Live_bait Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 (edited) G'Day Britmodellers, I just joined a couple of weeks ago and this is my first thread. Aviation has been a very important part of my life, and a source of motivation not for this beautiful hobby but for other daily activities as well. I love WWII warbirds, post war jets, and every flying machine out there captures my attention in a very special way. I love visiting museums as well, and soon in October I’ll be visiting the USAF National Museum in Dayton Ohio. This museum has been a dream since I was a kid, when I knew of its existence when my father bought a subscription of the National Geographic Magazine. I’ll spend 3 days visiting so I can capture as much details as I can, I expect to share this visit with you. When I was a kid I probably built a dozen of 1/72 Matchbox F4U Corsair and Zero fighters, those that came with a clear stand with a flexible joint so the kit could be displayed in different flight attitudes. I built them without putting much care into details, with too much glue, fingerprints everywhere, landing gear misaligned, missing decals, etc. I just wanted to have them built as fast as I could, maybe in an hour or so and play with them. After some nostalgic memories of the good old days, today I’ll share with you a 1/48 Tamiya bent wing F4U-1 Corsair Birdcage Item 61046. I just got the brand new 1/32nd and I expect to upload the building process soon, I can’t wait to start digging in that big box, built it and start doing what I like the most, painting, weathering and finishing. I couldn’t close my jaws for a while after opening the box. The level of detail of the aerodynamic surfaces is just amazing, and I can foresee endless possibilities when painting, weathering and finishing. Going back to the 1/48th Birdcage, source of information, is the well known series of books Aircraft of the Aces - 8 “Corsair Aces of the World War 2” by Mark Styling from Osprey Publishing. This is an excellent source of information. Although with black & white pictures, they give a very good source for painting and weathering, providing several pictures with maintenance crew working on the ship while on the flight line. The built is OOB with the exception of the Eduard photo etched interior set EU4103 and the True Details resin wheels. The subject is the F4U-1 white 20 of the 1st Lt Foy R ”Poncho” Garison VMF-213 in Guadalcanal July 1943. Referenced in page 17 of the Osprey book. He shot down 2 zeros on 30 June 1943. The book isn’t showing a picture of the port fuselage then there is no proof of those marks assigning both victories to this ship. So trusting on my best guess I’ll put those two Japanese flags underneath the windscreen. I wanted to try Xtracrilix paints for the first time. I used FS15164 intermediate blue, FS17875 White for the upper surfaces. As a personal choice, the Tamiya XF-12 JN Grey for the lower surfaces. I missed the details of the cockpit construction, next one willbe fully detailed. Hope you will enjoy it: Pre-shading: First layer FS15164 Intermediate blue. Lower surfaces masked with blue tack. Some post-shading and faded panels to provide contrastand depth. Oil wash panel lines Now some pastels for the exhaust stains, more streaking different tones and shades, with my airbrush, before glossy sealing with Pledge floor wax. Stay tunned. Cheers! Edited September 1, 2013 by Live_bait 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris W. Balmer Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 Looking good there mate. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakingModelsAgain Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 Looks spot-on! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live_bait Posted September 2, 2013 Author Share Posted September 2, 2013 (edited) Thank you mates. Gary, I saw your 1/32 Tamiya Spit MkIXc in Youtube, you did a hell of a job there. You had the courage of re-do the paint job as you were not happy with the results, and let me tell you that the effort paid off, the results were just awesome. Youre not the only one, you'll see I forgot to paint the wings anti slip walk ways. I will have to do it after decals are applied. Going back to my bent wing, more weathering was carried out alternating with my airbrush and pastels. I use to do a lot of airbrushing with a mix of XF-1 and XF-64 (Red brown). XF-57 as well in ordert to dust it up. Both of them in a very thin mix of around 1:15. I go gradually darkening different zones of the ship based on the efect I want to get. Faded panels due to sun blasting the airframe in the Pacific theatre. Oil licks, and exhaust stains. The Birdcage in this scenario was dirty, very very dirty. Here after acoat of Pledge acrylic wax for floors. Now, sealing everything with flat varnish, paint the wings anti-slip walkways in matt black and fade them down. Next probably more weathering and touches. Stay tunned Cheers! Edited September 2, 2013 by Live_bait 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live_bait Posted