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Heather's Workbench - the French connection, 1940 style


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From left to right, RS Models, Hobby Boss, AZ Model.

 

The AZ sheet does look brighter, but it also has a blue backing sheet which will skew things. I’m not sure what to think. 🤔

 

Bearing in mind how hard it seems to be to find suitable aftermarket Armée de l'Air decals, I rather think I shall press on and use what comes in the box. It’ll be a while before I get stickering, so if aftermarket stuff turns up I can look into it.

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1 hour ago, Heather Kay said:

Bearing in mind how hard it seems to be to find suitable aftermarket Armée de l'Air decals, I rather think I shall press on and use what comes in the box.

I think that's a wise course of action Heather, IMHO. After all, we all accept that colours and markings can vary quite considerably on the real machines for so many different reasons. I like to see subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) variations on models of a similar era and theme.

 

Terry

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I hope you've all had a splendid Christmas. We tend not to do the big family get-togethers these days, as we're not a big family, and the youngest is well into their 30s now. Christmas is really a time for the littluns, after all, and I think I'm just a bit jaded with all the tinsel and fake happiness that seems to be most prevalent. Perhaps we might do a big meet up for 2019, if we can get everyone in more or less the same place at the same time, as it also nearly coincides with a couple of significant birthdays!

 

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I've purposely not done much modelling over the past few days, either paid for or personal. Today, though, I decided to mask all the glazing for the triplets, get a couple of things attached and everything primed. I used a red oxide primer because, well, that's what I have to hand in the paint shop. The last batch of rattle can grey didn't work out well for me, and I did a test on my paint mule a while back with the red stuff and it worked really well. I also kidded myself that it matches the colour often used to dope the linen parts of airframes.

 

Anyway, here we are. With the temperatures still not very amenable to airbrushing the camo on these machines, I am seriously considering whether to just go ahead with the hairy stick. If nothing else, it'll avoid a lot of very tedious masking for the three colours on the tops. I'll let the primer harden off for a while before I make the final choice there.

 

Right, festive feeding time again. I suspect it's going to be cold turkey with some veg or other. Yum! 😋

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Hi

The RS and HB red and Blues colours are ok the AZ ones are way off with the blues and reds.

The SPA markings are ok on the AZ sheet.

There are a few markings out there for B of F a/c.

I paint my rudder strips, all over white then marsk the white and them the red and blue. Humbrol 109 and 174 are good starting points for getting the shade to match the decals on the roundles.

Of note at the start of the BoF the roundles and tail and spa markings where all gloss paint finish, the cam colours matt or satin. They found the gloss finish gave them away to much so they had the ground grew wipe the markings over with dirty oil to tone them down.

If you need help just ask i will see what i can do.

Paul 

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6 minutes ago, PaulT 876 said:

If you need help just ask i will see what i can do.

Paul, thank you ever so much. The information in your post has already been of use. I’ll seek out the paints you note. I had planned to paint rudders white as a base in any case, and it is only a short step from there to painting the other colours!

 

I think I mentioned that I am generally happy to work with what the kit designers provide for many of my builds. I want to tell the story of 1940 from an air warfare perspective with my collection, rather than try to build every model to the ultimate level of detail - close enough is more or less good enough for me. That being said, if I can improve things, or correct obviously incorrect things, I will do that provided I have sufficient information at hand.

 

I have, in the back of my mind, some kind of exhibition setup where all the models in my collection can be displayed properly with supporting information. That is something of a long-term aim at this stage, but I may try to set something in motion to that end during the coming year.

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Hi Heather

Thats fine if you need any info just ask i have so much info on French a/c it just takes me so long to fined it.

Do you go to shows, if you do you could put your kits on the French SIG stand they would be most welcome.

Aim on a Mirage Build now for the Mirage and French Airforces SIG Joint display in 2021 at Telford its the 60TH for the Mirage so no time for other French a/c, loads of Mirages to do.

Keep going Paul

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I had loads of plans to do things over this Christmas period. As seems to be my tradition, none of them came to pass. Only today, almost at the end of the year, did I approach the bench with a view to Doing Something.

