Airbrushing - How hard can it be?

[Marlin]

Hi.  

I'm now going to start using my newly bought Grex Airbrush. 
245 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr

I've been pondering on what I would build to have something to paint. 
One of the first new colour sets I bought was a set with Russian green colours from AK Interactive. 
257 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr

So the first build will be something Soviet/Russian. 
029 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
Takom doublepack with one KZKT-537L and one MAZ-537 in 1/72.
But what are two tractors doing in the aircraft section?
Well these two tractors belonged to the Soviet Airforce, used for marshalling aircrafts around the airfields and pulling weapon and tank traliers.

What you get in the box are.
030 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
1½ sprue of chassi parts.
2 identical sprue with the suspension.

031 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
2 more sprues with chassi parts. 
2 identical cabs, moulded in one piece.
2 identical clear parts sprues, containing doors, window, lights etc. 
And a bag of licorice rings, no wheels.  

032 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
Decals and a few PE parts. 

And now we come to the aircraft related part of the build. 
A tractor must have something to pull. 
And me being me, I thought I'd put the most powerful weapon ever created behind the tractor. 
A trailer with an AN620 "Tsar Bomba" nuke. 
033 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr

The bombs are approx 13 cm in 1/72, which translates to around 9,5 meters in reality.
034 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
In 1961 did the Soviets test a "downgraded" version of Tsar Bomba and that detonation is still the largest one ever created. 
It's estimated that the yield was around 50-57 Megatonnes. 
The "war" version of the bomb would have had a yield of 100 MT.  

The model is from Amodels and will have to categorized as a short run kit, with all work that comes that. 
The frame for carrying the bomb on the trailer has sink marks in every joint. 
035 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
036 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr

The kit contains five more sprues.
038 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr

The instruction includes a diagram if you would like to load a Tu-95 with the bomb
039 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
And you can build the bomb in two different version, one representing the muséum piece, and one wear-shot.
I'll build the war-shot. 

So lets get started. 
First a lot of putty on the frame to get rid of the sink marks. 
040 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr

And then I glued up the bombs halves. 
041 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr

To be continued.....
/Bosse 
 

[Bertie McBoatface]

This is an interesting start to something. I’m intrigued. 
 

and best of luck with the spraying. It’s something I struggled with for years. I was a slow learner! I couldn’t work without it now though. 

[Marlin]

Thanks Bertie.  

/Bosse

[Andy350]

Good luck with the build.  It's taken me a while and three AB's to get a result I was happy with.

[Marlin]

Thanks Andy.

 

I found a picture online that show the size of this insantiy. 

 

/Bosse

[Andy350]

1 minute ago, Marlin said:

Thanks Andy.

 

I found a picture online that show the size of this insantiy. 

 

/Bosse

That is ridiculously big!!!  Just googled it, 27,000 kg.

[Wouter1981]

Good luck with the airbrush. Airbrushing isn't very hard to learn, but is really hard to master. But with basic skills, you can achieve a lot in this hobby. I'm barely above airbrush beginner level but have a few tips I learned the hard way:

-Stick with 1 or 2 good paint brands and try to improve your skill. Never used AK paints, but heard a lot of good about them. If you struggle with them, you probably do something wrong. Thin to much or not enough, wrong airpressure, wrong thinner, dirty airbrush,... 
-Experiment what works for you. I use Revell aqua and thin them a lot more than Revell advises. It works for me, but for other people it could be to thin.
-What  you do before painting is often more important than painting itself. If you see a flaw in your primer, you probably won't be able to hide it while airbrushing, often it gets worse. If you see dust before painting, you'll see it after painting.
-Clean clean clean. No matter the paint, airpressure, thinning ratio,skill... if the nozzle is dirty, you'll get bad results.
-Thin layers... If you think you probably sprayed to thick, you probably have done exactly that.

 

 

 

[Marlin]

Thanks for the tips Wouter1981

/Bosse

[Andy350]

Looks like a great AB, I've not heard of this brand before.  I picked up a new AB, spent £130, and glad I did, did think about getting a pistol grip.  Be interested to see how you get on with it.  One of the biggest issues I had, was with the dry tip problem, every AB gets it.  I just thought that it was a problem with the AB and/or paint.

[Marklo]

Airbrushing isn’t that difficult but if the paint mix isn’t right and  the airbrush isn’t set properly it can be horribly frustrating.

 

I  recommend two books on the subject

 

https://www.bookdepository.com/Airbrushing-and-Finishing-Scale-Models-Brett-Green/9781846031991?redirected=true&utm_medium=Google&utm_campaign=Base2&utm_source=IE&utm_content=Airbrushing-and-Finishing-Scale-Models&selectCurrency=EUR&w=AFFPAU963QG89ZA8VTC8&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-OSjktXj9wIV2N_tCh2xfARgEAQYASABEgIIuPD_BwE
 

and 

 

https://www.bookdepository.com/Airbrushing-Scale-Model-Aircraft-Robin-Carpenter/9781785004759?ref=grid-view&qid=1652691996899&sr=1-1
 

Both of which I found invaluable 

 

AMW also ran a series last year on basic techniques.

 

I have 4 airbrushes an Ian iwata, a Kkmoon, a fashion4u and another no name clone, ironically the Kkmoon is my workhorse wit occasional use if the iwata.

 

My airbrushing routine is as follows

 

1. put some water or thinners ( depending on the paint you’re using) in the cup and make sure the airbrush is spraying properly.

 

2. add the paint into the cup and make sure all is well 

 

3. paint the item.

 

4. empty out the excess paint and wipe out the cup with tissue or a lint free cloth

 

5. Spray some airbrush cleaner through the airbrush. Windowlene/windex works well with acrylics 

 

6. periodically strip s as me deep clean the airbrush, both books cover this, there are also some good YouTube videos on this as well.

