F4U-5N Corsair finished

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Well, the project is finally finished. This is the fourth, and final, build for my “Soccer War” aircraft customer.

In case you haven’t seen the in-progress pics, the kit is Hasegawa’s 1/48 F4U-5N. I built it out of the box, adding only Eduard PE belts and a piece of clear sheet for the gunsight “glass.” I used the kit decals, including the rudder and wingtip bands.

My customer wanted this one to be “faded” and chipped. It was first painted with Model Master Dark Sea Blue overall. I then sprayed progressively lightened shades randomly on areas that would be exposed to the sun and rain. I looked at LOTS of pics of faded paint on aircraft, and found that the center of the panels do not fade more than the edges. After it was “faded,” I glossed with Future and applied a black oil wash. The chips are Prismacolor pencil and a drybrush of MM Chrome silver mixed with black oil paint. I still prefer to build my own aircraft “clean,” but it was FUN to add some wear to this one.

Hope you like it too !












And here’s a shot of all four birds. The two Corsairs in the middle are HobbyCraft, and the Mustang is Hasegawa.

Thanks for letting me share this fun project with you !

2

Looks great Pix

3

Great build and a very nice finish to an impressive group of fighters!

4

WOW

6 [tup][tup][tup][tup][tup][tup]

Very Cool Build

Bud

5

Bill,

Very nice, as usual. However, I am curious about your comment about panel wear and paint fading. Could you go into more detail as to how you acheived the “stressed” look of the paint?

6

Um…Wow.

7

What do you say? THat’s is work that is at the top of the chart. This is what we all aspire to do… you’ve nailed it.

They look amazing! I know your customer will be happy!

8

Pix, for someone who turns out “clean” aircraft, you jumped right into the weathered project without missing a beat. If your Customer could shrink himslef down to 1/48 scale, it looks like he’d be able to fly away in his choice of 4 cool looking aircraft. Top Notch stuff, Pix

9

Nice job pix, your craftmanship is excellent. With a mono tone paint job you almost have to weather it to get it to look correct. Without weathering they look very toy like. You are right the sun and elements do not fade panels in the middle, but servce does. I’m sure your customer will be just as happy with corsair with character as he will with the others. I think I like this one better then the stang, and I really liked camo paint work on the stang . Only thing I see is the exhaulst stains on the sides need to be long and brown. Like this

10

NICE job as usual bill!! my favorite is the stang. good to see you venture out and weather a little[:)], though still a little too clean for me!![:o)] later.

11

Looks good Pix!

BTW, ever noticed how people over on aeroscale are not quite as nice and sociable as they are here?

12

Excellent build as usual Bill. Great looking bird.

Regards, Rick

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Um…Agree!

[:D]

14

Great job on the the latest U-bird.[tup][tup]. Your weathered paint effect looks so much more realistic than the so often seen nightly highlighted panel lines. Brilliant!

15

Wow! That is a fantastic build. Looks very realistic.

16

YOU are thanking US ?? (mouth agape…)

No, Pix, THANK-YOU! Wow what talent!

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Thank you very much smokinguns, Bgrigg, Dubau, Joe, Allen, Jon, mucker, phoenix, Chris, hkshooter, Rick, Marc, ARBANE, Yann, and MA !

Joe - I first painted the entire airframe (except the anti-glare panel, which is White Ensign Mitsubishi Cowl Blue-Black) Model Master Dark Sea Blue. I studied photos of aircraft that had faded paint, looking for patterns. I opened some of the pics with Photoshop, desaturated the color (if needed), and played with the “curves” feature to better see the differences in gray. I saw more vertical patterns on fuselage sides, and more shapes on the wings. I lightened the Dark Sea Blue just enough to make the change barely visible, and applied it to fairly large areas in the patterns I saw. I added more white (again, just enough to notice a change in value), and sprayed smaller areas. I did this progressively with four or five lightened shades. When I was satisfied with the random look of it, I highly thinned straight Dark Sea Blue and shot it over the topsides. This tied everything together, and lowered the contrast. I feel that a high contrast doesn’t make it look real, it makes it look like you used an “effect.”

phoenix - I used color photos of aircraft in Dark Sea Blue to get the color of the exhaust stains. The vast majority of the ones I have showed a light gray, so that’s what I used. I don’t trust artwork or profiles for things like that.

ARBANE - I tried to avoid the “preshade” look, since I dislike it so much. I wanted it to resemble photos I’ve seen, and not other models.

MA - yes, I appreciate the opportunity to have an outlet with which I can share my work. FSM could open the site, but without members, it wouldn’t be anything. I wish to thank everyone who views my work or is kind enough to post comments. My work would just be shapes of colored plastic on my shelves otherwise. My customers may give them more “life” than I could, and I thank them too.

Thanks again !

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Nice pix!!! Maybe could you make a tutorial on the painting of sea blue on your website. I know a few people would benefit from that!!! Me included! Fabulous work, you are amazing,

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Thanks RadMax !

About the best explanation I can give is in my reply to Joe, which is just before your post. Find photos of faded paint on aircraft, and study them closely. I believe that subtle variation is the most effective way to represent it.

Thanks again !

20

You’re welcome.

Would you consider the same apporach applicable for a P47D Razorback with OD upper surfaces?