monthebiff Posted May 26, 2017 Share Posted May 26, 2017 Wow Karim, such a good detailed update and your finished cockpit looks immaculate. I have this one in the stash and taking notes with each of your updates. Regards. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 I agree with Herr von Buckle. Amazing work so far! Ernie Thanks ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 Not too shabby, not too shabby at all. Except for the poor bloke sat in the back, I'm not sure his seatbelt would do him much good as he's facing the "wrong" way. Dean, I don't know if the seatbelts did much good to any of the crew to be honest...nothing works like a 4 or 5 point harness but this? a car seatbelt would seem safer and that traveling on a road lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 Fantastic work, mate. For the record, I think I like the white/light background the best. Kev Kev, agree with your conclusion...white seems to bring the colors out better. Actually, when i managed to learn and tweak the white balance on the cam it did kind of sort itself out. Glad the camera has an automatic white balance sensor you just have to shoot a white section with the lighting you are using and it automatically calculates the white balance setting and assigns it for the session... Happy to have you following the build! LSP_Kevin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 That cockpit is beautiful! Gaz thanks...i think it's one of the best that i've done so far, fingers crossed the streak will go on on this build Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 This is just fabulous work you showing us my friend. That cockpit is simply said, extraordinary. This is really top notch work, and i'm curious about the rest of this build. Greetz Danny Danny, i am glad you are here for the build! The kit is superlative and i would say buy one, or add another one to your stash just in case lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 Wow Karim, such a good detailed update and your finished cockpit looks immaculate. I have this one in the stash and taking notes with each of your updates. Regards. Andy Andy, Thanks for tagging along the build... the kit is really nice and i will outline some areas where i have run into 'trouble' probably caused by myself. nothing serious at all though! thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 (edited) Hey guys! About time for an update on the beautiful AEG! Since out last update i have been eastbound to Singapore, back westbound to Munich, and yesterday called out of flight standby for a flight to Jeddah, overall not a huge amount of work done on the AEG, but still substantial steps have been undertaken... Last we have got to what the completed cockpit, after which i had started prepping the fuselage halves for closing up... So here we go... The LMG for the rear gunner position. I have elected to use the kit provided LMG for the back gunner position as it will show through the bottom window and decided to replace the two others with the master brass barrel kits. There is nothing wrong with the kit guns, but i thought it would be much nicer to have the two really visible guns dressed up specially the barrels. The LMG was airbrushed tamiya's gun metal and when dry the edges and detail were brushed with Uschi's iron metallic pigments. The hand and arm stock were painted buff then i used colored pencils to draw the grain on. i hope it shows well on the photos as i am happy with how it tuned out. On smaller applications i find the woodgraining with pencils to work much better than oil woodgraining. The stock was coated with tamiya clear orange afterwards. I also made a mix of engine oil oil color from abteilung and thinned it and applied it all over the gun and barrel body. This thinned oil filter will sink into the recesses and still give a satin finish to the whole LMG. To finish up the LMG, i drybrushed the ammo box with mr metal color iron and added the rod that extends from the front to the magazine using 0.3 copper rod which was painted the same, mr metal color iron. The LMG was installed at a downward angle in the back of the cockpit assembly before enclosing it between the fuselage halves (after i took the photos for this update) The main cockpit turtledeck and the front gunner top cover. In previous posts, i asked if the seam where the two cockpit parts are joined were supposed to show, and i am happy to say i found the answer to that. They were not present on the actual aircraft. I filled the seams with CA and micro balloons and carefully blended them in. The bottom of the turtledeck was painted initially black and then a mottle covering of interior gray green was airbrushed making sure opacity levels were not uniform. Same process was applied to the front gunner's top. After that, the top sections were airbrushed white in preparation for the topcoat of the greenish blue that the instructions call for. The hatch separating the front section from the back gunner was given a special treatment as from my understanding this hatch leads to the top of the fuel cells. I figured this hatch would be of a metallic material so in comes the chipping... I used tamiya titanium as it has a nice yellowish dirty hue to the color. That done, i mottled the hatch surface with some nato black from tamiya and preshaded the rest of the turtledeck with black. AK worn effects was then airbrushed over the hatch. After that i airbrushed the topcoat of XF17 Dark Blue (which looks greenish btw) in a mottling fashion, enough to have good coverage but to break the monotony. Chipping done on the hatch. The leather padding comes in two versions, the black one which is what it looks like on the Canadian restored AEG, or regular leather which i went for, to add some life to the dark enough