Paul, thank you! In turn, I am amazed by the organized way your workbench looks. I am spread out all over the house ! I am a big fan Krylon but I never used the cans for modeling - I use their Short Cuts series - very nice, fine pigmented high gloss paints. The black makes the best under-coat for Alclad I ever found...

UPDATE
I had a case here of re-appearing seam line, caused probably by the solvent in the primer etching the solvent based Tamiya white putty. I opted this time for Tamiya Surface Primer to fill the minute gaps and some ejector pins:






I decided to follow an "obsolete" method in painting this aircraft - undercoating with silver. I have tried it prior to this on another build and I swear it makes a difference! Camera won't show that much, but naked eye can "guess" the "metal" underneath the paint. I have used Rust-oleum enamel in this purpose:


The enamel takes some 48 hrs to become sandable, but was dry enough to touch after 24 hrs and I could apply some pre-shading. Most of it probably will get lost under dark colors of the splinter camouflage, but I'm trying nonetheless:




I painted already the areas where the identifications marks will be masked over - pictures to follow with the next update.

Thank you for following!

Cheers!
Gabriel

UPDATE
As announced in previous posting, I sprayed the areas where the identification stripes were on the aircraft, then masked off:


I used in this scope Tamiya masking tape 10mm:


Over the previously pre-shaded under surfaces I have applied Vallejo Air RLM65 Helblau, careful to let some pre-shading show thru. I then added some post-shading and highlighting with the same base paint, to which I added generic acrylic white, respectively black approx 10%. This time I also thinned the blend with IPA (approx 50%). Here's the result:




A wash will follow, but I need first to paint the splinter camo on the upper surfaces.
The next step will be adding the wheels and moving to painting dorsal parts of the aircraft.

More updates in the making - I'll be back soon!

Cheers!
Gabriel

Great work here guys!

Stephen,
nice to see you coming up with the Kelly. Follow that closely as I buil a few ships in my youth.

Bogi,
very well done! Congrats for finishing this fine work.

Pedro & Franck,
always enjoyable watching a 109 (have those overtrees too) or a FW190 (pit looks great) build.

Gabriel,
really fantastic job on that kit. You paid so much attention on your build and now with the first colors it comes nicely to shape. It's all very informative too.



Here's where I'm at the moment:

Cockpit done (so well),fixed and fuselage halves closed. They have a small misalignment (couldn't point out where)and some tension while glueing resulting in a few minor gaps.
I left the engine oob.




Th mas

Great work guys.

@Thomas : I didnt know that The Jug from Academy has such nice details. Very nice job !

I have put on the basic camo on the Hurricane. The colours chosen are preaty random since I will be weathering it heavily, which will alter the shades anyway. No need to obses about the exact color.

Hello guys!
This is my progress with the model I started in the campaign. It is assembled quite well and the individual parts fit together. These are the photos at this moment and I hope the score can show you the model in its finished look.








Greetings and success to everyone.
Kalin

Thomas, thank you so much! with you around I am sure the quality is secured and a short glance at your post just confirmed me that!
You know, I have remorse that sometimes I passed on details that I could have done better, but I just rushed on! It was sometimes good for finishing the builds on time, but never good for the morale - gave me a sentiment of underachieving. On the other side, I am careful not to get tied down too long into a build, for fear of losing motivation (Actually, this is happening as we speak, with my Mack DM600 truck build ).

UPDATE:

When the undersides were dry, I have applied the masks to protect the surfaces and to delimit the camouflage sections:


I have airbrushed after Vallejo Air RLM71 Dunkelgrun and I have done some post-shading and highlighting:


A closer picture to help you see better the detail:


With the first shade of green dry, I masked off the camouflage pattern. It is not excatly as in the instructions manual, but I haven't strayed too far either :


Hard edges and good contrast - that I was after:


Detail with the white identification band:


Close-up with the yellow identification band (some re-touching needed there - already done see infra)


Close-up with the tail:


The underbelly after removing the masking; again, some corrections required and done:


A light wash of van Gogh 'Payne's Gray' oil applied. I like the bluish tinge of this paint and I find it complements very well RLM65 Helblau:


Detail picture with the rivets - that's for the rivet-counter, not for you


I am on applying oil wash on the upper surfaces right now, and soon a new update will be available!

Cheers!
Gabriel

Many great build are going on here!

