A transfuge from the Stuka GB. FINISHED AT LAST!

[jean]

It has been so long since I last painted a splinter camouflage that I had forgotten how long it takes to mask the model!!!!

I am being reminded the hard way.

But every piece of masking tape brings the completion closer.... That's what I tell myself!

Here is a photo of the model 3/4 masked...

 

 

Another few meters of tape only!

 

JR

[jean]

Hi everybody,

a quick update on the Stuka.

I finished the masking chore, and final painting of the RLM 70 will start tomorrow. The Stuka is arguably the most painful aircraft to paint as far as splinter camo is concerned! No other aircraft combines these tormented shapes and sharp angle splinter. Not in RLM 70 and 71, as far as I know.

It is obviously a different story for pre-second world war Luftwaffe aircraft with a four color camo... Only for masochists!

Anyway, here is the beast:

 

 

After varnishing, thee will be quite a few paint ridges to try and sand away..

But that's in the future, so no point worrying about.

 

A thoroughly enjoyable build, despite the occasional frustration!

Have fun!

 

JR

[Marklo]

Looks lovely so far.

 

You were saying  One down two to go( and this is my second one) 

 

Only this time I’m masking each colour to preserve the preshading. This is before the camo grey went on ( just to explain the grey you can see is primer and preshading  ) Masochist hmmmm.

Edited May 19, 2020 by Marklo

[jean]

3 minutes ago, Marklo said:

 

You were saying  One down two to go( and this is my second one) 

 

Only this time I’m masking each colour to preserve the preshading. Masochist hmmmm.

Good evening Marklo,

 

I am dying to build another Stuka, but one thing I am sure of: the whole uppersurface will be sand colored!!!!

Preshading is not something I worry about with brush painting! Just like you seldom have to worry about paint ridges...

But don't worry, we are all masochists to some degree... I spent two hours on my hands and knees looking for a mm square piece of clear plastic.... no comment.

 

JR

 

[Marklo]

10 minutes ago, jean said:

Preshading is not something I worry about with brush painting! Just like you seldom have to worry about paint ridges...

I’m not sure you could preshade with  brushes. TBH the whole idea is that you lay down a thin and incomplete coating and allow the shading to show through, it’s almost like your deliberately painting it badly  The closest you’d get with a brush would be a panel wash. 

 

I’ve only been using airbrushes for about a year now.   I’ve always done factory finishes.  Not sure why but I’m not a big fan of weathering aircraft. That said the airbrushed results look a lot better.
 

I actually bought a cheapo airbrush and compressor off ebay for €40 and it works a treat. I did read a few books on airbrushing prior to using it. I have iwata I bought earlier this year and it’s still in its box, but I have a few future projects I may need it for.

 

If you compare my Typhoon to my Fury, both factory finish but the Fury is brush painted while the Typhoon was my first fully airbrushed build.

 

Edited May 19, 2020 by Marklo

[jean]

Hi everybody,

 

at long last the painting is finished!

Now comes the cleaning up of quite a few bleeds, paint ridges, etc. Time consuming and unavoidable. Oh well.

 

 

The finish line is looming ever closer!

Cheers.

 

JR

[jean]

On 5/19/2020 at 11:01 PM, Marklo said:

I’m not sure you could preshade with  brushes. TBH the whole idea is that you lay down a thin and incomplete coating and allow the shading to show through, it’s almost like your deliberately painting it badly  The closest you’d get with a brush would be a panel wash. 

 

I’ve only been using airbrushes for about a year now.   I’ve always done factory finishes.  Not sure why but I’m not a big fan of weathering aircraft. That said the airbrushed results look a lot better.
 

I actually bought a cheapo airbrush and compressor off ebay for €40 and it works a treat. I did read a few books on airbrushing prior to using it. I have iwata I bought earlier this year and it’s still in its box, but I have a few future projects I may need it for.

 

If you compare my Typhoon to my Fury, both factory finish but the Fury is brush painted while the Typhoon was my first fully airbrushed build.

 

Hi Marklo,

 

you should not be unhappy of your brush painting skills, as your Fury looks rather good! An airbrush will always give a much finer result, and I believe like with anything in life, practice makes perfect! Here we only have a generator, so not very flexible. Plus it seems to me that with an airbrush most of the time is spent filtering the paint, cleaning the innards, etc. Life is too short for that!

