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Painting Anti-Flash White?


TeaWeasel

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Currently working on the rare 1/48 TSR-2 and I'm rather stumped on how to paint up the classic anti-flash white scheme. 

 

I've seen a couple of brief guides mainly using Halford rattle-cans, just a base of white and a topcoat of gloss white, although I'm not sure if this'll get the effect I'm looking for, particularly as it's 1/48 and the guides I saw were working on 1/144. 

 

I did a bit of a test run using a base of white, and a preshade of light grey in the panel line, over which I did a coat of gloss white. While it seemed to work on this small test piece, I'm wondering if there are any examples of this technique used in the past, or if there are any other techniques I could use?

 

Thanks all

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I've just finished making a 1/48 Supermarine Scimitar, which is white beneath. 

 

As with all white models, I sprayed Halfords white primer (before lightly polishing with 1200 grit wet and dry) before spraying humbrol 34 acrylic out of a can. Followed by a Halfords gloss lacquer topcoat (that I do for every model, to protect and seal the paint, regardless of type of paint used). 

 

I have, in the past, used halfords gloss appliance white spray, however, I found this to spray on much too thick. The humbrol rattle cans, though more expensive, give a more moderated and controllable spray. 

 

I've never had any luck brush painting white, hence I always spray. A tip for spraying, spray a very light coat and leave it to dry before spraying another - it takes ages, but it's all too easy to spray too much and ruin the paintwork. 

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I did a Mach Poo (shudders) Valiant many years back, and first primed it in grey, then overlaid Alclad white primer, which is a good opaque white.  I sprayed the white beginning with a thin coat and working up to give it a definite white look, but with some differences in tone, as I wanted to depict a lightly used airframe.  It turned out ok to my eyes at the time, so now I'm going to hunt around for some of the photos, and will probably wince when I see them :owww:

 

<gap for hunting>

 

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3 hours ago, Mike said:

It turned out ok to my eyes at the time, so now I'm going to hunt around for some of the photos, and will probably wince when I see them :owww:

 

So long as you don't stick it next to an Airfix one, you can almost pass that off as a Valiant

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1 minute ago, Dave Swindell said:

So long as you don't stick it next to an Airfix one, you can almost pass that off as a Valiant

Ooooh, that's harsh! 

If you can make a Mach 2 kit look that good then who cares, hats off! :deadhorse:

(And I'm not even a wingy thing modeller!).

 

Darryl 

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For anti-flash white, it's Halfords White Primer, then a coat of Klear, or Halfords clear varnish. I never pre-shade anything.

This was Mach 2 straight OOB sprayed with Appliance white. As you can see, compared to using a white primer, it's just too dense.

c794edb6-222e-4708-8c26-dce92e5330d4.jpg

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Halfords (or generic auto shop) acrylic white primer.

It's matt, but can be sanded and buffed up to a full gloss if required.

The gloss look is more like smooth porcelain than gloss paint and looks far more authentic to my eye.

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I believe the first quetion you have to ask yourself is if you want to add some form of "depth" to the finish or if you want to go for a uniform white coat. Since there are two examples of these different approaches here, each modeller will likely prefer one over the other, not forgetting that a study of pictures of the real thing is always the best way to understand how the finish weathered and appeared over time.

If you prefer a less uniform coat (like Mike's model), then there are various options: preshading sure is one, where you could preshade using a grey or even a black, the darker the shade used the more white you may have spray over to get the effect you want. I've seen preshading used often on USN postwar types, that feature wide areas in white, so this is sure a valid technique for this kind of finish

Mike's approach is in a sense a variation of the so-called "black-basing", where a darker primer is used and the lighter colour is built up in a number of light passes. In his case he used grey, you could do the same or use something darker.. again the darker the base the more white you'll need to get the lighter areas.

Personally I prefer doing the opposite, that is postshading by applying a lighter coat first (in this case pure white) and then emphasising certain areas with very light passes of a darker colour. And I'm sure that other modellers may suggest more techniques..

In the end each technique has pros and cons, I suggest you try a few and see which one you find easier and best suited to the way you work... keeping in mind that all the techniques I mentioned require an airbrush to really work. There are other techniques that do not require an airbrush though

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On 10/6/2021 at 11:25 AM, Mike said:

I did a Mach Poo (shudders) Valiant many years back

My Gawd, Julien- you made a Mach 2 kit actually resemble the airplane pictured on the box art...I am truly not worthy! Has to be some kind of modeling miracle! You da man! :worthy:

Mike

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Heres Dynavectors TSR2 in 1/48. Painted with Halfords white primer sanded with 2000 grit sponge then painted with Humbrol 130 off white. Some under and over shading and a wash of raw umber to break up the expanse of pure white.

 

TSR2 1.48 Dynavector 003

 

 

TSR2 1.48 Dynavector 018

 

Here's my Aeroclub 1/48 Vulcan done with Mr Colour 'white base' spray (like Halfords but finer) then top coated with Mr Colour "107 Character white" and normal "1 White" and post shaded with a wash of raw umber. This is from the Scampton wing which is near Sheffield and apparently the soot in the air from the steel mills left the planes a very dirty white. Something to consider? Apparently the well educated could tell the squadron based on the colour of the 'white'!

 

Vulcan Dec04 074

 

Good luck

Colin

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20 minutes ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

^ It says the Aeroclub kit.

P.S. I think he means Scunthorpe Steelworks, which is an awful lot closer than Sheffield. 😉

haha I was so focused on trying to identify the kit that I missed the caption saying what it is

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On 10/15/2021 at 9:34 AM, Adam Poultney said:

Do you have any reference images of XM594 in white, I've been looking for any at all for ages

Hi Adam 

There is an image of XM594 in white in The Vulcan Story (by Tim Laming) p.63. The caption reads: "XM574 and XM594 at Elvington during Exercise 'Mickey Finn', a no notice dispersal exercise held in 1964. (D Haller)".   XM594 is in the background.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Rich

 

Edited by RichG
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I'm pretty sure these should be available in white too; but can't seem to find any reference photos either.... :rofl:

 

Rich

 

 

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Edited by RichG
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On 10/14/2021 at 6:36 PM, wschurr said:

Tamiya Rattle can Pure White is the best thing since sliced white bread; decanted or straight. This is the smoothest, toughest finish you’ll get.

I'll second that, with the disclaimer that I've not tried Halford's, as it is impossible to obtain here in this corner of the Solar System.

Edited by Space Ranger
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  • 2 months later...

I'll add this as it just occurred to me.

ISTR maybe a comment on Key Aero or somesuch that although the V-bomber scheme was overall white,

the upper surfaces were matt and the lower surfaces gloss.

Anybody know if there's anything in this?

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I'm just in the process of scanning some of my old SAMs and have seen some Ian Huntley articles referring to high gloss white overall with different numbers of coats to give differing thickness of coating to different areas.

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I don't recall matt white being used. However, some Shackletons were matt, except under the wings if not all the undersides, in gloss. I think to bounce a little more light around. Helps to look more like a cloud when approaching a surfaced sub.

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