I think That pit looks real nice bk. Don’t forget the PE footpedals. Lol
most American Spits were in British colors. They literally just put stars on them
So I got the base coat and some shading done. At some point I will attempt the home spun camouflage they did in the field after the 10 Chaffee tanks were flown in disassembled and assembled at the Dien Bien Phu airfield. Each tank was camouflaged by their crews in individual patterns as they felt was best to break up their outlines on the valley floor. My model will represent the tank “Conti” which was the comand tank. With the cargo planes the French had at their disposal in 1954 Indochina it was a remarkable feat. The clandestine CIA air force assisted as well. The American tax payer paid for about 70% of the French effort in Indochina from 49’ to 54’.
Griffin25: Chaffee is looking good! I really like how you did the shading, and I’m looking forward to seeing it in camo.
BrandonK: Nice job on the pit. Looking forward to seeing the Spitfire come together.
Some progress on the Heinkel - assembled the pit, and finishing glue up of the bomb bays.
Just a quick update on the Spit. I have it all built up now and I will mask the canopy and start priming probably tomorrow. This is an Italeri kit that is apparently a rebox of an old Ocindental kit. It’s not too bad, but won’t get it again, there are far better Spits available now than this kit. It will look good enough for the shelf when done, it won’t be a show winner, but at least it will be done.
BK
Looking good BK
I added a green filter to bring the green back and painted the wheels. I’m going to handpaint the axle caps. I forgot that part and said screw it. Duh. Then I will do some camo. The tank crews did the camo themselves with whatever paint was available so I have some leeway.
She may be a rebox of an oldie, but it looks like she went together really well.
Nice progress on the Chaffee.
Looking back and forth between the shots of before and after the filter has convinced me to finally learn shading. I’ve admired the finished product of the process plenty of times at shows, but this is just the first time I’ve seen the progression of base coat through filter where the shading process has “clicked” for me. Thank you for the inspiration to take the dive and expand my modeling skills.
awesome stuff guys…
Im in with a tamiya P-47 1/48 RAF SEA theater.
Mach I use mostly Vallejo products and this book has helped me a lot. Trial and error too. I takr all the pics with my phone and sometimes depending on how its feeling the pics very a bit. It wasn’t as stark to start with and its not as green as it looks after the green filter but the filter teqniuqe works very well at blending the shading together so the contrast isn’t so abrupt. I just follow the directions and toy around with it. Basically I start with a darker base color then airbrush a lighter shade in the towards the center of the larger flat areas so the edges are darker than the centers.
Glad to have you, Nick!
Thanks for the info Griffin, I’ll have to get that book.
This is the camo I went with. The crews did it however they wanted in the field and reference materials differ widely so I followed suit and did it how I wanted. Lol. This picture is is how it really looks color wise. I think taking pics on a white background makes it hard on my phone camera to use the right auto settings. Its more accurate this way.
Now I like that. This is one really nice looking scheme you came up with on this tank. What a transformation. And, good idea on the background affecting the colors. I’ll give that a try on my next shots.
BK
Thanks BK. I’m going to do a dot filter next. Hopefully it will tone it down a bit.
Nice camo scheme!
Just another quick update. At this point the bird is painted. I’ll be clearing it tomorrow and then decals and pin wash. Things will slow down now that the detail work starts.
BK
That looks great BK. How did you mask it?
BK, that is a really nice paint job on the Spit there. And that’s on top of great work in the’pit.
Griffin, really good painting on the Chaffee. That is an unique colour scheme too I like it a lot.
Yes photos on a white background do change the colour a lot, still struggle to get colours coming out the way I see them.