Master Box 1/32 RAF Pilots

[Stew Dapple]

I signed up for this group build with no real idea of what I was going to do and was at a bit of a loss, until with remarkable - but characteristic - generosity, stevej60 sent me this:

Here's the back-of-the-box painting guide:

Here's what you get in the box; one sprue with three men and a dog:

... and the reverse view:

I think Steve might have thought I'd enjoy this due to my weird obsession perfectly normal liking for painting the crew figures of my 1/72 aircraft. I suspect I will find this a more difficult proposition altogether but hopefully I can make a reasonable fist of it. I'll put the figures on a simple grassy base as they pretty much speak for themselves. I might use the dog, or not, I suspect he would be the most difficult of all so I'll reserve judgement on that for now.

Steve - thank you. I'll see what I can do

Cheers,

Stew

[PlaStix]

Hi Stew and welcome to the Vignette GB. Those figures that Steve has let you have look really good. There seems seems to be a lot of nice details. We've got some other animals and fish being included in other builds so it would be good to have the dog too! Up to you though.

Kind regards,

Stix

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks mate, I'll see how the dog looks when he is done...

Today I have mostly been doing legs (and a dog):

From my experience so far this looks like it will consist largely of cleaning up the parts, a very small amount of assembly then a lot of painting. The legs all fitted together very well but the mould seams were quite noticeable and required a lot of time to get them to an acceptable state. The dog's head came in two halves and didn't fit terribly well, the join had a gap which required some filling and sanding... but at least my build is up and running

Tomorrow I think I can add the relevant torsos; it's difficult to know how much to assemble and how much to leave off to facilitate painting, it should become clearer as I go I hope.

Cheers,

Stew

[phildagreek]

Good looking dog!

[PlaStix]

Good to see this started and I agree with Phil - the dog looks good despite the joint between the parts of the dog's head.

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks Phil, Stix

The RAF types have had their main torso parts fitted:

I think I'll block in the uniform colour next and see how I might progress from there.

I have been harbouring a certain paranoid fear that the dog will be the most difficult thing to paint, so I applied a bit of time and effort on it. Research (in the form of a quick google of "Irish Setter" ) gave me the surprising proof that Setters are counter-shaded; I had always assumed the fur was lighter on top and darker underneath but not so... anyway using the pictures for inspiration I mixed up some colours, applied them, sprayed a thin layer of Tamiya Clear Orange, Xtracolor Satin Varnish and finally near-black for the nose collar and eyes... and ended up with this:

It was quite hard to photograph as the effect is quite subtle in normal light but I gave it some extra illumination so you could see what I meant. Anyway the short version of the above is that I am happy with how the dog turned out and if I make a mess of the blokes I can at least use the dog

Cheers,

Stew

[PlaStix]

Good to see more progress Stew and the dog looks excellent - I think you've captured the effect beautifully! Well done.

Kind regards,

Stix

[Silver Fox]

Good work on the Setter, looks pretty darned good to me.

[Cookenbacher]

1/32 must be like riding with training wheels for you Stew. The setter looks fantastic, and I'm assuming Jack was impressed.

[rob85]

Nice dog stew! In some ways I'm with cookie, this should be a walk in the park considering your work in 1/72! (Including moustache! ) but then also understand why you would be worried by the suze, if I blew one of my 1/72 cockpits to 1/32 I would not want to look at the results...... But you are much better than me with 1/72 detail and I think you will do a cracking job on these.

Good to see so many people coming out of their normal genres for this GB, should be very interesting!

Rob

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks very much gents

Rob, you have it exactly; there are greater opportunities with the increased scale for both success and failure - something barely noticeable in 1/72 could be glaringly obvious in 1/32...

Anyway I'll just have to do what I can and hope for the best. I started on the main uniform colours, I mixed up some dark blue-grey and went over with several decreasingly heavy dry-brushes each slightly lighter than the last:

It looks a bit overdone in the picture so perhaps I might give them an overall very thin spray of blue-grey to tie the different shades together a bit better. The Mae Wests have been attached but will need blending and a bit of filling at the joins, particularly on the topsides of the shoulders which will be quite exposed...

Today's the last day of my holiday so progress will slow a bit from hereon in... hopefully I will get a bit done each evening and I have Sunday off as usual so all being well will have some progress to report by then.

Cheers,

Stew

[PlaStix]

Well it may just be my monitor Stew, but the different shades on the uniforms looks really good to me. Obviously you've got to happy with them but I like what I see!

KInd regards,

Stix

[Cookenbacher]

Agreed, the blue fabric looks very natural.

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks Stix, Cookie, unfortunately by the time I read your comments I had already gone with the 'thin overspray of lighter blue-grey' plan, but on reflection I am glad I did as the result is rather more subtle - whether it photographs well enough to illustrate this is open to debate... I also blocked in the yellow for the Mae Wests, the chap on the left has had his shaded and highlighted so just needs the canvas fastening straps painted in, the two others have just had the initial coat of dark yellow:

So far everything has gone far better than I hoped, I'll be very happy if that continues

Cheers,

Stew

[giemme]

Lovely job so far, the dog is amazing

Ciao

[Biggles87]

I had also thought of these figures ( and the dog ) with a vehicle. Do you think it would be possible to separate the parachute harness from the gesticulating figure, as his seems to be more suitable to bomber crews.

