Plastic Modelers in the IL-2 Community

[voncrapenhauser]

8 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

That is amazing.  You could probably flog it off to a wealthy collector for a very tidy sum later on!

 

Going to try some black basing on this little 1/144 X-craft.  The resin cast was pretty grainy but it cleaned up quite well.  

 

 

I will be keeping this one a while.....but I think everything has a price for sale for me.

Have about three projects on the go ATM,next big lump is a Buck Rodgers Thunderfighter in same scale, pictures to follow.

 

Sub is looking great so far mate.

Edited May 23, 2021 by voncrapenhauser

[Feathered_IV]

Thanks very much!  It was a productive day.   While I was at it I was able to get a black base coat on the S.5 too.  Edging closer doing some proper assembly. 

 

 

[Motherbrain]

A Uboat by Revell I just finished. Unfortunately it was too humid outside when I clear coated so it turned out a little glazed. But another clear coat tomorrow if it's better outside might fix it up a little bit.

 

[HappyHaddock]

To date I've only worked on one u-boat model and that was a few years ago: - a cheap  little 1/400th scale plastic kit about the size of a cigarette that I super-detailed with various scratch built parts, where more work went into sculpting/painting the seascape.

 

[Feathered_IV]

Those are both beautiful!  I'm eying off a very expensive resin kit of the British T-class sub at the moment.  You're not making it any easier for me.

 

Started work on streamlined the struts for the S.5 and finally got them together.  Each one is slightly different, as the fuselage is mounted a little to the left of centre to help counteract torque.  Here's an earlier shot of one as it was being made.  

 

 

Then sanded back the wing detail and tidied up.  Over the weekend it got a light coat of black primer and a test fit in the jig...

It just looks so pirate right now!  

 

 

 

Edited May 26, 2021 by Feathered_IV

[ZachariasX]

[HappyHaddock]

1 hour ago, ZachariasX said:

 

Zac - you may be curious to know that despite now working as a miniature artist - by training I am a theoretical physicist who studied the behaviour of sub-atomic particles ... so my models are a big step up in size from that.

 

As you are obviously amused by the tiny size of my little sub  such you may like to know that I originally rigged this sub  with my own hair, but that proved fatter than the metal railings I'd added... I had to find a hair with a split end I could peel along its length to reduce it's diameter ... the insulators on the aerials/rigging are nothing more than dots of paint touched to that peeled hair which surface tension pulled into little beads.

 

The Robin Hood figure below was hand sculpted at 1/800th scale and is mounted on a pin-head - again the smaller details were made from slice of human hair.

 

 

[ZachariasX]

3 hours ago, HappyHaddock said:

Zac - you may be curious to know that despite now working as a miniature artist - by training I am a theoretical physicist who studied the behaviour of sub-atomic particles ... so my models are a big step up in size from that.

How come that I am not surprised.

 

(Out of reactions, this always happens here.)

[Hoots]

5 hours ago, HappyHaddock said:

 

Zac - you may be curious to know that despite now working as a miniature artist - by training I am a theoretical physicist who studied the behaviour of sub-atomic particles ... so my models are a big step up in size from that.

 

As you are obviously amused by the tiny size of my little sub  such you may like to know that I originally rigged this sub  with my own hair, but that proved fatter than the metal railings I'd added... I had to find a hair with a split end I could peel along its length to reduce it's diameter ... the insulators on the aerials/rigging are nothing more than dots of paint touched to that peeled hair which surface tension pulled into little beads.

 

The Robin Hood figure below was hand sculpted at 1/800th scale and is mounted on a pin-head - again the smaller details were made from slice of human hair.

 

 

 

I have to know (because I suspect the answer is yes...) did you try and find a way to string the bow?

[HappyHaddock]

1 hour ago, Hoots said:

 

I have to know (because I suspect the answer is yes...) did you try and find a way to string the bow?

 

Oddly it never crossed my mind  ... I'm now left wishing you hadn't asked ?

[40plus]

39 minutes ago, HappyHaddock said:

 

Oddly it never crossed my mind  ... I'm now left wishing you hadn't asked ?

 

....starts eyeing spiderwebs in the corner as a source of material....

[HappyHaddock]

30 minutes ago, 40plus said:

 

....starts eyeing spiderwebs in the corner as a source of material....

 

At the scale I work in nothing is too small to be potentially useful ... I did the other day question if I had gone too far when I pulled a few strings and got my hands on what may be some of the smallest LED's I've ever seen thinking they may be useful for a certain micro-modelling project: They are designed as individual pixels for LED screens where their largest dimension is half a mm - great in theory but I then realised I'd have to solder +ve and -ve wiring to these dust sized little beggars if I were to make them light up!

 

[ITAF_Rani]

Me 109 G6 early 1:32 completed.

