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A GOTHA


krow113

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Marklo , andwill , Adrian , lanmi , Timmas , Richard - Thanks for the interest and comments.

 

 I wont lie.

 

The procedure is sound. It is a workable technique.

 

The success hinges on the first coat of paint being well applied.

 

 I have some adhesion issues and  I don't want to post pics yet.

A few hours cleanup and you guys will see the end result.

Thank you for your patience.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Truly remarkable camo. I'm not sure if you should get an honour or be psyco analysed! Great work and well beyond and my talents. Can't wait to see the finished aircraft

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AW, Cffu , Sjj , Adrian ; Thank you.

There is no pattern. 

Each shape is different , each shape is a separate vector file.

There are repeated sections of the masks , but by the time you figure out how I manipulated them to change up the overall work , you'll be mental.

IMG-6811.jpg

I'm happy with the colors.

I'm happy with the shapes.

I'm happy with the procedure.

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10 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

 

Amazing! It looks like the pattern doesn’t repeat

 

On the bigger planes the camo was painted on not a printed fabric.

 

looks really really good so far.

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Cffu - Thanks for pointing that out...

Adrian - Thank you.

Marklo - Thank you . 

 And you are semi-correct .

The way I interpret it , after reading as much as possible of available references , is the following;

 These and others were flown in daylight over England in manufacturers supplied paint jobs. This was primarily light blue. This caused  much terror in the population as these puttered about the skies over London at will with no English fighter to challenge them .

War spurs on development and in this case the English responded with better planes and the Gothas began to be shot down. This caused a switch to night bombing in LIGHT BLUE bombers.

So the German response was to paint camo onto the Gotha's. This is where the hexagons , polygonals , lozenges were started on the big bombers. There are a lot of pics showing the different colors , sizes , shapes etc.  AS THEY WERE ALL HAND PAINTED.  No printed fabric was available immediately and the bombing must continue. Later we see GV's in printed camo but remembering that the Gotha fuselage was all wood , some hand painting would be inevitable.

The Gotha was and will always be one of the most significant aircraft ever built. Even with an atrocious loss rate to the unforgiving flight characteristics , the Germans continued on with the design into the GV series which were getting worse and worse. Also directly responsible for the measures implemented that came to save Great Britain in the Battle of Britain.

If WNW continues its production as we have seen , then I'm fully confident we will see a GV. I predicted an 0/400 for 6 or 7 years and we got it as well as a 0/100. It will be interesting to see how they handle the camo part as GV's were completely covered in patterned camo. 6 full decal sheets anyone?

I make no claim to Gotha expertise , everything I know is available to anyone else who wants to dig for it.

 

 To the work at hand;

Touch up easily handled with post-it notes:

IMG-6812.jpg

Sanding with 1500 grit caused  little issues:

IMG-6813.jpg

Approximately 3-4 shapes of the same color butted up on a plane , easy enough to drop in a diff color , creating a shape to do so:

IMG-6814.jpg

 

Really happy as the 'happys' add up. A definitely viable technique to achieve what will always be a difficult camo to reproduce.

Glad you guys like it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you , Timmas and all others interested.

Some pics of the more finished camo. Issues arose and were dealt with easily albeit steadily. This is an effective way to get this camo on a model , not too tough and actually rather easy.

Here we go:

IMG-6837.jpg

IMG-6840.jpg

IMG-6852.jpg

IMG-6847.jpg

IMG-6846.jpg

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wberkel , Marklo - Thanks for your interest and commenting.

 

Looking back to when I first thought of trying this, I remember trepidation and a feeling of trying something that may not work out.

 That feeling is gone .

As the work progressed it became  apparent that it can be done , and as the work was completed came the satisfaction. Actually is easy , if certain skills are in place, mostly the experience with large vinyl mask application and properties of the material.

 As the work is done , I can come clean about the adhesion issues. A very good primer and first color , solvent based , needs to be applied.

Here are some pics of the issues :

IMG-6760.jpg

Real weird on the fuse as some polygons pulled up alla the paint and adjacent ones were fine!

IMG-6761.jpg

Edited by krow113
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I am currently reading C.M. White’s A Gotha Summer and following your build has made it just that much more interesting.  

 

Dennis

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Serials printed after a little faffing around.

Here is a paper print with the mask on top for checking. It looks good so I'll go ahead and print the decals :

IMG-6901.jpg

IMG-6902.jpg

 

 

Edited by krow113
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