Sav

Hi all, Thought ya might like to have a look at me Fine Molds Falcon. http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb181/S...FMFalcon024.jpg http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb181/S...FMFalcon001.jpg http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb181/S...FMFalcon006.jpg http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb181/S...FMFalcon007.jpg Any comments welcom, Sav.

Hi all, I'm currently building Fine Molds Millenium Falcon and whilst i've managed to find a multitude of photo's of the upper hull i can't find any decent shot's of the underside. I need these for weathering reference and it would be good if i could find some decent shots of the 32" prop model. Any help would be much appreciated, i will finish the upper hull today and post photo's later. Thanks, Sav.

Hi all, I've just noticed something that is purely coincidental. The painting was finished on Thursday the 16th. This is exactly 53 years to the day that TH992 crashed!! Sav.

Hi Col, I must say that following your painting after just completing one my self, your style is, to my mind, very odd. You seem to start on one area and then whoosh, off to somewhere else where the colours and tones are totally different. I'm not knocking you for this as it seems to work very well for you. Totally different styles on similar projects, brilliant to watch. Sav.

Cheer's Pete i'll let you know if i need any ref's.

Hello Pete, Thanks for the kind words. Up next is a comission for my local fire station. Thay have just recieved a brand new fire engine and appear to be really proud of it!! After that i'm thinking Spitfire. I'd like to do something a bit different and have already done a bit of home work. Sav.

Hi Pete, This is looking good, i'll be to watch the progress on this for sure. Sav.

Wow, if i were to try this, there would black smudgy finger prints all over it. Stunning.

Nice one, how big is this? Sav

Closer............

March 16th 1954 Pilot, Flt Sgt Ron Healey and Cpl Gavin Law, take Target Tug Mosquito TH992 call sign Norman out on it's last flight. Later that day this aircraft was written off after a crash landing on the beach at Anrum.

Hi Pete, Thanks for your comments. I have picture that was lent to me by Pete Law the winch op on this A/C. It shows the aircraft after the crash and is taken form the rear. The fuselage broke in two just aft of the wings but clearly shows the letter N sitting quite high in relation to the roundel. I agree it does look very odd and the temptation to line it up was quite strong! This photo is the only ref i had as to the placement of marking's, in fact it's been easier to paint than it has to find any reference at all. The clouds were left as they are because it was really difficult to know

Right, HONEST opinion's required!! The aircraft in my mind is ok, it's the markings i'm not sure of. This was always going to be my downfall on this project. I look at and think, 'Yeah thats ok' and then i look again and, well, i'm not so sure. There are no decent photo's of this aircraft in existance, that i know of. So i really don't have anything to go on. So go ahead and say what you think, cos i really don't know. Sav. PS The port wing roundel is on it's twenteenth go at getting it right, so will be applied when i'm happy with it, or not.......!!!!!!!

Hi Col, As you've probably guessed i'm huge aircraft fan, but i've never really got around to painting them. A couple of years ago i was approached by a friends wife to do a painting for her dad. He worked in the aircraft industry before he retired, and after seeing a painting of a Bald Eagle i did for a wedding present for them asked if painted aircraft. He wanted a painting of a Lockheed Constellation in a TWA livery. Unfortuanately i have no photo's of the painting. It was this got got me to use FS2004 as a good starting point for reference. You find the plane you want to paint, take i

Moving on (had the day off so got loads done) the cockpit is in. It was important to get winch operator looking out of the cockpit, the person who the painting is for would have sat in this position. So when he views the painting he will effectively see himself, if you know what i mean? The port wing is blocked in and after a few tweaks will be ready for detailing. I am waiting on some information as regards some of the stencil data, also on the tailplane guard wire. This week should see the painting complete. Sorry about the fuzzy photo, Sav.

One more....

Still a long way to go but it's looking something like a Mosquito now. Some details have been added, fasteners ect and the panel lines have been roughed in. Due to more recently gathered reference i have re-worked the exhausts, i think i had them far to large before. I've also added some all important weathering, i think that this makes the Mossie look like the workhorse that it was. For the panel lines and weathering i used watercolour pencils, these can be used dry, like a normal pencil, so i can get more control over the effect i'm trying to get. Once done you blend the pencil marks wit

Bloody Hell!!! You search around looking for pics, think you've got it sorted and this heppens. The photo at the bottom of the picture i found this morning, printed it off, did a quick comparison and Bugger, some thing's are not quite right. It's nothing that can't be sorted but still a pain in the arse! Sav.

Hi all Here's one i did earlier. This is the reason i'm struggling to come to terms with painting aircraft. If you get a feather on a bird in the wrong place no one will notice. If you get a rivet in the wrong place or a colour the wrong shade on an aircraft, everybody and his brother will notice. This is a photo of a photo of the painting, so it looks a bit off, but you get the idea. Sav

Hi Col, Thanks for the tip i'll give it a go. As for the tail plane, i stood back last night to have a look at what i'd done and thought 'Hmm.....somethings not quite right' A little over zealous with the backgound!! Said tail plane is now on and i am working on the starboard engine. There is a deffinate wrinkle in the panels here, this is right up my street. Update tomorrow. Sav. PS I've decided to do the Mossie with gouache, simply because i've not done any in a while.

Right then, it's now starting to get some depth. I always work left to right, this way i'm not resting my grubby hands all over it. I have question/problem. I have drawn and re drawn the roundels on the fuselage and wing's on tracing paper but as yet have not come up with a convincing look to them. How do you draw a circle, which due to perspective is an elipse onto a curved surface? I'll keep going till i get it right but if anyone has any ideas i would love to hear from them. This is only the second aircraft painting that i have done hence my 'suck it and see' approach. I normally paint bi

Hi all. Geedub, the insperation for this painting came after meeting up with my wifes friends father at last year Yeovilton Air Day. He was the Nav/ Winch operator in this particular Mossie, TH992. His log book shows just under 300 hours on the type, based at RAF Sylt (Now Westerland) in Germany. This particular aircraft came to grief on a beach on the Island of Anrum. After taking the Mossie out for a flight test the port engine was shut down and feathered as a routine proceedure. Whilst trying to restart the engine it became apparent that the prop would not unfeather. Not a problem as the

Right then, i knew there would be a use for the colour sketch i did earlier. I needed to check the background against the aircraft in the foreground, so i cut it out and stuck it on. I don't think that the background has too many problems so i may go ahead and start on the Mossie and tinker with thing's as i progress. If anyone has any comments, good or bad, please feel free to speak your mind as i find this usually helps solve those little things that ya don't see yourself. Thanks for looking, Sav.

This what a couple of hours wetting, dabbing, drybrushing, wetting again, applying colour washes, picking details out with gouache, re-wetting, blending.......ect, gets you. The gouache stands out like the preverbial dog's doodah's, this due to the flash on the camera, it looks a lot better in natural light. Tonight i will carry on with the upper part of the sky/clouds and generally try to bring everthing together. This is a dangerous time as overdoing the background will result in the painting being filed away in the bin! Sav

Hi Col Love the reflections over the code letters under the wing, not easy to do, you have got it spot on mate. Sav