September 2, 2013 Author Share Posted September 2, 2013 (edited) Here I'm back again, as mentioned to Gary, I forgot to paint the anti-slip walkways on the wings. Before painting this I had to apply flat varnish after sealing the decals with Pledge floor wax. After that I faded down the flat black with a very thin mix of Light grey and flat white, 1:15 paint / thinner. Hope you enjoy it. Stay tunned after that I'll do navigation lights, antennas, landing gear, etc. I'll do the model with folded wings. Very open to receive constructive feedback folks. Cheers! Edited September 2, 2013 by Live_bait 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kahunaminor Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 Great start, The post shade is a little stark for me at the moment but I expect it will blend in with a dull coat and some more weathering. The blue/grey looks excellent. Regards, Kent 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live_bait Posted September 3, 2013 Author Share Posted September 3, 2013 Thank you for the comments, Kent. Regarding weathering yet I have to chip the paint, normally I use a silver color pen. There is always room for further weathering. Yet I have to apply a very thin coat of XF-57 in order to dust it up. Next set of photos will show these features. Probably with the coat of XF-57 the post shading will blend in to the intermediate blue so it doesn`t look that stark. If you have further specific techniques on weathering please feel free to give advice. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 I really like your painting and weathering method, you've really brought it alive, looking forwards to seeing more of your great work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live_bait Posted September 4, 2013 Author Share Posted September 4, 2013 (edited) Thank you Woody for your kind words. More models will come for sure, thank you for the encouraging words. Regarding the painting, this is the first time I’m trying the Xtracrilix paints and I have to say that I liked them a lot. They are more translucent than Tamiya or other brands and for the pre-shading process provides more control, though I needed more layers. They dried quite fast so not much delay. I liked the semi-gloss finish of these paints, very little buffeting required. Decals settled down nicely. Kahunaminor, I took your comments and put some attention on the post-shading. I played with my airbrush around the shades over the panel lines. After your advice I realised that the panel lines shades on the belly where a way to thick taking into account the 1/48 scale. So what I did, I slightly sprayed XF-12JN Grey lightened with flat white XF-2 thinning those shades. After that, I thinned the mix down to 1/15 approximately, and slightly sprayed over the panel lines. I think they are now more blended in the base color. I did some more weathering with a mix of XF-1 and XF-64. Navigation lights are done on the wing tips, and tail gear and clamshell doors are already installed. The F4U-1 had a shorter tail gear than latest models. I also installed lower exhaust pipes. Finally, and maybe it’s a little bit hard to tell, I over sprayed the model with an extremely thin mix of XF-57 trying to get a dusty appearance. I might spray further in other areas in order to accentuate the dusty effect. Although the Birdcage performed in a tropical environment with lots of heavy rain, the ramp dried quite fast due to high temperatures and sun blasting the land, so in fact it was a dusty environment. Next, paint chip, main landing gear, canopy and antennas, and white backing tape covering machine guns holes. Cheers! Edited September 4, 2013 by Live_bait 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 An awesome build, love the heavily weathering! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live_bait Posted September 8, 2013 Author Share Posted September 8, 2013 (edited) Some more advancement, main subassemblies are put together, landing gear, nav lights, canopy. Some minor items and chiping the paint coming next. Edited September 8, 2013 by Live_bait Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Le Vander Posted September 8, 2013 Share Posted September 8, 2013 Very nice!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surveyor Posted September 8, 2013 Share Posted September 8, 2013 Looks fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeewee Posted September 8, 2013 Share Posted September 8, 2013 Great paint job! Love the weathering. Jw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live_bait Posted September 9, 2013 Author Share Posted September 9, 2013 (edited) A couple of more pictures with some other items installed, folded wings attachment struts. Soon will be sent for inspection. Edited December 1, 2013 by Live_bait 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kahunaminor Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 Hi, Weathering is such a matter of personal taste so don't take my word as any sort of informed opinion. It may also be the