Heather's Workbench - the French connection, 1940 style

[Heather Kay]

 

All lined up ready for their photo session. I'll add links to relevant RFI threads later.

 

Overall, I'm pleased with the way things turned out. I'm still unhappy with the levels of finish I'm achieving. There's silvering on the decals, despite my gloss coating and various potions, which is annoying. I'm not going to weather these little models, though they ought to show some level of wear and tear caused by the intense fighting during the spring and early summer of 1940.

 

Once I get those pesky decals I can complete the Hawk. Other French types will appear in this thread in due course. Thanks for all the comments and information along the way. I look forward to getting a few more French fancies into the display cabinet!

[Heather Kay]

Okay, RFI links for the three completed aircraft:

 

 

 

 

 

[Martian]

Very nice Heather, keep them coming!

 

Impressed of Mars 👽

[Heather Kay]

Something of a hiatus on these builds. After the other three were completed, the poor old Hawk was sat awaiting national markings. I ordered them from Jean-Pierre at Model Art. They actually arrived last week, but I hadn’t had a chance to apply them until first thing today.

 

 

A couple of things. First, the service from JP was excellent. Second, I know the sheets I ordered had some issues with an incorrect blue. Third, these decals are lovely to work with, though I know some people have issues with separate centre spots (I managed to get all of mine pretty much bob on, which is helpful).

 

Now, the colour issue bothers me a little. It’s more of a duck egg green than a blue. I’ll contact JP and ask when he hopes to reprint the sheets so I can get some replacements in due course. Meanwhile, I’ll let these dry and arrange for a dose of matt varnish - or possibly a satin for a nice change, as these planes were brand new at the time I’m trying to represent - later today while the unseasonably warm weather continues.

 

I will post when I’ve done the Hawk's RFI shots. Normal service will resume here at some point, but I’m currently playing group builds with an Airspeed Oxford over in the Trainers GB.

[Heather Kay]

I just posted the RFI for the Hawk. Enjoy!

 

 

[Heather Kay]

Time to add a new build to the collection. Over the past few months I've been adding various aircraft, mainly from the Heller Musée collection of twin-engined types. I also acquired the final single-engined type for the collection - the Caudron CR.714.

 

 

This is the RS Models kit, and with a few RS kits notched on my workbench it holds no fears for me.

 

 

A good variety of marking options. The Caudron looked like it meant business, but it was a pretty emphatic failure. Nevertheless, Polish flyers made the best of a bad job, and three of the marking options are for the single Polish squadron. The Finns also bought the Caudron, and two options cover the periods before and after the German invasion of Finland.

 

 

One grey styrene sprue tree and one of clear parts make the sum total for this kit. There's not a lot here, but there is a pretty comprehensive cockpit and some representation of the cylinder cooling gills visible through the front opening. This build ought not take too long, but I reckon painting will be a right 'mare!

 

 

Some wheel well detail. Overall, the moulding is fairly tidy, including all the really tiny bits that might well be replaced by metal for resilience.

 

 

Quite adequate cockpit detailing, which I think is all that's necessary at this scale. None of your PE or resin fiddly bits, just nice plain moulded plastic. I will need to research the seatbelt layout, but otherwise I'm happy.

 

 

Typical RS instructions, which I've already been over marking up the colour options to save me flipping back and forth, and a tidy-looking decal sheet with all the labels and stencils you'd expect from a French plane of this period. I note the designers have opted not to provide a rudder tricolor decal, which is fine because experience tells me it's easier to paint the thing!

 

Right, where's me scalpel and cement gone?!

[clive_t]

Looks like a good little kit, there. I have the Heller Caudron in my stash, so I am interested to see how you get on.

[Heather Kay]

2 hours ago, clive_t said:

Looks like a good little kit, there. I have the Heller Caudron in my stash, so I am interested to see how you get on.

If the Heller Caudron is of a certain vintage, I expect it'll be a bit basic on the interior. Nothing, I am sure, you can't sort out.

