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Eduard / Hasegawa 1/72 Liberator GR Mk.V Coastal Command


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@coneheadff @Stew Dapple Thanks gents, much appreciated! 

 

Finished up spraying the white on the fuselage last night and de-masked this morning, it's looking good! First snap is after a two or three very thin coats applied and the pre-shading still showing through pretty strongly:

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Stopping at this stage would give a very worn look and make a nice base for more weathering and fading with oils, etc later. However, the photo references in the Eduard book which comes with the kit don't seem to show this much contrast in the white so I kept going and added a few more thin coats:

 

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The pre-shade is still showing through a bit and I'm happy with where I've stopped. Inevitably there's a few bits to touch up but nothing too drastic. One other trick was to mask off a few random panel (over the wing TE, just in front and behind bomb bay doors) for one of the airbrush coats so that these have a slightly different "shade" of white to the others - again this has helped to break things up and make big slabs of white look a bit more interesting! Here she is with wings slotted on - next step is to get the underside of these, and the fins at the back, painted up the same way. 

 

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@Stew Dapple, @Cookenbacher, thanks gents! 

 

Vertical stabilisers painted and glued on - these got the same treatment as the fuselage with preshading and several thin coats building up the white. Masking the leading edges is a bit of a faff and as usual the photos show up little bits that need tidying up... Anyway, next up is the underside of the wings which are masked again and ready for some paint.  

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Evening all, hope things are good in britmodeller land. I've had a busy couple of weeks with lots on at work but managed to snatch an evening or two at the bench in the last few days. I've had the airbrush out and have been working on the white undersides of the wings. First the mottle-y preshade goes down...

 

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 ...and then add light coats of tamiya xf-2 flat white. I'm probably about two thirds of the way done here with three passes so far:

 

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Once this has dried ill mask off a few panels and add another coat, before unmasking and doing a final pass. This has worked quite well on the fuselage and adds a bit more variation to a big block of single colour. Hopefully get a bit more done tomorrow - thanks for dropping by! 

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Three posts in a weekend! Here I've sprayed another coat then removed the tape to reveal the panel variations. These are just a little too stark at the moment but one more pass over the whole wing should do it. Then I can start to think about a gloss coat and some decals!

 

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@Hewy @James G, thanks gents, your encouragement is greatly appreciated! This evening I got the last coat of white finished off and slotted the wings into position to see what she looks like from below...

 

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Lovely! Happy with that, I thought painting the white on this model was going to be a chore but actually really enjoyed steadily building it up this way - hope people have found this little demo useful! 

 

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Really great technique for different panel shades. Your picture also highlights just how absolutely LONG and (relatively) narrow the Liberator's wings are!  Excellent progress.

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Really great technique for different panel shades. Your picture also highlights just how absolutely LONG and (relatively) narrow the Liberator's wings are!  Excellent progress.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Evening all! The liberator has had a decent gloss coat and I've moved onto one of my favourite bits of the process - adding decals! There's not that many "big" markings, roundels, etc, but plenty of small detailed ones, I'll see how far I get tomorrow and hopefully post some more updates as they go on. Here's where she's at this evening:

 

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Suddenly starts to look the business with those flashes of colour doesn't it? Thanks for dropping by! 

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More decals on this afternoon:

 

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Lots of really finely detailed markings provided by Eduard here though they seem a touch thick too me - copious quantities of decal setting solution is starting to get them to settle and I guess the final coat of gloss to seal them in will also smooth things out. I've got all the fuselage ones added and will keep going on the wings (which are still only slotted in place) over the next week.  

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Evening all! Apologies for the lack of updates recently - I've been nibbling away at the B-24 but didn't have anything very exciting to show so not taken many photos. Since last time all the decals have been added which was followed by a gloss coat to seal everything in.

 

I'll do most of the weathering with oil paints once the matt coat is on but I wanted to try spraying exhaust stains onto the gloss coat with enamel based brown and blacks (first humbrol pots I've bought in >20years!). This was so I could clean the stains off if I made a mess and actually it worked quite well! With my first attempt the paint was a bit too thin and "spider webbed" but the gloss coat meant it could be wiped clean with some enamel thinner and I could start again - I'll definitely use this trick again in the future! 

 

Today I've given it a few coats of matt varnish and once that has thoroughly dried I'll do some more weathering. Here's where she stands right now: 

 

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You'll notice the wings are still just slotted in place. The elegant, high aspect ratio design, coupled with the half tonne of weight in the nose makes it really cumbersome to handle so I'm going to avoid gluing them in place until the very last step - working with them off is so much easier!

 

So she's nearly there - weathering to come next and then the final details like props, guns, exhausts, wheels, lights (I've have a cunning plan for these!) and final touch ups after the masks all come off... ah ok, still quite a lot to do but I'll get there before Christmas. Finally, I popped the forward fuselage off to remind you what's in the cockpit! 


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Thanks for dropping by! Sam

 

 

 

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@bigbadbadge @Bertie Psmith @tomprobert @mark.au @opus999 @Volksjager @Dunny thanks everyone! Really appreciate the encouragement and look forward to sharing the final stages of the build. It's a terrific model from Eduard / Hasegawa, definitely feel like I'm getting my money's worth! The top side of one wing has been weathered and just moving on to the next so will hopefully get an update posted second half of the week 👍

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