A Painted Pony

[AliGauld]

2 minutes ago, Dandie Dinmont said:

As for your final suggestion, for a camouflaged finish such as this, what would the main colour be?  

 

Now you've caught me out trying and failing to be clever. 🤣.

I've never tried it but I would suggest the Ocean Grey as that's the main culprit.

Not certain though I hadn't thought about trying to use it on multi-coloured camo.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Dandie Dinmont]

Braced by your kind words and the enticing prospect of disguising the most ghastly errors, I set to work with micromesh and paint and in no time had produced something which was "good enough to slap a gloss coat onto". This was duly applied and it was time for the stickers! As this was a starter set, the decal sheet was mercifully free of acres of stencils so things went swingingly at first though I did have a close call when I noticed only just in time, that my nemesis, the Masked Furball, had somehow sneaked one of his calling cards under a roundel. Then I tried to apply the shark's mouth decals. I simply could not arrange these so they appeared symmetrical AND  met up under the nose correctly. And I was all too aware that as I poked and prodded that the decals were becoming softer and softer under the influence of the setting solution. Finally, somehow, I managed to get them into some kind of configuration that was just about acceptable though, if you examine the photos below carefully, you will note that the two decals still don't quite meet up in the middle. Still, I think I can fix this up with some very careful painting. 

 

 

 

 

Remind me to never do one of those Lancaster paint schemes where each nacelle has its own shark mouth. Next, I'm going to apply another gloss coat and then boldly go where I have never gone before, into the world of Flory washes. Alistair assures me that this will disguise all flaws and defects but I remain to be convinced. Anyone got a trowel I can borrow?

 

Craig.

 

 

[2996 Victor]

Great work, Craig! We knew it would all come good  

The decals all look great, and the mismatch on the shark mouth is tiny - you'll be able to fix that with no trouble.

Makes me want to finish my Mustang in a camo scheme.....  

Cheers,

Mark

[AliGauld]

47 minutes ago, Dandie Dinmont said:

Alistair assures me that this will disguise all flaws and defects but I remain to be convinced. Anyone got a trowel I can borrow?

 

No pressure then. 😉.

I've found that the washes may not cover everything up but they do blend stuff in and lead your eye away from the major issues.

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. .

 

Everything is looking good though.

A wee touch up will sort the wee gap in the sharkmouth.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Cookenbacher]

Your Mustang is looking great in its camo (and sharkmouth!) Craig.

[Dandie Dinmont]

Having laid off the coffee for several days, and banished Rollo from the room, I touched up the bottom of the shark mouth. I forgot to take any pictures of the result but trust me it looks great. If I'm not wearing my glasses. And the light's bad.

 

Next, I applied myself to applying a Flory wash called 'Grime' to the pony with the following results:

 

 

 

Wow! Alistair was right, that really does hide all the mistakes! Let's get the prop and the wheels on and we'll call this sucker d...What do you mean, I have to wipe it all off again?

 

Reluctantly, I did so to reveal:

 

 

 

Not as big an effect as I'd expected. Following my usual practice of reading the instructions for a product after using it, it seems that this is because I applied the wash to a gloss coat. Applying a matt or satin coat first would have enhanced the effect. Oh well, we live and learn. 

 

One area the wash excelled in was in revealing in merciless detail all the dings, lumps and cat hairs I had overlooked or ignored:

 

 

 

(Actually I've just realised that this shows the corrected shark mouth. I may have to have another go.)

 

Some exceedingly careful work with sanding sticks disguised these to the extent that I have high hope of the final flat coat making them look reasonable.

 

One thing the flat coat won't cover up is the undercarriage doors. I realised that I had forgotten to paint these at the same time as the rest of the airframe so this was taken care of.

 

 

That's probably the best results I've ever had from my airbrush. Can you spot the bits that don't belong?