Bluestab and Pasi: Great finish on Your tanks! I like them a lot.

Gabriel: Your Stuka comes along very nice. It will be a gem with all those details!

BogiBG: Fast and proper build. Wow! My compliments.

Thomas: The details of Your Razorback are wonderful. I will follow Your build with great interest!

Naseby: Paint job looks spot on.

Well, I changed my topic from the Gladiator to the Steyr 1500 A. But, I reckognized that I have not posted a proper start picture of my build.

Luckily, I made a picture of the whole kit on 27th of June with John´s weight work on the B-25 in the background.



...and some more progress by now.


.

Happy modeling!

Oliver

Thanks, Oliver! The Steyr is one of my all-times favorites! Oddly enough, I never get around in building one, just because I couldn't decide what kit. Watching with interest!

UPDATE
Perhaps this update should be a stand-alone feature under the title of:

Beware of "fake silvering"! - I couldn't find a better term for it!

Here's the story:
I have applied as per my habit some "test decals" on the "peripherals": fuel tanks, bombs etc. - all good. I then started decaling the air frame, again, starting with the under-surfaces, just to make sure all goes smooth. And it was going smooth until I reach to the fascias on the upper wings. To my complete dismay, bewilderment and disappointment, as the Micro Sol was drying slowly, that was the image it appeared:


It was perhaps the most spectacular case of silvering from my entire modelling career. I start fumbling for contingency "plan B" - robbing another kit of decals - and the victim would have been the Fiat CR-42 from Italeri or contingency "plan C" - switch to German markings, which meant the applying of a third camouflage coat - sand. But the voices in my head kept repeating: "silvering not possible... silvering not possible..." because the surfaces were properly prepared, the decals were darn good and the Micro Gloss / Micro Set / Micro Sol triangle always worked for me. With the panic slowly wearing off, I re-evaluate the problem, and I figured out that "the silvering" is not coming from the contact zone between the decals and the model, but from the matte surface of the decal! Following the updated diagnostic, I prescribed the recipe: Pledge. I administered some Pledge externally to the infected patient, and it started curing:


After a second application of "snake oil", there we go!

Wonders still happen! Guys, I realized only then how many times I missed the opportunity to achieve better decaling, especially with older Tamiya kits! I still have my old BMW R-75 which I am ashamed to show it to anybody just because of that

From there on, everything else went "by the book":










After all decaling, I went on with a solid coat of Micro Gloss again to seal the decals. The ones that appear too white now will receive a wash to blend them into the color scheme.
I still have to paint the exhaust stubs and to fiddle a bit with the landing gear "pants" and then I'm moving further to the satin coat and weathering.

P.S. I'm not sure I am fully recovered after the "scare" Let's see how the "post traumatic shock" will affect me!

Cheers!
Gabriel

Nice save Gabriel! You really are doing a nice job on that old kit.

Michael

Joe, no WW2 campaign is up to that name unless there are a couple of the all time FAVORITES in it. besides there is no such thing as too many Messerschmitts

Can you post the photo of the book? Perhaps we can give our thoughts about the color of Franz F-4.

Cheers
Pedro

Here goes some pics regarding the current state of progress of my Eduard 109 F-4













This intake filter comes from Quickboost and it is meant for Hasegawa kits but it works fine on Eduard part. Besides its the only open filter I found

Cheers
Pedro

Gabriel - I think you will want to flat the paint after the decals dry? What will the Pledge do to your flat coat? I would be afraid it would bubble up or refuse to stick.

Don Pedro, it's looking good there on your bench...

Michael, thank you so much! Oldies but goldies. I figured out the "classic" kits aren't that bad after all... just need some more attention which give me the opportunity to practice.

Paul, I don't think is a matter of concern. The layer under the decals is also an acrylic - Micro Gloss and Pledge will fuse to it. I could have used any less aggresive gloss coat to seal the matte surface of the decals - it just happened that I had Pledge readily at hand. The satin coat I use in top of it is a solvent based polyurethane that, once cured, is incredibly resilient. I have big trouble in removing it from the glass jar I mix it in if it dries there...


UPDATE

I have applied some washes over the decals to blend them in:





I also painted the exhaust stubs with matte Homefront acrylics:


The satin coat applied - solvent based polyurethane: I find the result a little too glossy but a oil dot filter follows. If still too glossy, I will apply a coat of satin over again:












Thanks, guys!
More updates in the making!

