Academy Models P-47D Thunderbolt - Part IV

Well, this project has turned into something of an adventure, and I don't mean it in a good way. If previous stage was a learning experience in respect of usage of Alclad2 metalic lacquers, the stage that followed gave me a valuable lesson in regard of how paints from different manufacturers interact with each other.

In theory, once the aluminium finish was applied, painting stage of this project should have been practically finished. All that remained was the anti-glare olive drab stripe on the top of the fuselage and red edging at the front of engine cover. I decided to apply the olive stripe first. Masking the correct shape turned out to be much trickier that I expected, but after some trial and error I managed to tape off a shape that looked satisfactory. Next time, I will make my life a bit easier and will first make a paper template which I will the be able to use forboth sides of the stripe, instead of eyeballing it. Extra effort maybe, but at least the shape will be guaranteed uniform on both sides.

Couple of words regarding the paint I used for the anti-glare stripe, the Olive Drab "acrylic" from Tamiya. Yet another paint from that producer that behaved wonderfully when airbrushed - absolutely smooth finish with a bit of thinning and a delight in regard of control. I must say that Tamiya paints are quickly becoming my favorites when it comes to airbrushing, with LifeColor and Vallejo Air in second place and Humbrol as a distant third choice. It's such a shame that Tamiya's color range is so limited.

Final detail that I wanted to paint with the airbrush was the red 'edging' on the engine cover. Foolishly I decided to mask only the part of the component - after all all it would take would be a quick pass with the airbrush. Wrong! The Humbrol acrylic paint I used for the job (Crimsom Gloss 29) turned out to have very poor coverage and several layers were required to cover the olive drab stripe at the top. Due to lacking control of the airbrush and mounting frustration, I managed to overspray the masking in several places. This meant that I now had to mask of the red edging before correcting my mistakes. Said and done... the only problem was that when I removed the masking tape covering the red paint, the section that was sprayed over the Tamiya Olive Drab followed along with the tape like some sort of latex skin. I don't think I need to describe my frustration at that time.

Luckily, I was able to remove all of the Humbrol paint from the engine cover with my fingernails before more or less starting from scratch. This time around I applied red paint directly on the Alclad metalic and then resprayed the olive drab stripe.

After letting the paint dry for a couple of hours, I've decided to do 'just a little' work on the decals. The most prominent decal for this particular model is a head of an Indian chief, covering the left side of engine cover and fuselage. To fit, the decal had to be cut in two pieces before applying. I marked the outline of the engine cover on the backside of the decal, cut it in two and put the parts in appropriate positions. I was a bit surprised over how easy it went... I was also quite disappointed in the quality of the decal - its white sections are translucent', clearly showing the deep red of underlying surface. The problem is consistent for all decals for this kit, white sections show through quite a bit. It's a shame, because otherwise it's an excelent set of decals, with vivid colors and resilient to handling. Also, Microset and Microsol seem to work with them rather well.

Oh well... once the indian head was in place I decided to apply 'just a couple more decals'. Three and half hour later, even the most miniscule decals were in place.

Academy Models P-47D Thunderbolt - Part III

So... with the airplane body put together, primed and pampered to the smoothness level same as that of a toddler's behind, I was ready to turn plastic into pure aluminium... or at least give it that desired bare metal-finish! Alclad2 Airframe Aluminium bottle was firmly shaken, its magic... eh, I mean metal particle were agitated. The paint was poured into the paint container of my trusty Badger 150 and I nervously pressed down its trigger.

I've read in one of the articles dealing with Alclad2 lacquers that one was supposed to keep the first coat very light, let it dry and then apply the second, final coat after 10-15 minutes. Well, I don't know if I should call my first pass with the airbrush as very light, after all my control of the airbrush is still rather hamfisted. Still, I was quite pleased with myself once I was finished - first signs of very nice metallic look were clearly visibile. And those scratches and small spatter dropplets would surely be covered by the final coat.

Well... once I was done with the second, heavier coat, four facts became visible to me, and I don't mean metaforically; they were really visble. First and foremost, my polishing of the the primer left a lot to be desired and resulted in a very uneven finish of the metallic paint. Second, any scratches on primed surface are 'reproduced' on the metallic surface. Third, airbrush spatter dropplets will not be covered by the subsequent lacquer coats. Fourth, working with Alclad2 isn't as easy as they want to make you believe!

