fatbaldbloke Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 As mentioned in the general discussion thread, I stumbled across some images of a pair of T6s in Red Bull colours a few weeks ago and this GB is the kick up the bottom I need to actually get the garage sorted and build something. Assuming I finish it, this will be my first plane build since I was about 10 and the first model of any sort for nearly 20 years, so don't get too excited. This is the inspiration. Base models is from the Revell Reno Racers set that I picked up at Duxford a decade or so ago for a tenner. Think I may need to find something a little better than my phone to take pics with though, judging by this shot of the kit parts taken at about 7 this evening. This evening I have eventually cleared the workbench in the garage, bought a nice comfy bar stool from Ikea and painted a few cockpit parts. For the cockpit colours I'm following the kit instructions as I have no reference shots. Once I've nailed a few bits together I'll start taking more pics. Decals will be a mix of Virages for the Total & Red Bull logos, some white lettering I got from my Dad (who has recently given up railway modelling after a stroke and also donated his old box of Humbrols, some of which are actually useable!), numbers from the spares box at work and it looks like I'll have to try my hand at printing for the Becker & Sennheiser on the cockpit sides. As I don't have an ALPS the plan is to settle on a fuselage colour, spray a test piece, scan it and then use that as a background colour printing on white decal. Plenty to go horribly wrong then. FBB Age 41 & 3/4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Delta 210 Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Welcome aboard. I'm really looking forward to seeing this one progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gajman Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Wow, that will look good. Watching with interest. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grant Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Err - you have a RR rocker cover on your bench!?!! WoW! As you say 'plenty to go wrong', but it will look sooo good if you pull it off. Good Luck Grant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatbaldbloke Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 Nowhere else to put it. I'll finish making the gaskets one day, but at the moment there are more urgent things to do on the Shack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatbaldbloke Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 Surprisingly productive day today. During the last week I've been painting all the little cockpit bits and bobs and put those together this morning and then put the fuselage together. Crap pic again. With the main bits all together, as it was a warmish dry day, out came the rattle cans. First primer, then after a few spots of sanding and repriming on with the main colour. Wings aren't attached at this point, I just popped them in place for the photo. After I finished I realised I didn't paint the undercarriage doors, but I'll deal with those in a bit. Probably won't get much more done on the model over the next couple of weeks but may be able to get some decal artwork sorted out during my lunch hours. Really not looking forward to painting the framing on the canopy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Delta 210 Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Looking good! I understand your reluctance over the canopy frame! Sometimes I use painted decal film for canopies like yours. I bought mine from Hannants for £2.25 here. I paint the film with enamels and then trim to fit the canopy. You then dip in water like a normal decal. I bought this Revell set when I returned from a holiday in Florida and splashed out on a Texan flight from Kissimmee. (I still haven't made it, though!) Looking forward to the next instalment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julien Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Have you got Red Bull Decals for this or are you making your own? Julien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatbaldbloke Posted July 23, 2012 Author Share Posted July 23, 2012 I've bought decals for Red Bull & Total (tiny logo on the engine cowl), white letters & white numbers are from my dad's old model railway stock and the spares box at work respectively and the US bowtie for the underside of the wing I'll pinch from one of the many Mustang/Lightning/Corsiar etc kits I have in the stash that when eventualy built won't be in their military liveries. I'm printing my own decals for Sennheiser, Becker, the team logos on the wing top surfaces, German flags and the pilot's name. I've had a rather hectic weekend doing 1:1 aircraft stuff but this evening intend to settle down with a bottle of something red and play with my decal artwork a little more. I'm having to print on white decal so will be doing test pieces to make sure that my background blue matches the airframe colour as well as possible. Good job it isn't metallic (or at least I don't think it is!) as a lot of RB stuff is, I might have had a problem there! I'll post up the core images and my manipulations of them when I'm at my home PC this evening. I should really have taken screen grabs as I went along as I suppose they might be useful/interesting to people. Didn;t think about it last week when I was doing it. It'll be at least a week before any decals start to go on as I've had to order the orange paint for the rudder, wing tips etc and won't get that until the weekend. A couple more of the images I'm working from so that you can see what needs doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Great progress, I'll be following with interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatbaldbloke Posted July 23, 2012 Author Share Posted July 23, 2012 (edited) Seeing as it was a lovely warm eveing when I got home from work, I've spent the last four hours or so enjoying the evening and drinking beer with the neighbours so I may make less sense than usual if that's possible. Needless to say the previously mentioned test pieces didn't get printed, but here are a few of the images I've been working with. Trickiest first. this was the best Sennheiser logo I could find on google. In photoshop I enlarged the canvas to give space beneath and then using the text tool added the 'aviation headsexts' text using the text tool, roughly sized it and thenm scrolled through all the available fonts until I got close. Then I used the stretching functions on the text to get the proportions right (to my eye at least). That done I then had to resize the actual logo S to fit with the main text size on the aircraft. All this was done in the original pale blue. I then slected the white background with the magic wand tool and recoloured it an approximate dark blue taken as a colour droplet from one of the many photos I have harvested (this will need adjusting). Back to the magic wand, 'select inverse' and then the eraser renders the pale blue white. The end result is