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.