T-bolt Modeler

Delivered as advertised, and quickly.

and heres the recipe; Humbrols; equal parts of RAF Slate Grey matt 31 and Black Grey satin 182. Adjust to personal needs. Hope this helps, and Happy Modeling, Jim.

Aires Resin has a cockpit set for early Thunderbolts. But if you are going to sweat out the little details in the differences required to re-configure that kit for all the AR types at IPMS then you will never get anywhere. Don't sweat the small stuff. Build it, paint it, decal it, weather slightly and enjoy the hobby. Happy Modeling, for Pete's Sake, Jim.

Check out the lead weights used by the pine car derby guys. They come in different sizes and forms and are easily cut and configured.

Try reverse masking, in other words, paint the secondary colors (such as leading edge ID or invasion stripes) first, mask them off, then apply the main color scheme.

Two ways; Add a drop or two or three of white or very, very, very light grey to you color out of the bottle and mix well before spraying; Or, paint you model using the colors right out of the container, then give the model a wash along panel lines using a mix of burnt umber and black oils thinned to the point of having tinted thinner. Then put some of the original color on a pallet or in a clean small jar and add white or very, very, very light grey and mix well. Take a clean dry bush, dip it into the lightened color, wipe off all the paint on the brush, and then lightly stroke the surfaces o

A completed and well blended face makes the figures more noticeable. On 1/48, I use the smallest brushes I can and minimal amounts of paint as the face/figure is so small that too much paint can accumulate very rapidly. With this scale, the technique is almost dry brushing with the added benefit that oils allow greater flexibility in removing or recovering a mistake without destroying the entire effort. Use of Opti-Visor or some other tool to magnify the subject matter is a must. And be patient, try a couple of test subjects just to get the feel of oils and minute subjects. If you feel t

The capability and ability lies within you, not the airbrush. Adjust and adapt and overcome.

Thommo, Now the fun begins. Painting uniforms and clothing uses the same techniquies for shading and highlighting by use of a clean dry brush to blend colors. The key is to use good brushes and good paints. Lay out your pallet as before, paints at the top, left to right, at the left a dab of Flesh Farbe, then Warm Grey (Schmenke makes a color called Warm Grau), next Mars Yellow or Yellow Ochre, then Burnt Umber, followed by Ultramarine Blue, Mars Black and finally Brown Madder Alizeron. These colors will be used to make Olive Drab and various shades of O.D. Starting with

:D The Grand Master of figure painting in this neck of the woods (and who is teaching me) uses mineral spirits and/or turpentine, but I've been using a solvent called Turpenoid, which has no odor and is not hazardous and does not pose a threat to enamel painted aircraft finishes. My mentor told me to get the following oils for figures and for painting accurate flesh tones. He lays them out on his pallet in this order from left to right, light to dark: Schmenke Fleshfarbe #1, Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Mars Orange or Venetian Red, and Alizeron Crimson. If you c

Tis me again; if you are going to paint 1/48 figures, the easiest way to do the eyes is by first priming the figure with a flat gray paint and let it dry at least 24 hours. Then lay in your skin tones with a flat enamel or acrylic ( I use Liquitex Concentrated Artist Color Deep Portrait Pink)on all the exposed flesh areas but not on the eyes. Now, to give the eyes a point of reference, you can try to paint the smallest possible black dot into the slit of the eye, the danger here being that in 1/48 you will create a look on your figure of clown eyes or wide eyed dazed look. Remember, try to mak

:o Ditto the aged modelers.

That Camel display is really what this hobby should be all about---a wonderful and meaningful tribute to the real people who served and made sacrifices in their personal lives.

Nice looking P-40; what kit and what decals?

You got it. To effectively remove enough moisture from the nylon material to tighten and hold, you would have to subject the material to a heat source that would melt the model. So use sprue. It's safer and tightens once. And if you melt it, re-do it. Plus you are using material that would normally be tossed. And the best sprue to use comes from the better plastic material.