Short Sunderland III Airfix 1/72

[Penguinclaw]

This is a follow up to my first posts, a good couple of weeks ago, where I introduced myself and indicated my excitement at waiting for delivery of my first Airbrush. Well my Iwata Nero arrived and I decided that the project to use it with would be the Airfix Short Sunderland III as it is large and I thought would be a good place to learn!

As I'm sure most of you know this kit was from 1960(?) and thus is all raised detail and little cockpit detail. As for the gunners, well the less said the better really. However with the figures all painted up little can be made out through the rather thick glazing (so that is a blessing in disguise). The artwork on the box is fabulous and shows the 'flying porcupine' in full action; really whetting the appetite. There is a lot of flash to remove but as mentioned this is an old kit. What really surprised me though was the excellent fit of most of the parts.... really showing up some much more recent models I have built.

Now onto the painting. With all the major construction done I gave the whole airframe a coat of Airfix's acrylic primer. Then out came the airbrush..... White first..... Oh! Well that's not good. The coverage was bad... I mean really bad. I had followed the advice of my local model stockist and thinned the paint 3 parts to 1. But I couldn't see the white paint!! I decided to clean out the airbrush and cheat. A trip to Halfords and out came their white spray paint. Wow that went on a treat.

Next was I masked over the white with Tamiya tape and masking tape (a big mistake) and then as usual I sketched with pencil where the camouflage would go. Out came the Iwata and with renewed confidence after reading a blogg of a guy that didn't follow any given thinning advice; he just used instinct and played with the air pressure. A few practise blasts and I got the coverage I was after and attacked the model with a vengeance. To be quite honest I found initially that I had the pressure too high and mixture too thin as I was moving the paint around on the surface like you do as a kid with a straw.... But as time past I eventually got a decent, in my eyes, finish. I didn't mask the between camouflage colours, preferring to paint by hand. So off with the masking and oh dear.... paint bleed over my carefully painted white!!

I attempted to touch up with acrylic using a brush but the coverage was very poor. So I decided after failing to decant the halfords paint to go back to my enamel white and hand brushed the whole white area. I'm almost glad of those airfix raised rivets! After that I brought out the vanish so that I could move onto decaling and weathering. But next disaster.... The Lifecolor paint doesn't seem to like the Klear.... It left a very uneven swirly effect; much like water staining.... grrr! I was too far down the road in my book to consider retreat. Perhaps weathering will be my friend. So after a few more coats I moved onto the decals. Not many. Looks simple. Out came the Microset and dish of cool water and Nooooo!!!!!! The decal must have be from the 1960's as they disintegrated.... I spent a few hours nudging and feathering until I got them on in a reasonable fashion.

And that is as far as I have got! I must admit this has turned into a bit of a character building exercise. But am I pleased with the airbrush.... hell yeah!!!

[billybookcase]

Any piccys?

BB

[Martian]

Given the dog's breakfast Italeri made of the surface detail of their Sunderland, I personally think that this kit still has a lot going for it and when I get round to doing the type will be my weapon of choice.

As Billybookcase said, some pictures would be nice as it is a bit difficult to have an opinion or offer any help if we don't know what your model looks like.

Martin

PS:

[Penguinclaw]

That's a good point!! I'll have to get snapping Thanks for the warning on the Italeri kit as I was considering following up this build with that model.... maybe I'll stick with airfix. It is actually a good kit considering the age and certainly is beginning to look the part. It has always been one of my favourite aircraft.

[K404]

"pressure too high and mixture too thin as I was moving the paint around on the surface like you do as a kid with a straw"

That'll probably be why you had paint creeping under the masking tape With some practice, you'll figure out the ratio of air pressure, paint thickness and spray distance- you'll get to the point where the plastic slowly changes colour in front of you and creepwill be impossible.

"The Lifecolor paint doesn't seem to like the Klear.... It left a very uneven swirly effect; much like water staining.... grrr!"

I might have skim-read too fast.... I can't see a prior mention of Lifecolor. What and where did you use that? I've not used Klear, so I can't comment on that. They *did* change the "recipe" for Klear, a lot of people come across as though they've moved away from it. Someone will have much better info than me though- I picked up on a few comments that suggested the Alclad was near-as-dammit the same as "old" Klear. I had my first try of that this morning (over Lifecolor acrylic) and am very happy with the result.

[Penguinclaw]

@K404 you're right I forgot to mention I was using lifecolour! Thanks for your tips; I think you're right about the practise side of things. My bottle of klear is the original and I've never noticed a problem before.... Certainly makes the finish look more painterly and as I said may be incorporated into weathering.

On another note I have a daft question. How does one upload photos to the forum. When I click on the picture tool the box greys out

[K404]

Only things I can think of could be poor mixing (sorry) or maybe contamination in the cup- acrylic/Klear/thinners/aircrush cleaner got mixed. Those suggestions are in no way meant to offend!

As for pics... can't help there, sorry. I use "a popular upload site" and link*

*Well, I would if I did enough work and took enough pictures to actually post something!

Edited July 7, 2014 by K404

[Gimme Shelter]

looking forward to seeing this - I build one of the same years ago with all the white ensign fancy interior PE bits + more.

Old kits are sometimes just as rewarding as the new