Jim,
I emailed you letting you know about this article, but I did it from my (notoriously unreliable) works computer, so in case you missed it here's an article I wrote which you might want to use. Hope it's the sort of thing you are after:
Ten things which will make your model aircraft look better, by Holocaust59 (Alan
Bradbury):
There are lots of tips on the 'Net about how to do this that or the other to your modelling subject, but it seems there's a bit of a gap where aircraft are concerned, so I thought I'd address this.
This short article is by no means a bible, or comprehensive rulebook, but is merely intended to help you get your model looking a bit better by altering or adding things that are often neglected or missed. If nothing else, I hope it will give you a few ideas.
As with everything though, your main criteria should be: 'am I happy with it', if the answer is yes, then that's good enough.
1. He ain't heavy....
Take a good look at the undercarriage in the average model aircraft kit, and you'll see that it is often molded with the oleo struts uncompressed, as they would be if the aircraft is flying with its gear down. I.E. with no weight on the wheels.
If you model your warbird on the ground and don't address this, it will add to the 'something's not right' feeling you get when you look at it but can't figure out why it doesn't look like your reference picture.
This is particularly true of taildraggers, which tend to look way too 'nose high' without a little 'oleo tweek' to factor in the weight of that big old lump of engine in the nose.
Fortunately, it's very easy to remedy this by chopping a tiny bit out of the part, in fact the simple act of sawing it in two and then rejoining it will probably remove enough material without you actually having to physically chop a bit out. You may have to use a pin drill and a peg to support the rejoined part, or if you are working at a small scale you'll probably get away with simply shortening the part by sanding a bit off its length. But at larger scales, do remember that the angle of the torsion struts (if there are any) may change under compression (the torsion strut is the V-shaped bit that stops the wheel twisting, for those who wonder what the hell I'm on about here). You can be sure that rivet-counting killjoys will delight in pointing this out to you, if you don't make that adjustment!
2. 50,000 psi....
Few aircraft kits take into account how the tires of an aircraft flatten and bulge where they make contact with the tarmac (or grass). This has the effect of making the aircraft look like it weighs very little, and creates the impression of the tires being pretty seriously over-inflated! A simple solution is to file a flat spot on the mainwheel tires where they make contact with the ground, although to be strictly accurate, you should combine this with a lttle modelling putty added either side of this 'flat point' to simulate the sidewall expanding.
Don't just paint them black either! Have a good look at a car and see what colour the tires are, they aint black! Notice that the tread area is also invariably a different colour to the sidewalls.
If you want to get really obsessive, you can paint a 'creep mark' on the tire too, this is simply a white paint mark on the tire and wheel rim to let the ground crew know if the tire has rotated on the rim (if it has, it puts a strain on the valve on tires with an inner tube and can result in a blowout on touchdown). Bear in mind that some aero tires are tubeless though, so check your facts!
3. Whoops!
If you are modelling a warbird that's seen a bit of service, particularly in wartime, you should bear in mind that maintenance is often something of a rush job. When this happens, the paint around panel fastenings takes a real hammering. For example, in a Merlin engine
(Spitfire, later Mustangs, Lancaster, some P-40s etc) the spark plugs last around twelve hours, after which, replacing them is a good idea. This means that on a Battle of Britain Spitfire for example, the engine cowling panels would be off almost daily. One slip with that screwdriver and that paintwork (which, for weight considerations, is always thin on aircraft) gets scratched. Multiply this by dropping the panel the odd time and you can see that the preserved aircraft that you admired so much in that museum looks very different to the ones in daily wartime use.
I have a panel from a Spitfire (R6753) which was shot down during the Battle of Britain and subsequently 'exhumed' years later, and you would be surprised how thin (and consequently easily damaged) the paint is on it. Incidentally, for all you 'must get the colour exactly right' people, the brown on this panel is incredibly dark, almost like dried blood in colour. And no, it isn't dried blood, the pilot (Colin Pinkney) bailed out!
An easy, quick (and cheap) way to simulate this wear and tear on panels is with two pens. A silver ink pen from a stationers, and a black permanent finepoint pen, also from a stationer. Simply put a dot of silver where the panel fasteners are, allow it to dry and then put a a black dot in the middle of your silver patch where the fastener is, to represent the screw. Of course you can refine this technique further using paint or going for something a little more subtle, but you'll be surprised how effective it can look.
Another area to concentrate on for this effect is the ammunition access panels on the wings. As is the area around the guns on Spitfires and Hurricanes. The red or yellow square often seen where each muzzle protrudes was actually a square panel of fabric doped over the hole to prevent cold air from entering the gun barrel during flight, freezing the guns' lubricating oil and making it jam. It would be shot away when the pilot opened fire, and would thus have to be removed and replaced next sortie. Probably scratching the paint in the process.
