Hey everyone! I’m new on here but not new to model kits. Been building off & on since the mid 70’s, but it’s always been car models. I’ve always been into old warbirds, but never felt I had the skill set to try painting and detailing one. At a glance it seems like a whole world away from car models.
So I’ve had this model in my stash, untouched, for years. Came across some videos on youtube on building scale planes and thought what the heck. Time to learn something new. This is my first attempt at building a plane and I’m just getting started. I’m going totally OOB with this, and I want to make it a good as I can without adding anything from the aftermarket.
I finished the instrument panel yesterday. I understand the normal process for detailing these is dry-brushing, but the detail is so light on this thing, I tried something a little different. I covered the whole face with matte aluminum BMF, shot it flat black, and then lightly scuffed the high points to reveal the foil below. Then just painted a couple of the knobs & switched red to add a little bit of color, added a little Future to the dials, and called it done. The controls for the side of the cockpit were just painted and dry-brushed.
Here are the finished pieces. I’d really appreciate some feedback on these. I’m interested in improving my skills, so any tips, advice, comments are more than welcome.
I’ve never thought about doing an instrument panel like that but it’s a good idea. It looks like it turned out pretty good. Instrument panels are quite difficult to make look real without going PE. This looks like a nice start to you war bird collection.
A trick I used to do is painting the instrument panel black, and put a small amount of silver Rub-n-Buff on my finger, and lightly swipe my finger across the high points.
I would say just attack panels like you would the dashboard gauges on a car. For the most part, the colors are pretty similar. Often (but not always) knobs in modern cockpits are grey, switches are silver, and handles are red or yellow. There are so many exceptions though you’re safer finding a picture if you are worried about accuracy.
Beyond that, aircraft are like cars only the paint is flat and more forgiving (gloss is hard, flat schemes, piece of cake, spray it on and then go through your decaling process). Good luck!
Now you’re in the right territory there atomic!! There’s plenty of aircraft fans here!! Like I said on MCM …great job and welcome aboard to FSM buddy!!
That’s a great idea…try a dab of clear 5 minute epoxy or even Future floor wax (or whatever its called now) on the gauges to simulate glass. It works well. I look forward to your work and welcome…
Sorry for the delay guys. Progress has been very slow on this one lately. I was waiting on paint to arrive. I have all the supplies to build about any car you can think of, but when it comes to military colors, I didn’t have hardly any (read “none”). Could have had this thing wrapped up by now it I’d painted it candy apple red! haha!
Anyway, paint is here now and I started working on it again today. The cockpit is ready for wash, and a few other pieces are ready for Future and then wash. My plan it to hit the cockpit tomorrow. Pics coming soon.
Well, something is going on with my account. Every time I post anything I get a message saying it must be approved first. That usually take about a day to happen. So I’m betting you won’t be reading this until Monday sometime.
Anyway, here’s where I’m at with the cockpit. Check it out and let me know what you think.
I’ve made a little more progress on this bird. I’m sure my colors aren’t quite correct, but I’m more concerned with trying out some new techniques this time around. I can’t decide if I’m happy with this wash or not. I don’t know how realistic it really is. Opinions?
It looks good to me so far Jeremy! I’ll tell you who to ask in here about P-40’s right off the bat and that would be fightnjoe or lawdog. That’s all I can think of right off the bat. Good progress Jeremy!
I think your wash looks just fine. It doesn’t need to be overstated…just enough to bring out some detail. The colors of your wheel bay look okay for an AVG bird. I’m assuming that’s what you’re building out of this P-40B/C. The flap assembly could work fine as it is although I would probably keep it the same color as your wheel bay. I understand a lot of the time a certain color paint would run out and they’d use whatever they had that needed to be used in its place. Since the AVG P-40s were originally supposed to be sent to the English, they came with the Dupont equivalent of the English color schemes. But I imagine maybe at some time that touch up paint might run out. So if you left your flaps the way they are I suppose you “could” argue that point.
I just finished a Hawk earlier this past summer, and if you’re interested in taking a peek thru a WIP then I’ll drop you this link to it:
I made it as thorough as I could. I scratched a lot of what’s in it, and I focused hard on getting the colors right since that’s one of my quirks.
I’m working on another one right now…I wanted a Pearl Harbor Hawk too. You can see that one going on right now on the main page. If you have any questions at all, just ask. It’s no trouble. =] I’ll help you with what ever I can.
bvallot, great looking bird you build there! I’ll definitely be referring to that for reference. Thanks!
I’m still debating about the color for the flaps. I’m kind of on the fence about it right now, but I need to make a decision pretty soon. One question: I’ve seen pics of the wheel wells that show a zip-in lining, and I read that it was the same color as the underside of the plane. But I see a lot of guys paint that area interior green. Which do you think is correct?
The canvas lining was something close to a Light Khaki or Stone color. Basically a Flat Buff and Khaki color paint combined ought to get you close. What kind of paints are you using?
As for the actual surface…it would’ve been done in the zinc chromate…the color changes due to the pigment added. The British had grayer greens for this area. If you’re doing an AVG Hawk then I’d stick to this route, otherwise, the more traditional yellow-green zinc chromate color is what you’re looking for in a US Hawk. The liner was just present to keep things clean and kept out of the elements.
The undersurface of the plane depends on the same…British v US. ??
bvallot, yup, I’m going with the AVG hawk. Using MM acrylics for the most part.
One more liner question. I think I see what’s going on with it now, but just want to be sure. Does that liner cover the entire inside of the wheel well (the part currently in primer on my kit) or just around the sides of the opening?
Thanks for your input!
As a side note, I’m gonna change the color of the flaps.
