1/72 Airfix Avro Vulcan B.2 **NEW TOOL** Andy

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 hour ago, Andy350 said:

Thanks Jasper.  when using bluetac, does this need to be applied fairly flat so that a consistent edge is created?

Bluetac is usually applied as a sausage shape. Then you spray at an angle so it ‘casts a shadow’ with a soft edge. If you allow paint to run back to the blutac it dries on it and you can have a really ragged edge. 
 

Paint on the Vulcan always had hard edges. That was the RAF ‘house style’ for camouflage all through the second half of the 20th century. The finest of unmasked airbrushed edges, in 1/72 will be like a six inch wide blend. 
 

You seem to be aiming for an accurate representation so I’m afraid you are going to have to mask with tape. I suggest Tamiya tape for curves. It’s brilliant for this job. You’ll only mask the very edges with this or the regular Tamiya tape. Then you fill in the bigger areas with cheap low-tack tape from a hardware store. 
 

Alternatively you could use liquid mask or latex, painted on with a brush. I find it difficult to get smooth lines with it but you might have the knack 

[Andy350]

12 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Bluetac is usually applied as a sausage shape. Then you spray at an angle so it ‘casts a shadow’ with a soft edge. If you allow paint to run back to the blutac it dries on it and you can have a really ragged edge. 
 

Paint on the Vulcan always had hard edges. That was the RAF ‘house style’ for camouflage all through the second half of the 20th century. The finest of unmasked airbrushed edges, in 1/72 will be like a six inch wide blend. 
 

You seem to be aiming for an accurate representation so I’m afraid you are going to have to mask with tape. I suggest Tamiya tape for curves. It’s brilliant for this job. You’ll only mask the very edges with this or the regular Tamiya tape. Then you fill in the bigger areas with cheap low-tack tape from a hardware store. 
 

Alternatively you could use liquid mask or latex, painted on with a brush. I find it difficult to get smooth lines with it but you might have the knack 

Thanks Bertie, I really didn't want to try free handing this, it has worked well for armour, but I've always weathered and it has come out well in the past.  But that represented how they were painted.

 

I've got some 5mm Tamiya for curves, so will go with that, might require some 2-3, but I will see how that goes.  I'm going to have to leave the white enamel for at least 24 hours before I can mask.

 

Here we are so far.

 

 

I'm still going to have to tidy a few lines up as I go, thought these were all sorted.

 

 

 

[Jasper dog]

2 hours ago, Andy350 said:

Thanks Jasper.  when using bluetac, does this need to be applied fairly flat so that a consistent edge is created?

Hi, roll the bluectac into thin worms, lay on the model and spray onto it at about 90° (not into the corner) This will give a slightly soft feathered edge to the camo.

Varying the shape of the roll and / or the angle of airbrush just varies the feathering of the edge. (Tighter or looser demarcation depending upon preference)

Best to practice first.

If it helps when I'm home tonight I can post a  couple of pics to help demonstrate. 

Hope I've explained it OK....ish!

 

Atb

Darryl 

[Andy350]

1 hour ago, Planes123 said:

Just found the right paint colour.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Humbrol-14ml-Tinlet-Enamel-Paint/dp/B001S31HAA

Thank you. 👍

[Andy350]

7 minutes ago, Jasper dog said:

Hi, roll the bluectac into thin worms, lay on the model and spray onto it at about 90° (not into the corner) This will give a slightly soft feathered edge to the camo.

Varying the shape of the roll and / or the angle of airbrush just varies the feathering of the edge. (Tighter or looser demarcation depending upon preference)

Best to practice first.

If it helps when I'm home tonight I can post a  couple of pics to help demonstrate. 

Hope I've explained it OK....ish!

 

Atb

Darryl 

If you could that would be great.  For this build I will just be using tape, I feel a bit more confident at the moment.  Like others have said, with such a large 1/72 tape should look more authentic.  

[Bertie McBoatface]

46 minutes ago, Andy350 said:

I'm going to have to leave the white enamel for at least 24 hours

 

Absolutely! 

 

Another advantage of acrylics is the drying time, of course. 😉

[Andy350]

1 minute ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

Absolutely! 

 

Another advantage of acrylics is the drying time, of course. 😉

 

It might help in this instance, I had a real knack of rushing the paint on, and would end up with a far from pleasing result.  I'm hoping that I can use some Mr.Surfacer 1000 on top of the paint I have applied, just have a couple of small areas that I need to touch up.  To be fair I could probably get away with it but I don't want them standing out.

[Bertie McBoatface]

3 minutes ago, Andy350 said:

 

It might help in this instance, I had a real knack of rushing the paint on, and would end up with a far from pleasing result.  I'm hoping that I can use some Mr.Surfacer 1000 on top of the paint I have applied, just have a couple of small areas that I need to touch up.  To be fair I could probably get away with it but I don't want them standing out.

 

I no longer have the patience for enamels. Are you using gloss or matt?

 

[Andy350]

3 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

I no longer have the patience for enamels. Are you using gloss or matt?

 

 

All the enamels are in satin.

[Bertie McBoatface]

28 minutes ago, Andy350 said:

 

All the enamels are in satin.

 

Good compromise. Gloss is decal ready and goes on really smoothly, but dries v slowly. Matt is close to the final finish but wont take decals without silvering, yet dries faster. Satin is perhaps best of all.

 

In the 70s all the Vulcans were dead flat matt finish but yours is a sixties scheme I think? Were they a bit shiny then?

[Andy350]

36 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

Good compromise. Gloss is decal ready and goes on really smoothly, but dries v slowly. Matt is close to the final finish but wont take decals without silvering, yet dries faster. Satin is perhaps best of all.

