Sunday, May 24, 2009

PC-10 the definitive version!


Hi,

I did a mix of Yellow Ochre and black to get the olove drab, then added iron oxide in the form of Burnt sienna, to add red to get a version of PC-10. I'll refine it and lighten or darken it for the various layers of shading and weathering. But this is the basic version.

Note that I havent re-touched the pic, only sized it, and it it taken in direct sunlight, with no other light sources present.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

WWI listees birthdays - poll closed!

As requested, The poll has now closed. Thanks for playing.

Thanks to the 62 people who took part in this little bit of nonsense. The final figures look like this:-

Jan - 6 births = 10%
Feb - 4 births = 6%
Mar - 5 births = 8%
Apr - 6 births = 10%
May - 3 births = 5%
Jun - 9 births = 15%
Jul - 4 births = 6%
Aug - 5 births = 8%
Sep - 6 births = 10%
Oct - 5 births = 8%
Nov - 3 births = 5%
Dec - 6 births = 10%.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Competition Kits coming along



Have the DR.1 painted and futured now.

I made my own decals and will print them out once I can get to Walmart for a new printer cartridge.

Since I'll be printing on clear decal paper, I will need ot mask and paint the white outlines for the national insignia.

Saturday was propeller day


I got all my 1/72 scale propellers together from unfinished kits and got them all painted.

I put on a coat of light tan acrylic, followed by some future.

Then I got out my artists oils and made a pallet out of wax paper. I added white, yellow ochre and burnt umber and got some nice tones.

I brushed on some of a lighter shade then after an hour t dry a bit, lightly "dry-brushed" some of the darker tones, to give a nice laminated wood appearance.

It won't be so accurate of the Fokkers, which had 7 layers of laminate, but I can't paint that accurately, and anyway the wood look suits me.

I'll leave them for a week to cure then put gloss coat on them.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Sprayed The Nieuports



On advice of the list, I made up a silver dope colour for the Nieuports. Mostly silver with about 40% white added. Both colours were regular 97c craft store acryllics. I thinned it for airbrushing with future and gave 2 coats to all surfaces. It looks good, close up. Almost the same shade as the Tamiya primer but with a little metallic tingle. When dry I gave them all a thin brushing with future.


I masked and painted the fuselage of the Dr.1. The edge of the mask is clear, but That may sort itself all out once everything else is done.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Contest Kits



Interiors are now finished on all kits. Painted, assembled, weathered. Seat belts were made form taking a screen capture of Eduard's photo-etch frets for French and German belts, rescaling them to 1/72 and printing on photo paper. I then cut them out and glued them to the seats. Look fine, but you can't really see my "wickerring" effect of drawing dots on the seat with a sharpie.

I drilled rigging holes, mostly with a small drill bit in my pin vise, but for some, and especially the "long" holes in the Nieuports' tailplane, I used a heated wire to melt through. I like the raised "grommet" effect that gives.

Today I sprayed CDL on the upper surfaces of the two Dr.1 wings that will be streaked. I covered those with future as well.



Also I sprayed sky blue on the undersurfaces and futured that as well. The upper wing got a coating top and bottom of a slightly darker blue, as per DSA's drawings, as did the struts and wheel covers. This is quite subtle, and can't be seen all that well from the pics. I'm also not so happy with the "colour" that the CDL comes out in the pics, either. Paint was simple craft store acrylics, thinned with Future, and sprayed. Each surface got 2 coats. The CDL was Misterkit German CDL, straight out of the bottle.




All surfaces were Futured as well and I will leave them to dry for about 48hrs. I can work on the Nieuports in the mean time.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Contest Work - Early Days



Got my kits; Roden Dr.1 and 2 Eduard Ni.17s.

I'm going to mark the Dr.1 in the controversial, but exciting markings of #586/17. I'll be masking the candy stripes and making my own decals for the "LO" on the fuselage. The national insignia will come from the kit.




For the Ni17s, one will be an Italian one (don't know which one yet), and one will be Guyenmeyer's #1531. Not particularly exciting, apart from the Italian paint job, but a good chance to try subtle weathering.

I'll choose one of the Nieuports as the contest entry later.


I've sprayed them with primer, and painted and weathered the insides. Ready to close them up now.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Masking Test.




Still waiting for kits to arrive. UPS usually come in the afternoon, so I decided to do a wee test, based on a recent thread on the WW1 mailing list.

I wanted to test how I like using either Tamiya making tape, Frisket film and general Scotch low tack painters tape.

I have prepared a spare wing. Tamiya primer, 2 coats of sky blue, 1 coat of Future. All coats left to dry thoroughly before the test started.

I stuck on a complete mask from Frisket on 1 side, and 2 strips each of Tamiya, Scotch and Frisket on the other.

I then sprayed a coat of red, thinned with Future. I waited for it to dry then sprayed a second coat. I then waited 30 minutes till the paint was dry(ish) then removed the masks. Here are the results.








As you can see, the whole wing mask suffered from a lot of bleed. I may not have put enough pressure on the frisket.

Each if the strips did OK. Again a little bleed on the frisket, but with careful pressure that might be solved. No real difference between Tamiya and Scotch, apart from the price! All 3 leaving a noticable edge!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Almost Ready

The decals arrived at the weekend. They look OK. I'm a little unsure if they printed as they were supposed to. We'll see.

The kits finally arrived in Phoenix, at 6:45 last night, just as we were settling down to our Burns Supper. mmm... haggis.

Still on schedule for delivery tomorrow.

I need to get on with my frisket test, this evening. 3 options; cut out the whole wing pattern and tape it on. Just do strips of frisket, or use Tamiya tape cut in strips.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Boxes almost done


Added a coat of Shellac to the boxes. That's supposed to keep the labels on, but I'm not so sure about that.

My kits are in Lenexa, KS. They are on schedule for a Jan 27th delivery. No word of my decals yet.

But My Over the Front calendar arrived. Looks great. I like the Nieuport 17s on the January page. The nearest one looks worth doing, but I can't see the complete markings...

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Ammunition boxes coming along, kits in mail



I have the boxes stained and labeled now. I added the dovetail joints as well. Once the glue dries I'll give them a coat or two of shellac.

My contest kits are in the mail from Roll Models. Maybe my decals will arrive from MisterkitUSA today.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Waiting for Models.


My contest orders haven't arrived yet.

Tbf, there was a 3 day weekend without mail.

Busying myself building ammunition boxes.

I have 3 built and stained, and I added the rope handles yesterday.

I aged some printer paper and printed out the labels. FIL will rout out the flanges on the tops this weekend, then I can stain them, screw them on and add the labels. Then shellac the whole box.

Labels and instructions from Tommy's Pack Fillers.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

The People Have Spoken!


OK. Polls closed, Here are the results:

Friday, January 9, 2009

WW1 list contest poll.

Vote here for the kit we'll all be doing.

What kit to build for Contest?
Fokker Dr.I (Any)
Fokker Dr.I (Eduard)
Albatros D.Va
Nieuport Ni-17
  
pollcode.com free polls


Poll closes 09:45am Arizona time, Jan. 10th 2009.