 

To my complete lack of surprise, the colour of the inside of the doors turned out to be a complete can of worms. Depending on when the particular aircraft was built, how the painter was feeling on that day, the phase of the moon and conjunction of the spheres, they might have been yellow zinc chromate, green zinc chromate, bare aluminium, coated aluminium or a mixture of all of the above. You can't tell without a photo of the actual aircraft you are modelling accompanied by a affidavit signed by the pilot, the crew chief and the president of North American Aviation. I suspect that Airfix have based this kit on a restored aircraft which wears the 112 Sqn. scheme and videos on t'tube show that the inside of undercarriage leg doors on that aircraft are aluminium so that's what I'll go with. As for the main wheel doors, there is further debate on whether these should be open or closed when the aircraft is on the ground. After the wheels are lowered, the doors close up again but as the hydraulic pressure in the system drops, or is released by the pilot, they fall back open.  This seems to happen relatively quickly in some aircraft, and not at all in others. My thinking is that since Percy is still in the office, he has only just shut things down and so the doors remain up. This neatly avoids having to worry about what colour the insides should be. They were duly glued in place.

 

 

Unfortunately, their pristine finish really stands out against the rest of the aircraft so I guess I'm going to find out how the wash goes on to a matt surface after all. It all comes off with a little water right?

 

Now that I am a weathering master, I unearthed another produce bought many months ago

 

 

and gave it a try

 

No idea if this is realistic or not but as I've said before, if you want authenticity in a build...

 

Finally a splash of colour

 

 

Not far to go now!

 

Thanks for reading,

Craig.

[2996 Victor]

Hi Craig,

 

some great progress here! I've never tried those Flory washes, and to be honest I think I'd be too scared. However, I think you've achieved a good result there - in my opinion, a lot of models we see are over weathered, so I think you've struck a good balance!

 

These, I'm much more familiar with!

35 minutes ago, Dandie Dinmont said:

Now that I am a weathering master, I unearthed another produce bought many months ago

 

 

I've used Humbrol's weathering powders (and Revell's too) quite a lot on my model railway wagons, such as these:

Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway 5-Plank General Merchandise Opens

http://

Cambrian Railways 4-Plank General Merchandise and 2-Plank Fixed Side Opens

http://

 

The powders are easy to streak, dust or pounce on, and can be mixed with water for more precise application - I do the latter for creating rust streaks down the wagon sides, and when dry use a stiff brush in the same downward direction to reduce its intensity and blend it in. A coat of matt lacquer reduces the powder effect enormously, so multiple treatments may be needed if you want to build up a grimy finish.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[AliGauld]

Nicely done Craig. Looking really good.

The beauty of the wash on gloss is that if you don't like it it will wash off completely, with a satin it grips more in more places.

All depends on the effect you're looking for but it must be fairly idiot proof because I can use it.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Dandie Dinmont]

59 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

I've used Humbrol's weathering powders (and Revell's too) quite a lot on my model railway wagons, such as these:

Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway 5-Plank General Merchandise Opens

 

Funnily enough, I originally bought the weathering powders to use on the half-built wildly over-ambitious model railway which occupies the other half of the loft my modelling workbench is located in. 

I really need to get back to it, my other half is eyeing up the space it occupies as a potential quilting workshop and I need to defend it at all costs! Oh, and nice looking wagons!

 

Craig.

Edited May 11, 2021 by Dandie Dinmont
forgot to compliment Mark's wagons.

[2996 Victor]

5 minutes ago, Dandie Dinmont said:

 

Funnily enough, I originally bought the weathering powders to use on the half-built wildly over-ambitious model railway which occupies the other half of the loft my modelling workbench is located in. 

I really need to get back to it, my other half is eyeing up the space it occupies as a potential quilting workshop and I need to defend it at all costs! Oh, and nice looking wagons!

 

Craig.

Wow! What scale/gauge are you working to? My standard gauge is EM, but I also dabble a bit in OO9 and Irish Broad Gauge, not that I've done much of anything recently! I've tentatively entered the EM Gauge Society's Chairman's Challenge - progress so far: zilch!  You need to make a bit of progress, if only to defend your territory!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Dandie Dinmont]

9 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

What scale/gauge are you working to? My standard gauge is EM, but I also dabble a bit in OO9 and Irish Broad Gauge

Much cruder than that, I'm afraid, it's all Peco code 100 OO gauge. It's supposed to represent an unspecified part of the Scottish region in the BR ferret and dartboard era. I really do need to get back to it but these aeroplanes are so darned absorbing! 