 

I first tackled an initial coat of Colourcoats Gris Bleu Fonce on the three airframes primed earlier. As threatened, I am brush painting, and it will take some time. I applied a thinned coat on all three, and now I'm waiting for things to dry enough for a second coat of the base colour. Gawd knows how long it'll take to paint the other camo colours at this rate! :waiting:

 

Feeling in the mood, I decided to dig out the final single-seat fighter of my small French selection, the Azur Morane-Saulnier MS.406.

 

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So far, so limited run. Little flash, no obvious seam lines. 

 

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Some spartan interior details, and a fair selection of rather fiddly infinitesimally tiny parts that probably won't survive getting them off the runner.

 

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Wingy bits.

 

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Baggies with polyurethane resin main wheels and some alternative exhaust pipework. I won't be using the latter for the camo option I've selected, of which more later. Two transparent canopies, only one of which is needed, but they appear to be identical in all respects. :think:

 

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Decal sheet with four marking options, plus a small PE fret with cockpit and seat details. I note PE aerial masts, which I think will need to be replaced by something a bit beefier if they are to survive to live in the cabinet!

 

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The instructions are typical black and white affairs, and the builder is pointed at the CMK web site to download PDFs for the marking and colour selections. I can understand why this would be the case, as it's way cheaper than colour reproduction for the instruction sheets.

 

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The, ahem, end-opening box has simple colour profiles on the reverse. Just for fun, I've opted for Version B, which is a nice simple overall matt black on the upper surfaces. It'll make a nice contrast to the multiple colours on the other aircraft in this set.

 

First up, I shall go through the instructions and mark up the colour call-outs. Then I shall apply some interior colour to the cockpit area, and consult my reference material for some inspiration.

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Painting. It shouldn’t be hard. I’m doing something obviously wrong.

 

I've opted to brush paint these planes. They’re tiny little things, hardly worth all the aggro of masking and airbrushing when three strokes of a loaded brush does the job. I’m using Colourcoats enamels, after having seen the brilliant results of others here on BM. My test mule using these paints was airbrushed, which is one of the reasons why I decided to brush paint the current models - the three colour camouflage is a real fiddle to mask, and sometimes life's too short.

 

Anyway, being resigned to the extended drying periods of enamels once more (like a lot of us, I suspect, I grew up with Airfix and Humbrol enamels, only lately coming to the wonders of acrylics), I shook and stirred my tinlet of dark blue grey. I decanted a few drops onto my ad hoc palette, and added some Colourcoats thinners. The resultant first coat was translucent, and showed the base primer colour through, as I expected. Setting aside the models to dry, in normal central heated house temperatures, I got on with other things for the next 24 hours.

 

Returning to the models this morning, and the paint still felt slightly tacky. Nevertheless, I thought I’d risk another thinned coat. Well, let’s just say the second brush stroke took the first coat off again. 

 

As as I say, I must be missing something obvious. Is there a scientific combination of paint and thinners I need to consider here? When I airbrushed from the exact same tinlet, the final result was as tough as old boots after 24 hours, and with full coverage.

 

I am now feeling a little deflated. I think I’m going to have to strip the paint and get with the masking tape and blutack sausages after all. Is there a secret to brush painting with Colourcoats that I haven’t come across yet?

 

I’ll leave paint for now and get on with the 406. The worst I can manage there will be a gluey fingerprint! 

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@Stew Dapple may be better qualified to advise here. I avoid brush painting wherever possible I'm afraid so can't really input anything. All that seems clear is that if still tacky it wasn't cured but it should have been by that time 😕

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21 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

@Stew Dapple may be better qualified to advise here. I avoid brush painting wherever possible I'm afraid so can't really input anything. All that seems clear is that if still tacky it wasn't cured but it should have been by that time 😕

Thanks Jamie! 

 

I'm sort of used to extended drying times for the Precision Paints range in my "day job", but as you say 24 hours ought to be enough for a second coat. I’m going to strip the paint and get the airbrush cranked up, if the weather holds!

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18 minutes ago, SA80A2AR said:

did you use enamels or acrylics?

