mctrl87

Hi All, I see there is generally lots of information about airbrushing, both here on britmodeller and on the web in general, but there doesn't seem to be nearly as much information about hand brushing. I thought it might be a good idea if we had a topic dedicated to discussing hand brushing where people could ask questions and share advice/techniques. I hand brush all of my kits except where I use a rattle can for priming / base coats, unfortunately I can't afford an airbrush and even if I could I don't have anywhere suitable to use it without an awful lot of set-up and tidying up afterwards. I'll start us off, I was wondering what kind of viscosity/consistency is a good starting point for achieving thin layers when brush painting. I have seen all over the web that for airbrushing the general advice is the viscosity/consistency of semi-skimmed milk, is this also true for brush painting as I would have thought this was too runny / watery.

Kallisti is there anything you want to tell us? Like what it was like to work on the Gerry Anderson shows in the 60s because you were clearly a member of Derek Meddings team!

This may just be the nostalgia talking but in my opinion Humbrol Enamels aren't 'Super' enough these days! I am sure there are many that would say they aren't 'Authentic' enough either.

Surely if this show is aimed at kids it's even more important to demonstrate realistic physics and characterisations, otherwise what are we teaching these children? 'It's aimed at kids' should not be a valid excuse for poor programming!

Thanks for the quick reply!

Is it too late to join this group build? I've got a 1/2500 Cadet Series Enterprise Refit I'm about to start building that I'd like to enter.

Much like the pilot episodes I generally enjoyed this weeks! I always wanted to see more of TB3 in the original series and for her to be more than just a shuttle service (see what I did there?) to TB5! That said anyone else think the blast door on the TB3 silo closes a bit too fast? I'm also curious if John & Alan still rotate TB5 duty like they did in the original. I was surprised/disappointed TB3 & TB5 wasn't able to detect the stealth mine, especially as they clearly had some data on them in their digital archive. In the original thanks to Brain's genius IR's tech was usually far ahead of the rest of the world, hence why the Hood was always trying to learn IR's secrets. I would really like to see Brains portrayed as more of a genius/engineer in the new series and less as Apple IR Telephone Technical Support!

For me what really let this new series down is the music/scoring, it is very, very generic and completely unmemorable! Ask anyone who has watched the original series to hum/whistle the theme tune off the top of their heads and most will be able to do so. Ask anyone who has watched the new series to do the same in 50 years time and I doubt there would be many if any who could do so! I also found the pacing a little bit fast but I am willing to put that down to this being the first episode(s) and wanting to get people hooked by fitting in as much as possible. Hopefully things will slow down and normalise as the series goes on. The only other thing that bothered me was how similar Virgil looked to Scott and Gordon looked to Alan, if they had based Virgil & Gordon more on their original series counterparts i.e. given Virgil dark brown hair instead of black and Gordon ginger / light brown instead of blonde it would have been a lot easier to distinguish between them when not in uniform. Other than these three points I thought the new series was fantastic and can't wait to see more!

Great work so far! It's very impressive how much detail you can put into a model of this size!

WOW absolutely stunning work! Congratulations!

I've not been on the forums for a few months and so I've just been catching up with a few threads and I have to say the progress you have made with this is absolutely amazing! This is going to be a stunning model when it finished!

Ah-ha so the two Tornado F.3s are not free, you have to buy them, and in order to do that you have to be a member of the Airfix Club. Thanks for the clarification guys!

So much for the 2 1/72 Tornado F.3s in 25th anniversary schemes then!

Congratulations to all the winners and runners up!

Great work on the build Phil! The F.3 certainly does look good in black! The Hasegawa kit certainly seems more detailed for 1/72 then the Italeri kit, especially when it comes to the inside of the cockpit.

Thanks for the kind words Jonners! I really liked your build too. I would love to have a go at the Hobbyboss 1/48 F.3 but I've never done scratch building / heavy modification work before and wouldn't feel confident making the excellent modifications you have. If only an after market company could come out with a kit to correct the nose section, canopy and wing gloves, to name a few.

WOW Great work Jonners! Such a great level of detail and a great finish!

Thanks for the praise and kind words! I can safely say this is kit is the one I have worked the hardest on in my 5 years of modelling!

My thanks as well, this is my first ever Group Build and its been great fun to take part in!

Here is my entry: The Revell (Italeri) ADV F.3 as ZE764 circa late 1980s. This kit was a real pain on more then one occasion, but one of the virtues of this kit is working swing wings, wing pylons and ailerons. In addition to boxed kit I also used 2 Pavla ejector seats which are much better then the kit seats. Build Thread Click the pics to enlarge. Sorry if the photos aren't very good, this is my first time posting a finished build online.

I'm sorry about not posting any updates for quite a while, but after an intense couple of weeks this entry is now finally finished! Thank goodness for the extra day! I am extra happy about finishing this as its my 3rd attempt with the previous two not making it to completion for one reason or another, but as the old saying goes if at first you don't succeed... Overall this kit was a right pain in the neck at times, like having to re-scribe all the panel lines because the detail on this kit was so weak, but it does have its advantages such as working swing wings, rotating wing pylons and working ailerons. Click the pics to enlarge.

Time for an update! I have finally finished the wings and tail planes. I plan to tackle the cockpit next.

It seems Hobbykit Import was a good find then!

Thanks for the advice, however as I usually have to leave the paints overnight any way I don't think this would be much help I look forward to hearing how you get on with the French site. Also not to worry I don't plan to wait more then another week before I file a paypal claim! Thanks for the info and advice! I still want to try out the Mr. Color paints with either Mr. Levelling Thinner or Mr. Retarder if only so I can say I tried them and didn't like them. Even if I did decide to switch it would be a gradual thing as I am not about to throw away my 20-30 odd Humbrol Enamels most of which are still half full! I'm still something of a modelling noob (I've only been modelling for about 4 years now at 1 or 2 models a year) so there's still lots for me to discover when it comes to modelling!

Unfortunately it was I sillily thought I would give him/them the benefit of the doubt, starting to think that was a mistake! If Gunze Poland doesn't work out I found another site I can try which sells them and appears to ship EU wide. If all else fails there is always ebay *sigh*