 

13 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

You need to make a bit of progress, if only to defend your territory!

 

And not only from my wife! The cats also tend to view it as their territory, in fact one of the next things I need to do on it is to erect some cat deterrent measures (I'm thinking electric fence). 

 

Craig.

[2996 Victor]

1 hour ago, Dandie Dinmont said:

Much cruder than that, I'm afraid, it's all Peco code 100 OO gauge. It's supposed to represent an unspecified part of the Scottish region in the BR ferret and dartboard era.

Nothing wrong with PECO! Sometimes I wonder if I should go back to OO, although with the EM Gauge Society now doing ready-to-lay track (made by PECO!), its potentially a lot easier - I just need to get off my chair and do something!

 

1 hour ago, Dandie Dinmont said:

I really do need to get back to it but these aeroplanes are so darned absorbing!

And they take up a lot less space.....

 

1 hour ago, Dandie Dinmont said:

And not only from my wife! The cats also tend to view it as their territory, in fact one of the next things I need to do on it is to erect some cat deterrent measures (I'm thinking electric fence).

I'm really incredibly lucky in that Jane doesn't worry about me having a room to play in! Its a bit of a bombsite, really, and I need to do something about that other than just shut the door I can't complain about Daisy, either, except that she's moulting like crazy now

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Dandie Dinmont]

Well, not long after submitting my last report, my mojo bladder suffered a major decompression and work on the Pony was suspended in favour of gazing slack-jawed out of the window, and attempting to become the finest Ukulele player in the country. My wife's complaints about the puddles of drool on the soft furnishings, and a petition from the neighbours finally convinced me of the futility of both activities and so I dragged myself up the stairs to the mancave to put the finishing touches to the P51. Most of the remaining parts were attached including the undercarriage. At the start of this build all those years ago, Chris ( @dogsbody ) asked me if my undercarriage legs were warped. I replied that they seemed fine but on further inspection:

 

 

it became clear that though the starboard leg was just about ok, the angle of dangle of the port leg was way off. Gluing the wheel to the door sorted things out to my satisfaction at least. Further evidence of the decrepit condition of the model moulds was given by the last part to be attached, the radio antenna:

 

 

It's the part numbered 19 and I assume that's not the way it's supposed to look. Miracles of miracles, it came off the runner in one piece but disintegrated when I tried to tidy it up. It was replaced with some stretched and whittled sprue.

 

Finally, the airbrush was charged with Xtracrylics finest matt varnish and directed towards the airframe. The canopy masking was removed, leaving Percy blinking in the unaccustomed light. To my great displeasure, I immediately noted that I had apparently missed a bit when I was painting the top of his seat but I'm unhappy enough with the fit of the canopy as it is so there's no way I'm prising it off again. We'll call it wear and tear or something.

 

And so I'm calling the pony done! Some pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

Inspecting the finished article, it's immediately clear that I need to be considerably more careful about removing detritus and especially cat hairs from my efforts before applying any paint. Overall though, I'm not too displeased with the final outcome and have learned a lot, especially about thinning Xtracrylic paints, which was the whole point of the exercise in the first place. My thanks to all of you who have chipped in with advice, encouragement and tales of your moggies. If you want more of the same, please proceed in an orderly manner to 

 

A build which is all Mark's fault!

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Craig.

[2996 Victor]

31 minutes ago, Dandie Dinmont said:

A build which is all Mark's fault!

 

Your Pony looks pretty darned fine to me, Sir! What a bind about the undercarriage legs, but a great save in the usual DD style. I think you've finally unmasked me as for the serial starter that I am - I still haven't finished my 'stang either  never mind the second one (but I'm waiting for Freightdog to reissue their Aeroproducts prop set, honest!).

 

Great work and looking forward to the Corsair.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Cookenbacher]

Hey, that's a nice looking Mustang!
The gear legs on mine were warped too.

[AliGauld]

Stonking Mustang Craig,

I see you encountered the famous Airfix mustang wonky undercarriage and unusable aerial. I used a toothpick on my last one.

 

Very nicely done.

 

Cheers,

Alistair