RLM 04 Gelb ident areas painted and masked off and RLM 65 undersurface painted, using Xtracolor paints.


Any thoughts would be interesting :-)
Mal

Beautiful. Are the Xtracolor paints glossy?

Hi Mal

The Henschels shaping up nicely! :-)

The comparison of the cannon pack is against light and dark backgounds is fascinating. Apart from the colour difference (was the camera on "auto", or did you do a manual white balance?), the way the pre-shading comes through is very different.

I hit a similar thing with my Spritfire (it's in Critics Corner). To the naked eye, the pre-shading looked way OTT, but I did a pic on the off-chance... and it looked much more subdued.

All the best

Rowan

Looks good Holdfast. What scheme are you doing this in? Wingman out.

Looking good Mal,
I too am interested what top-side scheme you're going to do. Russia ? Patience....I know

On the top pic the colour looks more like RLM 76 (grey blue), but the inset of the gun pack against the white background looks definitely RLM 65?

Strange things can happen between the actual, the digicam and jpg's.

Cheers
Peter
:-)

:-) I took these pics inthe morning, before going to work, so although it was daylight outside it wasn't the best light for taking pics.


Yep, the idea is that you don't need to do a gloss coat before decalling. The problem with Xtracolor paints is that they take an age to dry, about a week. That is if you use their recommended thinner, which is white spirit. If you use cellulose thinner they dry very quickly, if you add a few drops of Rustins paint dryer they, apparently dry in a couple of hours :-) Having said that this RLM 65 took about 3 days to dry, but the RLM 04 was dry within hours?
You may be interested to know that I didn't use my normal method of pre-shading, in fact this isn't pre-shaded at all. If you had been paying attention you would have noticed in my last update that I said I wasn't going to pre-shade :-) However I have been thinking about pre-shading, again and although I have proved to myself that it can work under darker colours, I believe I may have come up with a better solution, Ta Da I won't know for sure until I start the uppersurface of this Hs 129, at the week end. So if you want to catch up take a look at my artical, To pre-shade or not to pre-shade. I always intended to write a second part, but it looks as if I will be taking a different tack. If it works, or looks as if it will work, I will write an article :-)
Yes Peter, it does look a bit like RLM 76, but it is deffinately 65 :-) I am toying with different ideas for the uppersurface
Rowan, the camera was set on manual, with the white balance set to day light. One of the reasons I am moving away from straight pre-shading is because of the difficulty in getting the coverage just right. It is a very good affect when done right, but without very good lighting (in my case anyway) it's very difficult to know when to stop applying the colour. My new solution to this, if it works, should give the subtle shading effect that I'm looking for without the hassle. I hope
Mal
PS, anybody spot the diliberate mistake

That is coming along very nicely indeed. How well do the extracolour paints airbrush, any diferences to humbrol as to thinning band coverage? I've always shied away from them due to the long drying times.


Could it be the thin strip of masking running down at an angle from the nose? If so do I win a prize for spotting it?

Hi Martin, the Xtracolor paints are excellant to airbrush. My orginal reason for going for them was the fact that they are gloss. Not because that means you don't need a gloss coat, I still do anyway, but because gloss paints have a finer pigment. I don't spray Humbrol paints, I just use them for hand brushed detail painting, so I can't comment. However Humbrol's new formula is supposed to have finer pigment. I went off Xtracolor paints because of the long drying time, then discovered that cellulose thinner speeds it up. I was in Hannants shop in Collindale, one day last year, talking to the guy behind the counter, about their paint. He told me that one of their customers uses "Rustins paint Dryer", which makes the paint dry really quickly. I haven't been able to find it, yet, but Rowan has used it and confirms that it works. :-)
Yep, Martin the rogue piece of masking tape is the mistake DOH I didn't spot it until I checked the pic, after posting here. Sorry no prize, just the cudos of being a clever b.....d
Mal