Greetings! Not only is this the first thing I’ve built in 27 years, but its my first attempt to post photos…please critique away. It is for the Tamiya 1/48 FW190-D9–an Aires cockpit set, painted predominantly with Modelmaster RLM66, as well as other RLM enamels and acrylics. I drybrushed with RLM02 and give it a nice Van Gogh Raw Umber oilpaint wash thinned with turpentine, then sprayed with Dullcote. I painted the back of the instrument panel film white. I have photos both with and without the instrument panel. I would love to know what you think–I hope the photos go through okay this time…thanks!
Thank you! The Dullcote wasn’t quite dry on a few of them, hence the gloss. The photos are a bit too blurry. I love photoetch! I thought perhaps the harnesses looked a bit too “clean”. I think this will probably be the single most time-consuming part of the build…
Looks very nicely done mate. I like the way the seat belts are realistically draped over the seat. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the build.[tup]
Thanks!–I’m not certain if all of the cockpit colors, instruments and such are quite right…from the photos I’ve seen in the “Walkaround” book, the cockpits and instruments really weren’t all that colorful. The Aires set is very nice and certainly deserves most of the credit [:)]
I’m about to start this kit myself and I think your cockpit and photos turned out fantastic. BTW I’m a physician too. (surgery switching to EM in about three weeks.)
Rory - looks good! Like Woodbeck said the only things I see wrong will only get better with time. (more control of the paintbrush etc…) for your first model in that many yrs you did a great job! ESPECIALLY tackling that PE by the horns! And I like the effect of your harness as well… naturally flowing.
As far as your photos, I can give you a few hints I’ve learned the hard way. (And learned from Pingtang and a few others…)
Get a solid color background. Some people just get a light blue sheet of paper or construction paper and put the pieces or the finished model on that. It gives a nice dull, uniform surface to contrast the model to. Myself I got some of that foam presentation board and built a cube of sorts with the blue paper on the surfaces. It’s the bottom (about 28 x 20) and only two sides, so I can shoot from two different angles and by turning the kit always have a plain background instead of TV or the walls and such.
Use a lot of light, (not the flash) I have two 60 watt reading type lamps with those reveal bulbs in them, I point them not directly at the model but at a pojnt near to it where it will reflect off the paper I use. I also have a floor lamp that provides some ambient light with the reveal type bulb as well.
Hope that helps, some other people might have some more ideas for ya…
Looks a LOT better than my first kit coming back… (it ended up in the trash about the 3rd night working on it)
Pretty darn good for the first attempt in all those years. The Pit is more colorful than the real one, which was pretty much all RLM 66 & Black. If you want to pop out detail on an RLM 66 paint job, I’d suggest adding a slight amount of white or light Grey to RLM 66 & dry brushing with that. RLM 02 has too much of a green hue.
I know little or nothing about German WW-II aircraft, so I can’t comment on the accuracy of your build, but the quality and craftsmanship does look very good.
The lighting of your photos is good, but you need to work on the focus. Put the camera on a tripod and be sure the camera is outside the minimum focus distance. Use the Macro setting for closeups if the camera has this feature.
I am looking forward to seeing more photos of your progress.
Thank you for the input and critique, everyone. I usually use a tripod and a delayed shutter when I photograph things like this, but I seem to have misplaced my tripod. I think that would resolve the blurring problem. I’ve installed the cockpit into the fuselage now and am waiting for some aftermarket resin wheelwells (the ones that open into the fuselage, like the 190D actually had), before I can continue with the build. I will take the next set of photos with the tripod, so hopefully they will look better. Again, thanks for all of the great advice!
