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The Operation “Judgement” FAA Avenger is +++FINISHED with RFI Added+++


mark.au

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22 hours ago, mark.au said:


Hi Colin.  As you no doubt know, these paints are the consistency of toothpaste.  I squeeze out a suitable amount, usually directly into the airbrush pot and then thin with Windex.  I thin to the consistency of something between single cream and full fat milk.  Too thin and there’s typically not enough pigment to cover well, too thick and it won’t spray well.  I lean towards too thick as that gives good control on fine line work too.

 

If I am mixing colours I usually mix in the pot and check progress by spraying a patch on my white model bench.  The paint wipes away instantly with water.

 

I hope that helps, it’s not complicated and well worth a try with these paints, I find them to be very easy to use and able to withstand handling and masking.

Many thanks Mark, I'm always willing to try a new method and with a box full of acrylic paints, I'll give it a go. I also have a loco painting on the go, I may just get back to it with your method.

 

Colin

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Mark,

 

Looking splendid - I do like the green preshade and the uppers look spot on!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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Thanks gents.

 

I bought myself a present last night…

 

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It turned out that all my vinyl masks were the wrong size for an Avenger upper wing roundel so I pulled the trigger on tooling up to make my own.  A new learning journey with my Silhouette Portrait 3 will commence soon.

 

In the mean time I’ll change my plan a little and move on to painting the fuselage.

 

Cheers.

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Well, it’s mostly painted now.  
 

I decided to mask the white with blutack but otherwise I freehanded the camo.  Unlike the wings, I didn’t bother with a preshade as the TSS colours are dark enough that it wouldn’t be an effective technique to build texture; at least it wasn’t on the wings.  Instead, I post shaded with darker hues of the base colours.  As usual, I exaggerated the effect at this stage knowing it would ameliorate to a subtle variation under the subsequent treatments.

 

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When the scheme was complete and dry, only about 5 minutes after I finished painting (did I mention that another benefit of the artists paints is that they dry in minutes?), I removed the blutack and misted on a very light clear coat to seal the paint and prep for the markings masking to come.  
 

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Next task on the model will be the black anti-glare and then I’ll spend a bit of time learning the design software and cutting techniques with the Silhouette so that I can paint the markings.

 

Cheers.

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Mark, I'm very sorry but somehow I managed to miss this thread entirely; I shall follow it forthwith, as it looks like you're doing a cracking job on the old tub.  I'll be interested to see the results you get using your new present, too.

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On 3/10/2022 at 1:41 AM, AliGauld said:

That's just gorgeous.

It look like your turning out another masterpiece.

 

Thank you Alistair, there's plenty of time to bugger it up 🙂

 

On 3/10/2022 at 4:31 AM, Anthony in NZ said:

Plus 1!

My goodness that's beautiful!

 

Thanks Anthony, much appreciated

 

On 3/10/2022 at 4:48 AM, jackroadkill said:

Mark, I'm very sorry but somehow I managed to miss this thread entirely; I shall follow it forthwith, as it looks like you're doing a cracking job on the old tub.  I'll be interested to see the results you get using your new present, too.

 

Thanks JRK, I wasn't taking attendance but now you've made yourself known I shall be keeping an eye out to make sure you don't wander off 😄

 

On 3/10/2022 at 5:00 AM, bigbadbadge said:

Nice Paintwork Mark, it looks lovely.   Looking forward to seeing the markings go on when you figure out the cutter.

Great work 

Chris 

 

Thanks Chris, some progress on that front this evening.

 

13 hours ago, Fritag said:

Super and swift progress Mark.  And looking forward to earwigging on your progress with the Silhouette :D

 

Thank you sir, there's some progress to report on that front.

 

First thing this evening I completed the base paint work with the black anti-glare at the front and some clean up of one or two minor flaws in the camo.  Having kept the remainder of my mixes from last night's session I was able to complete the touch ups quite easily today.  Then, with the paint job completed I misted on another light clear coat and set the model aside to properly dry out and set.  Here's how it looks tonight;

 

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I'm actually really pleased with this one, it's exactly how I wanted it to look at this stage in the process. 

 

I spent the rest of the evening playing with my new toy.  First, I downloaded the free version of Silhouette's software called "Designer" and was ready to fork out the US$50 for the upgrade that most recommend.  I thought I'd see what I could do first though.  I found the software to be quite intuitive - I'm quite comfortable with image processing software and Designer is really no different.  The markings I need for this model are quite straightforward; the roundels, fin flash and squadron/aircraft codes.  I think the "ROYAL NAVY" and serial number, which are jammed on the tail fillet will be too small to cut a mask but I will try nonetheless.  Otherwise, there's only the airframe stencils and I'll use the decals for those.

 

After around an hour's effort I had this;

 

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It looked ok, it was the right size according to my calculations, there was nothing left to do except try and cut it.  I took the Portrait out of the box, set it up and plugged it in.  The Mac found it right away and after a quick check of the instructions I clicked on the "SEND" button and away it went.

 

The first cut was a bit shallow and the vinyl wasn’t cut all the way through.  I adjusted the cut depth form "1" to "2" and sent it again.  Here's the result (bear in mind that this is not the ideal vinyl, it's all I could buy for something to practice on - I've order some Oramask 810 from an outfit in Germany as it's impossible to find in Australia).

 

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These masks came away from the backing paper very easily.  In offering them up to the model they look to be the correct size, certainly they match the dimensions they measured in Designer.  While they aren't the ideal vinyl they might work for the upper wing roundels because it's a more or less flat surface; this vinyl is a little stiffer so I don’t think it will conform to the curved and detailed surfaces elsewhere on the kit.  Its tack is also a little stronger than the Oramask so I'll need to de-tack them a little before use but otherwise there's no reason I can think of not to try them.  

