Trumpeter A-6A "VA-65"

[jeroen_R90S]

On 1/21/2023 at 5:16 PM, Greif8 said:

That painting technique looks pretty cool Jeroen!  

 

Ernest

Thanks! I'm glad I practiced this technique beforehand on my 1/72 F-4S, if my luck persists I think I'm really going like the results, which does not happen all that often when I paint stuff!

 

On 1/22/2023 at 1:01 AM, Finn said:

Here are a couple more nose photos of different aircraft, same squadron:

 

Thanks, those look even cleaner!

One small correction though, these are from VA-85 and not VA-65, too bad there don't seem to be decals for these as I do like them with the yellow trim and rudder!

 

In the meanwhile I've marbled-up a lot of other bits like the gear doors, slowly getting somewhere...

 

Jeroen

[jeroen_R90S]

Unexpected update....

As previously stated  I had painted up the tailplanes and some small parts to try first.. For some reason I had issues with my Revell Aqua gloss white (#04) in that it would not spray properly, as if it was too thick, and then I wound thin it, then it would spider, then lower air pressure, etc. Eventually I did get them like I wanted but it wasn't fun nor very controllable...

This morning I had planned to do some to-do jobs but it was too cold outide for them, so I figured why not try to tame that gloss white, or give up and try something else.

I always airbrush my Aqua paint with thinned with X-20A, when it's warm I add a few drops of water or retarder, and that's it.

After some experimentation I concluded that this gloss white will thin best with just water, unlike the other Aqua paints I have used (almost all of them!)...

 

Finally I could spray a controllable and smooth thin white blend layer, and before I knew it it was a few hours later and I had this on my table:

Some area's still need work and I have some dust in some places, but overall it went well and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Here's a close-up of the blended marbling, it's hard to photograph but I'm pretty pleased as it's just showing variation yet does not look like a TPS scheme either. With decals and oil paint filters and weathering I think I'm getting somewhere I deliberately left some areas less covered up than others, though it doesn't show very well. 

(the photo is slightly reddish, in real life it's white)

[Greif8]

The white looks pretty nice right now, and I am sure will look awesome when you are done with it Jeroen.

 

Ernest

[jeroen_R90S]

Thanks Ernest! I've done some experimenting on an old model, and I had to add more contrast than I wanted, mainly because by the time I added some yellow-ish mix (wing folds) and a black nose, it really subdued the effect. And of course I can always go over it again to add or remove the effect.

 

Speaking of which... as I have stated before I am a fan of Revell Aqua, but the dwawback is that they don't really do FS colours, but mainly RAL. So in order to get something approximating light gull grey, after some evenings of experimenting I settled upon this mix:

(more professial and better modellers than I am would rotate the cubes so the labels are properly oriented, and post a daylight photo of the result -I'm neither, so sorry!) Probably clear enough, but:

Mittelgrau 43 - 2 parts

Steingrau 75 - 1 part

Weiß matt 5 - 2 parts (this is a bit of a cream-ish white -don't use pure gloss white as it messes up the look IMHO)

Note no colour charts or FS sample books were harmed in this experiment, That-looks-about-right only!

 

With that done, the fun begins:

I left the black intake parts and what will be Corogard unmasked.

 

White overspray was re-painted black and mottled with Revell 378 which looks a bit like a light Gunship Grey, then misted over with the above mixture:

 

Which was then mottled again with Revell 5 flat white, of which I forgot to take photos.

This was then slowly built up using my light gull grey mixture with clear gloss added to reduce opacitiy and ensure a smooth coat:

 

This thing is getting so big it's hard to take proper photo's!

 

And you know that feeling you keep forgetting something? I painted the model itself, the outer wing parts, the canopy, and could not think of what I missed... well of course right after I cleaned everything up and the kids came home, I found the unpainted refuelling probe... doh!

 

I can't wait to remove the masking, but will need to be patient, and there is still that big black nose, anti-glare, and Corogard to apply on wings, tail and pylons, as well as the orange fin tip. Then it's on to the speed brake bays, walkways and some other things, but for that I really need the masking removed.

 

Hopefully the next update will be a bit faster and will show a completely painted model, but I'm not giving an guarantees!

 

Jeroen

[Greif8]

Very nice airbrush work Jeroen.  I hear you on mixing the right tone of light gull gray.  I had to try several mixes of simple red until I got the tone I wanted on the Dr.I I just built.  Who would have thought mixing a primary color could be so hard!

 

Ernest

[scvrobeson]

Awesome paint work on the Intruder. I've never dealt with Revell paints, but it looks like you've got them figured out well.  Looking forward to what's next.

 

 

 

Matt 

[MikeMaben]

On 3/24/2023 at 8:56 AM, jeroen_R90S said:

Hopefully the next update will be a bit faster and will show a completely painted model, but I'm not giving an guarantees!

That's some fine airbrushing. Looking quite nice. 

Take your time Jeroen, no guarantees required. 

 

[Maxim61]

Nice work and the colors look great. Can't wait to see more.

[Antonio Argudo]

awesome

[jeroen_R90S]

On 3/25/2023 at 7:24 AM, Greif8 said:

Very nice airbrush work Jeroen.  I hear you on mixing the right tone of light gull gray.  I had to try several mixes of simple red until I got the tone I wanted on the Dr.I I just built.  Who would have thought mixing a primary color could be so hard!

Thanks Ernest! Yes, mixing can definately be very frustrating, but also very rewarding. In this case the light gull grey is a bit of a yellowish-olive-grey-tone that kind of changes depending on the light. When it's darker it it's more grey, but in better light (as on the last photo) the yellowish-olive kind of concrete shade shows through. It's also hard to predict how it's going to look with other colours in place, hence why I usually test things first on an old model.