I think that I will keep weathering to the utmost minimum with the Stuka. I just want it finished and I actually like it as it is now!

Keep having fun!

 

JR

[Marklo]

9 hours ago, jean said:

Plus it seems to me that with an airbrush most of the time is spent filtering the paint, cleaning the innards, etc. Life is too short for that!

I thought that too. But in practice I find the airbrush easier to use than brush painting, and the results are very satisfying.

 

I stick to acrylics, use a 1:1 mix of paint that I mix in the cup. Even changing colour, I have a cleaning pot. I just spray out the current colour, spray out a dropper of water then start on the next colour. Cleaning isn’t that arduous either. 
 

The only major change is that I try to do a paint session every few days rather than paint things as they come. So I’ll wait till I have two or three paint jobs reader I go. 
 

I do still use brushes for small work and detail stuff. 
 

And last but not least, some things need to be sprayed to look right. My Mig 21 which I was never happy with, redone with the airbrush.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Marklo

[Ray_W]

9 hours ago, jean said:

Hi everybody,

 

at long last the painting is finished!

Now comes the cleaning up of quite a few bleeds, paint ridges, etc. Time consuming and unavoidable. Oh well.

 

 

The finish line is looming ever closer!

Cheers.

 

JR

Hi JR,

Fantastic to see this build continuing. 

Ray

[Greg Law]

Good to see you progressing again with this one Jean. 

[GREG DESTEC]

Looking good Jean 😀 

 

Keep up the great work 👍

[jean]

Good evening all,

 

the build pace is slow, but steady...

Fitted the undercarriage and under-belly bomb rack. Touch ups almost over, and then gloss varnish and an attempt to gently sand the paint ridges off.

Well, at least that is the plan!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for watching.

 

Cheers

JR

Edited May 28, 2020 by jean

[jean]

Hi all,

 

finished the second coat of gloss varnish.

I love the way the colors become alive. So a light sanding over the paint ridges, a last coat of gloss, and then decals!

 

 

This is a protracted build, but I am enjoying every step of the way.

Have fun!

 

JR

[JOCKNEY]

Great to see this one so near to completion JR, very much looking forward to the next instalment 

 

Cheers Pat

[jean]

12 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Great to see this one so near to completion JR, very much looking forward to the next instalment 

 

Cheers Pat

Thanks Pat,

just plodding along, making sure no other kits ever attract my attention... 

I ran into some unexpected problem during the removal of the paint ridges... Because  I used one acrylic RLM green and the other being an enamel, I am finding out the hard way that the acrylic is not as resistant as the enamel... Doh....As if I did not know that. So it has become sand papering micro-surgery with 1200 abrasive.

I hope that after a last coat of gloss varnish, none of the JR-induced mess will be visible.

In the meantime I have started decalling on the wing's underside. I am using a mix of kit decals and Xtradecal, as both have some inaccuracies in my eyes... Damn!

 

 

This is a really enjoyable build, even if frustrating at times... But what kit is not?

Have fun!

 

JR

[jean]

I have declared the ridge removal finished, even if far from perfect. I know things will get worse if I carry on!

Decaling is now in (slow) progress. 

Cheers.  

 

JR

 

 

[jean]

Hi everybody,

 

decalling is finally finished! All that is left is gluing the last small bits, as well as propeller and open canopy; last, give the whole model a coat of mat varnish.

The paint colors look a bit weird on the photo because of the flash...

 

 

The next lot of photos will be in natural light.

Cheers.

 

JR

 

[jean]

Hi all,

 

of late life has taken over the controls with my wife as co-pilot... So modeling cannot even reach the hind tit.

I decided nonetheless to try and tackle the Stuka spinner.

A small and quick job, he said. Well, I have tried everything to mask the yellow band that splits the spinner and I had to give up.

So I reverted back to the old and trusted method: I marked a line with a sewing pin held in an eraser, and then took my paint brush, pulled half an inch of tongue out of my mouth and went to work.

Only first cot done on the bottom half, but it should look OK at the end. Or so I hope.

Here is a photo of the culprit.

 

 

Anybody has any better ideas, please let me know.

Cheers

 

JR

[Ray_W]

JR, 

 

Enjoying this build. As always, a great use of the language.

