CzarPeppers

Very nice, I recently bought this kit.

I've had trouble doing the marbling in the past, but since getting a 0.2 mm airbrush it was easier. My biggest problem was the fluctuating air pressure of my air compressor that makes doing really fine stuff frustrating, I'll definitely be getting a more powerful compressor for the next time I need to do this.

So because I had some resin exhaust stacks for this kit, I thought I would use the ones that come with the kit to test some ideas for doing the exhaust. Because personally I find a lot of people really over do the rust on these stacks, when in reality any kind of corrosion would be pretty light. I had come up with an idea for doing them I thought might work, and this was the result of my test. For those who are interested these were the steps: - Black base coat (I just used a black primer) - Coat of Vallejo Metal Color steel (I'm sure any steel paint would work well, I would have used Alclad if I had any Alclad steel) - Dry brushed a bit of AK Extreme Metal stainless steel. - Put some Vallejo rust colours out on a wet pallet, thinned them quite a bit with a few drops of distilled water. (71.042, 71.080 and 71.130 if you want the exact colours used) - Took a sponge, got some paint on, dabbed off any excess until only a small amount was coming off and dabbed on the pipes. You don't want to put too much on, I found 2-3 dabs around each pipe was enough. - Repeat with the other colours not waiting for the previous ones to dry, I find having them all blend together is the key to making it look good. Although it dries very fast, so make sure to have all your colours laid out before starting, and don't even bother cleaning off the sponge between colours.

Well finally managed to get to working on this again... Before anything I gave it a black base for the marbling, sadly I didn't have any black Mr. Surfacer so I had to go through this extra step. Then I did a coast of the aluminium for the metal surfaces followed by an Alclad flat clear and AK chipping fluid before spraying black over those sections again. Did the marbling layers, which was a pain because my air compressor isn't quite powerful enough. The fluctuation of air pressure can be very frustrating when you're doing fine work like this, although the cheap airbrush I was using may have also led to some annoyance. Either way, it got done. Then on the wood sections I sprayed a light coat of AMT-7 to give the wood sections a slightly different shade from the metal. Although I'm not sure if the effect came out in the end result. And finally the last coat of A II G. This technique is one I've seen used by a YouTube I like by the name of Scale-a-ton, I had tried it before on an I-16 I did some time ago, but the airbrush I had then didn't work very well for the marbling. I think there is room for improvement on this one, but I'm pretty happy with the end result. Now I just need to do the top!

Well! The old girl has finally got her coat of Mr. Surfacer and I'm currently just cleaning up a few imperfections. Next I'll be giving it a coat of black Stynylrez (because sadly I didn't have any black Mr. Surfacer and I'd rather use that than wasting my Tamiya black). Then doing some metallic paint over the metal areas for chipping and finally getting to the main base coats. I just got my order of MRP colours for this project today, and I'm looking forward to spraying them some more. I just wish the guy I've hired to put a hole in my wall for my extractor actually calls me back, but thankfully I have a good mask for filtering out the lacquer thinner used in MRP. It is just annoying trying to clear out the room afterwards when its only 5C outside. The saga continues.

Well it is finally almost time to prime.

After being fixed, thankfully it was just Vallejo which is easy to get off, although I had put a Alclad flat clear under it as sort of a primer that I was worried about. It came off with a swab damp with Mr Color Thinner which thankfully did fog up the clear plastic or anything. Crisis averted. And the rest of it after using filler on some areas, mostly just Tamiya surface primer to get in small gaps that didn't look right with the excess being wiped away with some Mr Color Thinner. I had to use a bit of putty around the air intake though, the gap wasn't too bad though it was only an issue in a few areas. I was expecting it to be more fussy of a fit. Overall the fit wasn't amazing, but it wasn't terrible either. This is still probably the best Mig-3 kit out there that I'm aware of, at least in 1/48, I think ICM makes one in 1/32 that might be better. All I have now are those intakes(?) on the sides of the nose then it is time to prime black. I was thinking about making those exhaust pipe shrouds more accurate, but to be honest I have spent so much time on this kit that I can live with how they are. I just rounded the front sides of them a bit. I've been working on this kit for 4 or 5 months (mainly because I've been stalled by needing to order some things from China that would take 3-4 weeks to arrive) and I would like to get it done.

Yep! Just the one that one part thankfully, must have been distracted by something before I did the last one and didn't realize because of the outer masking. Silly me.

Anyone want to guess what my "OH #@$@#$" moment was?