In vain hope that the rather unpleasing finish would be improved with additional coats of Alclad, I sprayed on both a third and fourth coat within 24 hours of each other. Parts of the airplane where the primer was properly smoothed took on a very pleasing aluminium shine, but those with a bit rougher initial finish remained grayish and less shiny. Additional coats had no effect on scratches and spatter spots. In a final desperate effort, I sprayed two light coats of Alclad gloss varnish, hoping that its uniform shine would even things out - that step helped a little in respect of overall finish, but I was still not very pleased with final result.

I admit that I was very tempted to take the easy way out, grab the Aluminium spraycan from Tamiya and spray it over the unsatisfactory Alclad. However, not knowing how the two paints would react with each other - after all, Alclad is a lacquer and God only knows what content of Tamiya's brush cans is really based on (I'm pretty sure though that it isn't a purely acrylic). More importantly though, the mishap with Alclad was an honest mistake and part of a learning  process. So, better to keep the 70 percent satisfactory job for future reference and hopefully as bottom of measuring stick of future improvement.

Pictures below (in pairs) show the model after first, second and final coat with Alclad's gloss varnish on top.

Academy Models P-47D Thunderbolt - Part II

A quick update on progress of Thunderbolt project. As is customary, the first step was dedicated to the cockpit. The detail level is on par or a little better than that in recent offerings from Airfix - nicely detailed floor (although apparently incorrect for that specific type), a bit of detailing on the sides and simple, but adequate pilot seat. One detail that is different is the instrument panel - a truly lovely little piece of plastic with instruments engraved with surprising detail. In my opinion a much nicer alternative to the decals.

Since I intend to have the cockpit in the closed position, I didn't spend much effort on the interior. Cockpit green was sprayed everywhere with the exception of the instrument panel, while the detailing on the sides was picked out with a mix of black and german grey. The instrument panel was painted with same mix and when dry, slightly drybrushed with silver. As a last step, I filled in the instrument displays with gloss varnish, although I have to be honest and admit that in this scale it was a bit of a wasted effort.

With cockpit finished, it was time to put the model together. This step is idiot-proof and very simple. Grand total of six tightly fitting components produces a very nice Thunderbolt airframe.

Next it was time to proceed with the paint job, which is the main reason for me picking up this kit at this time. Since this particular Thunderbolt has mainly bare metal finish, it gives me the opportunity to try out these fancy Alclad2 lacquers everybody is raving about.

Couple of words about Alclad lacquers. First of all... well... they're laqcuers, a medium I have zero experience of and quite wary of. After all, anything that can only be cleaned up with cellulose thinner is guaranteed to be nasty stuff.

Oh well... who dares wins and all that. I've read up on Alclad lacquers on the net and was aware of the fact that black primer was a necessary first step. I used Alclad's own primer - my Badger 150 with 0,3mm needle didn't have any problems handling that paint, but cleanup was something of a nightmare. Anyway, the primer handles very well, dries very quickly to a mate finish. Having read that the finish of the primer is decisive for the final result, I took the extra mile and spent some time polishing the areas I could get to with 10.000 grade polishing sponge stick.

Academy Models P-47D Thunderbolt - Part I

Time for another first for me - this Thunderbolt is my very first model from Academy Models. I was aware of the company already in my teens, but for some reason I always thought that it was a second tier company. It's a good thing that I finally decided to grab a couple of their models, because the impression of this kit straight out of the box is very positive.

When comparing this kit with what I am used to get from Airfix, even their latest offerings, two words come to mind - delicate and basic. Individual components are beautifully moulded, with very nice recessed panel lines. Cockpit, instrument panel and wheels can best be described as functional, but not entirely deprived of detail. Construction process seems very traditional and straight-forward - based on initial impressions it could be a very nice beginner kit. I also appreciate the inclusion of a very nice selection of armament and external fuel tanks.

If a weak spot is to be pointed based only on initial inspection, then it's this kit's engine. Real world 'Jugs', as P-47s were called, were famous for their huge rotary engines. The engine included in this kit is surprisingly small, so much so that even I who normally am very insensitive to this sort of discrepancies raised an eyebrow in bewilderment.

