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Tamiya Birdcage Corsair


Durangokid

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So I got slowed a bit putting on the decals.  Tamiya decals are so nice, I just wish they would have them printed by Cartograf or Microscale.  They are almost impervious to decal solvents and the carrier film makes them twice the size.  Anyway, enough complaining.

 

I clear coated the decals with MRP super clear, it seemed to do a good job laying down nicely.  I didn't need an initial gloss coat since the MRP paint is glossy enough for decals.  I did however, clear coat the chipped areas to prevent further removal of the paint.  I did forget to mention that I got some lifting of paint when I removed tape from areas that I masked, mostly on the very front of the wing root.  So if you guys use the chipping method, be sure to lay a good gloss coat to seal it all up.

 

Kyle recommended I check out Doogs models for help on the black basing.  He has a great corsair build with tons of weathering information so I decided to follow some of his examples on salt weathering.  Here are some photo of the process.  I have to admit that I felt like I was documenting my doom while doing this but thankfully I didn't ruin my build.

 

lqMPyV.jpg

 

 

Following Doogs recommendation, I used a very thin mix of tan and the base color.  I just barely mist it on over the salted areas.

 

OTZNys.jpg

 

 

 

Here is the results of the first go around.  It'a a little difficult for photograph...

 

LZReQZ.jpg

 

 

 

ibWedU.jpg

 

Lqd9Jx.jpg

 

oY6Nz6.jpg

 

 

I'm going to re-salt and do a thinned gray sludge like Doogs recommends.  Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead haha...

 

 

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Looking good there Bryan! My Corsair was the first plane I built with any sort of significant weathering. My builds are usually fairly clean with minimal weathering.

 

So it's great to see someone else jumping in with both feet. I've got a couple more F4Us to build so there will be more weathering in the future for me

 

Carl

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Hey thanks fellas!  I'm glad that I can give some kinda inspiration in the weathering dept..  I'm gonna try a few more things so I'm not outta the woods yet.  I did finish up the salt weathering so I'll post some pics soon.

 

Fuel stain is very convincing (with the overall finish of course)!

 

The stain is all airbrushed? Sorry if I missed it somewhere...

 

Yep, all airbrush so far...

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Excellent job of weathering!  Your painting, chipping and salt weathering have created a very convincing finish on a war weary aircraft. 

 

If I could be so bold as to offer a suggestion, your weathering is a bit too uniform and you might want to leave some small areas as less weathered.  The sides of the fuselage, for instance, might be less weathered than the top of the wings, since they allow better water drainage and are occasionally shaded.  As you probably know, if you want to "back-off" some of the more intense weathered areas, a very thin coat of the primary color will do a great job of filtering the effect without actually removing it entirely.   I don't see any pics of the bottom, which I assume are much less weathered than the top?

 

Again, just a suggestion that like art, may not be to your taste.  If you left it as is, it still looks terrific.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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Just gotta try the salt method after seeing how it turned out on your build. I've must have said that dozens and dozens of times, but just never do it. But for WW11 PTO aircraft it really makes a huge difference. 

 

Joel

 

Hey Joel,

 

It was a lot easier than I thought.  Maybe a bit time consuming, mostly waiting for the salt to dry, but well worth it in the end.  The only advice I have is to go very light with the paint, especially on the lighter colors.  I had to blend in the light gray areas with the base coat because the paint was too dark.

 

Excellent job of weathering!  Your painting, chipping and salt weathering have created a very convincing finish on a war weary aircraft. 

 

If I could be so bold as to offer a suggestion, your weathering is a bit too uniform and you might want to leave some small areas as less weathered.  The sides of the fuselage, for instance, might be less weathered than the top of the wings, since they allow better water drainage and are occasionally shaded.  As you probably know, if you want to "back-off" some of the more intense weathered areas, a very thin coat of the primary color will do a great job of filtering the effect without actually removing it entirely.   I don't see any pics of the bottom, which I assume are much less weathered than the top?

 

Again, just a suggestion that like art, may not be to your taste.  If you left it as is, it still looks terrific.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

Hey Chuck,

Thanks for stopping by and offering some advice, it's always welcome here.  I think I get what you are saying.  I will add some things and blend areas with the base coat eventually.  I might wait a bit cause I still have some more weathering to do and it always seems to blend out some of the stark areas.  I ended up covering most of weathering efforts on my Intruder build so I'm a bit leery of going to far again.  I find it difficult to know exactly when to stop...My life story ha

 

The bottom isn't as stark and I need to take pic, thanks for reminding me :)  The photos I've seen, including some in the classic warships book, the bottom is completely trashed on the more weathered corsairs.  A lot of it seems to be the type of dirt from the runways and the exhaust along with what appears to be leaky fuel tanks in the wings?  I'm not sure exactly how I'm gonna replicate this yet.

 

Thanks for all the comments and recommendations guys, it really has helped me and kept me on track...

 

Bryan

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I ended up misting on some of the base coat to cover a few areas that were too stark after the salt weathering.  Sorry for not taking photos along the way, I often forget when I'm into the build.

 

So onto the oils.  I'm still relatively new to using oils for weathering aside from the usual panel line washes.  I've weathered this small area using Abteilung Dark Mud.  I really like these oils since they have a lot less oil residue than the less expensive Winsor & Newton oils.  I took a pic so you guys could see what I'm talking about:

CWvXTg.jpg

 

 

 

I started on the wing and forward area by applying small dots of oil with a toothpick, similar to the dot filter technique:

 

6YC1R8.jpg

 

HdJ3ef.jpg

 

 

 

 

Then I blended the area with a brush lightly moistened with thinner:

 

dLfdma.jpg

 

rUOUtw.jpg

 

jLIxfo.jpg

 

 

 

I ended up the this:

 

vCgDx3.jpg

 

j0mkez.jpg

 

 

Do you guys think it's too much?  I can't decide, one minute I like it but the next I'm not sure...

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