sluggo

I spent some time last night mocking up the gear bays. I started with masking tape to get an overall shape started, then peeled the tape and put it on a piece of photo paper and scanned it into Photoshop. Once in Photoshop I copied it and pasted it into a new document in Illustrator so I could vectorize it for machine cutting. Once I was happy with the drawing I did a test cut. The first cut was pretty close but needed some tweaking. Second cut included some cutouts and was real close. I just have to nudge the cutouts where I want them and shave about 1.4mm off the lower edge and I should be ready to cut the from sheet stock and see how things look. Cut file in it's current state. I'm about to go back in with the caliper and make what I hope are the final adjustments. After that I will glue them in place and and look at making some canvas covers. So much for not getting hung up on fixing a bunch of stuff...........

I believe Eduard at one time released a kit with these markings but I don't recall the scale. I have a scan of the profile at the house. I'll upload it when I get home. Hussar 32D001 decal sheet covers this plane. Looks like the Eduard kit was 1:48

WOW! Who's brilliant idea was this? Several hours in mostly scraping off flash and all I've got to show is this weak pile of ill fitting sub assemblies and some very nice gun barrels. This is pretty close to the point where it gets boxed up and furloughed to the self of doom. But alas, I will soldier on for I must triumph. On the bright side, one of my armor geek buddies brought me a new Tamiya Super Fine airbrush straight from the Tamiya store in Shanghai. That was a nice surprise. A few more hours of drudgery and I might be able to start painting some of this stuff. Oh yeah, I have no choice to fix the wheel bays and probably find some decent wheels.

Excellent!

No decals. Masks+Paint.

Ok, so I said I was going to start last night. Had some work stuff come up and had to make it happen. When I got home from work this evening I went upstairs to the laboratory and decided the place needed a bit of a cleanup. 3 hours and bag of trash later it's done. I have a couple armor geek buddies coming over Saturday night to wreck some styrene. So, rather than make them work on the floor, I made some space. Here's the laboratory. It begins. This is all the aftermarket I have for it. There's some serious lack of detail in the wheel bays and I'm unsure weather I'm going there or not. I said I was not but we'll see when I get there. I was also going to blow through the cockpit but there's a surprise guest spot coming down the pike. I may have mentioned this is all about the paint for me. There's another scheme calling to me. An E-4 <|5+ but I think I'll stick to my guns on Black 10. That faded tail band has my attention. That's all I got. Headed up there now...............

You got it. I have little doubt. If you need a webex cheerleader I'll be there for you. I for one can't wait to see the other side of the stabs. I know the masterpiece that is about to be unleashed on us.................

Nice work there Mate! Looking forward to the next update. I see bubbles in that Tamiya bottle. Is that a result of shaking the bottle?

I forgot to produce a pic of my preliminary artwork. These are all ready to go, they just need to be turned into a cut file. I'll probably scan the IP and make some masks for it as well.

So the new project we be the lovely Airfix 109E-3/4. I'm painting it up as an E-7 and won't fret about any minor differences the E-7 might have. This is the bird I will be doing. Everything that can possibly be painted will be. I've already spent a few hours making up canopy masks, vectorizing and sizing up the art work. I think I got gun barrels and seat belts with it when I purchased it from a fellow LSPer. I will use what I have but nothing else. Going to be SOOB other than that. This is another tolerate the build so I can paint it scenario. It's all about the paint. Building shall commence later this day.

Like this?

How do you decide what your next build (victim in my case) will be. I have quite a few LSPs and the urge to start a new build now that I'm over the HobbyCraft Dr I. I only have two that I have done some minor work to and they are a Hasegawa P-40E and Trumpy Stuka R that has nasty wing fit issues and not really feeling either of those. I've narrowed it down to a few. The two aforementioned craft. Trumpy 109G-2 1:24 Airfix 109E something, looks like it could go 3 or 4. 1:24 Hasegawa 109G-6 1:32 Revellogram 109G-6 1:32 Trumpy 109F-2 which apparently has some identity issues 1:32 Looking at my list, it appears I'm in the mood for some 109 action. So, do you have some magic formula for what's next or is it a "gut" thing?

Joel, There is absolutely no doubt about it. It's the same with car shows. A stunning paint job will drag them in every time. I've pretty much quit competing in both but the recipe is the same. When I see someone truly interested in my work I encourage them to touch it. For me the sheer look of astonishment (borderline horror) when someone is invited to handle my models is validation enough. The only dynamic that differs here is that a lot of times we'll breeze past something that is probably more deserving of compliment than the amount of replies would indicate. I'm sure there are several factors at play but I think the most prevalent is that most of us have to be really intrigued by a subject to comment on it. I'll admit that I'm particularly bad about it. For me, it's more of a what can I add that has not already been said thing. I feel I've cheated the builder if I don't have more something original to say than "very nice".

