Here’s the situation- I just got finished putting together three missiles for my forthcoming Ju 290Z, a Fritz X, Hs 293, and Bv L10 Glide Torpedo. (All gems from the Condor kit. Little bitty PE parts got a bit annoying, though.) I plan to use a night-bomber anti-shipping sceme for the Zwilling (RLM 70/71 splinter with 65 wave-mirror all over black.), and decied to paint the ordinance the same color as the underside, overall flat black. (The torp on the Bv L10 was painted gunmetal with a Bare-Metal Foil strip.)
Herein lies the problem- as you may have noticed, now they look a little blah. I tried to do a little something by drybrushing a little silver on the leading edges, but they still look too monotionous. (Spelling? Whah!) What I need are ideas on how to differenciate on them a little, make them look a little more interesing. I’m willing to try almost anything, short of stripping off all the paint and trying again. Any ideas? (I tried something with white wing stripes, but it didn’t go well. Not very well at all.)
[:p] Thanks in advance! (Oh, and the monstrosity of an airplane should be rolling out of the hanger in about a month, weather permitting.)
I would go for the protruding areas like fin corners with a slight amount of Color of Eagles Tire Black, which is a little darker than Schwarzgrau. But definitely with less-is-more in mind. I would definitely not want all my work on those beauties made invisible by the black paint, and it will be. But if you were 1.5 inches tall (I think that’s a 6-foot man in 1/48, but I was a liberal arts major) standing next to them, they wouldn’t look that way, so bring out the fruit of your hard work in one way or another.
TOM
OOPs, leave out one word and you change the whole thing. I would DEFINITELY NOT want all my hard work hidden under black paint, which is what happens when you don’t have a big real-life surface to reflect lots of light off it and allow you to see it. With a little bitty model component, we have to help mother natures light-giving along with a little artificial light in the form of drybrushing highlights. That’s why they call them highights, in fact.
TEB
I agree with Dragon and Tom - I’d wait until you see how they look on the completed model and then make a judgement. Perhaps just another light spray with a slightly lighter shade would be enough, and consider that they came from different factories than the 290. Given the state of Germany in the latter days of the war, it would not be inconceivable for them to be a bit different in color.
I have used Tamiya NATO BLACK and SEA BLUE for a different look to “BLACK,” on models and figures that are black for a shade difference.
Nato Black is greyish next to a real black and Sea Blue takes on that blue tint. I am not sure about realism in scale but it might be whjat your looking for.
Thanks for all the advice. My only concern with these would be the fact that they’re eventually going to be undernieth a really huge wing that’s going to be all black on the underside. I was just worried that they could blend in and some of the detail would be that much harder to see. I’ll keep all this in mind. Thanks a lot. [;)][tup]
![http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/missiles.jpg[/image]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/missiles.jpg%5B/image%5D){kind=link}