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Tamiya Mosquito FB VI - 3/22 - Figure painting completed


Bstarr3

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Harv, actually, I lost the decal for the Gee receiver, so I decided to paint it Black with a drop of future. For some reason the future dried into a hard white clump instead of a nice smooth clear gloss. Scraping that off took the black paint with it, so I decided to give black green a try for more of a screen look. No gloss has been applied yet and my brush painting was a little sloppier the second time around, so I need to go back around the bezel in silver. It'll look better eventually

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Guest Peterpools

One sweet front office - looks fantastic.

Don't forget the yellow circle decals which I believe indicate armor plate. Besides, they do look cool

Keep 'em comin

Peter

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Happy New Year to all! Thanks for all the replies and encouragement. I'm really happy with the way the pit has come together. Did some detail painting on the fuselage sides, decals and a couple of placards, and a detailing oil wash. Did a couple spots of chipping using burnt sienna oils. Here is the result of my evening's labors

 

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Holy crap painting those yellow cables was a huge PITA. My experience with the HGW wet transfers is hit and miss so far. Like any decals, they don't like going down over complex shapes. Getting the placard on the throttle quadrant was difficult and didn't end up as good as I wanted it. When they work though they look beautiful, as seen on the gun bay bulkhead. I think they'll do very well for the fuselage stencils, and I'm hoping they'll look good for the red do not walk boxes over the radiators.

 

Now, I have a philosophical/artistic quandary. Whether to use the pilot figures or not. I feel like when you're making a model, you can either display it in a panels off, show all the detail, "look at this great model I made" kind of way, or you can try to display some sort of life-like vignette or diorama with figures, but not both. In other words, I'd love to show all this cockpit, engine, gun bay, and bombbay detail I'm going to work on, but I think it would look weird that way with pilot figures. On the other hand, they are great figures, and I do believe they add a nice degree of scale and function to the display. I've gone back and forth with this and really can't decide. Has anyone made this kit with the figures displayed? I pieced the pilot together and out him in the seat to get a sense of how much visual space he occupies.

 

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Sorry that last part was so long-winded, but I'm really torn on this point and I need to make a decision before I go any further really. I appreciate any opinions.

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I'm not a big fan of pilot figures in cockpits - especially when the aircraft is on the ground. They're also usually quite difficult to paint convincingly if you're not doing it all the time, and can really detract from the look of the finished model if it's not up to the same standard.

 

And the standard of your cockpit work is well worth showing off!

 

Kev

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I'd say that if you're having numerous panels open then I would leave the figures out.

 

They do look good so I understand the dilemma.

 

You could always build a second one all closed up with a crew...

 

One thing I found on my build is that the main canopy is tight enough of a fit that I didn't glue it on. This let's remove it and get a better look at the cockpit details.

 

Carl

Edited by BloorwestSiR
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I would second what Kevin said but that's just my opinion. I only build figures with AFVs to be honest. The only time i plan to use figures will be in an upcoming 2018 phantom J build. Someday this year. So if it was me in your shoes i wouldn't put any figures in. If you want to give a sense of scale and if i remember right tamiya provides standing figures you could put those next to the airplane once this masterpiece is finished!

Cockpit looks superlative!

 

K

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Well it looks like the advice is overwhelming towards no figures. I think I'm going to follow that and just display all this detail that I'm working so hard for. I think I will assemble and paint one or two of the figures as practice. I've been reasonably pleased with my results with 1/48 figures, but have never painted a 1/32 figure. My main argument against was definitely leaning towards Kev, afraid that a subpar figure would detract from the plane.

 

Thanks Kev, Carl, and Karim for your input.

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