Airfix Junkers Ju87B - Part V

At the time of last post not much remained left to do with the Stuka. With paint job done, the entire model was sprayed with gloss varnish in preparation for decals. The decals themselves are of excellent quality and I had no problems with them. However, I was a little disappointed with Airfix not supplying any decals for airbrakes (at least that's what I think they are), which overlap the crosses on lower wing surfaces. This omission had to be remedied with white and black paint and some fiddly paintbrush work - a step that I would have gladly skipped.

Once decals were in place, another coat of gloss coat was airbrushed over entire model with dual purpose of securing/protecting the decals and as preparation for weathering phase. After giving the varnish 24 hours to cure properly, I "went to town" with all new weathering products from AK Interactive that I've gotten at C4 Open. Under assumption that Stukas would be worked hard from field airfields, I wanted its lower surfaces to be rather dirty and abused. AK Interactive's enamel weathering fluids seemed perfect for that - Grime streaks, Fresh mud, Dark mud were all applied randomly and then wiped out with turpentine, leaving smudges in various dark grey and brown shades. Next I gave the pigments a shot - black and dark brown was applied to upper surfaces and then wiped away with a soft brush. I won't claim achieving the most realistic visual effects, but the Stuka now did look like it's been worked hard. Couple of light coats of Testor's Dullcoate sealed my efforts and gave the model a nice, almost flat finish.

After that, the only the cockpit canopy required my attention. This part is absolutely the weakest part of the kit - not only is it thick and lacking detail (circular framing around rear gunner's machine gun is completely missing), it is also blemished by two ejector pin marks on the inside of the canopy. Since we're talking about clear plastic, not much can be done about these. I didn't bother with masking and painted the framing with 000-brush, carefully 'erasing' any mistakes with a toothpick as i went along. A time-consuming process, especially with very thin Lifecolor paints, but the end result is adequate. With paint job in place, the canopy was glued in place, an antenna made of stretched sprue was mounted in place and I was done.

Considering the age of this model, it was a surprisingly smooth and enjojable build. This is third of 'old' Airfix kits that I gave a shot (lumpy Hurricane and very frustrating and aborted Handley Hampden being the other two) and in my humble opinion the only one worth the effort. True, the kit is simple and maybe somewhat crude, but it does make a very pleasing kit when finished.

Airfix Junkers Ju87B - Part IV

In last update for Airfix Stuka project, I reached to masking of the upper surfaces of the model. Since this is supposed to be a Ju-87 from 1940, we are talking about the notorious German splinter cammo in two green tones, which in my opinion was created with one specific purpose - to drive modelers insane. If my theory is correct, then by all means, congratulations to Germany - goal acomplished! Something around three hours were required to apply the mask and the result left a lot to be desired. Luckily, the cammo scheme has hard edges, so any paint bleeding beneath the masking tape was easily fixed with a conventional brush.

Once the cammo was in place, I've decided to put on all the 'extras' - fuel tanks, wheels ,propeller and the rest of the small details that stick out and tend to easily break off during the building/painting phase. There were fitting problems with a couple of these components. Worst of all was the gap between the wings and undercarriage, which required plenty of putty to cover. Propeller assembly had similar issues and I'd recommend careful dry-fitting and suitable corrections of these components (filing and sanding) before starting with the paint job.

Still, even with those minor hiccups, the final building/painting/corrections  step was accomplished without any mahor problems and all of the sudden, there she was - a proper Stuka, minus the cockpit.

Masking applied, ready for final spray of Swarzgrün.

My first attempt at paint job of propeller cover.
Need more practice.

Masks removed and mistakes corrected with a brush.

The belly of the beast, fully equipped.

The (inevitable) pledge

Last week's visit to C4 Open has put me into slightly reflective mood - seeing all these great models had made me very happy over the fact that I have returned to the hobby. At the same time it made me take stock of my personal 'achievements' and led me to what I suspect is the same conclusion every modeller sooner or later arrives to - there are too many models and too little time.