 

I'm really impressed with the usability of the Portrait and its software so far.  The whole experiment this evening, from design to cutting was around 90min and much of that was playing around in the software to see what it could do.  No doubt I'll run into the limitations of the free software at some point and will upgrade, but for simple shapes and letters such as I needed for this project the free version was perfectly adequate.

 

Cheers.

 

 

Edited by mark.au
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4 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Great start with the cutter too, you'll  save a lot of dosh on aftermarket decals.


Indeed.  I’m even more excited about the airframes I can build for which there aren’t any decals at all.  I suspect the learning curve starts when I begin to try to creat graphics and the like, outside of the norm of roundels and numbers/letters.  
 

There’s also the opportunity to cut vinyls and even sheet styrene to make structural elements for scratch building.  It won’t completely replace PE or even come close to what 3D printing can do, but it will offer additional options in the same space.

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Nice work Mark, your Avenger is looking really great! Cutting your own stencils is the way to go. I use a little Cricut Joy, which is great but it does have it's limitations so I will be interested to see how you go with the Silhouette. Because of the difficulties of finding Oramask in Oz I tend to use either sheets of paper masking tape (same stuff Tamiya tape is made of, bought from BNA) or Cricut makes a stencil vinyl which I use quite a bit & seems to work. Might give you some option's while waiting for the Oramask

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52 minutes ago, Volksjager said:

Because of the difficulties of finding Oramask in Oz I tend to use either sheets of paper masking tape (same stuff Tamiya tape is made of, bought from BNA) or Cricut makes a stencil vinyl which I use quite a bit & seems to work. Might give you some option's while waiting for the Oramask


I didn’t know BNA sold sheets of the Tamiya-type tape, that’s a great option, thank you.  The vinyl I bought is the Cricut vinyl, perhaps I’m being a bit hard on it considering I haven’t actually tried it on the model yet.

 

Thanks for the kind words, @CJP, I’m looking forward to how I go too.  So far quite impressed with the ease of use.

Edited by mark.au
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4 minutes ago, mark.au said:


I didn’t know BNA sold sheets of the Tamiya-type tape, that’s a great option, thank you.  The vinyl I bought is the Cricut vinyl, perhaps I’m being a bit hard on it considering I haven’t actually tried it on the model yet.

 

What you tested cut on is the silver stuff? You can get a clear stencil vinyl (has a faint grid printed on it as well) which is what I use myself, not as tacky and haven't had to much of an issue with it at all. Something like this:

 

https://www.spotlightstores.com/craft-hobbies/paper-craft/cricut-stencil-material/BP80421935-clear

 

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3 minutes ago, Volksjager said:

You can get a clear stencil vinyl (has a faint grid printed on it as well) which is what I use myself, not as tacky and haven't had to much of an issue with it at all. Something like this:

 

https://www.spotlightstores.com/craft-hobbies/paper-craft/cricut-stencil-material/BP80421935-clear

 

Ahh, that’s out of stock in all the ACT stores, I’ll order some in.  Thanks.

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I’m another looking forward to seeing the masks in action.  I’ve no doubt the painted markings will look great.  I sort of wish I’d got a Silhouette a year or two back - having just got an expensive new toy I’ll find it doubly hard to justify another for a while now :D

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3 hours ago, Fritag said:

having just got an expensive new toy I’ll find it doubly hard to justify another for a while now :D


There’s a business concept at play here, developed at the LSE and known as the Risky Business Principle, or RBP.  RBP says that in this scenario one must consider opportunity cost as well as impact to cashflow, and then factor in key stakeholder relationships before applying the final criteria of WtF and just do it anyway.

 

 

Edited by mark.au
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Today, I put my big boy pants on and did some scratch building for the wing fold.  The kit parts are bare plastic, something was needed to make it look like the wing could actually fold.  I went for a representation rather than a strict replication so it's not perfect, but I am quite pleased with it as my most complex scratch build effort to date.

 

First, reference and tie that Avenger down so I've got a solid work base.

 

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I used some brass tube, stretch sprue, thin wire, thicker wire, square plastic bar, half a Hurricane machine gun, and half of the other half.  It was fiddly and at times frustrating, but I ended up with this...

 

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Next, I painted using a generic dark grey.  There's a thread here:

 

...that comes to a sort of consensus that the colour would be the surface colour, so my generic grey was intact the same as the TSS grey.

 

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 Next, I replicated the overspray from when the white was painted.  I've seen this on a few contemporary photos of [re]painted Avengers so I thought it wouldn't look out of place here.  When applied it was a little stark, but subsequent treatments toned it down.

 

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Once painted, I added a grimy wash of my patented black goop and then dry brushed.

 

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And finally, a little chipping goes a long way to satisfy the look of a used machine.

 

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And that's it.  There's a couple of hours there, plus some time to paint, weather and finish off.   

 

I also did much of the prep work on the undercarriage, another session will have that ready to attach permanently.  However, I think that it would be prudent to wait until the markings are painted on as there will need to be a lot of handling while doing that and I don't want to break anything while I do so.

 

Cheers;

Mark.

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Neat work on the wingfold Mark. Always amazes me how it works in 2D on the drawing board and then in practice! I'm assuming lots of folded card models mixed with trial and error!

I'm glad I never worked on Sea Kings with all that electro-hydraulic gubbins!

I'm sure you'll put the mask cutter to full use.

 

Colin

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