It’s enamels. I’ve had similar situations happen before with other brands, but they harden off sufficiently over a period of a day or so. 

 

I've just stripped the brushed coats off. I’ll let the thinners dry off for a bit, then head off for the paint shop and the airbrush. 

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i've always had a bit of trouble with acrylics in the fact that they go sticky for about a week then harden up.  i tend to leave the model for a week or so then put the next layer of paint or decals

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Hi Heather,

u

I have never tried Colourcoat paints, but I brush paint mostly with enamels, and the only brand I have had some long drying times with has been Xtracolor. Mostly the gloss paints, the mat ones usually behaving quite normally. Mind you right now, having 40+ temperatures seem to tame even the Xtracolor paints! 

Have fun!

 

JR

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18 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

I had loads of plans to do things over this Christmas period. As seems to be my tradition, none of them came to pass. Only today, almost at the end of the year, did I approach the bench with a view to Doing Something.

 

I first tackled an initial coat of Colourcoats Gris Bleu Fonce on the three airframes primed earlier. As threatened, I am brush painting, and it will take some time. I applied a thinned coat on all three, and now I'm waiting for things to dry enough for a second coat of the base colour. Gawd knows how long it'll take to paint the other camo colours at this rate! :waiting:

 

Feeling in the mood, I decided to dig out the final single-seat fighter of my small French selection, the Azur Morane-Saulnier MS.406.

 

31588888187_be49ebdb70_b.jpg

 

So far, so limited run. Little flash, no obvious seam lines. 

 

31588887907_91b18a2120_b.jpg

 

Some spartan interior details, and a fair selection of rather fiddly infinitesimally tiny parts that probably won't survive getting them off the runner.

 

46529200361_3e8fa2a7e5_b.jpg

 

Wingy bits.

 

46529199991_9f68673598_b.jpg

 

Baggies with polyurethane resin main wheels and some alternative exhaust pipework. I won't be using the latter for the camo option I've selected, of which more later. Two transparent canopies, only one of which is needed, but they appear to be identical in all respects. :think:

 

46529199681_75f736a9a7_b.jpg

 

Decal sheet with four marking options, plus a small PE fret with cockpit and seat details. I note PE aerial masts, which I think will need to be replaced by something a bit beefier if they are to survive to live in the cabinet!

 

31588887577_75f736a9a7_b.jpg

 

The instructions are typical black and white affairs, and the builder is pointed at the CMK web site to download PDFs for the marking and colour selections. I can understand why this would be the case, as it's way cheaper than colour reproduction for the instruction sheets.

 

46529199491_7f3736d915_b.jpg

 

 

Camo C Sgt René Morloy shooted down at Yves Gomezée, 15 Km from here

Lt Henri de rohan chabot Shooted in Florennes, I alreasy told about him

Have a happy new year !!

CC

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It may be the depths of winter here in the northern hemisphere, but my loft paint shop (lined out and insulated as it is) was a remarkable 13 degrees Celsius. I bunged on the heater for a bit which, plus my body heat, added about five degrees and set up the venerable Badger for a sesh.

 

As with my previous paint mule airbrushing attempt with CC enamels, the dark blue grey went on beautifully. Lovely coverage on all three models, and I could see the thinners begin to evaporate, changing the paint from gloss to satin as I worked. I guess I shall simply have to get over my masking phobia.

 

I'll leave things alone for a day or so, then see how they look. Meanwhile, back on the bench… 

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Heather, I have been reading your recent tribulations with brushing Colourcoat paints with some interest. Although I have never used that particular brand, I had a very similar issue the last time I tried brushing enamel paints, in this case Humbrol. Although mixed very thoroughly, the paint was still tacky after five days! Thinking that I had done something wrong, I stripped the model, stirred the paint even more and got exactly the same result. :banghead: Clear gloss apart, which I still use for wood effects, that was the last time I have used Humbrol enamels.

 

What I have done is to amass a decent stock of unopened Airfix enamels over the years. Experimentation shows that with a small drop of thinners added to the tin, they still perform as advertised by Haldane Place. I intend to use them for a future nostalgia build using an Airfix kit from the sixties, glued together with genuine Airfix glue and brush painted with genuine Airfix paints. I will take a rain check on the period Humbrol filler that set with a hardness akin to armour plate!