 

 

[STN]

A bit of progress on the "Falco".

[AKA_Big10]

Just finished up another Eduard 1/48th P-51D Mustang. This one is done up as Captain Jack M. Ilfrey's ride "Happy Jack's Go Buggy"

[AKA_Big10]

In my haste, I forgot to paint part of the spinner white. Now its done. 

[ZachariasX]

Just now, AKA_Big10 said:

In my haste, I forgot to paint part of the spinner white. Now its done. 

A beauty. And very nicely done with taking the photos. I should try an Eduard kit myself for one.

[AKA_Big10]

9 hours ago, ZachariasX said:

A beauty. And very nicely done with taking the photos. I should try an Eduard kit myself for one.

Thanks, I really enjoy the kit and prefer it over the Tamiya. 

[Feathered_IV]

It looks gorgeous, well done!

[Guest deleted@83466]

@ITAF_Raniif I could one time only build a model that looks as good as your 109, I’d probably never build another plastic model again.  Wow.

[voncrapenhauser]

On 5/30/2021 at 3:50 PM, AKA_Big10 said:

In my haste, I forgot to paint part of the spinner white. Now its done. 

 

 

Hi Big 10.

Fantastic model.

A question you might know, Am I right in thinking I saw "Happy Jack's go buggy " on his P38 too?

I think I made one , Was a long time ago now.

Edited June 1, 2021 by voncrapenhauser

[THERION]

Hi folks,

 

after a longer break I finally finished my two (terrible) Heller models. The VAB 4x4 is a quite old kit and the parts are some

kind of "washed out", very blurry and I had a lot of scratch building to do. It almost went to the trash bin.

 

 

The second one was slightly better, but the interior eventually went to the trash bin as it was so distorted/warped, it

couldn't be used reasonably - no warm bath, heat blower or anything else would help to rectify this mess. So I finally decided

to leave the interior and to close all the hatches. This one was finished yesterday evening and now it will be weathered
like the first one so I can finally setup a Mali operation diorama with lots of dust and sand...

 

 

Cheerio

[Feathered_IV]

Therion that looks great.  I didn't know that Heller makes the big stuff.

 

Got a question for the colour gurus out there:  I've been having a go at mixing the blue for the fuselage of the S.5.  Being hopelessly colour blind, I think I may have inadvertently stumbled upon a passable WWII RAF roundel blue, but I don't think it will pass muster as a convincing 1927 shade for a racer.  I'm thinking adding a bit more white and some Gunze 25 sky blue is in order...  What do you think?

 

 

Edited May 31, 2021 by Feathered_IV

[ZachariasX]

1 hour ago, Feathered_IV said:

What do you think?

You probably are aiming for this color scheme:

 

I would also try to lighten it just a tad with sky grey, I mean this:

 

 

which is I think is close to your suggested color. I never used Gunze colors, I don't know how they mix, but I guess it will do the job just fine. What I like about the sky grey is that it takes the edge of the color vibrance compared to what I commonly get by mixing with a pure light blue.

 

Either way, the blue you mixed is a very beautiful color and would fit early roundels nicely.

 

[Feathered_IV]

Cheers Z.  Those are the ones.  Hopefully white-4 if I can do it.  I don't think I can get any sky grey at the moment, as my town just went into its fourth lockdown and will probably stay that way for a few weeks at least.  I do have some intermediate sea blue however, and a drop or two of that seem to take the edge off quite well.  The Gunze paints mix well with tamiya too so no harm there.  I'll use that profile with great thanks, as its just the shade I'm hoping to achieve.  ?

[HappyHaddock]

Feathered_IV -  I am a great advocate of the principles of scale colour, especially for the smaller sizes/scales of miniature we both favour; it's what I am typically employed to teach/demonstrate at model making exhibitions, or which magazine editors have employed me to write articles about.

 

Those that buy into the principle of scale colour can just about accept the idea of "toning down" paint, but few discuss "hueing down" paint to suit smaller scales. So rather than just lightening "true" colours with white/pale-grey paint I am a big fan of using a pale cream or magnolia paint added to everything I apply, before then painting in enhanced shadows and highlights; Not so much to "weather" a model to suggest age and dirt, but to imply greater size and bulk than the miniature actually has and to try stop it feeling quite so small. Of course you can also weather a model as well for enhanced realism if/where appropriate.

 

It is always a fine balance but even crude brush work on relatively simple miniatures can feel quite special when the contrast of hues and tones exhibits a more natural looking balance rather than being accurately matched to real life.

 

Two radically different scratch built little models but both display a heavy use of "scale colour"

[ZachariasX]

35 minutes ago, HappyHaddock said:

Those that buy into the principle of scale colour can just about accept the idea of "toning down" paint, but few discuss "hueing down" paint to suit smaller scales.