Watching with interest.

John

[PlaStix]

Glad you're pleased with the results so far - the blue on the overalls still looks good - I think I may be able to see a slight difference! The Mae West on the left looks good with it's shading and highlights.

[stevej60]

I knew you would do figures justice in the larger scale Stew! Great start.

[CliffB]

I'm just catching up with the GB this morning and it's great to see what an impressive start you have made Stew

Cliff

[Stew Dapple]

Lovely job so far, the dog is amazing

Ciao

Thanks very much Giorgio

I had also thought of these figures ( and the dog ) with a vehicle. Do you think it would be possible to separate the parachute harness from the gesticulating figure, as his seems to be more suitable to bomber crews.

Watching with interest.

John

Hi John, I think it is a standard seat-type parachute but with the parachute pack unclipped; in any case while it might theoretically be possible to cut the harness off I can't see how that would end in success (at least for me)

Glad you're pleased with the results so far - the blue on the overalls still looks good - I think I may be able to see a slight difference! The Mae West on the left looks good with it's shading and highlights.

Thanks Stix - it does look different but more so to the eye than the camera I think

I knew you would do figures justice in the larger scale Stew! Great start.

Thanks Steve, I hope I can keep it up

I'm just catching up with the GB this morning and it's great to see what an impressive start you have made Stew

Cliff

Thanks very much Cliff

I was on the work roster for Saturday this week so only had half of a weekend but I did get some work done on the boys:

Lefty has had his arms fitted and the loose dangling straps of his Mae West added - I ended up using some Slaters Microstrip for that after I snapped one of the straps while cleaning up the mould seam. The chap in the middle has had his right arm fitted and I am currently painting the flight gear he is holding under his left arm asI thought this would be easier to do before the arm is attached. The line-shooting chap has had the back-pad of his parachute harness attached - this needed a bit of blending in at the join over the shoulders - and I've added the Mae West straps rather than paint the moulded-on ones as they were quite vague and looked... well, moulded on rather than being on top of his uniform.

So I have a bit of dirtying-up to do on Lefty's straps and to paint his right hand and pipe; the Sergeant Pilot needs to have his gear painted and his left arm attached and Line-Shooter needs his parachute harness and Mae West straps painted and his arms attached... I think those will probably keep me busy until the weekend.

Cheers,

Stew

[giemme]

Lovely detail job you are doing, Stew

Are you using pins to attach the arms to the torso? I found the plastic on my Masterbox kit to be a little "slippery", if you know what I mean, so even if they aren't big nor heavy, I'm thinking of using some metal rods to superglue the joints, running some Tamiya Green Cap along them only later...

TIA

Ciao

[Biggles87]

Thanks for the info Stew, they're looking good and I think I will definitely invest in some even if I don't use them in this GB.

Cheers

John

[PlaStix]

Hi Stew. The paintwork is looking excellent - you have got a nice tonal range on the different materials. Good idea about the straps too.

Kind regards,

Stix

[Cookenbacher]

I don't know how you do it Stew, everything in its right place as always. I really like the look of the added straps, and the joins are seamless.

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks very much indeed gents

...Are you using pins to attach the arms to the torso? I found the plastic on my Masterbox kit to be a little "slippery", if you know what I mean, so even if they aren't big nor heavy, I'm thinking of using some metal rods to superglue the joints, running some Tamiya Green Cap along them only later...

Hi Giorgio; no, I've just been attaching the parts with gel cyano/superglue purely so I can attached painted surfaces to each other - that said, I didn't notice anything unusual about the plastic. I did wash the parts in a bath of Iso-Propyl Alcohol before I started though, perhaps that would have removed any residual greasiness?

Over the weekend I 'built' the base... I'm using a picture frame which was sold as a 4"x4" frame but with the frame itself included conveniently measures out at 6"x6" - I removed the glass and the 'easel' stand:

I added some Tamiya tape around the parts that would be covered by the frame:

To give a little variation to the surface - and to reduce the impression that the figures are standing on a putting green - I painted on watered-down blobs of Perfect Plastic Putty (I didn't choose it for any particular reason other than it was close at hand and I don't have any Polyfilla*). Once that was dry I removed the tape from round the edges:

A quick test-fit of the static grass mat showed a hint of transparency, so I painted the base an earth-brown colour:

Then I added the grass mat:

... which was trimmed and added to the frame:

I painted the exuberant chap's parachute harness, first in dark grey, then in medium grey:

... and finally in a very light grey that will pass for white, as I think 'real' black and white are a bit too concentrated for small models:

The other chaps had various arms stuck on with superglue and hands and other little bits painted with their basecoat and shader, here is the current state of them all:

... and finally: who doesn't like to see some heads stuck on sticks?

Cheers,

Stew

* Other brands of hole-filling material are available but frankly I call them all 'Polyfilla' anyway.