A flash of clean light hope (1/72 J F Edwards Kittyhawk I)

[jackroadkill]

Man, even Airfix managed to get a not too badly cranked pitot into their P-40.  Shame on you, Special Hobby, shame on you!

[Steve Coombs]

3 hours ago, Procopius said:

So, test mule! 

 

On the left side (the starboard wing, puzzle that one out in your minds), we have red, yellow, and blue "Oilbrushers", a product I've never gotten the hang of, blended together. On the right side/port wing, we have yellow, ochre, and a sort of pale blue-grey oils blended with a brush and light use of thinners. Verdicts from the judges?

 

 

 

Port wing, definitely. It's a desert bird and needs to look a touch faded/dusty.

[Procopius]

Here goes nothing.

 

 

I broke down and watched some youtube tutorials on this, something I absolutely hate doing -- all information should be imparted by clearly written instructions, possibly also diagrams -- and the technique that I found that worked best was to take a broad flat brush with no thinner on it and just slowly blend the oils into the wing. 

 

I suffer from overexuberance -- something almost nobody who knows me would believe, as I generally have the diffident air of a man recently stunned with a brick. But what this means for the model is that I did a whole lot of this backwards, like attempting some panel line stuff after this, or having already applied pigment weathering, which was all swept away, super genius that I am. This meant there was a lot of duplicative effort as I had to go back over parts. 

 

My goal was to replicate the sort of sun-beaten look the upper surfaces of aircraft in the desert, and you may either praise me or loudly suck upon your teeth as you see fit. I have no pride and no dignity, hit me with your best shot.

 

 

 

 

 

In other news, introduced Winston to a piece of classic cinema yesterday:

 

 

He found the talky bits with Kenneth More and Dana Wynter pretty thin gruel, but perked up for the Swordfish, which he was quite taken by, and was appropriately pleased when HM battleships King George V and Rodney turned up to fall on Bismarck like ten tons of bricks. 

 

[Learstang]

For what it's worth, PC, I didn't shriek out 'There is no God!', then try to gouge my eyes out (which would have been unsuccessful as I wear glasses due to lousy genetics), when I saw the end result. Looks pretty good to me. That parti-coloured first photograph was a bit of a shock, but I think it's turned out well. Nice to see that Winston has become a Stringbag fan - he won't grow out of that. I never did.

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

Edited November 14, 2022 by Learstang
Additional comment added.

[Stew Dapple]

I'd be very happy with that mate  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[perdu]

You have done so well I had better try it out myself, that really works well.

 

Colour me impressed, not with puce though please

 

Great post Edward

[Stew Dapple]

1 hour ago, perdu said:

Colour me impressed, not with puce though please

 

Not even little dots, blended in, Bill?  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Procopius]

And of course, after searching fruitlessly for good reference photos, I found this great one of P-40 weathering:

 

 

 

[Procopius]

This hasn't happened in a while, but I was so excited today after looking through everyone's Telford posts (it sounds melodramatic, but I spent most of covid deathly worried for all of you -- I'm not a young man anymore myself, and our hobby skews older, so both you and I live within one of the many zones of vulnerability -- and that 2019 was the last time I would see any of you alive) that I crept into the grotto and did some more work. I used a bit of sponge to add some dots of Tamiya LP-11 silver, then over that, some more dots of Colourcoats zinc chromate yellow, to try and artlessly simulate chipping down to and through the factory primer coat. 

 

 

I was less happy with it when I saw it in person, but the addition of a thin sliver of natural light penetrating through the basement window, occluded as it is by leaves I never rake up, seems to have enabled my cell phone camera to finally get a good handle on the colours, and I think the specks look OK now. If anyone knows of some doubtless overpriced-but-designed-for-it sponge for weathering models, please let me know!

 

 

 

[Hook]

1 hour ago, Procopius said:

I think the specks look OK now.

As you should - she looks pretty good from here.

1 hour ago, Procopius said:

If anyone knows of some doubtless overpriced-but-designed-for-it sponge for weathering models, please let me know!

I just cut up a regular kitchen scouring sponge, because I'm Dutch and therefore required by law to be frugal as dirt.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Procopius]

1 minute ago, Hook said:

I just cut up a regular kitchen scouring sponge, because I'm Dutch and therefore required by law to be frugal as dirt.

 

So fun fact: many years ago now, I did some live-in babysitting during the summer for an American patent attorney and her husband, who was a Dutch chemist (they met through work, for where do the seeds of love sprout more readily than during complex litigation?), and he remains, to this day, the only Dutch person I have ever met in the flesh. And quite a bit of the flesh, for, as I assume all continentals do, he would stride (he was immensely tall) through his house in the morning in nothing but a speedo-style pair of briefs. I don't know if he intended it, but it was an amazing way of asserting dominance. 

[jackroadkill]

She's looking grand, Edward.  Out of all the builds I've done with any "proper" weathering, my P-40 copped it the worst; pre-shading, post-shading, filtering coats, chipping, staining etc etc.  It's not something I enjoy that much but in that case I loved it and was pleased with my results.  I think you should feel the same way about yours.

[AliGauld]

It all looks great from my side of the pond.

Very nicely done.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Fritag]

13 hours ago, Procopius said:

you may either praise me or loudly suck upon your teeth as you see fit

 

Could I maybe acknowledge it in a more, well, British sort of way?  Not bad PC, not bad at all.  There, as an adept, you know to upgrade it’s effusiveness when translating into North American 

[stevehnz]

Its looking a bit good mate. 👍

Steve.

[Procopius]

30 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

Its looking a bit good mate. 👍

 

 

46 minutes ago, Fritag said:

 

Could I maybe acknowledge it in a more, well, British sort of way?  Not bad PC, not bad at all.  There, as an adept, you know to upgrade it’s effusiveness when translating into North American 

 

I've been saving this, as Wellington did with his knowledge of the ground at Waterloo, in my hip pocket for just such an occasion. 

 

 

The truthfulness of these can be verified for yourself by a perusal of any thread in the Rumourmonger section, particularly ones dealing with aircraft used by the former Soviet bloc.

 

[Fritag]

Jeepers.  It seems I’m Australian…

[Procopius]

1 minute ago, Fritag said:

Jeepers.  It seems I’m Australian…

I've prepared a short instructional film to help you adjust to your new life. 

 

 

[jackroadkill]

42 minutes ago, Procopius said:

I've been saving this, as Wellington did with his knowledge of the ground at Waterloo, in my hip pocket for just such an occasion.

 

Hmmm, seeing as you've forgotten to include an important demographic, I've done the Welsh curve for you:

 

[mark.au]

I may speak for the Australians in saying we’ll just wait till you all go to sleep before commenting on the foregoing.  Mate.

[stevehnz]

Yea well, a bit good, right on the cusp of pretty good & good in the first curve, so not too bad really.  

Steve.

[Procopius]

1 hour ago, mark.au said:

I may speak for the Australians in saying we’ll just wait till you all go to sleep before commenting on the foregoing.  Mate.

That has to be the most threatening "mate" I've been on the receiving end of.

[dogsbody]

From the Canadian version of English:

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

[mark.au]

18 minutes ago, Procopius said:

That has to be the most threatening "mate" I've been on the receiving end of.

We have two words in particular that are multipurpose depending on the inflection (which is very hard to represent in written form).  One of them is “mate” which can mean anything from a term of endearment to a threat (it wasn’t, in this case, a threat; more of a challenge accepted  ).  The other begins with “c” and is equally versatile if less family-friendly.

[Procopius]

God dammit.

 

 

Despite my best efforts, spraying the camo for the quarterlights fouled the interior of the sliding hood.