 

I wonder if today's enamels are specifically formulated for airbrushing and if so does this make a difference when one comes to brush paint with them? Clearly something has changed over the years as there didn't used to be any difference in the result whether one airbrushed of brushed one's model.

 

The first time I came across this sort of issue was back in the mid eighties with Compucolour Paint and again with the Gloy paints we had to use for a while after Humbrol had their disastrous factory fire.

 

Martian  👽

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1 hour ago, Martian Hale said:

I wonder if today's enamels are specifically formulated for airbrushing

I think that is probably the case with Colourcoats. Humbrol have been through a bad patch with their enamels: I have one tinlet that you can stand a cocktail stick up on end in the paint is so thick. I understand that Humbrol's production has been returned the UK from overseas, and quality and quality control have been improving for both enamel and acrylic ranges. This is to be applauded.

 

I do like the idea of a retro Airfix build. I'll watch out for that!

 

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Painting woes notwithstanding, I finally got back to the assembly part of the game. As is traditional for many kits, the cockpit comes first. The front and rear bulkheads, according to the instructions (see next piccie) are supposed to glue to each end of the floor. The seat, with a separately moulded cushion I might add, then glues to the rear bulkhead. First, there's a gap between the floor and rear bulkhead, which becomes obvious when you attempt a dry fit of the parts. Second, there's nothing to help align the seat on the centre of the bulkhead apart from the Eyeball, Mk1, Human.

 

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As you can see, the clear implication is the cockpit tub is made up of the bulkheads and floor, then installed in the starboard fuselage half. The latter has slots, which make it obvious the bulkheads don't go where they are expected. That is why I ended up fixing things to the fuselage half as I went, in order to actually hold things together! The rear bulkhead also needed quite a bit of trimming to let the port fuselage half fit properly. Well worth dry fitting a lot in these limited run kits.

 

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The instrument panel is a smart wraparound affair, with a plastic base onto which you glue the etched part. It's rather natty, I have to say, and adequately detailed, in my opinion, for something that will hardly show once the canopy is fitted. The etched seat belts were a right fiddle, but then they always are as far as I'm concerned. The shoulder straps, particularly, seemed suited to a very corpulent pilot, and rather than leave the ends trailing about the floor I snipped them off where I couldn't successfully fold them away. 

 

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The head restraint/armour plate is fitted, along with the cockpit upper rear deck. The latter successfully hides the moulded detail on the back of the bulkhead, so it was as well I didn't waste time weathering it! The small triangular plate needed a tiny nick filed out of the bottom edge to clear the previously installed shoulder belt harness, and some 0.5mm brass wire bent and trimmed to make the brace support. I think I was supposed to cut individual lengths of wire, but felt that was asking for trouble, hence bending it and cutting to length after the fact. Even then, I'm not convinced it was the right length, but there we are. Onwards!

 

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While CA and paint patching dried in the 'pit, I assembled the wings. Nothing of note to report here - yet - aside from some mild sanding on the leading and trailing edges once the cement has dried.

 

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Some paint dabbed about on the seat to colour the harness and cushion, and some gentle drybrushing black about to bring out the IP detail, and we're pretty much ready to button up the fuselage. 

 

It is, apparently, New Year's Eve. Best Beloved and I don't really care much for such things, so I shall either content myself with some further work on this model, or catching up with some of the dross recorded from the idiot box over Christmas. I wish you all a happy new year and all the best for 2019 - whatever it brings!

 

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3 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

It may be the depths of winter here in the northern hemisphere, but my loft paint shop (lined out and insulated as it is) was a remarkable 13 degrees Celsius.

 

 

That's warmer than my basement hobby room. It's only 10C in there right now. The furnace vent in the ceiling is only partly open, as it comes off the same line as the one for my daughter's bedroom directly above and takes away heated air to her room. As her room has two outside walls, it can be chilly in there for her.

 

Mind you, it is -30C outside right now.

 

 

Chris

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