lighting, camera settings and a million other things. Looking at your build in person I may say it is too under weathered (if such a state exists). I think your build looks great, the colours are really well done, there is so much right with the build. I do think it looks better a bit more subdued, but that may be at odds with other opinions. Thanks for sharing and please continue to contribute. Regards, Kent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live_bait Posted September 9, 2013 Author Share Posted September 9, 2013 Thank you for the comments, they are always very welcome. You are right weathering is a matter of interpretation or sometimes a matter of trying new techniques. When you said under weathered, what would you have done so the model is weathered in a good measure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kahunaminor Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 Nothing, it was simply an example of the point of how subjective "weathering" can be. To add more may turn it too "cartoonish" and yet some may point to the exhaust staining (for example) and say it is not enough and produce a photo depicting the subject. I think the important thing is that there is no photograph of every subject at every given moment. There can always be some point that a model can depict the subject of a photo on the way to the particular photographed state, either before or after the actual taking of the photo. I have had some criticism of builds that state it is not weathered enough, or it is weathered too much and point to a photograph. My answer is well that is one moment in time. The subject existed before that photo and after that moment in time and who can say what state it is in at those moments without photographic proof? Wow...that was very...umm deep. I had better take a step back from the glue! Regards, Kent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live_bait Posted September 9, 2013 Author Share Posted September 9, 2013 (edited) I see your point, Kent. Thank you. It`s like with Luftwaffe camouflages and the mottling representation, there are so many interpretations and styles. Some may think that a mottling is good, but others might think that the airbrush pressure and paint dilution was causing that undesirable spitting appearance. Or for instance, a firewall in the engine compartment with a very thick paint texture, making it look rough at not representative of the scale. But you are right, without proofs such as a photo depicting such appearance it`s hard to see if it`s representative enough of the real thing. Best Maurice Edited September 9, 2013 by Live_bait 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 I think weathering when done well adds a lot of character to a build and what you've done here is scrumptiously done ! Really like your weathering technique Maurice, looking forwards to seeing more of your work 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somnas Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 Nice one! I think I will do as you've done because I also have the 1/32 waiting on the shelf but it seems like a good idea to warm up with this one first. /Erik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live_bait Posted December 2, 2013 Author Share Posted December 2, 2013 (edited) Good call Somnas, I tried to experiment with weathering techiques at a fraction of the value of the new Tamiya gem. Soon I'll stick the fork on that bent wing. Best Maurice Submissions ___________________________________________________________ 1/32 Revell Bf109G6 Hartmann backup a/c http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234950943-132-revell-bf109-g6-hartmann-backup-ac/ 1/72 Tamiya FW190 D9 Galland Circus http://www.britmodel...galland-circus/ Edited December 3, 2013 by Live_bait 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skull Leader Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 I just finished building the F4U-1A kit in 1/48... those tamiya kits really fall together nicely! (Don't know about you but mine didn't need any putty!) I think your weathering turned out nicely... I didn't do any pre - shading on mind and I'm kind of wishing I did. A beautiful rendition of "whistling death!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live_bait Posted December 4, 2013 Author Share Posted December 4, 2013 (edited) Preshading isn't a "must be", Skull. You can always post-shade. You could achieve same results as you are just putting all in one stage. It's all about, mixes and airbrush control. Maurice 1/32 Revell Bf109G6 Hartmann backup a/c http://www.britmodel...mann-backup-ac/ 1/72 Tamiya FW190 D9 Galland Circus http://www.britmodel...galland-circus/ Edited December 4, 2013 by Live_bait Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skull Leader Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 Oh I did post shade... it just would've been less time consuming if I'd pre shaded also lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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