Now that I have an airbrush again, I can PAINT ! YIPPEE !
The kit is Trimaster’s 1/48 Fw 190D-9. I opened the incorrect closed wheel wells and added a Jumo 213 engine from an old DML Ta 152 kit.
The topside camo is all Model Master enamels. RLM 75 Gray Violet, RLM 83 Dark Green, and RLM 81 Brown Violet. The gray on the wings is said to be a gray primer, without an RLM number. I mixed Mitsubishi Navy Gray with a touch of black for the color. Topside colors are all freehand.
The undersurfaces are RLM 76 White Blue, with RLM 75 Gray Violet on the forward portion of the wing. Metallics are Alcad Duraluminum, White Aluminum, and Dark Aluminum. The underside was masked with drafting tape. There’s still a little touchup remaining to be done, but I’ve put my airbrush down for the day.
Wow, Pix, great looking so far. I really really envy you…maybe that’s not the right use of words. I would LOVE to be able to paint like that. Two questions for you.
What’s your new airbrush?
How long did you spend on what we see, just masking and painting? That’d take me a week.
Very impressive work so far. I’ve seen your stuff on Ron George’s site, I like your work. Maybe by the time I near 50 I can dedicate serious time to building (I’m currently 36).
Thank you ModelNerd and Model Grandpa ! (you’re not related, are you? [8D] )
ModelNerd - this is a VERY late-war aircraft. At this point, subassemblies were built at small factories that were difficult to identify and bomb. Most parts were pre-painted there, so I don’t know how much, if any, painting was done at the assembly points. You can see that the cowl and gun cover were prepainted for a different scheme. I also tried to add to this by painting the RLM 81 around the cockpit with larger mottles, as though it was done by a different painter. The leading edge of the wing was probably primed so that there was not a paint seam at the leading edge of the wing, which would most likely chip and peel the paint.
Model Grandpa - I replaced my airbrush with the same model (Badger 150), so there weren’t any surprises. I really love this brush, it does everything that I want.
Looks like you were posting while I was typing my lengthly reply !
With practice and experience, I believe any modeler can paint the schemes they want, provided their airbrush is capable. I posess no special ability.
It’s a Badger 150, which replaces the one I had.
I usually paint all my camo schemes in one sitting. This one took longer. Two 2-hour sessions. I can’t remember the last time it took me so long to paint camo !
Thanks Jason, Rick, jeff, saltydog, Adam, yardbird, and tigerman !
jeff and tigerman - the air pressure dropped to almost nothing while I was doing some painting on a P-63. When I went to unscrew the airhose from the brush, the vertical part separated from the horizontal part of the brush’s body. It wasn’t something I could fix. [:(] In over ten years, I got to paint about 400 models with it, so I got my money’s worth.
yardbird - try painting lines as thin as you can get them. Experiment with paint mixture, pressure, and paint flow. My brush is about 1/4 - 1/2" away from the surface, with about 10 psi.
Hey Pix… once again, you are showing us that you are “Da-Man”
I’m not sure if you’re already a member over at Armorama.com but if you’re not I’d like to encourage you to join us over there as well. They have a growing aircraft section that would benefit from having you serve as Obi-wan to our collective Luke [(-D][(-D]
Great job…can’t wait to see it finished and can’t wait to see those 262’s you’re working on!
-scott
