Border 1/35 Fw 190A-6 Nowotny Double Chevron

[monthebiff]

1 hour ago, Gazzas said:

Splendid doors.

X2 John, nice work

 

Regards. Andy 

[SwissFighters]

2 hours ago, Thunnus said:

Thanks Matt!  I think I'll have the gun cover and the two side engine cowlings removable, based on the fit so far.

 

I got some really thin sheet styrene... 0.010"... so that I can work on a final version of the inner gear doors.  I decided to use a layered approach.  The overall door outline was cut from brass sheet using scissors per the previous update.  But I used the Silhouette Portrait to cut the inner raised detail shapes that I had previously printed on the adhesive vinyl material. No problem cutting this plastic using the standard Autoblade.  If anyone is interested in settings, I can dig those up.


 

 

 

Thanks for sharing another great build John. I, for one, would be very interested to know what settings you used on the Silhouette? Tony

[scvrobeson]

Great scratch-work and ingenuity to create the inner doors. Always so impressive to see what you can come up with on your builds 

 

 

Matt 

[Rocat]

Wow. Great work on those doors.

[Thunnus]

Thanks everyone!  I'm happy with how the doors turned out. Although the brass-only version of the inner doors was in-scale in terms of thickness, the main gear doors were not.  I wanted the two sets of doors to match and hopefully, they look like a matched set.  I've painted the landing gear covers... light hairspray chipping on both sides.

 

 

 

The landing gear component are just about finished.  I added some springs to the retracting rod links.  I'll do some post-shading to the exterior surfaces of the covers especially at the base of the inner doors since they are in the path of the engine exhausts.

 

On 9/14/2023 at 5:14 PM, SwissFighters said:

Thanks for sharing another great build John. I, for one, would be very interested to know what settings you used on the Silhouette? Tony

Tony... the settings that I used on my Silhouette Portrait 2 to cut the inner gear door shapes from 0.010" sheet styrene were:

 

Blade: 7

Passes: 2

Force: 20

Speed: 2

 

I've also added some salt fading effects on the prop blades.

 

 

In preparation for the upcoming camo painting, I've filled the wheel wells with wet tissue paper.

 

 

I'm planning on doing some light painting chipping via hairspray at the wing roots so this area has been given a base coat of Tamiya Silver AS-12.

 

 

Next comes my customary pre-shading of the panel lines.

 

 

I like to give the camo finish some tonal variation and to do this, I employ an inverse of black basing which is essentially a random mottle pattern of black on grey plastic.  I use a piece of plastic scrubbing pad that is thinned to allow paint to be sprayed through it.

 

 

Using this as a mask, I apply the mottle pattern over the entire model, except the chipping area, which I want to restrict to as few layers of paint as possible to better enable the hairspray chipping.

 

 

Next will be Light Blue RLM 76.

[scvrobeson]

The paint is always the most fun part. Can't wait to see it.

 

What color do you use for the gear doors for the hairspray chipping? It looks like a really nice dark color

 

 

Matt 

[zaxos345]

Amazing as always John!!!! 

 

John

[Thunnus]

7 hours ago, scvrobeson said:

The paint is always the most fun part. Can't wait to see it.

 

What color do you use for the gear doors for the hairspray chipping? It looks like a really nice dark color

 

 

Matt 

I used Alclad Steel for both sides of the gear covers.  A dark grey would work too.  I like to use darker bases for lighter colors such as RLM 76 and RLM 02.

 

 

10 minutes ago, zaxos345 said:

Amazing as always John!!!! 

 

John

Thank you, John!

 

Before starting the camo painting on Nowotny's A-5, I wanted to show the completed prop.  I re-did the spiral as I thought the original was too thick at the tip.  Adjustment to the spiral mask was very easy in CAD.

 

 

Ok... time to start laying down some paint.  First is the RLM 76 Light Blue (Mr Hobby Aqueous).  The paint was thinned to about 1.5:1 (thinner to paint using Mr Leveling Thinner) ratio.  You want the paint thin enough to slowly modulate the pre-shading effect to where you want it.  I favor a very subtle effect.  It's important to remember that with the multiple weathering effects to come, you don't have to rely on any one technique to accomplish everything.  It's additive and it won't look complete until the end.

