1/72 Valom Vickers Wellesley

Started by George R Blair Jr · 94 · 3 weeks ago · 1/72, North Africa, Valom, Vickers, Wellesley
  • Profile Photo
    John vd Biggelaar said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    Very nice work done, George @gblair

  • Profile Photo
    George R Blair Jr said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    Thanks Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). Today is painting day!

  • Profile Photo
    George R Blair Jr said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    I wanted to replicate the appearance of these planes, which had a "distemper" tan paint covering the green part of the standard RAF camo. This approximated an RAF desert scheme. Having previously painted the brown portion of the camo, I then laboriously masked the edges and then painted the green using Tamiya paint. When it was dry, I sprayed Ammo Washable Dust. I don't think it was designed to be sprayed, but persistence finally got the paint thin enough to spray. Once this was done, I let it dry for about an hour. I used three different brushes to work on the washable paint: a broad, soft brush to apply water, and two stiffer brushes to slowly remove the paint. The paint comes off very easily and creates a lot of tan water that washes over everything. The major task of this process was trying to remove the excess paint and water. When everything looked good, I let the paint dry for a couple of hours.

    When I removed the masking, the water and dust had soaked through the tape in several places, leaving dust marks on the wings in the brown paint. I attacked this unwanted paint using water and ear buds, and was able to remove most of it. I will need to touch up some areas tomorrow. I probably could have avoided this issue by taking the masking tape off before using the water to remove the dust. Overall, I am happy with the results. Touch up painting is next, followed by some gloss and decals. Then weathering. Yeah.

    9 attached images. Click to enlarge.

  • Profile Photo
    Carl Smoot said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    Very cool effect George (@gblair). It amazes me how you keep finding ways to simulate these out of the ordinary finishes. Very impressive.

  • Profile Photo
    George R Blair Jr said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    Thanks, Carl (@clipper). I had originally planned to try the same effect using Vallejo ModelAir, which has always seemed really fragile. I saw this Ammo paint in an ad and decided to try it. They advertise it for armor, and have several "dirt" colors, as well as white for winter white wash paint. There are several things I need to do differently to better control the effect.

  • Profile Photo
    Christopher Amano-Langtree said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    Distemper was an early type of whitewash - chalk or lime based with a gelatinous size. It wasn't very durable but used if one needed a quick finish.

  • Profile Photo
    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    Fantastic replication of the distemper effect, my friend @gblair! 👍👍

  • Profile Photo
    John vd Biggelaar said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    Very nice effect created, George @gblair
    To me your experiment can be called successful.

  • Profile Photo
    George R Blair Jr said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    Hi Christopher (@christopher), Spiros (@fiveten), and John (@johnb): Thanks for stopping by. When I Googled "distemper" paint, it didn't was a pretty generic definition, but I sort of figured it was something similar to the winter whitewash applied to WW2 tanks. It seems to be more durable than I might have guessed. If I do this again, I might try using ModelAir instead.

  • Profile Photo
    George R Blair Jr said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    Today I spent some time removing the dust that had crept under the masking. Using water and ear buds, I was able to remove about 98% of the offending dust. My plan for tomorrow is to repaint where necessary, then to spray on some clear gloss in preparation for the decals. I will give the clear 24 hours to get solid before I add the decals. My plan right now is to use the kit decals, but I have never used Valom decals, so we will see how it goes.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

  • Profile Photo
    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    Looks fantastic, my friend @gblair!
    Looking forward to see it decaled!

  • Profile Photo
    John vd Biggelaar said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    Turned out beautifully, George @gblair

  • Profile Photo
    George R Blair Jr said 1 month, 1 week ago:

    Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). I like the way the washable paint looks, but the real test is to see how it looks after clear is applied and with decals.

  • Profile Photo
    George R Blair Jr said 1 month ago:

    Yesterday I sprayed the plane with Tamiya Clear Gloss, and then let it dry overnight. I have never used Valom decals before, so I wanted to try them in an inconspicuous place before I committed to placing all of them. The underside of the wing has a total of 4 large decals, as well as several small stencils.

    I placed the 4 large decals today. I plan to let the dry completely and then see how they do. The first thing you notice is that they don't want to leave the paper backing. I left the first one in the water for about 30 seconds, and then placed it on a paper towel to finish the releasing process. It took another 3 minutes before it would very reluctantly slide off the paper. The decal was a little thick. I used Tamiya MarkFit on the decal, which didn't really seem to do anything. I waited for about 15 minutes to see if the decals were slow to react with the MarkFit, but they didn't seem to want to snug down. I then tried some Tamiya MarkFit Strong, which finally pulled the decal down onto the detail.

    For the second decal, I left it in the water for 2 minutes, then 2 more minutes on the paper towel. It would then reluctantly leave the paper. For this decal, I pressed the decal into place using a paper towel, then hit it with MarkFit Strong. This seemed to work better.

    I added the two under-wing roundels, again using the MarkFit Strong. I plan to let the decals dry overnight and see what they look like. The colors on this plane will be unforgiving of a decal that won't snuggle down, so I want to be sure I can control any silvering before I start adding decals to the top of the plane. More tomorrow.

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

  • Profile Photo
    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 month ago:

    You seem to having tamed those stubborn decals, my friend @gblair! All looking good from here.