This thing is proving to be a little bit of a putty monster, not too bad though. Although you don't see it much in these pictures, I've done more since taking them. The tape is just there to protect the photoetch stuff while I deal with the seams and prep for primer. I'm a bit unhappy with the fit of the landing flap sections, bad gaps in some area and others where it is the break is hardly noticeable. I made sure to book mark your build log fubar, I'm going to have to decide what to do about the area around the exhaust. I do have some photoetch stuff for it and resin exhaust pipes.

I ended up putting them on before gluing the fuselage to the wings, everything seemed to turn out alright. I did get some annoying gaps towards the rear where the wings meet the fuselage among other things.

Hey, since you have done this kit I wanted to get your opinion on something I've been wondering about. I wish I had photos but my phone is dead right now, but if you remember the two small parts that that go between the wing section and fuselage towards the front of the plane (they look like small intakes of some sort) I was wondering whether you glued those in place before or after you attached the fuselage section to the wings. I've been debating whether I should put them on now or wait until I've got the fuselage on. Because they seem to have a bit of a finicky fit.

Oh boy, I haven't even started the air intake yet. There's some pretty complex photoetch stuff so I guess I've been avoiding it, won't be able to for much longer. I'll definitely take note of the attachment tip though.

And the project continues on. This was a pretty stressful moment putting the fuselage together, I'm a little worried about how the orientation of the cockpit turned out but hopefully once it gets some more structural support on the front it'll even out. Now for the gear bays, I really liked the photoetch that I got for it but I still wanted to add a little more to it because I have some great reference photos. I feel like I've been working on this project for years, granted I've been doing some other kits during this build.

Just a little update, I've been stalled a bit on this one again waiting for some things that I need in the mail. But I'm starting to finally put the cockpit together and I'm very happy with the results, although I'm going to have to reinforce the floor because I snapped a few bits when try to get it in because its a very tight fit. I wasn't very happy with myself for that, but its nothing that compromises how it looks thankfully. Well, much. I'm still annoyed with it. Now I'm just hoping I'll be able to do the exterior justice.

Hm, that's odd. I've not had any problems with lacquers clears and acrylics, it has actually become my preferred method recently. My problem with mainly with enamels, or at least the one I was using that didn't seem to dry properly even after 4 days.

Just a few photos since I gave everything their flat clears. I find the flat coat always seems like the moment when all the paint work comes together. Sadly with how the flash was on this one you can't see the Kristal Klear I used to make the gauges pop.

Yeah its really when you get in close that you notice anything. I was still messing around with what sort of clear coats work best for me at this point and switching from brush painting to airbrushing, and the problem seemed to result from the brushed gloss enamel clear (plus that coat getting really screwed up with the oil paint wash) and then the final airbrushed flat acrylic. I was still a bit of a newb. These days I basically use all acrylics until the weathering/filters/washes stage at which point I switch to oils or enamel, seems to be how most people do it these days. Well, I've recently started using lacquer clear coats that I've been extremely happy with. The Alclad ones specifically.

Very nice, I did this one quite awhile ago but I really screwed it up in the finals stages. I mean, its alright but the clear coats are kind of screwed up. I really want to do it again but with the Eduard 1/48 one. I really like the Franz von Werra paint scheme.

Little update on progress. I had not quite finished blending the wash when I took these.

I'm curious what colour you used for the grey (well... grey obviously, but you know what I mean), I plan on doing this kit when I get around to it.

Thank you, I was not aware. German tanks aren't really my area of expertise. I found this video on YouTube that I think is onto something by starting with this field grey colour (he says RLM70 but that's not right). I would personally change a few things like adding a bit more thinned browns to it afterwards and maybe not do the chipping because that doesn't seem very realistic, but even though it isn't really intuitive the field grey seems to act as a good base for the effect.

I'm glad I uploaded these now, while doing so I realized I forgot to paint the wood handle on the pistol.

Well, lots of good things to keep in mind for my Panzer IV. Keep em' coming though if you have them.

And the Mig-3 saga continues... Painting the cockpit sides with a grey-blue that I mixed, and then behind on the wooden part of the inner fuselage some deck tan to act as the base for the wood that I'll be going with oil paints. Very nice AMT-4 colour by Mr. Paint for the cockpit floor and seat. Done the fine paint work and the wood section done with oil paint. I would have done a bit more with tonal variations in the wood, but that section will be barely viable so I just wanted to have a little bit of the wood parts there. Floor and control stick with detail work done, also with some scratching done with a silver water colour pencil. Of course the brush painted stuff always looks a bit wonky before the wash is applied. Haha. I'm sure more is to come soon once the oil paint dries.