I heard an interesting tale from one of my relatives once, whose job it was, during the Second World War, to repair battle-damaged aircraft. He told me that one night they hadn't ahieved their required quota of repairs, owing to the wing of a particularly badly damaged Spitfire that was in their shop needing a huge amount of work. To avoid getting a dressing down for not finishing the job, they sneaked into the area of the factory where new wings were produced and stole an new one off the production line! When you bear things like that in mind, it's worth considering varying the shade of paint on you model. I find that, making up a little storyline of the history of your aircraft and its adventures can help you achieve a much more believable finished product.
Just don't overdo it!
4. Mmm nice....
Anyone who has ever looped or spun an aircraft will recognize this one.
The moment you go inverted or push some negative G, you get a mouthful of dust and dirt which has flown up from the cabin floor! I've had this happen to me even on well-cared-for civilian aircraft, so imagine how much mud would make it into the cockpit of something stationed on a grass airfield. Or how much slush would get into the cockpit of an aircraft on the Russian Front. However, keep in mind that some aircraft models (particularly WW1 and WW2) inaccurately portray the aircraft with a 'floor'. Which in reality was often not the there on its real world counterpart (get some reference pics or check out a preserved example).
5. Speaking of mud....
Check out an aircraft at a grass strip and you'll see mud and grass jammed in the mudguards and wheel spats. Most Cessnas and similar which you'll see, invariably had a spatted nosewheel originally. Often this has been removed for this very reason as a build up of mud can even stop the brakes working in extreme cases.
Grass cuttings too, will flick up in the aircraft's propwash and stick to the bottom of the fuselage in the wet, as well as jamming into air intakes etc.
If you are modelling an aircraft which has just returned from a sortie, keep this in mind as it will not have been cleaned off by the gound crew at that point. If someone in your diorama has, for example, climbed onto the wing of a fighter to help the pilot undo his harness, try putting some muddy footprints on the wing where he climbed up.
6. Who left that gun there?
Modelling a bomber parked up in a diorama with all its defensive armaments bristling out of the swivel mounts is only accurate if you put the crew in place. Aerial gunners had, in most cases, to draw a gun from the armourers stores at the start of a mission and take it to the aircraft. After the mission, the guns would be removed, cleaned and returned to the armoury. If you do choose to put them on the aircraft, don't forget the ammo belts either!
If you're doing a belly-landed bomber diorama, it's likely the crew will have tossed their guns overboard prior to the crash-landing to reduce weight. Similarly, if you are modelling an aircraft being serviced, the easily removable guns in non power-operated positions are unlikely to be there. Which is something to bear in mind for those dioramas!
7. Chocks away!
Simple to make out of balsa wood and thread, you don't even have to paint them that well as they get dragged around so much the paint takes a right battering. Chocks add to the realism of your model tremendously but are so often left out of dioramas! Aircraft are rarely parked for long periods with the brakes on, as it puts an unnecessary strain on the hydraulic lines.
Remove before flight tags and pitot head covers are other little details which are easily made from coloured paper, but enhance the realism greatly.
8. In a flap....
Many people model aircraft with the flaps down to add a bit of interest, but there are lots of other things you can do with an aircraft's control surfaces to liven your model up a bit. Incidentally, R.A.F. pilots used to get fined for taxying with the flaps down, so there's something else to think about for your diorama!
Try drooping the elevators a little, you may have to cut them out with a razor saw or scalpel but it's usually worth the effort for the added realism. Older kits might have upper and lower panel lines misaligned though, so consider carefully whether to attempt this on that 'classic' 70's kit you've finally got around to!
If you don't want to do that, try adding the control surface locks instead (These are usually placed on aircraft parked in the open to prevent the wind banging the control surfaces about, as they are often fabric covered and consequently fairly light), a couple of thin strips of plastic card on either side of the hinge line will usually do the trick, but check out some photos for reference as to how they look for your particular model. If your reference pictures are black and white you can safely assume these to be red, as they are normally highly visible to prevent removing them prior to flight being forgotten. This actually happened on the prototype B-17 Flying Fortress and resulted in a fatal crash during its acceptance trials!
If, however, you do decide to move the ailerons, elevators, rudder or flaps, don't forget to move the associated control in the cockpit to the appropriate position. That's another one some smartass will enjoy pointing out to you if you forget it!
9. Hit the brakes!
Adding the brake lines to the undercarriage of your masterpiece is easy with a little electrical copper wire and a decent photo, or the box art, but it makes a big difference to the realism.
10. Nothing personal....
Putting something personal into the cockpit of your aeroplane will add a 'human touch' which is often lacking in aircraft models with no pilot or groundcrew present. This can be as simple as perhaps putting a copy of 'Signal' (or' Signaal' for purists) magazine on the seat of your ME-109, a 'Hersheys' bar or packet of 'Luckys' on the throttle quadrant of your P-51 Mustang or perhaps a photo of the pilot's girlfriend stuck in the panel of your F-16's UFCP. All you need is a computer, a printer and a little imagination. A search on the 'Net will usually yield the image you need.
So there you go, lots of simple touches that will make your masterpiece look that little bit better, and not one of them requires anything more than a quick rummage through your spares box and a little imagination.
:)
Pretty please?
