Jump to content

CAC Boomerang A46-217 “Hep Cat” Finished.


ericg

Recommended Posts

Some more work. After much thought, I decided to go with A46-217, with the nose art “Hep Cat” instead of the one in my first post. I liked the cat painted on this Boomerang as he looks like a cool sort of character, not sure what ‘Hep’ is short for but he looks like he gets up to some pretty dodgy stuff in his spare time. There are no decals for the serials, squadron codes or the nose art so I was going to have to paint all of them.

 

First up, the picture that inspired me to do this one.

 

A46-217_-X3.jpg

 

Made up some masks for the roundels and painted these on first.

 

IMG_6116-X3.jpg

 

 

 

I found a good clear photo of the QE squadron code and traced around the letters, I also turned the Q into a G to make the individual aircraft letter..

 

Capture2-XL.jpg

 

IMG_6130-X3.jpg

 

Using the period photo as above, I traced the “Hep Cat” writing

 

Capture4-X2.jpg

 

I then used the same photograph to rough out the cat. I was going to use a reasonably clear profile drawing of 217 from the Boomerang book but found it to be fairly innacuarate compared to the photo of the real thing.

 

Capture8-XL.jpg

 

This is the two masks ready to cut.

 

Capture9-L.jpg

 

The cat. There are quite a few elements to this to allow me to spray the three colours.

 

IMG_6143-X3.jpg

 

Mask on, ready to spray

 

IMG_6135-X3.jpg

 

one down, one to go.

 

IMG_6138-X3.jpg

 

all done! I will be toning down the paint chipping a little bit. Also, the cat will need some more detail that I will hand paint.

 

IMG_6146-X3.jpg

 

IMG_6145-X3.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by ericg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now that's a realy ingenious way of using the Silhouette cutter that hadn't occurred to me, thanks for the lesson! A 'hep cat' is circa late 1950s slang for what may these days be described as a cool dude, though that's probably superseded now too! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, mozart said:

Now that's a realy ingenious way of using the Silhouette cutter that hadn't occurred to me, thanks for the lesson! A 'hep cat' is circa late 1950s slang for what may these days be described as a cool dude, though that's probably superseded now too! 

 

Just a variant of hip, as I understand it.

 

Kev

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

 

Just a variant of hip, as I understand it.

 

Kev

 

Yep - you are right Kev,

The term used then was "That's Hep"  ( or cool) 

An old-fashioned meaning of Hipster ( a person who follows the latest trends or fashions)

But also, Wikipedia says it is of West African origin - the word " Hepicat" and means :  One who has his eyes open

I think both applies here.

Pip

 

Edited by Piprm
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did a bit more research on Hep Cat and found that he was a cartoon during the mid 1940’s. I figured that this is what the artist would have based his painting on and decided to fill in the blanks with the cats face as it stood in my last update. Due to the fuzzy nature of the original photo, some of details had disappeared, but close examination allowed me to see that his ears and face were of slightly different shades, which matched up with pictures of the cartoon that I found on the WWW. I believe that the cat has stripes on a shirt which may represent an Aussie rules football team that maybe the pilot liked or even played for.

 

I worked on the mask a bit more and sprayed the face and ears.

 

IMG_6150-X3.jpg

 

I then used a .03mm Copic Multiliner to outline the cat, and draw his eyes and whiskers as well as define his paws. I have sprayed a thin gloss coat over the nose art to protect it whilst I finish the rest of the model.

 

IMG_6164-X3.jpg

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...