Scooters double build: A-4E and A-4F in 1:48, Eduard (Hasegawa)

Started by Martin Dytrych · 39 · 5 years ago · 1/48, Eduard, Hasegawa, Scooters, Skyhawk, Vietnam War
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    Martin Dytrych said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Summer is over and long dark evenings came... This is perfect time to sit at the desk and finish what I started. And I decided to make a step forward and use salt... Not much modelers use it, but results can be stunning - and I hope that this will be the right effect for my Scooters. 🙂
    Two days ago I found out that I did not buy FS 16640, so I was sad I cannot continue quickly. It turned out that this was luck, because I can think over the work enough time and realize what I did, what I have to do and how I have to do it.
    So, my conclusions after two days:
    1) There is not enough salt - never. Salt more, don't be shy!
    2) Use more transparent colors. Work slowly, no rush.
    3) Do not cover bottom layer too much. Let the salt effect more visible.

    So, I made just walkways on the wing and antiglare stripe in front of cockpit so far to see, how the salt effect works. I realized that I used too much color to cover it. Nevertheless, nothing is lost. I can still get nice result. It is just a matter of more salt 🙂

    So, here you can see how far I get and I will add new pictures very soon - we will see if I succeeded.
    I have not much experience with salting, but it brings me a lot of experience and encourage me to try it even for models where nobody have ever tried it (as far as I know).

    6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Greg Kittinger said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    This is where I envy airbrushers! That's such a subtle effect, and I really have no way to replicate that with brush painting. Looks very nice.

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    Martin Dytrych said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Hi Greg, don't be sad, I watched incredible video with Mig Jimenez on YT yesterday. He presented the work with Oilbrusher, it was amazing and you can get really stunning result with using oils to achieve really smooth shading of colors...
    Now, back to A-4 topic.
    I used more salt, less color and here we are. I am satisfied, very satisfied with the look so far. I should get FS16640 tomorrow, therefore I will continue quickly with top color.

    4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Martin Dytrych said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Salty days are over. Three layers of salt look to too much today, I would go with only one or two next time.
    The result is great, however. I am switching to bottom and insignia airbrushing. This scooter looks better and better every day.

    4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Martin Dytrych said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Bottom side painting started. Just preshaded and basic color applied.

    3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Martin Dytrych said 6 years, 5 months ago:

    This is the moment when the fun starts. I like these colorful schemes, none of them is boring. 🙂

    4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Martin Dytrych said 6 years, 5 months ago:

    I jumped to small parts. Seat almost finished.

    3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Martin Dytrych said 6 years, 5 months ago:

    I think this is one the last post I put here. I had almost done weathring, just few things have still to be paint.

    I think I was able to get as close as possible to my wish and the weathering looks as real as I can do.

    After applying gloss lacquer I polished the surface with tamiya polish paste.

    Then I washed the lines and rivets and finaly I applied tamiya weathering and black pencil.

    I used oils, pencil, and tamiya weathering master set (B).

    I still have to apply pencil effects on bottom surface which looks too clear to me now.

    10 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Greg Kittinger said 6 years, 5 months ago:

    Beautiful work - eager to see the final headline post!

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    Martin Dytrych said 6 years, 4 months ago:

    After all issues I made and found, this one bird is done and it was already presented on Plastikova Zima in Bratislava last Saturday. I still have to re-take some photos again, but I am ready to show you the finished model right this weekend.

    I am happy that people appreciated clean build and nice surface, this was something I really struggled with when building previous models. I am glad I did one more step closer to perfection. But I stay humble and look forward to finish next Scooter in version F.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    Martin Dytrych said 6 years, 2 months ago:

    I quickly continue with F version, currently almost prepared for surfacer, including all tiny parts.

    5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Martin Dytrych said 6 years, 1 month ago:

    I worked intesively on Scooter last month and I am close to finish.

    1. Preshading with GSI C2 Black
    2. Ailerons rudder and elevator movable part airbrushed with GSI White C316
    3. Salt and light spray with very dark grey on walkways
    4. Leading edges, spoilers, ladder and inner surfaces with Tamiya Red.
    5. Base colors airbrush - white C316 on bottom.
    6. Upper surface: I sprayed darker shade of base color around walkways and on top of fuselage.
    7. Salt
    8. Light layer of base color - Grey C315.
    9. Salt again.
    10. Final layer of base color. I did not want to destroy preshading effect, so i used more thinned color.
    11. I made some stains with darker and lighter shade of base color.
    12. 3-4 layers of glossy varnish
    13. Decals (Mr. Mark Setter + Softer)
    14. 2-3 layers of glossy varnish over all decals
    15. Wash: I used mix of four oil colors: Umton white + grey + zinc + dark brown. I could not use grey only, because it has blue shade. I made it more warn with zinc and a little dark brown. Then I just tuned the lightness of the shade with white. For bottom surface i added a lot of white to get only little contrast.
      Undercarriage parts were washed with Mig Dark wash, because I like higher contrast there.

    Next steps will be - semi-glossy varnish and pastels + some drybrush (it will not be classic drybrush, but real painting to highlight some parts, the effect is similar to drybrush). At the end, I will fix them with semi-glossy varnish.

    22 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Jeff Bailey said 6 years, 1 month ago:

    Really nice Scooters, Martin!

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    Bernard E. Hackett, Jr. said 6 years, 1 month ago:

    Martin, two of my favorite A4 squadrons, the Bluetail Flies and the (ahem) Fighting Red Roosters. On at least one cruise, the squadron had a rooster in its own cage. They used to "unleash" him, to liven things up. Love them Skyhawks. AKA Scooters, Heinemans Hotrod.

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    Martin Dytrych said 6 years, 1 month ago:

    Thank you guys. In fact, there will be one more Skyhawk... It was not my will, but it happened. I will build one more for my friend in the scale 1/32. There will be no build log for that one, because he wanted just clean box built without any modifications - just for his display.
    I am looking forward to see and paint more details in that scale.
    However, there will be an article with finished model.