 

 

As expected, it's not going to take long to assemble. I daubed some Hu96 about for the blue-grey interior. The tub assembled fairly well, but the rear bulkhead needed some work to remove a moulding gate right on the ridge designed to fit to the rear of the floor. Some dry fitting paid off to work out precisely how the parts then fitted into the fuselage.

 

 

The part on the left is the nose backing plate with representations of the cylinders. The seat has had a little bit of detailing from an ancient Reheat PE set of various belts, and the instrument panel been painted. I won't bother dropping gloss into the instruments. Like most cockpits at 1/72nd, there's little to see through the transparency.

 

 

And before I knew where I was, the fuselage was all joined up. Being "limited run" in nature, there are no locating pins to help align things. Obviously, I managed to get the halves just a gnat's out of register, but nothing some careful scraping and sanding can't handle. What needs careful note is some finely moulded raised panel work around the nose. I wonder if I'll manage to get the wings assembled this evening.

Edited August 4, 2019 by Heather Kay

[Heather Kay]

I seem to have come down with some kind of lurgy, which has rather knocked me sideways. In between bouts of lethargy and generally feeling sorry for myself, I have been pecking away at the Caudron.

 

 

 

 

As with most kits of this nature, the wing roots and underneath needed some filler. I don't mind, but with a plethora of little raised panels pimpling the wings and fuselage, it makes tidying up a bit of a trial. Still, we're nearly there. Essentially, all that's left is the sticky-out bits of the undercarriage, guns and radio mast. This must count as one of the quickest builds I've done! 

 

Considering the complicated tiger stripe style of camouflage, I think I shall brush paint this little plane. 

[Brandy]

Damn, I almost missed it! 

 

Ian

[Heather Kay]

Painting began. Wanting to brush paint, I decided to prime the same way. I am testing Humbrol acrylics, and I’m pretty happy with them on other projects, so I brush painted Hu01 on the air frame. It’s called grey primer, so I used it as intended.

 

Then I dug out my tinlets of ColourCoats and started in with the hairy stick. I got the sky grey underside done with a couple of coats, then I thought I’d get the dark blue grey on this evening. ColourCoats is best sprayed, 50/50 paint to thinners at low pressure, so I thought some thinned paint would brush nicely in a couple of coats.

 

 

Well, the first coat was going well, until I noticed the primer lifting on the starboard rear fuselage. Oh, bother. 😠 Obviously, some contamination under the primer coat stopped it adhering to the plastic.

 

I am leaving things to dry, then I will assess the damage. If I can get away with a light sanding of the area, followed by retouching, I’ll be happy. If not, I guess I’ll just have to bite the bullet and go for spraying the base coats after all. The complex tiger stripe camo, though, will end up brushed. I don’t have the time or patience for that amount of fiddly masking, especially at this scale. Sadly, I don’t think CC enamels are suited to brush painting, despite my best efforts.

[rob Lyttle]

OK Heather, you'll get that sorted directly, I'm sure. 

This is just a stab in the dark as I'm not familiar with the ColourCoats paint system. 

But the words Tinlet and Thinners suggest a solvent based paint, a far cry from the acrylic undercoat. 

Could be a reaction between the two types? Have you used the two together before with success? 

No doubt acrylics can be a bit vulnerable to a contaminated surface. 

(Apparently there's still modellers who wash and rinse the whole kit before they start anything.....!) 

But there's also some weird and unpredictable reactions and paint crashes happening with mixing different mediums. 

 

Good luck sorting this little beauty out 

[Heather Kay]

28 minutes ago, rob Lyttle said:

But the words Tinlet and Thinners suggest a solvent based paint, a far cry from the acrylic undercoat. 

Could be a reaction between the two types? Have you used the two together before with success? 

Rob, yes, ColourCoats are solvent enamels, and I have used enamels happily over acrylic bases before happily. As you say, I think there was contamination under the primer - probably a greasy fingerprint from yours truly! 

 

I don't bother washing models before painting, though I may have to change that attitude!  Something I have begun to do is a gentle rub over most surfaces with a soft abrasive sponge to give a fine keyed surface for the primer to adhere to. I failed to do that this time, too.