 

In the 70s all the Vulcans were dead flat matt finish but yours is a sixties scheme I think? Were they a bit shiny then?

Thanks for info.  In the past using Acrylic I would gloss varnish before applying decals, do you know if you can apply decals onto a satin finish without gloss?

[Bertie McBoatface]

3 hours ago, Andy350 said:

Thanks for info.  In the past using Acrylic I would gloss varnish before applying decals, do you know if you can apply decals onto a satin finish without gloss?

 

Personally, I would take the chance with satin enamel and get away with it most of the time. But then I do tend to mess things up right at the end...

 

The decision is yours to make. 😬

[Andy350]

4 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

Personally, I would take the chance with satin enamel and get away with it most of the time. But then I do tend to mess things up right at the end...

 

The decision is yours to make. 😬

Initial coat so far has left a slight rough feel, rather than a nice satin smooth finish.  Maybe I need to add more thinner?

[Bertie McBoatface]

Maybe you do.

 

Multiple thin coats are the way to go. It took me years to realise how tin I could go with enamels and then years more to adapt to acrylics. Like most people, I always wanted my first coat to give me perfect coverage. Sometimes I still do! Thin your paint and then thin it again. A white finish should take at least three thin coats - which will dry very quickly and be a dream to clean from your airbrush. 

 

Or...

 

It's a warm day in England so maybe you are holding the airbrush too far away from the surface, allowing the droplets to dry before they hit the surface. Look for the shine on the paint as you spray, it's got to be wet for a few seconds so the paint can flow and level itself out.

 

 

 

[Jasper dog]

10 hours ago, Andy350 said:

If you could that would be great.  For this build I will just be using tape, I feel a bit more confident at the moment.  Like others have said, with such a large 1/72 tape should look more authentic.  

Hi, as promised pics to demonstrate what I suggested,  hope it's not ott!

This Typhoon (1/48) was done many years ago with enamel paints, thinned with cellulose thinner btw. Blue tac rolled into a worm, slightly thinner than I've just done. Paint the lighter colour first then worms to mark out the camo pattern and spray. 

The thinner they are the easier it is to create the tight shapes.

 

Another example this time a Jagdtiger painted with acrylics. 

 

Roll the worms nice and thin take your time, practice on something first, any questions just let me know.

 

Good luck with the Vulcan. 

 

Atb

Darryl 

[Andy350]

53 minutes ago, Jasper dog said:

Hi, as promised pics to demonstrate what I suggested,  hope it's not ott!

This Typhoon (1/48) was done many years ago with enamel paints, thinned with cellulose thinner btw. Blue tac rolled into a worm, slightly thinner than I've just done. Paint the lighter colour first then worms to mark out the camo pattern and spray. 

The thinner they are the easier it is to create the tight shapes.

 

Another example this time a Jagdtiger painted with acrylics. 

 

Roll the worms nice and thin take your time, practice on something first, any questions just let me know.

 

Good luck with the Vulcan. 

 

Atb

Darryl 

Thanks Darryl, that effect works really well.  From what I can see the models turned out really well.

[kev67]

I have read that white tac is better as it does not contain the oils that blue tac has, which sometimes can leave a mark on the area where the blue tac has been, especially if it has been put on a matt surface

[Jasper dog]

16 minutes ago, kev67 said:

I have read that white tac is better as it does not contain the oils that blue tac has, which sometimes can leave a mark on the area where the blue tac has been, especially if it has been put on a matt surface

White tac should work too 👍, haven't tried it.

 

(From experience the "mark" disappears under a gloss coat, providing that's the route you go).

 

 

 

 

[Andy350]

Thanks guys.  I will be using tape for this build, but will be using tac for another build.

 

This white coat is taking a while to apply.  Am getting close to using some appliance white that was used on a 1/72 concorde build for the underside.

[Bertie McBoatface]

19 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

pics to demonstrate what I suggested

 

Very nice models under there. Impressed.

[David H]

+1 for worms/sausages/noodles....whatever.

 

-d-

[Andy350]

Feels like I've been looking at the underside for some time now, nearly there with the final white, went with acrylic enamel in a can in the end, life is too short.  Might need to dull this down a little before applying the camo!!  Because of the nature of the rattle can it didn't get into the undercarriage.  Also with fine grit you can steel repair areas if needed.

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

That's great! Those panel lines have all but gone so I think she's looking a lot more realistic.

 

I have a vague impression in my mind that the insides of the bomb bay and undercarriage bays wore a different paint to the undersides. I'm talking about the 1970s here. The insides were definitely  a high gloss white (They were very slippery when oily! I remember the pain.) and I seem to remember that they were lighter than the outsides which were matt. Was the underneath grey in my time? Vulcan experts please refresh my memory?

[Andy350]

1 hour ago, Bertie Psmith said:

That's great! Those panel lines have all but gone so I think she's looking a lot more realistic.

 

I have a vague impression in my mind that the insides of the bomb bay and undercarriage bays wore a different paint to the undersides. I'm talking about the 1970s here. The insides were definitely  a high gloss white (They were very slippery when oily! I remember the pain.) and I seem to remember that they were lighter than the outsides which were matt. Was the underneath grey in my time? Vulcan experts please refresh my memory?

Ok, I will make sure they are a bit more glossy, I intend to weather them as well, so that should help a bit.  Might do an oil or Flory models dark dirt, the Flory is more forgiving.

[Andy350]

After two days of staring at the all white Vulcan I nearly have an idea of how to mask this for the first coat of camo?  I've been thinking about it for a while then walking away!