Jack-Swiss Posted August 24, 2008 Share Posted August 24, 2008 Fantastic work...absolutely fantasticQ!!!!! Following with admiration Cheers Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike J. Idacavage Posted September 1, 2008 Author Share Posted September 1, 2008 (edited) I thought I would post a few more in progress shots this morning. I now am reminded of the part of building a shuttle kit that does NOT have me squealing with delight - masking! :( With all the different color sections, it is definitely an exercise in patience. Here's a shot with the first layer of masking on: I went with a somewhat unusual paint for the blak: MM gunmetal. I wanted something that did not look straight black for the base. As you can see in the following photos, it does not look half bad: After this had dried, I then masked over the existing masking seen in these photos and isolated the gray nose cap and leading edges on the wing. I shot this with a White Ensign gray ( ACSM06 Modern Soviet/Russian Grey) that matched the look in photos. I stripped off the masking and am now in the process of touching up and correcting small errors and slight overspray. I'll post a photo of the shuttle at this stage as soon as I am finished touching it up and can take a photo. It is starting to look like a proper orbitor! Have fun modeling! Mike Edited September 1, 2008 by Mike J. Idacavage Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jay Chladek Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 (edited) The gunmetal (which I assume is Testors since it is a dark gray rather then a metal flake black like some other gunmetals) is indeed a nice color. One thing you could also do Mike is to use straight black (aircraft interior black would work) for the sides of the nose and the tail, feathering it into the gunmetal on the bottom of the nose to blend it in. That would get a reasonably subtle representation of black sides, gray bottom TPS appearance as seen on shuttle. Of course, if you've already removed the masking I wouldn't worry about it. :) Edited September 2, 2008 by Jay Chladek Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike J. Idacavage Posted September 3, 2008 Author Share Posted September 3, 2008 (edited) Great idea Jay! I did add a little gloss black and shot the topside while it was still masked. Unfortuneatly, I was probably too conservative and there was not enough contrast. I should have gone for a more complete black on the top. As I have already removed the masking, I'll have to table that idea until my next shuttle project. Have fun modeling! Mike Oh yea, you win a prize! It was Testors's Gunmetal that I used for the tiles. You have a good color eye! :) Edited September 3, 2008 by Mike J. Idacavage Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K2Pete Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 Nicely done Mike! I've only done a couple of shuttles but, like you, I've not used Black out of the jar. I've mixed Gunmetal with medium grey to get an 80% black, and it works. Our eyes don't notice the difference unless a pure black sample is right next to it. Plus, when compared to photos, this tinted black looks 'spot on'. I'm glad to see you're still making progress on this build, Mike. Pete Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike J. Idacavage Posted September 20, 2008 Author Share Posted September 20, 2008 Ahhh, progress! Slow, but some progress. ;) A little something called work/business travel got in the way this month, so I had to put my modeling on the back burner. I did get a little time recently, so I completed the painting of the shuttle. It's now ready for the decal step. Here's how it looks after painting: I'm looking forward to complete the remaining steps and getting the completed kit up here on the forum! Have fun modeling! Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike J. Idacavage Posted October 26, 2008 Author Share Posted October 26, 2008 Well, I am in the home stretch on this project (finally!!! :D ). A tough work travel schedule since the beginning of September ended up grabbing almost all my modeling time, not to mention a week's vacation away and a problem with the Shuttle. I had decaled the shuttle and it looked decent. I followed this with some paint touch up and weathering with pastels. It looked pretty decent. When I hit it with PolyScale flat, I ended up with a white haze at two different parys of the black nose tiles. It sure looked awful! I waited until it dried, then carefully sanded the hazy area and just reshot it with another coat of PollyScale flat. Hopefully, this will cure what "ale's" it and I'll be back to crossing the finishing line. To give a more visual update, I did get the ET and SRB units together, and shot a few photos before I add the shuttle permenantly to the combo. Here's some shots: In my opinion, cutting away the solid connections between the SRBs and ET is worth it in the end. Enjoy and I'll be back with some final photos in a week or so with a little luck! Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jay Chladek Posted October 26, 2008 Share Posted October 26, 2008 I agree, the new struts look better then what you had to start with. Now you just need to get the orbiter on there and it will really look nice. :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GVoakes Posted October 27, 2008 Share Posted October 27, 2008 Wow Mike! That's what I call perseverance! Looking really good! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike J. Idacavage Posted November 1, 2008 Author Share Posted November 1, 2008 What can be more appropriate than to finish the Man In Space marathon on Halloween! Oh, the horror.... Here's the result of the last bit of work. Once the Shuttle was decaled, I used a black acrylic wash to bring out some features such as the ports on the side, light gray pastel chalk to lighten up the black tile area and gray/brown chalk to give some definition to the gray leading edges on the wing and nose. I also added some definition for the payload doors by carefully tracing the area with tape and then using a mechanical pencil to mark the location of the doors and panels. This was followed by a coat of Flat from PollyS. I masked the decaled windows before the final coat by taking a photocopy of the shuttle in 1/200 scale and cutting each window frame out as a mask. The final steps were the addition of the engine bells and glueing the Shuttle onto the ET/SRB combination. And Voila! One STS-26 for the collection. The Shuttle is sitting temproarily on the base that comes with the kit so that I can shoot some photos of the Shutttle by itself. As soon as I can take some photos of the shuttle on its wooden base along with the rest of the MIS vehicles, I'll post the photos in the Space Forum. Thanks for hanging in on this build with me and the encouraging comments! Have fun modeling! Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jay Chladek Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 Now THAT looks dang nice Mike. Be proud of the work you did as it looks incredible. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K2Pete Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 Mike, that looks GREAT! Are the decals all included in the kit, (the SRB stripes, the thrusters on the SRB frustums, SRB 'LOADED') or didja use aftermarket items? And your masked lines look perfect. What kinda masking tape do you use? Just the blue tape or Tamiya tape? ( I always seem to get some bleeding and yours are perfect ... like on the ET) Way to go ... I do admire your stick-to-it-iveness! And it's a real pleasure seeing your work, your thought process and your terrific photos! Thanx alot Mike Pete Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike J. Idacavage Posted November 2, 2008 Author Share Posted November 2, 2008 Thanks Jay and Pete! I really appreciate the positive feedback you guys gave. Actually now that the build is over (and quite a few months late!), it wasn't as bad as I had thought when I was running into challenges. So much for an easy GB on my part! Pete, actually I never used the kit decals as they had yellowed and the quality was rather poor. Hopefully, Hasegawa improved the decals in later (if any) releases. I primarily used Tango Papa Space Shuttle decals along with my trusty Microscale black stripes for the SRBs. I punched out off black/dark gray circles for some of the aft and nose thrusters. For the masking tape, I primarily used the Tamiya yellow tape for most of the masking on the ET. I would trim a section with an exacto knife to get thin strips where needed. I tend to use the blue 3M tape for large areas, though on occasion I also trim this for color demarcation lines. I burnish the tape down before I airbrush. On occasion, I have had to do a little touch up with paint where I had some paint bleeding but it went OK for the most part. I also found that I can clean up a small amount of bleeding by gently scraping the paint bleed with the tip of my trusty excato knife. As I usually wait until my undercoats are dry, that layer tends to be harder than the recently painted top layer. It's a crude fix, but it works on occasion! Have fun modeling! Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Midnight Storm Posted October 29, 2015 Share Posted October 29, 2015 This is one of the best Shuttle builds I have seen! Would it be possible to get the exact gunmetal paint you used for the tiles? There appears to be a few different versions of it. Thanks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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