A Faireytail – 1:48 Tamiya Swordfish Mk.II

Started by Aleksandar Sekularac · 31 · 4 years ago · Bi-Wing, Fairey, Stringbag, WWII
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    George R Blair Jr said 4 years, 8 months ago:

    Looks great, Aleks. Both biplanes and invasion stripes are evil! I avoid both of them like the plague. Photoetch turnbuckles will be a really nice touch, can't wait to see them installed. You have a stronger constitution than I do. Having said that, however, this plane should look great in invasion stripes.

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    Aleksandar Sekularac said 4 years, 8 months ago:

    Thanks George!
    I think too that the white stripes should be quite fetching on this one. I also enjoy immensely the absurdity of it all. Paint her black to cloak her from the enemy! Oh yeah, paint some white stripes, so that our chaps can clearly see her… Er, jolly good show, Nigel!

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    Greg Kittinger said 4 years, 8 months ago:

    Coming along beautifully!

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    Aleksandar Sekularac said 4 years, 7 months ago:

    Cheers Greg!
    Glad you are keeping an eye...:)

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    Louis Gardner said 4 years, 7 months ago:

    Somehow I missed seeing this one... it slipped under my radar.

    You have done some outstanding work on this model. The details you have shown on the cockpit and the engine amaze me. Well done, and I'll be watching for your next installment...

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    Aleksandar Sekularac said 4 years, 7 months ago:

    Thanks Louis,
    welcome to the band! Interresting stuff just starting...;)

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    Chuck A. Villanueva said 4 years, 6 months ago:

    This is perfect timing on this neat little WIP and review of the Tamiya Swordfish. I had no interest at first to ever build one, but I now I have one. The attention to detail and extra parts you got for the build is a big help when it comes time to break this out and start to work on it. A great motivational WIp on a seldom seen build of an interesting subject. I'm taking notes as you go along especially on the wings. That was the one factor that originally turned me off on the kit in the first place, and why I don't have much interest in similar WW1 bi planes. This may change all that, never say never. Thanks for sharing Aleksandar.

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    Pedro L. Rocha said 4 years, 6 months ago:

    Bloody good work, the engine and the marbeling is absolutely stunning. Your work is benchmark stuff, at least to me

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    Aleksandar Sekularac said 4 years, 6 months ago:

    Much obliged friends! 😀 @uscusn, @holzhamer
    To reiterate, the greatest compliment for me is to be able to motive and inspire, so if I'm doing that while having fun I am in bliss!

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    Aleksandar Sekularac said 4 years, 6 months ago:

    Howdy again folks!

    The prolonged pause in my posts was not so much due to the lack of progress, as to my hermitic tendency and acute inertia toward social media. I apologize for that, I do try to change and realize fully that in today’s world tweeting is equally important as breathing. Oh well, I guess I am an anaerobic type…

    There are things in model building that we do well and then there are other things... I was always more of a builder than the painter, but I am consciously trying to improve and frankly the techniques and products available today make it hard for me to say: “I can’t do it”. I even caught myself enjoying the process of weathering my models few times, but please tell this to no one.

    The “Fish” is now in full painting/weathering stage and it made me realise that the seemingly basic, all-black appearance doesn’t imply same simplicity in finishing it. Quite on the contrary… OK, I only have myself to blame for the conscious decision to mask and paint all national markings on this model. As I said to one friend of mine when he asked why - I make thinner crêpes than Tamiya does decals. And my crêpes are not the thinnest…

    I also masked and painted the white stripes, not feeling confident enough to free-hand them with a brush. I guess that pedantic streak in me simply wouldn’t allow for that level of sloppiness. So then I tried to counter the cookie-cutter look that resulted from this by applying some smoke effects on the white parts and also oils in the random dots overall and then blending them. I think the Fish now looks appropriately dirty, but I must admit there is precious little to be seen from the initial black marbling layers. You can see some on the wings, but the fuselage is in the realm of homeopathy. I may skip this effort next time under the similar circumstances.

    More perceptive of you may also note that the process of rigging has begun. I am using old fashion fine nylon painted in a dark metal hue for some contrast to the overall blackness...

    Cheers,
    Aleks

    13 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Pedro L. Rocha said 4 years, 6 months ago:

    “there is precious little to be seen from the initial black marbling layers. You can see some on the wings, but the fuselage is in the realm of homeopathy. I may skip this effort next time under the similar circumstances.” - sorry to hear that, I had the same problem, albeit not using the same methods you used here, when going with a all black camo finish and the use of weathering mediums over it. Since I’m building yet another all black camo aircraft I was seriously thinking of using marbling this time to get that uneven look your swordfish had earlier, not so sure after reading your experience 🙁

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    Aleksandar Sekularac said 4 years, 6 months ago:

    Hi Pedro, @holzhamer
    it'll all depend on how clean you plan to keep your finish... If you want to apply a lot of oils and pigments on top of your paint, they will probably overpower the marbling effect. Marbling is really effective on lighter finishes, but for the black it may be too subtle.

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    Erik Gjørup said 4 years, 6 months ago:

    Aleksandar @asecular, I fully follow you on the social media comment - I am not on any of the "known" ones myself (I use ello.co that is virtually unknown, and very friendly - sort of like iModeler the way people "talk" to each other) - Now that aside, your "Fish" is coming along very well. It is often said that a black plane is very difficult to make as it tends to have little of interest in the colours (or lack thereof).

    Your build is totally reversing that, and the way you have painted and weathered so far is an inspiration that will be put to good use in a 109 I plan to build in the distant future (points on marbling duly noted). Thank you for this interesting build!

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    George R Blair Jr said 4 years, 6 months ago:

    Black paint schemes are so hard to do well, and yours is awesome. Thanks for the insight on how you are using the oils to weather your paint. I also am not much of a social media guy and my Facebook and Instagram accounts tend to languish for weeks at a time.

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    Aleksandar Sekularac said 4 years, 6 months ago:

    Cheers friends!

    Erik and George, @airbum, @gblair, this is my first black subject... well that is a lie, I just remembered Italeri SR-71 some 30+ years ago, painted with a brush using some "MOLAK" sludge without a thinner... I was puzzled why decals wouldn't stick to the corrugated matt surface... yeah, those were the days!

    Anyways, the lack of sex-appeal in black finish will be more than compensated here with surface details that the Fish has more than there are fleas on a stray dog. Plus those white stripes scream for attention: "Please shoot at me if you are German!"

    I need to go put more strings on this bag now...