Hey Brian! I was never a huge fan of WWI subjects but they have really begun to peak my interest. I have a WnW Albatross D.V. Marvelous kit. Now that I have got past that mystery of how to paint wood reasonably, I can dive into some interesting paint schemes.

Which is why, I imagine, they show up the same color as the belly in most profiles. Correcting the kit was never in my sights. I fought hard the urge to fill those holes. In hindsight maybe some slight modifications should be considered even when you work OOB. Once the camo was applied there was no turning back. Blending in a repair now would be very difficult.

One should never be discouraged from posting because he/she feels their work is inferior. You don't gain skills by starting models, you gain skills by finishing them. There's two things you can count on in this hobby. There are those who are better modelers than you and you should look at them as an inspiration as opposed to a threat. Then there are those that are not as good as you and you should be an inspiration for and support them. I've decided to just start building my stash. The only thing I will let myself get hung up on is fit and finish. Chances are a model will not get a second glance if those two criteria are not in check. You can toil for weeks on your cockpit, open up the cowl, etc but if the overall finish blows, you've wasted your time. Painting is my favorite part of the build and in my opinion my strong suit. Fiddly details and photo-etch, not so much.

Got a little more work done. Finished off the prop by painting the logos. I had to fudge the size a bit and drop the word Berlin to make the masks usable. I'm not satisfied with the result but I'm not going to mess with it. The hub is actually a mask painted with alclad and left on the prop. Finished the touch-ups and put the final parts and pieces on and blasted it with Testors acrylic flat coat. A couple super close ups of the buried paint edges. Man, those kit steps are ugly. Ruined the whole picture. I almost forgot what a turd this started out as. And some wide shots. I'm not sure where this is going from here. This was one of those just get it to the paint shop exercises. I may weather it later on. I'm several steps closer to having the confidence to break out the Wingnut Albatross though.

Peter, I checked out the tip on wingnut wings, I like your interpretation better. Splendid job! Randy

Very Nice!

Very nice! If you don't mind me asking, how did you get the galvanized effect on the cowl?

That bottle is just a convenient height. This is the real deal.

Thanks everyone. Been hard at it but have not had time to do an update. Started to take care of a few touch-ups. I was not going to do any masking operation pictures but the touch-up process I use may come in handy for someone else. Some of you may know about back-masking but I'm guessing others don't so I'll share that part. Back-masking is basically a method used to contain the paint without leaving a hard edge. Particularly useful when you plan to clear coat over the area in question. Quite simple to accomplish. When I first painted it, I painted all of the white first, then black followed by the green undercoat. You can see in this picture I had some green blow under the edge of the tape because I did not secure it properly. The hard edge is masked normally and the edge you want diffused is taped to overlap the first edge then rolled back as pictured. I then paint perpendicularly the area I wish to cover with out painting the rolled edge directly but letting the paint settle against the rolled edge from the natural turbulence. The upper wing had a couple spots I wanted to fix after painting the blue as well. Here it's back masked on both sides because I wanted to maintain the soft edge of the blue. I've already sprayed it in this picture. This is the result. Next thing I did was repair the red stripe on the side of the fuselage. Tiny brush touch was all that was needed. Next was to paint the lettering on the fuselage. I had previously done a couple coats of clear lacquer to help protect all the paint work. Not sure why but the clear de-laminated from part of the stripe area when I de-masked it. Oddly enough, only where I used Tamiya tape. I was able to carefully cut the clear at the stripe's edges and remove the rest of it. Not exactly part of the plan but not really a big deal either because the next step is to bury all of the paint work under automotive clear so I can wet sand all the paint edges to make them undetectable even to touch. First coat of auto clear. Second coat. Because I really want the clear to flow out and be as free as possible of orange peel, I put a small heater inside the booth and commenced the baking process. The outdoor temp reading is actually the inside of the booth as the "outdoor" sensor id mounted to the roof of the booth. The indoor temp is read at the display so it naturally rises as the booth heats up. The room heats up too but not to where it's uncomfortable to be in there. I suppose I could drape a sheet over the front of the booth and trap more heat inside but I need to experiment with that before I commit a model to what would essentially be an oven. Here it is about half way done baking. That's all I have for now.

Still waiting for the oil to dry up on the aircraft but the prop finally dried out. Broke out the Testors gloss lacquer and the HP-C and buried the paint edges. A little polishing and it should shine up nicely.

Jim, When we had our little chat I got the vibe you were a pretty good modeler. I see now I underestimated your skills a bit. You are not a pretty good modeler, you are an awesome modeler. I'm keeping an eye on you............................now get to paintin'. Great work my friend!

Thanks gentlemen! Jim, how's the project coming along?