Nikola Topalov

Beautiful model! Excellent work! Very inspiring as I have one waiting on the shelf. Thanks for sharing. Best, Nikola

And a few more close-ups... As I said, it needs a little cleanup Best, Nikola

And a bad close-up. It looks much smoother in real life. The darn camera picks up all the little mistakes! Well, there is some cleaning and polishing to be done! Best, Nikola

Hi gents, Somehow I have worked my way through multiple layer chipping. Not 100% satisfied with the results due to few mistakes I made in one of the early steps, but lesson was learned definitely. Pre-shading is intentionally left a bit stronger to avoid losing it due to weathering and potential "tonal crush" effect after white decals, wing tips and rudder are done. Panel line washes will cover the more reddish tone in the recesses so it should be ok in the end (it's slightly more red in the photos than in real life). Pics below. Thanks for looking guys! Best, Nikola

Hi Bstarr, Very nice model of one of my favourite birds, and a cool dio too. Very cool black-red scheme. Nice work! One comment if I may - the exhaust stains look slightly odd fanning out like that, as they should be parallel to each other due to the direction of the airflow. Did you see any references with the stains fanning out like that? Would be interesting to see if you have. Best, Nikola

A. M. A. Z. I. N. G. ! ! ! I love it! Best, Nikola

Hi gents, Well, I got my multi layer chipping relatively ok, but I completely messed up the rest, as this time, I haven't waited long enough for pre-shading and the base coat to bond properly and started chipping too early resulting in two colors chipping separately. It's a complete mess which I have to somehow fix, hopefully in the following steps with the second camo color. Live and learn! Thanks for looking. Best, Nikola

Wow, great modelling and photography! Just superb work on one of my favourite looking jets! I love it. Thank you for sharing. Best, Nikola

Hi gents, Steps 4, 5 and 6 are complete. Tinted (lightened with white) base coat applied over bare metal and intentionally over-chipped. Two things learned here: 1. The base coat should be applied in thin layers over the chipping medium/HS as it tends to crack if too thick a layer has been applied (look at the tail and upper fuselage just behind the canopy), at least with Vallejo paints. Thankfully I have two more coats of camo scheme over this. 2. I shouldn't have waited too long after the base coat was applied, as it is a pain in the a$$ to chip afterwards. I waited almost 24h. Big mistake! Anyway, the photos: Thanks for looking! Best, Nikola

Holy smoke! Congrats on your patience and skill! Again, great work. Best, Nikola

Hi Tom, Superb model of my favourite jet! Great work, well done! Thanks for sharing. Great camo scheme. Is it done with decals or did you mask and paint? Best, Nikola

Hi guys, I am hopefully going to start making tarps for the Widow soon using paper tissue, PVA and water, and since I've never done this before I could really use some advice about how to do it i.e. water to PVA ratio, number of tissue layers, etc... The process in general. Thank you in advance guys! Best, Nikola

Hi RadMax, Thank you! Glad you like it! Also, thank you for the info about the gun sight! I will definitely check it out. Best, Nikola

Hi Marklo, Yes, something like that. Doesn't have to be exact at all. Looking forward to seeing your build! Best, Nikola

Thank you for the info on the paint schemes Marklo. Much appreciated! As for the complementary colors for pre-shading, if it's a greenish scheme, you would want to go with a reddish pre-shading colors, which are opposite of the base coat color on the color wheel. You can use different hues of red of course, as well as various tints (white added) and shades (black added) of the same to get even more interesting color variations. You can probably go with analogue colors (adjacent on the color wheel) as well but I haven't tried that. I assume that it will not give good contrast, but it's worth experimenting definitely. Best, Nikola