 

I think you're doing a good job on the hand painted spinner. If you want something a little more complicated, one technique I have used is to punch a hole in masking tape slightly smaller than the required size and push the spinner through the hole then ensure the demarcation line is in the correct position, pushed down and circular using a toothpick. I find a thin plastic insulation tape works best or double thickness Tamiya (Kabuki) tape. Single layer Kabuki also works but I find more difficulty in maintaining the circle. This works very well with an airbrush when you have a stack of bombs. You can also hand brush. Here's a quick and dirty hand painted example to demonstrate on the tip of a 1/48 spinner. Usual caveats painting near the mask of ensuring the mask is down well and not flooding the separation.

 

1. Punch your desired hole in some tape. I stick it to scrap piece of glossy coated carboard carton. 

 

 

2. Push over the spinner to the desired position and adjust.

 

 

3. Paint as you desire. Yellow, what an awful demonstration colour. Needs a couple of coats. Here with one.

 

 

4. Done - single coat.

 

 

Reality is that if it's a one-off I will usually free hand paint like you and if slightly larger, where I will use my airbrush like spirals for example, I will cut thin strips of Tamiya flexible tape (the white stuff) as the mask.

 

Others may have some other ideas. 

 

Ray 

[jean]

Hi @Ray_W

 

thank you so much for your input. Most appreciated.

I have the same contraption than you have used, although mine appears to have smaller diameter hole cutters. 

I will definitely try it for the tip of the spinner and let you know.

Funnily enough, I did try it a couple of days ago, trying to cut a hole in a rubber glove and then push the hole in the latex over the spinner. I did not manage to cut a proper circular hole and the latex ripped when pushed over the spinner. Reinventing the wheel can be frustrating...

Plus I don't have the white flexible tape that allows to mask along curved surfaces... My LMS in Johannesburg just stocked it as their lockdown started. So will have to make a plan when the border re-opens!

 

Thanks again and keep having fun.

JR

[jean]

Hi all,

 

the Stuka has not been forgotten. Finally glued the open canopy in place. That part gave me a lot of headache to paint. Not the cleverest thing Airfix ever thought of. Actually a very stupid thing to do...

Anyway, it's done.

 

 

Only a few things left to do:

-A very few paint touch ups.

-Cleaning the settling solution residue around the decals.

-Applying some gloss varnish over the decals, open canopy and the paint adds-on.

-Finish painting the spinner.

-Varnish everything in matt.

 

I will not weather this model, as I want it as it would have been before an inspection by Reichsmarshall Goering... Plus I just want it finished and I like the way it looks right now!

I want to replace the pitot tube and the trailing antenna tube (totally missing in the kit!!!) by Albion tubing, and the MG 15 by a resin after market that looks a lot better than the kit items... Slight snag: I did put both the tubing and the machine guns into a really safe place, for safety's sake... You know the rest...

 

So I can see the finish line... Hopefully by the weekend.

Cheers

 

JR

 

[Marklo]

Looking very well.

 

I’m about two pitot tubes off finishing my Stuka, I can’t believe there are so many ancillary bits needing to be attached to it  

[Greg Law]

Well done Jean I had major problems with that as well.

[jean]

Hi all,

 

I have been waylaid into joining the helicopter GB by people best left unnamed, and as a result the Stuka has suffered some minor delays.

I have just fitted the pitot tube, made of two thicknesses of Albion alloy tubing.

 

 

Apologies for the poor quality of the cell phone photo, but it should give you an idea of what it looks like.

It is without any doubt far better than the kit plastic pitot...

Tomorrow I will use the same tubing to make the missing wire aerial mast underneath the fuselage.

 

So despite the setbacks, this Stuka will be finished "soon".

Cheers

 

JR

[jean]

I have realized that I am falling into the age old trap I swore I would not become the victim... Having been enticed by some sirens of dubious morals into entering two GBs (TWO!!!) I am focusing on the new builds, to the detriment of my Stuka, that is only a whisker away from the finishing line!!!

Not good!

So I shall forget about these exciting GBs and finish the Stuka before my attention wanders elsewhere.

After the pitot, I have added the cable aerial mast on the underneath of the fuselage. Then the two footsteps will be next, and I shall be ready to matt varnish the airframe. 

Here is a photo of these two additions made of Albion tubing.

 

 

Cheers and enjoy your builds!

 

JR