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I know my building skills are nowhere near what you're used to on this site but, since you're the only people who don't look at me like I'm a gibbering madman when I say, "I build model planes," I've decided to brave the waters and stick the toe of a picture in.  Still not ready to try weathering, panel lines and the really dinky decals and not sure I ever will be.  Having knackered both tail numbers beyond redemption, it's semi-incognito but carries a Dambusters squadron number (allegedly, that of Len Cheshire, famous lunatic and all-round good guy).  Any chipped paint effect you see is achieved by... well... chipped paint...

MC 3

 I've not yet sprayed the flat finish on.  I'm still pondering the "I-know-it's-not-right-but-I-like-a-glossy-finish" dilemma.  I gather the exhausts are supposed to be housed but I prefer the look of exposed stacks... So sue me!

 

It was inspected by my supervisor, Pidsley, but so far he hasn't shared his opinion...

MC Pidsley

 

Onward and upward, eh?  Maybe a couple of disposable Spitfires next to try out things I've been learning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Looking very nice indeed. I hope the supervisor goes easy on you.  

Keep on building and trying new techniques and you will develop your modelling skills.  You must be doing something right as the Mossie looks great and the finish looks good. I can't use an airbrush and use  the hairy stick. 

 

Keep up the good work 

All the best 

Chris 

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4 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

I can't use an airbrush and use  the hairy stick. 

Me too.  I've just started using decal solutions and found they suck the decals down so hard they highlight the lines where the green camo is painted over the grey!  Thanks for the kind words and I think the supervisor will be good with it... He knows where his dinner comes from!

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Nice Mossie,

 

There are all sorts of skill levels on BM, so don't think yours are not up to snuff.  I like the paint finish as is; as the Squadron commander's aircraft, I'm guessing it'd have been kept fairly clean.

 

I brush paint as well, and ridges at camo boundaries have been the bane of my existence too.  Well thinned paint, not loading up the brush when doing boundaries, brushing along the masking line not across it and, once the paint is cured, the gentle application of micromesh prior to clear varnishing all help.

 

Regards

 

Martin

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34 minutes ago, mike romeo said:

Well thinned paint

I'm still trying to find the balance between enough thinners to get the paint nice and skinny but not so much it refuses to stick (or cover with enough opacity), not to mention working quickly enough that the consistency doesn't alter halfway through.  I've ben erring a bit on the thick side for safety... Seems to give me a bit more time for "brushing in", and the odd dip of the brush into thinners and a quick scrub on a paper towel seems to help.

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41 minutes ago, mike romeo said:

as the Squadron commander's aircraft, I'm guessing it'd have been kept fairly clean.

My brother was the sergeant in charge of the RAF Central Band back in the eighties and I once asked him how he deals with guys that got out of line.  He said, "I send 'em out to polish the Spitfire at the front gate.  If we have a bad gig, we have the shiniest Spit in the Air Force."

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2 minutes ago, neil5208 said:

Nice mosie, are you using acrylic or enamel paint? As stated thinnig or using a retarder to slow the drying time helps reduce the boundary edges. 

Enamels mostly and a bit of acrylic for little stuff like the seats and prop tips.  I find I can't handle acrylics for anything over a couple of square inches... It dries on the brush like butyrate dope before you can get it out of the pot.  'Fraid I don't know anything about retarders... Any suggestions?

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I find I sleep better at night if I don't compare my own efforts with what one usually sees posted on here! :wink:

 

In any case, that's a nice Mossie you've got there. As another hairy stick only wielder (although of the purely acrylic kind* due to SWMBO not tolerating a house full of turpene smells) I can sympathise with your pain.

The Tamiya kit is a real pleasure to work with isn't it? (Apart from the fiddly main u/c, oh, and the microscopic internal cockpit decals...) I've just mashed together a PR.IV cousin to this one, and had a devil of a job getting the 'keep off the radiator' decals to bed down properly. A problem you seem to have avoided. (I wound up slathering on rather a lot of Humbrol Decalfix which seemed to eventually, sort of, do the trick!) How did you beat yours into submission?