What am I driving at, you may wonder. Well... when I started to build that Spitfire I from Airfix, I figured that I would be able to complete on average one model per month. One look at my display shelf is enough to know that my productiveness is much lower than I thought it would be - there are at the moment six completed models there and the Stuka I'm currently working on should be ready within a week or two. That's less than a model per two months.

During same period of time, I've been going through something of a shopping spree and bought a shedload of models. I don't have the exact number available to me, but if I had to guess I'd say that I've gotten 20+ Airfix models and about the same number from the other 'usual suspects'. And that's just the airplane models, another 20+ boxes containing models of 1/72 tanks fill the remaining space in my drawers, storage boxes and shelves.

So what's the problem, you say? Probably nine out of ten people in this hobby are having exactly same problem, right? Some of you may even say that 60+ models in the pipeline is small potatoes!I'm sure you're right on all accounts. Still, the idea of just hoarding those boxes is nagging me a bit. Buying in itself isn't the point of this hobby, it's the building!

And so, with that in mind , I am making a personal pledge to my self - from now on it's 'build two before buying another one'. My hope is that it will have twofold effect; first of all that it will make me build models at quicker rate. After all, there are so many models I still want to get. :-) And second, I think that this self imposed restriction will force me to think a bit more about what I'm getting. No more impulse buys, just the stuff that I really want.

 I know that this promise has all the traits of New Year's Eve promise - it's a bit silly and it will be very easy to 'forget' it. In a year I intend to run another 'State of the hobby'-evaluation and we'll see how it went.

C4 Open 2013

It's the end of October and this means one thing - it's time for yet another C4 Open exhibition. For those of you who don't know what C4 Open is (which would be pretty much everybody outside of south-western Sweden and Copenhagen), it's an annual modelling exhibition that takes place at Technical Museum in Malmö. It's also a great opportunity to spend a lot of money on models and modelling supplies.

I could also put it in simple terms and simply say that C4 Open is the closest thing one comes to Nirvana if you're into this hobby and live in the area.

It has become something of a custom of mine to take a bunch of pictures from every installment of C4 Open. This year was no different and I have now selected a selection of best pics from this year's exhibition. Hope you'll enjoy them.

Airfix Junkers Ju87B - Part III

Well, work on the Stuka continues slowly but surely and by now it's actually possible to see that it'st a Junkers 87. After all, that "broken" wing profile is pretty much instantly identifiable.

As can be seen in the pictures below, by now I'm done with most of the assembly process.I didn't encounter any major issues, with the exception of the slight misalignment between the fuselage halves, which was relatively easily fixed with a file and some putty. I was a bit overeager in this step, which resulted in substantial gap between fuselage and engine cover, but since it was 'self-inflicted' damage, I can't really complain about it. A bit of care and dry-fitting is advised, but any mistakes can be fixed with some putty. Couple of rivets and panel lines were filed off during the cleanup, but I guess that this is unavoidable with these older models with raised details.

Overall, the assembly went without major hiccups. Indeed, I was a bit surprised over how quickly I reached the stage where I could prime the model in preparation for the paint job.

Model primed and ready for paint

Lower surfaces preshaded and painted with RLM65 Helblau from Lifecolor.
The model was then masked in preparation of the paint job of upper surfaces.

Airfix Junkers Ju87B - Part II

As usual, the Stuka project starts with the cockpit. There really isn't much to write about this step, as the cockpit of this kit would make a Spartan proud -  with the exception of a steering stick and a single, rather badly fitting decal for the instrument panel of the pilot, it completely lacks any details whatsoever. Thus, there is nothing to do but to paint the interior with RLM02 (I used Lifecolor UA504), add a bit of weathering according to personal taste (I limited myself to applying a quick GW Devlan Mud wash on all surfaces) and you're done.

After a short deliveration with myself, I decided also to use the crew figures. Hampden showed me that there is a bit of risk involved with this decision when it comes to these ancient Airfix kits, but I don't think that those figures will cause me any problems in this project.

I dedicated a bit more attention to the crew figures this time around.

All cockpits components before assembly of the fuselage.

Cockpit decal is apparently a late addition to the kit -
its fit with the instrument panel plate leaves a lot to be desired.