this, which I have a resized-hi res version of to print. The 'd' looks odd because from the photos it looks as if it has no tail and I rather hamfistedly adjusted it. I may re-do this and leave the tail on to keep consistency. The Becker logo was easy as I found one the right colour online which just needs resizing, though I have to decide whether to put on a dark blue background or print as pale blue on clear decal film. As the inkjet clear is out of stock at owrk at the moment, I may go for the former. I had to guess what the logo on the top of the wings was, but a little lateral thought and googling took me to http://www.t6-team.de and what would be on their banner but... This one has been sized accordingly and will simply be printed on white and carefully cut out to give the border. The team's site also gave me a close up of the cockpit side in the gallery so again I was able to do my best to font match and make the pilot's name text. It all seems fairly straightforward so far, but I haven't actually printed any decals yet or tried to apply them. If anyone can identify the bald eagle badge on the sister aircraft in the first pic, I could be very tempted to make the pair of them. A second T6 kit shouldn't be hard to find and it makes sense to print as much as possible on the decal film. *Edit to fix oversized image. Any typos, blame Shephard Neame. Edited July 23, 2012 by fatbaldbloke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tank152 Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 I see BM has had the same effect on you has it had on me. I was happily building cars until I came on here! Looks like a great finish paint wise, some thing I could never get with rattle cans when I was building my cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Great to see what you did with Photoshop, FBB - I have a copy, but clearly only use a fraction of what it can do! Really looking forward to seeing how this one turns out Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Delta 210 Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Great work on the logos. The last time I mixed modelling and alcohol, it all went horribly wrong!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatbaldbloke Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 Great work on the logos. The last time I mixed modelling and alcohol, it all went horribly wrong!! No, I was sober when I did those, it was juts posting time that was booze-delayed! Tim - The paint was done very quickly. Key to using rattle cans as I was taught by one of our model builders years ago. Get the paint can warm, not a problem at the moment but otherwise stand it in a bowl of hand hot water. Shake the can until your hand's about to drop off, then shake some more. Apply the paint in light mist coats and just let it build up. It's trying to get an instant gloss that screws it all up. You can always polish afterwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatbaldbloke Posted August 2, 2012 Author Share Posted August 2, 2012 Second coat of orange has just gone on the wing tips, rudder etc. Using Tamiya TS31 for those and at first wasn't happy. Colour seams to be building now but will know for sure when I have a look in proper light over the weekend. With hindsight I should have painted the orange, masked that and then done the blue, but I didn't have the orange paint until Saturday! Providing I'm happy with the paint, some decals might go on on Monday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Delta 210 Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Hope the orange has gone on OK. I look forward to the next set of pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gajman Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Well done on the logos. It should look great when you put those and the kit together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatbaldbloke Posted August 6, 2012 Author Share Posted August 6, 2012 Sadly today's day off work went slightly awry. 1. Slight lie in - success 2. All morning on the phone organising airshow bookings and van insurance for Shackleton Preservation Trust - progress 3. Clear conservatory, put junk in loft and create space for 'er indoors new clothes dr.. err cross trainer - success 4. Get into the garage and do some modelling... but first take a breather and open one of those nice bottle of Bitburger my German ex-brother in law brought over. - Oh well, Maybe Wednesday.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Delta 210 Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 Sounds like you earned the Bitburger..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatbaldbloke Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 Took the masking off this evening looking forward to a nice bit of decalling. Cue much swearing. Now the bleed is certainly down to my lack of experience masking such small things and my sausage fingers, but the amount of adhesive left behind by the Tamiya tape was something of a surprise. Still, careful use of white spirit and the adhesive and some of the orange was gone. To cheer me up, it was time for some decals. US insignia is from a Tamiya Corsair kit in the stash and the lettering is from Fox decals. Not quite font perfect but I'm having to make a compromise or two on this model. The Bulls will be added once the yellow circles are dry and hard down. Will need to apply a litle more microsol so get it snuggled right into the air intake. The outline of the Bulls is white unfortunately rather than yellow, but that's another compromise I'll have to live with. Colour bleed has also been touched in. Getting there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Nice save with the masking issue. Great to see the decals starting to go on Cheers Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatbaldbloke Posted August 15, 2012 Author Share Posted August 15, 2012 Tonight has mostly been fiddly painting. Prop still needs doing (I realised I didn't have any white paint!) but the rest is pretty much ready for assembly. Wings now attached. Getting there. Slowly... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Delta 210 Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 She is looking fantastic! A highly original build. I can't wait to see her finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatbaldbloke Posted August 15, 2012 Author Share Posted August 15, 2012 (edited) Phone conversation early this evening will see another base kit arriving at the weekend. I haven't done the home printed bits yet so wil be upping the number when I do for the sister machine, though that won't be built in time for the end of the GB. There are a few detail differences, one of which is a logo I can't identify. The one I'm part way through is the closer of these two but what's that logo on the side of the furthest plane? Looks like a bald eagle but anyone got any ideas on the whole badge? Edit - Google before asking stupid questions you fat idiot. This looks to be a likely candidate. Edited August 15, 2012 by fatbaldbloke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts