380 Everyone's favourite Aunt - the Ju52/3m

[stevej60]

Excellent work so far Heather been a pleasure catching up.

[Heather Kay]

58 minutes ago, stevej60 said:

Excellent work so far Heather been a pleasure catching up.

 

1 hour ago, Jinxman said:

Camo looks great, and suitably very minimal contrast between the greens - lovely.

Cheers chaps! The contrast between 70 and 71 is very low, but I am reliably informed it is pretty true to life. I see other Luftwaffe models where the RLM71 is far more prominent. Indeed, the KP instructions call out Hu91 for RLM70 and Hu30 for RLM71, which would be far more contrasty in finish. Then again, I’m no expert. I tend to rely on what comes in the tin when it comes to colour renditions - see my various French builds for example!

 

Anyway, carefully sidestepping that particular can of worms…

 

 

I worked out a pattern for the fuselage. I tried to follow the printed versions, but sometimes they don’t quite match tops to sides when you lay them on the three-dimensional object.

 

 

You can only really see the RLM71 because some of it is still wet and this tinlet seems to dry with a slight sheen to it. The RLM70, on the other hand, dries dead flat. All will come good with several layers of varnish.

 

I must leave this all to dry nice and hard for a while. Real Work and Real Life will be much to the forefront in the coming week. I’m keen to try and get the snake masks in place and the plane masked up for another dose of RLM65, but I fear that may not be until the next weekend. This isn’t a race, after all.

[Graham Boak]

Very low contrast in b+w photos when new, which is why there was so much confusion about all-green prewar Luftwaffe schemes, but much more so when faded.  HU30 would be far too green, someone probably saw a reference that RLM71 was close to RAF Dark Green (good) and we always recommend HU30 for that (bad).

[PeterB]

Hi Heather,

 

Coming along nicely. As to the paint I always find that the colours are very dependent on the lighting angle, particularly so prior to being varnished. I doubt any 2 pics I have posted of the Ju 88 and Do 17 in the BoB build look quite the same colour, and the difference between daylight and my artificial lighting is huge. Should look fine when finished.

 

Pete

[CedB]

Very nice work Heather, especially considering all those corrugations!  

[Heather Kay]

8 hours ago, PeterB said:

As to the paint I always find that the colours are very dependent on the lighting angle

 

7 hours ago, CedB said:

Very nice work Heather, especially considering all those corrugations!  

Thanks both! Peter, at the moment, because one colour has a satin sheen while the other is matt, it’s definitely showing when catching light. The corrugations also vary the effect, through very tiny shadows and giving the impression of darker colour.

 

Ced, I was worried about bleed under the masking tape. However, a couple of factors came into play. First, the colour contrast doesn’t show any bleed to a great extent. Second, airbrushing at low pressure while trying to blow across the edges from the tape side minimised excess paint flow. I’m really pleased with the outcome. We will see how the technique works when it’s time for the blue respray later this week!

 

So, corrugations haven’t caused me any trouble, though I bet they gave a lot of trouble at one-to-one scale!

[CliffB]

On 10/15/2020 at 11:42 AM, Heather Kay said:

So, snot green all over, and what a lot it took, too! Blimey! This is not a small aircraft.

 

I noticed this too Heather, when building a couple of Ju.52s.  I think the corrugations have something to do with it.  They must double (or is it triple?), the painted surface area.

Keep up the great work and good luck with those decals 

[Greg Law]

Well done Heather.  You have become an airbrush expert in no time. It is not an easy thing you have done there.

[Heather Kay]

Thanks Greg! It is pretty much down to practice, as I was always told. Mind you, I still find masking a chore. It’s so much less of an issue when you brush paint! 

[PeterB]

4 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

Thanks Greg! It is pretty much down to practice, as I was always told. Mind you, I still find masking a chore. It’s so much less of an issue when you brush paint! 

Hi Heather,

 

I guess that is why I tend to use a big wide hairy stick on most of mine - not perhaps quite as good a finish as an airbrush but close if you are lucky with the paint. I generally only use my airbrush for single colours, like say the all over Japanese Navy grey on my Val. I might however use it on my RAF Bombers as the surface is a bit bigger - all over white on my Valiant for example..

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[fightersweep]

Great job on the paintwork Heather. Looks fab. I can imagine it's fun masking splinter camo on a corrugated suface, and then there's the decals. Have to keep watch on that as I have a 52 to build myself. . 

[Heather Kay]

11 minutes ago, fightersweep said:

I can imagine it's fun masking splinter camo on a corrugated suface

Funnily enough, I just ignored it. Aside from some large corrugations around the wing roots, which got a gentle thumbnail run along them, I just let the tape take the strain. The secret, if there is one, was low pressure and shooting across the tape from the masked side, plus a bit at right-angles to the surfaces where I could. 
 

In any case, the low contrast between the two colours simply won’t show any bleed if there was any! Doing the revised light blue may be a different matter, though most of the tape will be running parallel to the corrugations.

[fightersweep]

Thanks Heather. That makes perfect sense and surely how the full sized aircraft were painted. Can't imagine them masking around all those corrugations!

[Heather Kay]

I forgot to add the CC enamel, plus their thinners, sprayed in light coats, has the tendency to flash off and more or less dry almost instantly. That also minimises bleed.

[Heather Kay]

Time for some more work. Attention turned to the engines, putting off masking the fuselage for as long as possible!

 

 

One job I needed to do was make some shims to make an interference fit of the centre engine Townend ring. I also spent a while looking at photos of Ju52s, trying to work out how far out the engine and cooling cap thingy stuck out the front. It seems not very far, with the props only just clearing the front of the cowlings. Sadly, I don’t think this can be replicated on the model, so the centre motor at least will be slightly more proud than the real thing.

 

 

Time for some paint. I am using Hu33 acrylic for the base colour, which will get a little dry brushing, probably with Humbrol Metalcote steel. The exhausts need painting, but I’ve made a start slapping paint on the remaining small parts, wheels and props.

[Heather Kay]

 

Masked for the RLM65 respray.

 

 

I'm afraid the Oromask snakes don’t like the corrugated surface. I’ve tried persuasion with a cocktail stick, but they just spring back out again. I’m hoping to mitigate the worst of any paint bleed with the low pressure/well-thinned technique. Any excess paint will have to be dealt with by hairy stick later, as will the snake tongues and eyes.

 

We shall see how this turns out later. But first, time for food!

[fightersweep]

All looking fab so far, and great paintwork too. I'm sure the snake will work out just fine. It's going to one cool looking 52.

 

Steve

[Heather Kay]

 

A pile of scrap tape can only mean one thing.

 

 

Oh, hello? That’s looking rather smart, I’m pleased to say.

 

 

Some expected brushing will be needed under the tail where the mask really didn’t want to stick down. 
 

 

Slightly worse was this bit. I didn’t notice the mask lifting, even under the low pressure, and a bit of paint fuzzed the edge. I think that will need some thought as to how to repair accurately - though I believe the mask can be replaced. I might try that in a while, once the paint has hardened a bit. Failing that, some careful dry brushing should offset the worst.

 

So, fairly pleased. Let us hope the transfers work as well when I get to them.

[Jinxman]

Very smart indeed.

[AdrianMF]

Camouflage looks great. The blue masking and snake have come out lovely. You can see why so many schemes and instructions just call for dark green everywhere. Apparently the contrast got more pronounced as the scheme weathered.

 

Hoping you keep Shuck in his kennel too.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Heather Kay]

7 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Apparently the contrast got more pronounced as the scheme weathered.

I’ve heard that. It’s not something really obvious in many contemporary photos, but most "in the field" images were personal shots and not the sharper larger format images. I sometimes wonder whether the fading claim is an excuse used by modellers to get round the wrong shades…  Of course, paint profiles may exaggerate the contrast so the difference actually shows in print!  I wasn’t there, and must rely on knowledge handed down.

 

For my part, I have tried to remain consistent across my Luftwaffe collection, so the lower contrast remains my choice. If I find a good photo that shows a nicely weathered example that fits my obsession, then I might follow that. 

[Rabbit Leader]

That is really starting to look fantastic Heather. I’m sure once finished and displayed, you’ll inspire many a modeller to have a crack at a 52 as well as this glorious paint scheme. 
Cheers.. Dave 

[Heather Kay]

Thanks Dave!

 

Best Beloved and I had a day out on Sunday, paying a socially-distanced visit to my parents now they’re in their latest new home. They like to move, though I think they’ve convinced themselves this one will probably be the last new home. They’re both getting a bit too old for renovating and generally doing up houses, though advancing age doesn’t really seem to be slowing them down! At this rate, they’ll both outlive me!

 

Anyway, as is my way because I’m self-employed and currently hate my day job, I’m attempting to finish this build today.

 

 

Happy that my careful hairy stick ministrations to the fuzzy snake had been successful, I’ve assembled the engine cowlings and props. I haven’t managed to make the propellers free spinning, but they still move - so that should make them a bit less prone to accidental damage. A little retouching will be required here and there.

 

 

Again, as insurance against accidental damage, I tend to leave sticky-up bits like the oil and fuel gauges on the outer nacelles until around this stage of the build.

 

 

I'm not sure you can see it, but I have squirted some Humbrol Clear Gloss acrylic on the transfer target areas. While that’s drying, I shall test some of the transfers intended for other schemes on my paint mule. I do this to work out how long transfers take to come off the paper, and how they perform on irregular surfaces. I hope for good things, but with all the wrinkles on this model, I am preparing for carnage… 

[Jinxman]

Good luck!

[Heather Kay]

10 minutes ago, Jinxman said:

Good luck!

Ta. I think it might be working.

 

 

The test mule showed the KP transfers are incredibly thin and conform to irregularities pretty well without the need of setting solution. Just in case, I began tentatively with one under wing set to see how they worked on Auntie. Water was easily expelled by gently rolling a cotton bud along the corrugations. I have to be quite accurate with initial positioning, because it’s quite hard to reposition the transfer because they are very thin and sitting on corrugations. I’m going to let these dry for a bit to see if the MT ends up with silvering - the will have a bearing on how I tackle the unit codes on the fuselage.