Airfix Junkers Ju87B - Part I

With the rather anti-climactic and abrupt finale of the Hampden project, it is perhaps a bit foolish of me to pick up Airfix's Stuka as the 'get back in the saddle'-build. After all, it's actually more than a decade older than the Hampden and will therefore be equally frustrating to build and yes, it has a boatload of rivets... and yes, it also has raised panel lines.

I do however have to say that judged on parts alone straight out of the box, for a kit made in 1957 it doesn't look half-bad. The parts look crisp and there is no excessive flash indicative of old and worn moulds. Decals seem to be of equally high quality as those in other Airfix kits I worked with since my return to the hobby. The only thing that worries me is the shape of the propeller, which seems excessively thick and short.

Airfix Handley Page Hampden - Part II

Guess it had to happen sooner or later, but it's still annoying. I committed an irrecoverable mistake which landed my Handley build in the bin couple of minutes ago. The fatal mistake took place during construction of tail section - I put it together "wrong side up" and since I used super-glue to plug the gaps, a dis-assembly was pretty much impossible.

I have to be honest though and admit that I am not mourning over this "disaster", because as it turns out, the Handley project was not very enjoyable (which probably explains my slow progress). It definitely shows its age - the fit between the fuselage halves is very bad, the fit between the fuselage assembly and closed bomb bays is even worse. The crew figures are on the way of cockpit and the rare gunner makes it impossible to fit in the dual Lewis guns he's supposed to operate. And then we have the rivets sticking out all over the place, just begging to be filed down by accident - a wish which is impossible not to comply with, due to bad fit of different parts of the model.

The airplane type in itself is still very fascinating subject for me, but I doubt that I will pick this particular model yet again.

This is as far as I came before discovering the fatal mistake. 

Unseemly cover-up of badly aligned fuselage halves is clearly visible here.

The fatal mistake - what is up should be down and viceversa.

The result... the tail section just didn't fit with the rest of the fuselage.

Airfix Handley Page Hampden - Part I

On one side, the selection of my next subject matter is easily explained - I just love all these quirky French and British airplanes from initial part of Second World War and Handley Page Hampden certainly falls into that category. On the other hand, it may very well be questioned as voluntary subjugation to cruel and unusual punishment. After all, this kit is from 1968, how good can it be?

Well, the initial inspection discloses three things - the decals seem to be rather nice, interior detail won't win any awards and finally... the major parts actually do look crisp. OK, there is a lot of rivets and I know that some people frown upon them claiming they're vastly 'out of scale'! Personally, I don't really care about such stuff, or at least not just yet.

Sword Models Curtis P40 Kittyhawk III - Part V

As previous post probably indicated, there was very little left to do before the Kittyhawk was done. Flory's mud wash was wiped off before I brought out my box with powdered pigments. Previous misadventures taught me that when working with those, usually less is more. This time I've limited myself to areas around the engine exhausts - the pipes were first dirtied down and then a slight hint of rust was added in a final layer. Airframe below the exhausts was treated with black and brown pigments in an attempt to reproduce smoke residue. Finally, I applied irregular, very faint streaks of black, burnt sienna and raw umber pigments  all over the airframe, with upper wing surfaces and lower airframe gettin a little more attention than the rest of the model.

Then it was time to literally wipe out all those subtle visual effects. I love Testor's Dullcoat for its ability to bring everything to an absolutely matté finish, but I hate the side-effect of it wiping out 90 percent of those subtle effects that are achievable with pigments. This case was no exception - two coats of Dullcoat and most of the pigments were 'eradicated'.

Well, that's the end of yet another fighter project. Was it worth it? I think in this case it's a 'split decidion'. When finished, the model certainly looks very nice and the price of this kit should make it into a very attractive alternative. It was a rather frustrating build, but I was never at the brink of tossing it into the bin. I really didn't appreciate the fact that the decal sheet is partially unusable. Make whatever you want out of those observations and pictures below.

Sword Models Curtis P40 Kittyhawk III - Part IV

Final step of the paint job started in previous post consisted of dark brown disruptive pattern painted freehand with Lifecolor Dark Earth UA092. It was finished just before my vacation (thus a month without any updates). Freehand airbrushing is a bit unnerving at first, but once I've relaxed a bit, it turned out to be quite fun. Having now tried it, I'm absolutely looking forward to doing it again.