[rob Lyttle]

11 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

I don't bother washing models before painting

Like, your the only one....?! 🙄

Kind of hard to get enthusiastic about it though 

[Heather Kay]

Well, in the cold light of day, it appears stripping is the best option. I’m sure we all have our preferred methods of stripping paint, but I thought it might be fun to show how I go about it. Mind you, it’s something I will try to avoid like the plague if I can.

 

 

Weapons of choice. Plastic takeaway containers (I find these invaluable for all kinds of jobs, including storing components while I’m working on builds). One I use as something to work over to catch the worst drips and splashes, the other has some soapy water to wash and rinse down the model as I work. Various brushes, chiefly superannuated toothbrushes, plus an old cheap flat watercolour brush with hair of unspecified species. Copious kitchen towel, and an old jar for the stripper to live in. The gunk I use is made and sold by Precision Paints, to their own recipe, and it’s reusable for quite a while, hence the jar.

 

 

This is the stripper I use. It’s not cheap, but it lasts for ages. It can also, I am reliably informed, be reactivated by adding a dash of isopropyl alcohol. Experience shows this seems to be the case.

 

Not shown in the photos are the heavy duty vinyl gloves for protecting the pinkies. I prefer vinyl gloves because they’re much harder to shred than the latex ones.

 

The technique is really just dipping a brush into the gunk and gently scrubbing it over the paint surface to be removed. With the fairly thin coats I had applied so far, it only took a short while to get back to the plastic. Stubborn areas need a little more time for the gunk to work, but eventually succumb to more scrubbing.

 

I periodically rinse the model off, in case the gunk begins to affect the styrene surface, though it’s actually a fairly mild solution and doesn’t really react with anything other than the paint - and the filler! I’ll need to do a bit of remedial filling and careful picking of paint from awkward nooks and crannies, but the stripping process took about 20 minutes all told. Once rinsed off, I’ll leave the model somewhere airy to dry before I do anything else with it.

 

The plan now is to mask the canopy and fit it. Then aerosol prime the model, then apply the sky grey undersides. When that’s dry, basic masking followed by the dark blue grey over the upper surfaces. The remaining camo will be brush painted because life is, frankly, too short for such fiddly masking.

 

Onwards!

Edited August 7, 2019 by Heather Kay
Typos. Oh, for proofreading skulls - d'oh!

[Heather Kay]

 

The injection moulded canopy comes in three parts: two side "cheeks" plus the hood/windscreen. Masking tape was tedious but satisfying, though I find I really need the optivisor headset thingy more and more these days in order to actually see anything. No, I’m not going to change scales!

 

Anyway, the moulded transparencies were not a terrible fit. The "cheeks" needed some gentle sanding to make them a snug fit in the fuselage openings. The main canopy needed some careful carving and sanding of the fuselage opening to let it seat down neatly. The tiny gaps, the worst being on the starboard side where the rear of the hood didn’t quite meet the front of the "cheek", were filled with Kristal Klear, the excess wiped away with a moistened cotton bud. 

 

I'll let the various potions dry, then brush paint the interior colour over the frames, followed by a visit to the paint shop for some primer.

[Heather Kay]

Time for primer? I think so.

 

 

 

It seemed silly not to make the sticky-out bits before priming began. The guns are 0.5mm brass rod, the antenna mast and pitot 0.7mm brass rod suitably adjusted by spinning in a Dremel against a file. The prop assembly has also been glued in (sorry, no spinning, as I don’t think RS approve of such things), so as I said earlier, time for the paint shop.

[Stevejj]

Hi Heather, did you finish the 2-6-2?

At one time in the past I believe presion paints did aircraft colours don't know if they are still available tho. Are you on RMweb? As someone who used to commission build locos I would love to see some of your work. Was the 2-6-2 a martin Finney kit? 

The results of your builds are great especially as French ww2 aircraft are not seen here very often

plus they are much better than my hamfisted attempts at aircraft

All the best 

Steve

Edited August 7, 2019 by Stevejj
Typos lots

[Heather Kay]

8 minutes ago, Stevejj said:

Hi Heather, did you finish the 2-6-2?

