Hello ladies and gentlemens ! How are you here in our forum ? Here in Greece we are under 3rd lockdown so , alot of modeling time !
For 10 days I am trying to bring back to life my tormented cat , as you may remember and now I am close to a happy end .
I am explaining : after a new painting , I start decorating the model with the necessary stars , bars , code letters etc . This time I am using the nice masks from Maketar , so the result will be as realistic as it gets .
Unfortunatelly I am not find so small numbers for painting the rear fuselage code & letters , so I have to live without them . Maybe at a later time , if I find some white dry transfers...
Also I am not painting (or using the kit's decals) the nose warning for the propeller , the mission markings , the nose decoration and with some words any of the warnings on the plane .
One reason is that I do not dare to re-enter adventures with the decals of the kit and the other is that I do not want to deal more. So far it has been an enjoyable construction, even with any setbacks, with extra work it will become tedious and will cease to be interesting.
So , I am finished well thanks to the good paint masks with the decoration and continues with some oiling , for bring out all the rivets and panel lines and also start making some oil stains .
But before , I make some paint chipping with aluminum , using a small piece of sponge (from its packaging of Eduard detail sets) .
Using more colours (dark gray , raw amber , burned amber etc) I make some weathered effect on the blue surfaces . The technique is easy , all they need is some white spirit , two medium to hard brushes (one #4 and one #8 or so) and...time .
Starts adding some dots of the prefered color on the surface you are planning to "lubricate" and then , with the brush slightly wet (almost dry) with white spirit we spread the oil following the air direction (from the front edge to the trailing edge or from nose to tail) .
When the oil goes into every rivet and panel , is time to sweep the surplus .
A piece of soft kitchen papper is enough . Same proccess : sweep following air direction .
When the most of the oil leaves , we repeat with another paper , slightly wet (like the brush before) with white spirit .
The goal here is to achieve a good toning (let say it preshading) of every engraved or embossed detail .
You can follow the same technique for all the "hard" dirty like oil stains .
In these case , spread the stain as needed each time to look like a leak or stain and not an accidental splatter .
On areas that used most from ground crews , you may use some "earth" colors , like amber .
When the oils dry (after one or two days) , you can start working with dry pastel colours .
Same technique : take the dust of the prefered color with the brush , and spread it whenever you like , e.g exhaust stain , always following the flying direction .
Here you have not a pass with wet brush , just repeat until you are satisfied with the result .
So , after some days of brushing and sweeping , I have a well weathered Tigercat , quite realistic compared to the reference photos .
Now I am ready with all the painting and soiling and have all the parts (except pitot tube and a small antena) lining up for the final assembly (you may look the "familly photo") .
My final goal is to finish before the end of lockdown at the end of February , for continuing my neglected Me 262 .
If everything goes fine , soon will call this build "done" .
Until then , have some good time and keep up the good work !
16 attached images. Click to enlarge.
