Czech, mate! Avia B.534 Series I, Eduard 1/144

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Those Roundels are incredible. 

[marvinneko]

On 02/10/2025 at 04:18, Marklo said:

That looks really good, just a tiny touch up on the red and it’d be perfect 😀
 

Fr staff likecthat i usually inkjet print or punch and cut decl film Mind i have just bought a secondhand shillouette so repair for anew eta of painted markings from me 😀

 

Thanks, Mark. Yes, some touchups are in order. I hope you enjoy your Silhouette. I had brief access to a Cameo 3 awhile back and was very impressed when I slowed it down and had it lift between changing directions.

 

6 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Those Roundels are incredible. 

 

Thanks very much, Dennis!

 

Well the comments helped me decide to push on and so now I have two done out of the four big ones and two small ones I will need. I've damaged the outer mask but that's easily replaced.

 

From a distance doesn't look too bad. 

 

But it seems the wings are a bit wonky. Not sure what the culprit is. I applied some pressure in various directions and it seems twisted in the x-y plane.

 

Now I need a couple big roundels on lower wings. should be ok.

 

And somehow replicate this in less than half the size to fit the rudder 😛 . 

 

Is it "worth" all the fuss? Well, no silvering! 

[Learstang]

All my models look good from a distance, say about 200 yards. That's nice work on what must be a very small model.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[Marklo]

8 hours ago, marvinneko said:

Is it "worth" all the fuss? Well, no silvering! 

I’d say yes looks way better than decals.

[marvinneko]

23 hours ago, Learstang said:

All my models look good from a distance, say about 200 yards. That's nice work on what must be a very small model.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

 

Thanks, Jason! It's tiny and tonight's catastrophe is tinier by half!

 

14 hours ago, Marklo said:

I’d say yes looks way better than decals.

 

When it works 😛 

 

Well, as usual when I take things as far as I can, things go wrong.

Prepared for a half sized roundel for the rudder using a protractor and ruler

 

Masked up the whole beastie... that's a lot!

 

So this is after some sanding... it was a promising trial but I think a few things tripped me up.

 

Smaller scale but with same vinyl means more leaking risk I think... less material to go over the ridges

 

Smaller area meant airbrush was closer, so even 5psi was pushing harder on the surface

 

White and red paints needed some diluting just to shoot, but with a smaller area, the paint to water ratio was off... only one drop of paint!

 

This led to leakage.

 

But as a proof of concept, it had the three pie slices and the outer ring at <4mm diameter.

 

I did feel quite an intense frustration, so I put the beastie aside and wasted time on the Internet!

[Marklo]

Not terrible. Might I suggest these. I have a set and use them for precision touch ups

 

€1.50 | 5PCS Nail Art Pen, UV Gel Nail Brush Drawing Brush Manicure Set,Detail  Brush for Nail Art Design Nail Art Painting Tool Set
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EjQSD0i

 

[marvinneko]

19 hours ago, Marklo said:

Not terrible. Might I suggest these. I have a set and use them for precision touch ups

 

Thanks, Mark. Good suggestion. I did end up shaving a toothpick down to a fine splinter as a paint applicator, which helped!

 

So, yesterday I was quite bummed out but today I dug out some thinner vinyl and measured and cut new masks....

 

Placed the pie pieces and the surround mask and then masked everything up... yet again! Yes, you brush painters, go ahead and snicker 😛 

 

And I also masked up for one of the big bottom roundels...

 

Once painted, the tail roundels were still a highly imperfect situation, so I measured, cut and placed some covering circles to repair the khaki around them...

 

and I also shaved a toothpick down to a splinter to use as a brush to fix up the tail roundels... and I applied some brown on the "leather" around the cockpit

 

I'm getting toward the "live with it" stage... I did paint khaki stripes and copper on the prop but it doesn't show up much.

 

The under roundel turned out ok but could use a touchup for the blue ring.

 

Stopping for the evening.

 

So... I should take another kick at the prop stripes. Not sure why they didn't work. Perhaps because I laid down oil paint on the prop for the wood effect first? Um.... Yeah.

 

Also the other underwing roundel... 

 

Also need to choose spinner and wheel hub colours. 

 

Option A: stick with 6E trainer from photo and wait for vinyl cutter availability to finish 6E codes... Spinner doesn't look yellow. Could be red, green or blue. Eduard schemes have light green or blue which doesnt seem to fit the greyscale of my photo. Tempted to do a red spinner as a guess, and leave wheel hubs as a khaki? Or maybe red, too. Couldn't find info.