 

 

 

Finally I’d add that I find airbrushing very satisfying and there are so many effects and finishes that you just can’t achieve by other means. As your build is an AFV and a single colour take s look at colour modulation.

[Marlin]

Thanks Gents.

All tips I can get are valuable, so keep them coming. 

 

/Bosse

[Mike]

Popped that in the AFV section, as although the bomb travels through the air, it's not an aircraft

[Marlin]

OK Mike, it was worth a try.

/Bosse

[2lefthands]

Maybe you will have to buy a classic airbrush too for the very fine, subtle work in the future. The pistol grip seems to work better for covering areas?

 

Aside of all the good tips above, here are my two cents: install an airbrush holder around your workplace! So many times i had the model in one gloved hand and the AB in the other and a problem occured.

If you thin your colour within the AB cup, hold a towel or paper to close the nozzle to mix your paint with the help of air...if the mix is too thick, it will spatter, if not: you`re ready to go.

[sardaukar]

Interesting build will be following along. lots of good advice on the airbrush, all I'd add is that .2mm is quite fine for airbrushing, so if you have problems spraying primer or any thicker coats you may have to thin more, and give it a good cleaning after.

[Marlin]

Thanks  @2lefthands and @sardaukar   

As for the needle in my airbrush, I bought it with a 0,3mm needle and I also got the 0,2mm conversion kit for it. 
Grex also sells conversion kits for a 0,5 and a 0,7mm needle. 
So with the change of needle size I can have 4 variants in one tool. 

Yesterday I continued to glue of the humongous bomb. 
First I cut of the smaller museum nose cone. 
042 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
Quite thick plastic in this kit.

And then, what seemed like forever, I sanded down the nose part of the bomb until I got the right diameter for the new larger nosecone.
043 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr

And finally I glued the brake parachute in place.
044 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr

I'll be continuing to sand, putty and adding the fins on the bomb during the coming days. 
I want to have it finished by Friday, so I can use the weekend for testing my airbrush. 
I'll also build up the chassis of the tractors so I can prime them as well during the weekend. 

To be continued.....
/Bosse

[Marlin]

Hi.  

I found some benchtime yesterday evening before Sweden had a hockeygame against Great Brittain in the World Championsship in Finland. Sweden won the game 6-0.

I've now glued one of the tractor chassis together. 
045 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
It'll be around 13-14cm long when completed. 

And for being in 1/72 it's quite well detailed. 
046 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
Lots of drive shafts, gear boxes etc. 

This is the first Takom kit I've built, and I really like their very small spruegates which gives a minimal work of cleaning up the parts. 
Quite the opposite of the Amodel kit.  

To be continued.....
/Bosse 

[Marlin]

Hi.  

I've been doing some more work on my tractors and Tsar Bomba during the weekend. 
Almost all that can be glued before painting has been glued. 
The chassis looks great. 
047 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
048 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
049 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
The second chassi is also done, but no picture of it. 

The lorry platform to the KZKT variant. 
050 by Bosse Persson, on Flick

The bomb trailer did almost brake me. 
The beams on the underside are made up of a collection of parts that absolutely didn't fit together at all. 
I had to cut, file and sand every one of them to get them together.
051 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr

There are going to be some beams on the top side as well. 
052 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
I started on them yesterday, but I only got one of them in place. 
The rest of them has some nasty sink holes that I had to fil before I cant continue. 

I don't think I'll have that much time to work on these during the week, must get my Taiwanese F-16 and Japanese F-2 done before Sunday. 
But perhaps I'll bring it and the airbrush with me to the cottage during this weeks long weekend. 
To be continued.....
/Bosse

[JeroenS]

Some cool trucks Bosse!

 

Trying to sneak them into aircraft section, ha! 😉

[Marlin]

Thanks Jeroen.

Well they're aircraft related so it was worth a try.

 

/Bosse

[Marlin]

Hi guys, it's been awhile since the last update.  
I'd planned to spray this during the summer at the cottage, but life got in the way and nothing happened. 
But we're back in our apartment since two months back and I've been able to set up a temporary spray booth in the kitchen. 
Well booth might be an  overstatement, it's actually an empty moving box. 

Yesterday I received a delivery of my for AK Real Color pots, and I put some Russian Green and black on all parts that was ready for painting. 
053 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
054 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
055 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
056 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr
057 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr

I seem to have got a good coverage with the paint, and I hope that I'll find some time during the weekend to continue working on these two, and the Tsar Bomba. 
But I'll have to find the box for the bomb and the trailer, all boxes isn't unpacked yet.  

To be continued.....
/Bosse

[JeroenS]

Nice work Bosse. I hope your kitchen is not green as well now.

[Marlin]

Thanks Jeroen.

I've not re-sprayed the kitchen yet,

And I've only sprayed the box so far. 

But I must remember to put the lid on the paint cup after loading it with paint.

I did have a small accident with that yesterday, but thankfully I only spillt a drop of paint on the piece of kitchen roll  I had beside me.

 

/Bosse

[Marlin]

Hi.  

I've just started to play with my new AK Xtreme Metal colours and Tsar Bomba will act as my test subject before I start spraying natural metal aircrafts. 

I've primed the bomb with AK Xtreme Metal primer (black) with micro filler, and the sprayed their Black base to get a shiny surface.
Black Base is just a regular gloss black enamel.
058 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr

I've then sprayed two coats in the middle section of the bomb with Polished Aluminium.
I must say that I'm rather pleased with the end.

I still have two other colours to spray, so it'll take some time before we can see the end result. 
To be continued.....
/Bosse

[Keeff]

This is looking good Bosse.  Your skills with the airbrush aren't bad and you've achieved a nice finish.  👍

 

Keith  😁