This!!!!

[HappyHaddock]

A larger photo of a demonstration piece used at exhibitions showing just how much I do tone and hue down my colours along with painting in shadows and highlights.

 

All quick, simple even crude work on a tiny miniatures (1/1200th scale) but it's not so much about skill in control of the paintbrush but engaging the mind to establish what you are trying to achieve when applying paint.

[40plus]

23 minutes ago, HappyHaddock said:

A larger photo of a demonstration piece used at exhibitions showing just how much I do tone and hue down my colours along with painting in shadows and highlights.

 

All quick, simple even crude work on a tiny miniatures (1/1200th scale) but it's not so much about skill in control of the paintbrush but engaging the mind to establish what you are trying to achieve when applying paint.

 

 

Fascinating.

 

Is the core intent with this practice to simulate the diffraction and scattering of colour that occurs at great distance? It almost looks like the ship on the right has the effect of a few kilometers of haze between it and the viewer.

 

[HappyHaddock]

12 minutes ago, 40plus said:

 

 

Fascinating.

 

Is the core intent with this practice to simulate the diffraction and scattering of colour that occurs at great distance? It almost looks like the ship on the right has the effect of a few kilometers of haze between it and the viewer.

 

 

Exactly  ---  in real life large objects look smaller at distance and so I try to paint a miniature to look like it does in real life when filling the same percentage of my field of vision as this tricks the brain into not expecting to see such fine detail and hence even crude models can look "better" than they technically are. Add on top of this the subject of colour psychology which many advertising agencies use and you can create/enhance the mood or feeling you want a miniature to convey.

 

I suppose it boils down to treating a model as a blank canvas upon which to paint a trompe l'oeil picture, rather than a 3D depiction of boundaries and edges you have to colour in up to.

 

Another image from my  stash of demonstration models which illustrates the above are these identical blank and featureless 1/48th simple figure sculpts/castings which all have quick crude painted pictures on them.

[Motherbrain]

Progress on my 1/48 Seiran. The floats were painted, decaled and clear coated separate and I just now super glued them to the wings.

 

[AKA_Big10]

12 hours ago, voncrapenhauser said:

Hi Big 19.

Fantastic model.

A question you might know, Am I right in thinking I saw "Happy Jack's go buggy " on his P38 too?

I think I made one , Was a long time ago now.

That is correct, Happy Jack's Go Buggy was on his P-38 before moving to the Mustang. 

[voncrapenhauser]

10 hours ago, AKA_Big10 said:

That is correct, Happy Jack's Go Buggy was on his P-38 before moving to the Mustang. 

Cool Big 10.

My memories not so bad after all lol.

Cheers.

[Motherbrain]

Now I know how the Air and Space Museum feels trying to get all my planes to fit.

 

 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Motherbrain

[JimmySolarium_VR]

My second build, the 1:72 Airfix BF109E4 flown by 9.JG54, Anton Schön. I painted the Camo on the fuselage by Hand, as i am still a beginner with the airbrush. Unfortunately the Cockpit Clear parts broke, and i am not the best Glue-Handler in the world ?. For the terrain, I was inspired by some pics of the JG54 in Holland. Pic

 

It was so much fun building this, i am glad, having re-discovered this hobby!

 

Cheers, Jimmy

[Hoots]

4 minutes ago, JimmySolarium_VR said:

My second build, the 1:72 Airfix BF109E4 flown by 9.JG54, Anton Schön. I painted the Camo on the fuselage by Hand, as i am still a beginner with the airbrush. Unfortunately the Cockpit Clear parts broke, and i am not the best Glue-Handler in the world ?. For the terrain, I was inspired by some pics of the JG54 in Holland. Pic

 

It was so much fun building this, i am glad, having re-discovered this hobby!

 

Cheers, Jimmy

 

The whole thing looks brilliant, good work!

[Feathered_IV]

I wish my 1/72 builds looked like that

[voncrapenhauser]

1 hour ago, Hoots said:

 

The whole thing looks brilliant, good work!

Ditto The fuz camouflage looks great even if painted by hand....I Can't tell it is.

Great job.

Edited June 4, 2021 by voncrapenhauser

[csThor]

Nice one Jimmy. Built that one last year as well, but Airfix is wrong on the pilot. It was flown by Lt. Josef Eberle (who also died in a Bf 109 E-4/b "Yellow 13" over the Channel later in 1940). ?

[JimmySolarium_VR]

Thank you all for the kind words, this truly means a whole lotta motivation for me

Next project: Italeri Macchi 202....unfortunately the Pilot is ready to enter before the plane is there...i think he should have some fantastic Sicilian Nero d´Avola and pasta while he is waiting

 

P.S.: out of reactions for today , so please all feel thumbedup

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by JimmySolarium_VR