 

Option B: cave in and use kit squadron codes and paint spinner and wheel hubs yellow

[Marklo]

That looks pretty good to me.

 

Forgot to mention these. Bought from green stuff world.

 

And used in anger here. A bit fiddly to get going (probably my fault tbh) but worked a charm once setup. Much easier to do fine work than a brush.

[marvinneko]

18 hours ago, Marklo said:

That looks pretty good to me.

 

Forgot to mention these. Bought from green stuff world.

 

And used in anger here. A bit fiddly to get going (probably my fault tbh) but worked a charm once setup. Much easier to do fine work than a brush.

 

Thanks, Mark. Interesting concept!

 

Tonight I remasked the prop and painted the stripes and copper edging once again. This time I layered the darker interior green and then some green brown over top. I think this works much better. When it's cured I will take a polishing cloth to address any edging blips.

 

paint last roundel

paint guns

choose spinner and wheel hub colour and paint

fix skid and paint

windshield

4th reg decal?

squadron codes 6E paint or 10A decal?

oil wash weathering

fix rigging

[marvinneko]

Well, I finally got out to the library makerspace this weekend. The first go was a fail as the vinyl cutter only printed ink... wasted an hour. Second go worked fine. Which person is staffing the area makes quite a difference!

 

At the library used book shop, I picked up this item for the princely sum of $1! 

 

Today cut out my masks for the Avia and applied them.... I was super careful to consult the Eduard instructions... instead of my photo which was reversed on the codes. Sigh. I really cannot fathom why I prioritized the instructions.

 

Ah well... worked ok.

 

And the other side.... 

 

Then I carefully cut out the 4th regiment decals

 

And applied softener to them... not bad!

 

And the other one...

 

Based on my photo, the AI colorizer made the spinner red and the stripes on the prop reddish... but also a portion of the rudder. The rudder is turned slightly so I think the sun may be lighting it up. So that would mean lighter khaki/green turned red. The stripes on the prop are also supposed to be that khaki green. So I decided the spinner must be green. There is some evidence of green spinners on these planes apparently. So, masked and painted it and the wheel hubs a mix of blue and yellow.

 

Here you can also see the replacement skid I made for the one that broke off. These pix also show the oil wash I did in the panel lines, vents, gun area, etc.

 

You can see the tiny windshield... I lost one. The second one I dipped in quickshine, painted the framing with a toothpick, then used quickshine to glue it in place.

 

Well... I could still add the external gun camera. And try to fix the rigging.

 

Some paint has rubbed off the wing edges because that's where I grab it 🙄

 

So, the markings worked fine and I cut enough to finish my Oxford, add numbers to my Norseman, and do another bunch of planes in the future.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Excellent work on this, Hats off to you for the rigging in this scale. 

[marvinneko]

10 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Excellent work on this, Hats off to you for the rigging in this scale. 

 

Thanks very much. So much can be done, even at this tiny scale  

[marvinneko]

Today... my usual push until something breaks 🙄

 

This angle plus the lighting is brutal

 

This angle is more forgiving... Added a gun camera (lost the first one so made a second)

 

Reglued some rigging, tried tinting the rigging a bit metallish. These extra pushes resulted in some damage as my attention would be focused on tinting the rigging, not noticing damage to paint elsewhere. Cleaned up best I could.

 

...somehow prop tip paint is damaged, too.

 

Painted rear facing framing of windshield which was glaring and shiny. Reglued it as the quickshine didn't work. Windshield is way too thick on the edges. Adrianmf would probably scratch up an acetate version.

 

The places I would grab on wingtips and fin tip... paint worn....

 

Promising.... but results really come down to more attention to avoiding causing damage when I get focused on some exciting tweak.

I can probably fix the paint issues with some careful, low PSI airbrushing.

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Darn you're an absolute artist. Well done

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

2 hours ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

Darn you're an absolute artist. Well done

Yes he is. 
 

well done @marvinneko that is some impressive work and a lovely finish. 

[marvinneko]

4 hours ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

Darn you're an absolute artist. Well done

 

That's very kind, thanks. It's amazing what can be done at 1/144. 

 

1 hour ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Yes he is. 
 

well done @marvinneko that is some impressive work and a lovely finish. 

 

Thanks, Dennis. I appreciate the comment. I could have tweaked more but ran out of gas 😛 

 

I don't know if it's as artistic, but my Oxford was just finished, too.