterwards, I did some higlihts in the middle of the patterns with highly thinned Xtracrylix FS36622. This time, I used Lifecolor Acrylic Thinner and a high quality No. 0 brush. While painting with this mixture, the surface only is slightly touched by the tip of the brush. My experience are best with brushes from the French Rafael brand, or Windsor & Newton No. 7, which are not cheap actually, but lasting a long time.

First part painted in the cockpit section was the left side of Bay 5 with all those ICMS boxes. The segments were airbrushed with Xtracrylix RAF Black and mixes with Black and Grey tones. Enhanced detail painting was conducted with mixed Windsor & Newton oil colours and acrylic paints from Agama and Xtracrylix mixed with Lifecolor Acrylic Thinner and AK Drying Retarder.

The first painting stage is the colour of the avionic bays. Despite I almost entirely switched to acrylics 15 years ago, I prefer the trusty old Xtracolor X159 to match the proper metallic green shade of the F-15 interior. During airbrushing, the smell of this paint reminds me back to the 80s, when Xtracolor was my brand of choice. It sprayed nicely and a few hours later, I gave it a coat of AK Intermediate Gauzy Agent to protect the fragile Xtracolor for a slight washing with dark brown umbra in the corners. Later, a coat of clear satin Ammo of MIG was misted to reduce the glossy effect. Afterwards, the small details were painted with Xtracrylix light grey. The pin washing arroud the small screw heads are done by a mixture of Xtracrylix Black with Revell Aqua Color Clean. This mixture works nicely on a satin surface and the result is a slightly feathered effect, like it is the case with thinned oil colors. Acrylic colors or washes thinned with water or acrylic thinners are resulting in hard edged borders, which I don´t like really.

The left side of Bay 5 finished before painting

It´s now going forward with the cockpit sidewalls and the left side Bay 5 detail

The parts for the other two avionics access bays (I dubbed those Bay 2 and 3) are built entirely scratch. The small rivets and screw heads, which are blinking silver on the pictures are made from sliced 0,2mm soldering wire again and glued with UHU cyano gel. Some of my favourite stuff! Bay 2 detail Bay 3 detail