aircraft. I used the same technique i used on the seat, preshade, red brown, red brown with orange, sand and then an orange coat. The leather padding before being sprayed was masked using tamiya tape for curves 0.3 which was augmented using regular yellow tamiya masking tape for the overspray. The whole turtledeck got a brown matt oil pinwash and the gunner rings got a black wash. The metallic parts of the turtledeck and the nails got buffed with a sharp lead pencil. Also, the last missing part to add to the top deck was added and that is the commander's control column which is stowed above the sliding seat. Fuselage halves. Many ejector pinmarks on the sides, but in areas that are considered much less prone to being seen. Nevertheless i filled those best i could with ca and blended them in. tricky sanding on the tail part so be careful not to obliterate small details specially around the two pinmarks in the last cell right above the tailskid mounting points. The front was painted black then grey green mottles, tamiya smoke where the cockpit bulkhead is to show a nice grimy separation, then clearcoated and brown streaking added with oils. After that the front section was flatcoated as the rest of the cockpit. The back part of the fuselage was given a mix of dark blue and black and the top section (you have a choice of wood or black, i chose wood for color variation) was airbrushed a mottled yellow sand from tamiya. I took templates of the top part using tamiya tape, drew the outline and then used the templates to cut out the woodgrain decals from Uschi. Decals used are from item 1004 knotless rich as they have a nice coloration without any oil filters or topcoat over the decals. Before applying all the decals, wnw and uschi, i clear coated the whole back section of the fuselage. As usual, the UVDR woodgrain decals worked a treat and snuggled down very well with the help of some Mr softer from gunze. The wingnut wings decals come precut and its alot of help and time saving. For some reason one decal on one side didnt really like Mr softer, although i usually use it on the wnw decals, albeit sparingly (i also used a hairdryer as this is the tried and tested method to get the wnw decals to conform, but the area is too small and the fuselage molded in framework too pronounced for this technique to work well in that area. my two cents). The microscale system didnt work very well either, so i used solvaset diluted with tap water, VERY sparingly. just enough to get the decals to settle over the interior fuselage ribbing. i left the fuselage halves decals to dry overnight and next day i woke up to find they had behaved very well. I think the secret is to make sure either the setting solution is well diluted, or to make sure the setting solution doesn't bead up as this will eat through the decals (ask me how i know!). With all of that done, i airbrushed a satin coat and then tried to fade the decals with oil dot filtering. For the oil dot filtering i used cream, blue and green as some of those colors are part of the lozenge covering itself. With that done, time for rigging. I used white EzLine that i directly caed into the predrilled holes. I thought of using gaspatch 1/48th turnbuckles but at the end of the day the effort wouldn't really show except if you really peak in hard so i used white glue to build up little 'turnbuckles' which were later painted titanium color from tamiya. Rigging done, i oversprayed the rigging lines with tamiya smoke to leave a darker color to them, and a shadow behind them. Those areas were then airbrushed satin to lock everything in. Since i took the photos, i managed to close up the fuselage, blend in the seams with CA, assemble the turtledeck and front gunner cover, and started work on painting the fuselage, which will be our next update. I am about to set off to the airport to go home see my daughter for a few days then i will be back straight to work. Next month i have a couple of days off and a nice 4 day straight stretch off during which i will be staying in doha so expect an update soon! Guys. let me know what you think of the work done so far and let me know if there are any areas you have questions about of comments! The photos below are with all the assemblies just dryfitted nothing glued in yet at that time! Till our next installment, stay safe and happy modelling! Karim Smugmug gallery PART 4 Edited July 5, 2017 by karimb Gazzas, Sharkmouth and tucohoward 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpk Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 For crying out loud! You're a legend mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Awesome! Thank you for sharing technique. Gaz mpk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tucohoward Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Absolutely fantastic, Karim!! Love it. Jay mpk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted June 2, 2017 Author Share Posted June 2, 2017 For crying out loud! You're a legend mate. Dale, you're too kind. Thanks for checking in on the build! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted June 2, 2017 Author Share Posted June 2, 2017 Awesome! Thank you for sharing technique. Gaz Gaz no problem my friend the pleasure is all mine i am glad you're enjoying the thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted June 2, 2017 Author Share Posted June 2, 2017 Absolutely fantastic, Karim!! Love it. Jay Jay i am happy to have you along ! Thanks for leaving a word Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Barry Posted June 2, 2017 Share Posted June 2, 2017 Karim, Thanks for the well documented work. For me, I need to up my game on finish. This inspires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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