 

On 3/25/2023 at 5:29 PM, scvrobeson said:

Awesome paint work on the Intruder. I've never dealt with Revell paints, but it looks like you've got them figured out well.  Looking forward to what's next.

Thanks Matt! Those Revell paints are almost paste as they come from the cubes, but whn thinned they work really well -though like most water-thinnable acrylics some colours can be fiddly at times. They brushpaint beautifully as well, by the way, and are much more durable than Vallejo or Lifecolour.

On 3/26/2023 at 8:13 AM, MikeMaben said:

That's some fine airbrushing. Looking quite nice. 

Take your time Jeroen, no guarantees required. 

 

Thanks Mike! I'm kind of amazed I'm still enjoying this model after such a protracted build period. I really like the subject and some forum-motivation and inspiration helps, too!

On 3/26/2023 at 9:47 AM, Maxim61 said:

Nice work and the colors look great. Can't wait to see more.

Thanks!

On 3/27/2023 at 2:06 PM, Antonio Argudo said:

awesome

Thanks!

 

A small update, I'm currently into more masking (primarily the anti-glare panel and wing leading edges).

Pictures to follow though I'm pretty sure most here will know how yellow Tamiya tape looks

 

Jeroen

[jeroen_R90S]

Well... lots of masking and paint switches in a whole afternoon of painting a lot of different colours... The result is mostly OK but will definately need some fixing up -more on that later!

 

As if I had not masked enough on this, more masking, done over a few evenings:

Flight of the PostIts, to save the precious Tamiya tape:

 

Well, and after said afternoon of spraying black, orange, aluminium and the whole mottled effect of the light gull grey on the missing refueling probe later:

The paint lift (enamel basecoat -never had this happen before ) on the tail is obvious, but also om some spots of the wings upper and lower. And the demarcation on te rear fuselage (and nose near the intake) which I masked with rolls of MIG masking putty are honestly rubbish and I should have free-handed them as I did on my 1/72 Phantom. The masking putty must be used immediately -I left it on for a week or so and it had crept down all the way into the tail hook bay. I carefully had to pry the stuff from there -remember those fragile looking PE louvres that went in there?

Fortunately no damage to that other than the rubbish demarcation that will need fixing along with the rest.

 

I'll fix the paint damage last, because I still need to do the wing fold area, as well as the walkways, speed brake well and that big black nose. I just might need to fix more after that, though hopefully not as most of those areas were masked earlier and seemed to have held up. Fingers crossed though!

 

Jeroen

 

 

[Greif8]

On 4/5/2023 at 11:53 AM, jeroen_R90S said:

Well... lots of masking and paint switches in a whole afternoon of painting a lot of different colours... The result is mostly OK but will definately need some fixing up -more on that later!

 

As if I had not masked enough on this, more masking, done over a few evenings:

Flight of the PostIts, to save the precious Tamiya tape:

 

Well, and after said afternoon of spraying black, orange, aluminium and the whole mottled effect of the light gull grey on the missing refueling probe later:

The paint lift (enamel basecoat -never had this happen before ) on the tail is obvious, but also om some spots of the wings upper and lower. And the demarcation on te rear fuselage (and nose near the intake) which I masked with rolls of MIG masking putty are honestly rubbish and I should have free-handed them as I did on my 1/72 Phantom. The masking putty must be used immediately -I left it on for a week or so and it had crept down all the way into the tail hook bay. I carefully had to pry the stuff from there -remember those fragile looking PE louvres that went in there?

Fortunately no damage to that other than the rubbish demarcation that will need fixing along with the rest.

 

I'll fix the paint damage last, because I still need to do the wing fold area, as well as the walkways, speed brake well and that big black nose. I just might need to fix more after that, though hopefully not as most of those areas were masked earlier and seemed to have held up. Fingers crossed though!

 

Jeroen

 

 

 

Nice progress Jeroen.  The paint lifting does not look bad except on the rudder, I am sure you will be able to sort that issue out and it will look great in the end.

 

Ernest

[jeroen_R90S]

Thanks Ernest -although when I polished out the "sharp" edges of the affected areas they grew rather larger, but for the amount of work it might not matter much, as long as the rest still sticks well. I did notice most of those areas are where both the model is handled, but also where I didn't do any sanding or filling. Everywhere where I filled and sanded I, fortunately, had no isses. So probably a combination of accidential handling with bare hands and very smooth plastic I guess.

 

I was debating to fix the damage first and then proceed wit the other colours, but the risk of pulling paint off in other areas made me decide to paint the other colours first so all the masking would be done, and fix the damage last. Fingers crossed there won't be more

 

With that, I started at the front, with that big black nose, masked it off, lightly covered the grey/white overspray and mottled it with a rusty brown:

This was then thinly covered with anthracite black to differentiate from the black area around the windscreen, which is tar black:

A tiny masking flaw to fix, and although the effect still a bit more then I liked in the sun (as it was when I took the photo) it quickly disappears with the sun. I'm glad I kept extra contrast in the grey and white, as this area really kills all the other effects.

Although I still like the scheme, I do kind of wonder if the black nosed schem was the right choice in 1/32... I hope the decals, mostly black, will help a bit.

 

Jeroen

 

[jeroen_R90S]

By the way, as indicated in the AOA instructions I used pictures and the paint guides provided by AOA -if you follow the panel and rivet/screw lines for the black anti glare masking, the nose numbers will not fit in the right positions. You can see how much off those are -should have corrected the surface details earlier perhaps?

Edited April 27, 2023 by jeroen_R90S

[MikeMaben]

32 minutes ago, jeroen_R90S said:

               ... I hope the decals, mostly black, will help a bit.

 

They always do.