Have fun!
Gabriel

I wonder if your Pledge is the same product? Here in SoCal Pledge is a spray furniture wax. It is oily. I can't imagine any paint sticking to it.

I suspect that you're right. Pledge is a spray furniture polish. For a while the Future we've been using for years was marketed as Pledge Multi Surface Floor Care. Hopefully he's just shortened the product name.

Mark and Paul: Sorry for the confusion! Indeed, the acrylic product I was referring to is Pledge Floor Care, the equivalent of Future.

Cheers!
Gabriel

Hi, guys!

UPDATE
Dot oil filter applied. I was worried a little about the lack of contrast between RLM70 and RLM71 and I am quite content I regained it:


The following picture is slightly out of focus - sorry!:


Close-up with the horizontal stabilizer:


Close-up with the vertical stabilizer:


The bad news is that I need another coat of satin coat, because I have patches of different finish (satin and semi-gloss) all over the aircraft. Not big deal - just another day delay

Cheers!
Gabriel

Pedro,
cockpit's looking really pretty fine. Nice work on your 109!

Gabriel,
funny thing with those decals and a good save.
After all, close to the end it really turns out nice. The paint, wash and color modulation looks spot on to me.
I think, with so many glossy coats under the final semi-gloss it might stay quite shiny.

Looking forward to all of your great work guys,
Th mas

Ah! I use Future too. I read somewhere that it had a new name but I have two bottles of the old and that ought to last a lifetime. Great stuff!

Your decals are certainly much improved after it was applied.

Great to see people progressing their builds. Mine is going at a slow pace, but I've hit a milestone where I'm ready to close up the cockpit.
Regards.
IMG_2125 by Spud Moulder, on Flickr
IMG_2126 by Spud Moulder, on Flickr

Hi mates,

I'm very impressed by the many excellent builds underway here.
It seems to be a very interesting campaign, given all the different subjects ranging from tanks, guns and ships to aircraft.
I've finally started my own kit and hope to get a reasonable result
with my B-25 from Hasegawa(1:72)


Keep going and good luck to everybody

Peter,
that B-25 looks promising, good choice. Hope to see it on your bench soon.

Spoud,
slow but steady progress, nice work on the office!

Oliver,
thank you! I like the Steyr - would like to see any progress.

Here's a short summary from my build :





Th mas

Thomas, Thank you, sir! Your build is turning out very nicely as well (in your case it's a paradigm, of course!). Details are spot on, well thought over and well done! A pleasure to follow your build.

LAST UPDATE

Finally there, guys! I had some trouble with the chipping - I didn't like the way the aluminum contrasted with the dark color scheme and I re-did the last steps of weathering, fixing another small issue on the way, and there's the completed Picchiatello









And here a few close-ups:












Thank you very much for following up any any criticism welcome!

Cheers!
Gabriel

I thought your chipping came out very well, the whole things looks much better than its humble origins suggested it might. I see the finish is satin with a sheen. Is this the way the real aircraft looked? I have read that Japanese crews wiped down aircraft on carriers with some sort of oily/waxy product that gave the paint a slickness that was intended to boost speed.

I have a bit of progress to report on my M3 project. The OD is a Krylon product and it was very flat. It was slicked up with another Krylon product, a clear lacquer that glossed the finish up for decals.

The decals I choose were from a Bison sheet. I wanted to do one with the yellow stripes but no sheet I have had these stripes and I did not feel competent to match paint color or try to paint the stars & stripes both. So this set of markings with an large red 3 was an attractive alternative.

The decals went on well and were sealed with another coat of the gloss clear.

That was followed by a flat black mostly pin wash and after that had dried a very thin coat of yellowish brown to shift the hue slightly and dirty things up a bit.

The last clear coat was a Krylon flat clear which dulled things down pretty nicely but with a very slight haze.



After this was completely dry some washes and streaks were added. This is all a bit of an experiment for me. I want to replicated the mud daub camo that some of the dark OD tanks were given by their crews to try to blend them in better with the local terrain.

I assumed that the tank would have on it dirt from stateside training before it was shipped to North Africa so I applied some darker shades of dirt to the undersides.

The finish will still have the dried mud and plenty of dust to come yet so I over did some of this hoping it will show through the later layers of NA dirt & dust.