Once I've got back from my trip, work on the Kittyhawk continued according to what is slowly becoming my standard operating procedure - once painting step is finished, it's time a coat of gloss varnish and then the decals. Sword provides one set of standard stencils and three different decal options. Considering the fact that there are two model kits in the box, it is a little "ungenerous". On the other hand, maybe the fact that there is only single set of stencil decals it doesn't matter all that much, since as it turns out, the small decals are extremly fragile and pretty much fall apart at slightest touch once wet. After having all three stencils intended for the propeller blades disintegrate before my eyes, I've had enough and didn't even bother with the rest of the stencil decals. Application of larger decals proceeded almost without incidents - only one decal tore apart in the middle. Fortunately I was able to join the halves back together and the tear is now almost impossible to spot.

Done with struggling with what was hopefully the final act of resistance from this frustrating model, I was glad to seal the decals with a final coat of gloss varnish and let it cure for two days. Now I am at the final stage - the weathering. As first step I applied a dark wash of water-solvable oils to all panel engravings. However, the engravings on this model are quite shallow and didn't absorb much of the pigment, so I decided to wipe it of the model and see if I wouldn't get better results with Flory Model's wash instead.

The 'wipe-off' of the oil wash became an impromptu weathering step in itself, as I decided to have some fun and see what effects I would be able to achieve by smearing it over the wings and lower parts of the fuselage. The end effect was quite interesting discoloration, especially on the blue-colored underside of the airplane. I liked it so much that I've decided to leave it there for now.

Upper surfaces covered with the 'goo' from Flory Models

Belly of the Kittyhawk after treatment with oils.

Sword Models Curtis P40 Kittyhawk III - Part III

Alright... once again, it was time for some fun with the airbrush. First step - couple of thin layers of Vallejo's grey primer straight out of the can. Next, preshading stage, where all panel lines are outlined with thinned down black paint. Once these steps were completed, proper paint job could begin.

In case of the Kittyhawk, I had a bit of a problem with paint selection. Sword Miniatures doesn't provide references to specific paint manufacturers, only generic paint names such as Azure Blue or Mid Stone. Luckily, when it comes to Allied airplanes in North Africa, it's pretty easy to figure out what colors are historically correct. After a short online research session, all that remained was the decision front is what brand of colors to use. Based on ease of availability and previous experience, I choose to go yet again with Lifecolor acrylics - UA098 Azure Blue for the underside and UA097 Middle Stone / UA092 Dark Earth for camouflage scheme of upper surfaces.

For the sake of personal challenge, I decided to paint the cammo scheme without any masks. Not sure if it's historically correct, but I wanted to paint a soft-edged cammo pattern for the longest of times and this opportunity was to good to be allowed to pass by. Also, this way I would get the opportunity to train my handling of the airbrush. Also, I wanted for this model to have a camouflage with feathered edges. To get better control of spraying pattern, I switched to 0.3 mm needle in my Badger 150. A short training session on a piece of paper revealed noticeable difference in handling - on positive side, the spray pattern was (as expected) much thinner. On the negative side, the airbrush showed much higher tendency for clogging. Thinning the paint a bit more normally did alleviate this problem a bit. Increasing the air pressure did not - the only result of that action was much higher tendency for unintentional spatter and spidering patterns.

Once I've gotten a bit of a grasp of new characteristics of my airbrush, painting freehand actually turned out to be a rather enjoyable experience. I'm happy to say that I managed to get most of camouflage right on  first try. Places where I messed up were easily corrected with a second pass with the airbrush. I also discovered that minor spatter spots can be corrected with a normal brush, without noticeable blemishes on the finish.

Middle Stone cammo pattern applied. Once again, I managed to pretty much eradicate the shade effect I tried to create with black lines outlining the panel edges.

How to make life difficult for oneself - initially I decided not to mount the drop tank on this model.
I then changed my mind... but not before being done with all the painting of the airplane body. Once the drop tank was in place, it had to be painted and I was pretty sure that this would result in unintentional oversprays  on already painted areas. In the end, common kitchen plastic foil turned out to be perfect as masking material for already painted areas.