Hi Steve

 

Precision do still have some aircraft colours in their range, but they don’t always stock the ones I want! I want to get the British markings colours, but so far I only have the dull red. I keep badgering them at shows for dull blue, but they never seem to make it! 

 

I am registered with RMW, but I don’t visit since the forum upgrade. I was only ever a passive member, not posting anything in my own threads. I post threads on all my railway commissions on Western Thunder, and there’s a link in my sig below.

 

The prairie is back on the bench next week, after it had been off to a proper professional painter. I need to sort out the brake rigging and make sure the chassis runs properly, but it’s not far off being finished now. The kit was a Mitchell kit, and needed quite a bit of scratch building and modifications to make it into the loco as they were first built. It was a bit of a challenge, and one of the reasons why I’ve decided not to take on new loco commissions once the current lot are done. I’m much happier building coaches and rolling stock.

[fatalbert]

Wow,that cockpit is a long way back,bet that wasnt fun to taxi.

[Heather Kay]

11 hours ago, fatalbert said:

Wow,that cockpit is a long way back,bet that wasnt fun to taxi.

It does look strange, doesn’t it. It seemed to be a thing with French designers, as it’s the same with the Dewoitine and Morane-Saulnier. Another type that has the long nose and set back cockpit is the DeHavilland Comet racer.

 

The CR.714 was derived from a line of successful racing aircraft. It looks mean and fast, but alas it turned out to be neither of those things in the end.

[Heather Kay]

 

I have used enamels since the year Dot. Through bitter experience, I learned that enamels took ages to dry, and not to rush into things like masking or overpainting. I have literally left enamel-painted models to dry and harden for weeks in the past - still do with some railway-orientated paints. Then, along comes ColourCoats. From the manufacturer, no less, I am told to mix the paint 50/50 with the thinners and airbrush at a low pressure. It will be safe to use masking tape in about half an hour.

 

Yeah, right. Pull the other one because it’s got bells on!

 

Well, what Jamie says is true. I didn’t believe until I tried it last night. I had sprayed the light blue-grey undersides and left the model about an hour. With some trepidation, I set about masking so I could spray the upper surfaces the dark blue-grey. A quick test showed paint wasn’t coming away with the tape, so I ploughed on with fingers metaphorically crossed. I sprayed the top, and left it again for a while, at least so it was safe to handle. I carefully pulled back the tape, expecting the worst, and lo!  All the paint remained on the model.

 

I am a proper convert now.

 

It's about 15 hours later, though, and the paint is touch dry, but still feels a bit tacky. It is easy to mark, and I don’t feel it’s quite dry enough to attempt brush painting the camo just yet. I think I’ll leave it alone for a while longer while I ponder just how to recreate the striped camo.

 

I hope I can finish this little model by the end of the weekend coming. I don’t want it lingering around the bench, tempting me away from paying work.

[Heather Kay]

This is all going a bit too well.

 

 

Following the box guides, I used a 6B pencil to rough out the brown areas. With only a port profile on offer, the starboard pattern has to be an educated guess based on where stripes head on the plan views. Then I followed up with "dark earth" via hairy stick. I think I should have used "chocolate", so I’ll retrace part of these steps later. I told you it was going too well.

 

 

Quite quickly, I followed up with green, freehanded to roughly follow the guides. It always looks rough at this stage, and I have to admit it often depresses me. However, experience tells me that once the decals are done and a matt varnish coat sprayed on, it all seems to smooth out nicely.

 

One thing that is personally bothering these days is an apparent inability to actually differentiate between colours of similar contrast. I work at a window that faces north, and on bright days the light tends to overpower things. I might need to try one of those green shades that the card dealer has in Westerns! I also think a visit to my optician might be worth considering, as things seem to be changing more quickly than my prescriptions keep up with.  💸

 

Isn’t growing old a wonderful adventure? No, I don't think so either. 😬

[Heather Kay]

 

Chocolate over the earth. That’s looking far more garish. 

 

I will have force myself to leave it alone now until the paint has dried enough I can retouch the undersides. Can’t wait for gloss varnish and decals!

[Heather Kay]

 

Gloss coat for decals. Waiting for it to dry.