 

 

The light blue is built up, section by section until the panel and mottle pre-shade is just barely noticeable.  Keep in mind that with these thin paint mixes, the wet paint will be slowly seeping into the pre-shade layer so always trace back to previously painted areas to check because it may look a little different than when you left it. And always vary your visual perspective as you are painting because light direction can alter perception.

 

 

Slowly we get to a place we feel good about.

 

 

The light blue layer is complete for now.

 

 

The hairspray section at the wing roots is done first since time elapsed seems to have an effect on how the chipping goes.  The Dark Green RLM 71 and Black Green RLM 70 (Mr Hobby Aqueous) is applied but only over the wing root section where the hairspray was previously laid down.

 

 

Chipping was performed about an hour or two later.  I use a stiff-bristled paint brush dipped in water and rub over the area until paint chips start to appear.  I was hoping for a lighter effect with smaller chips but this is ok... I can work with it.

 

 

Once the chipping is finished, I complete the painting of the RLM 71 Dark Green on the upper wings and stabilizers.

 

 

The RLM 70 Black Green is sprayed next.  I get a fine enough spray from my Iwata HP-C Plus (0.3mm needle size) to do this freehand.

 

 

I need to pre-plan the fuselage colors a bit.  The demarcation has a distinct curvature at the fuselage band that I want to mimic so I'll have to map out those limits beforehand.

[Thunnus]

9 hours ago, Thunnus said:

Tony... the settings that I used on my Silhouette Portrait 2 to cut the inner gear door shapes from 0.010" sheet styrene were:

 

Blade: 7

Passes: 2

Force: 20

Speed: 2

 

Just an update on the Portrait... I'm now having trouble cutting masks on Oramask.  Blade goes too deep... all the way to the matt.  So deep that parts of the adhesive layer of the matt pulled up when I was trying to remove the mess.  Got a 3-pack of new blades on order so I'll report if that fixes the issue.  If so... cutting plastic may be too tough on the AutoBlade using the above settings.

[Gazzas]

You do have a nice way with paint. John.

 

[JayW]

5 hours ago, Gazzas said:

You do have a nice way with paint.

 

Yeah I will second that.  Now filling the gear bay with wet tissue - that sounds like a pretty good idea.  I have seen gear bays filled with all kinds of stuff.  Is this your preference?

[MDriskill]

Brilliant, brilliant stuff! Looking forward to the end product. And dang it I may just have to own one of these, goofy scale and all... 

[quang]

Interesting painting method, John. Different but definitely nice results. 

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys! Appreciate the comments

 

12 hours ago, JayW said:

 

Yeah I will second that.  Now filling the gear bay with wet tissue - that sounds like a pretty good idea.  I have seen gear bays filled with all kinds of stuff.  Is this your preference?

Works pretty well.  I like it because it's quickly done.  Just crumple up the tissue and place it in the opening and slowly stuff it into place using a paint brush dipped in water.  When it's dry, it's fairly stiff and stable.

 

I believe Nowotny's Double Chevron was painted in the darker greens (I'm assuming RLM 70/71) in the field but the tail is noted as being in the grey scheme.  First, I applied the lighter mottle (RLM 75 Violet Grey, trying to go by what I see in the photos of the aircraft.

 

 

The darker mottle (RLM 74 Dark Grey) is applied next.  Both colors were Mr Hobby Aqueous.

 

 

I decided to do the yellow panels next.  I thought it would be easier to match the upper/lower color demarcation on the fuselage with the yellow band and fuselage cross in place rather than trying to guess where they would be.

 

 

The yellow is a 4:1 mixture of Tamiya Yellow and Orange sprayed over a light coat of Tamiya White.

 

 

Hopefully, my new Portrait blades will arrive tomorrow and I can resume printing masks on Oramask.

 

[Thunnus]

Here are the yellow panels after the masking has been removed.  There is some pebbly texture on the nose cowling, which is from the plastic, not the paint.  I am wondering if I should have sanded the entire surface of the model prior to painting.  I think the matt coat will reduce that texture to the point of not being noticeable.

 

 

Looks strange to have the yellow band in place without the upper camo color completed.

 

 

Using some custom cut masks, I highlighted some of the panels in a lighter shade of RLM 76 just for some color variation.

 

 

I also adjusted the upper camo demarcations slightly just to reduce the symmetry between the left and right wings.