 

 

*In my younger (25+ odd years ago) days I used enamels & hairy sticks exclusively. I found acrylics required a bit of a different approach, but it can be done. The trick is to thin the paint down to around 50:50 or skim milk consistency, thin enough so it spreads well but not so thin that it beads together under its own surface tension. (I use Tamiya acrylic paints and Tamiya X-20 acrylic thinner for this, although a bit of tap water usually gets in on the act too. I have some children's watercolour paint mixing pallettes and I stir the paint well with a toothpick and make up 4-6 drops of paint & 4-6 drops of thinner at at time in the pallette, resealing the paint & thinner as soon as I've taken what I need. This will usually give me enough for one thin coat on a Spitfire-ish sized model.) Apply these thin coats and let thoroughly dry between applications. (Which doesn't usually take too long in any case.)  Keep the brush well moist by dipping it in a pot of water often. The first one or two (or three depending on the colour) coats will look quite 'orrible. This is normal. Don't Panic! A few more coats will usually result in a nice finish. Thin coats is the key and while they seem to take a bit more work than enamels (due to the thinner coats and juggling with new paint batches for each coat) the results usually work out fine. At least that's what I've found.

 

 

 

 

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13 minutes ago, Gazontipede said:

How did you beat yours into submission?

I had a hit-or-miss time with the decals.  Some were from the kit and others were from Xtra Decal and they behaved differently.  I used Microsol, Microset and liberal quantities of water.  The kit decals gave me plenty of time to slip and slide (hence the red rectangles over the radiators went on cooperatively) but the Xtra ones slammed straight down and married me immediately.  The squadron numbers on the starboard side went on a bit skew whiff and nothing I could do would shift them.  (That was how the tail numbers got knackered, too.. I was trying to adjust the position and ended up folding them irrevocably in half.. Both sides).  I've seen the suggestion to lay them over wet floor wax to give a bit of play time for accurate placement but haven't given it a whack yet.

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*Points and laughs*

3oPKKcI.gif

Pahahahaaa! YOU build model planes!

:D

 

Nice one mate. I can remember kacking myself when I posted my first pictures on the interwebs.

If you don’t already know of it, AJ Aviation http://ajaviation.co.uk/ is not too far from you.  One of the few remaining model shops in our neck of the woods.

 

Mart

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20 minutes ago, LotusArenco said:

AJ Aviation

Never heard of them before.  If I want to go into a LHS, I usually go to West London Models in Hounslow.  Is AJ a walk-in shop or just internet?  Lack of LHS takes away from the visceral experience of seeing the kits and accessories piled up to the ceiling, everything filed under "M" (Miscellaneous and Missing) but somehow the proprietor can lay his hands on a left-handed joystick for a Sopwith Pup in 1/59h scale in three seconds flat.

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12 minutes ago, Uncle Pete said:

Is AJ a walk-in shop or just internet?

Both. Bricks ‘n mortar shop, but do a stonkingly good postal service.

It’s literally round the corner from West Drayton station, and as anyone who has been there will tell you, it’s a certified ‘Aladdin’s Cave’. Not too much in terms of aftermarket, but kits galore.

If that’s West London Models on the way to the airport, then you’re only a couple of miles away from AJ Aviation.

 

Mart

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Good work there Mate!

It is great thing about this forum that all levels of build experience are accepted.

You've done a tidy job on that Mozzie, so on to the next one is my recommendation.

:goodjob:

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55 minutes ago, Hairtrigger said:

I've read the undercarriage is very challenging.

I built he Airfix Mossie a couple of months back and the U/C was impossible but with this Tamiya it all fell in like a breeze... Locator pins all lined up spot-on.  The only difficulty was the tanks (presumably for hydraulic fluid) being a bit tight in the nacelle opening.

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hello Uncle Pete,

That's a very good looking Mosquito, seeing that black panther of supervisor coming so close of a model is... frightening !

Keep on that good job, on BM, you'll learn every day, We both did !!

Good job, keep on and show us a Spitfire duo, good idea !

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

 

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Hi Pete,

 

I really like your Mosie (never built one), and you did a grand job on your 1/32  black Panther. It almost looks alive! How did you get such a shiny coat?

 

Re thinning your paint, for what it is worth, like you I use enamel paints mainly and a brush (I graduated from the paint roller a short while back).

Whether I use Humbrol or Xtracolor, I add 20% of turpentine and it works a treat. Two coats are necessary, and wait for the first one to get real dry, and you do not normally have any ridges between camo colors. OK, correction: there SHOULD NOT be any ridges... But Mr Murphy often comes on holiday near where I live!

 

Great show! And keep having fun!

 

JR

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