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I have mixed feelings about the shading. First, I feel it is somewhat 'messy' around certain regions (i.e., airbrushing too obvious). Second, there are a number of dark spots I think I have overdone. Aside from those, would you say I should spray a lighter shade (white + gray) along a few select lines to simulate touch-ups on the real plane? Also, even though I thought the brown/earth shade was pretty prominent, it is not visible in the pictures above. Would you say I should apply a little bit more of that shade?

Here are the pictures of the plane I am trying to model:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v26/isht...Hornets/VFA-41/

All suggestions are welcome as always.

Thanks.

P.S. Here is my dilemma: On Navy figthers, should the panel lines be darker or lighter than the interior of the panels? I see extremely well done models that exhibit both. I started with all lighter panel lines, did not like it, so reverted back to what you now see in the above pictures. I just can't make up my mind.

Edited by Janissary
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I have mixed feelings about the shading. First, I feel it is somewhat 'messy' around certain regions (i.e., airbrushing too obvious). Second, there are a number of dark spots I think I have overdone. Aside from those, would you say I should spray a lighter shade (white + gray) along a few select lines to simulate touch-ups on the real plane? Also, even though I thought the brown/earth shade was pretty prominent, it is not visible in the pictures above. Would you say I should apply a little bit more of that shade?

Here are the pictures of the plane I am trying to model:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v26/isht...Hornets/VFA-41/

All suggestions are welcome as always.

Thanks.

IMO, the shading is too brown. Take a look here at 101's sister-

http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=77422

I find the Navy.mil pictures to be far better than walkarounds for color for a couple real important reasons. First, walkarounds almost never can get you a decent topside view, or a big enough topside view to get an overall sense of what the scheme tone is. On Navy.mil, there are tons of topside shots taken from close to far. Second, walk arounds usually have inconsistent lighing, since the sides and bottoms of the aircraft are in shade to some degree. Navy.mil gives you pure, unadulterated topside sunshine.

One thing I found helpful for adding splotches to a beat up Navy scheme is a cotton swab. Tightly wind it so the filaments don't come off, and get most of the paint out of the swab by dabbing it on a piece of paper--it should be loaded like you are about to dry brush. Then use it to lightly dab your "touch up".

P.S. Here is my dilemma: On Navy figthers, should the panel lines be darker or lighter than the interior of the panels? I see extremely well done models that exhibit both. I started with all lighter panel lines, did not like it, so reverted back to what you now see in the above pictures. I just can't make up my mind.

As for your specific dilemma, both "extremely well done models" can't be right if they flip flop the panel shading. Look at the real birds, then you should have an easier time making up your mind.

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Thank you all for your comments. Mark, the Navy site you pointed out is really good. I have been studying a lot of VFA-41 pictures from there. Perhaps you are right about it looking a little too brown. I guess I will have to live with that (I was thinking perhaps to add even more brownish tint but won't do it).

After my research on the Navy site, I am on the verge of changing my decals from 'Low-viz' to 'Hi-viz' (either 100 or 101). I guess my weathering is a little too much for a clean CAG bird but I am coming to the conclusion that the low-viz grey is a little uninteresting.

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Hello, for the intakes, I used the technique I saw here

Basically, I dipped the intakes into a slightly diluted latex paint, waited until they dried, and repeated it once more. The important thing is to let them dry upright, and making sure the paint has room to run down during drying (otherwise thick paint pools and dries into a blob at the bottom).

I made a few corrections to the weathering (touched up the dark spots) and painted several sections. I also sprayed the stripes on the fins with a slightly darkened red color. Note that I also corrected the rescribing in the area between the pizza box and the windshield. There were some wrong lines and a missing access panel before. For that, I filled the lines with superglue, touched a drop of accelerator and sanded off the lined. I then scribed the new panel, primed everything, and painted.

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I was also playing the white balance of my camera. The above picture shows the camera using Auto WB. In the picture below, I showed the camera a white paper and the camera calculates the WB based on that. The latter significantly decreases the yellowish hue coming from my yellow light bulb.

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I think the next step will be a gloss coat, followed by the decals! Hope I am not missing anything.

Edited by Janissary
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Hello, I am looking for some suggestions. I am a little hesitant to attempt the seats. I have the Aires set with resin seat and lots of photoetch pieces that go onto it (belts, buckles etc.).

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My question is, shall I attach all the PE parts to the seat before priming and painting the seat, or shall I paint all pieces separately and later assemble them? In almost all cases, I see people taking the first route. However, I feel I will screw up badly when brush painting. I'd much appreciate any suggestions/pointers how I should go about this step.

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My question is, shall I attach all the PE parts to the seat before priming and painting the seat, or shall I paint all pieces separately and later assemble them? In almost all cases, I see people taking the first route. However, I feel I will screw up badly when brush painting. I'd much appreciate any suggestions/pointers how I should go about this step.

My procedure is:

1) first of all glued together

2) surfacer

3) base color of seat ( black to all surface of seat in your case)

4) paint brush of details...

5) gloss lacquer

6) wash with oil colors

7) matt coat

8) drybrush

9) matt coat...

Here is seat from draken before surfacer....

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Thank you Honza! I am in the process of getting the seats done. I'd painted the black color, removed it. Now I am dreading the bending of the PE parts.

I recently applied a gloss coat. I use future thinned a little bit with ammonia based windex (~ 5 future : 1 windex) . It works really well. After I am done, I spray a coat of straight windex to level everything out. To be honest, I think I am getting a surface glossier than I need. Using Gunze Aqueous paints also helps (they dry semi-gloss).

After the coat dried, I applied the decals. They are from Two-Bobs and I obtained them from Toad. They are really thin. I also used some of the original kit decals.

My next steps are:

- Cut through panel lines and ribvets covered by the decals.

- Apply a coat of MicroSol to the decals.

-Apply wash

- Do salt weathering. I am still debating this. I experimented with it on the fuel tanks and the hor. stabs. and it seems promising. I was a little conservative with it so they are not discernable at this time. Will see of I go with it.

- Flat coat

- Further pastel weathering (very little).

I am trying to really dirty up the tanks. I tried masking off small areas using randomly cut tamiya tape and spraying a dark color to the surrounding. As I am exprimenting, I am hesitant to go all the way. Anyway, here are some pictures.

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I wold much appreciate if you see and glaring issues with my construction.

Edited by Janissary
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  • 4 weeks later...

Unfortunately, I hit the bottom at this point. A lot of things were going against what I had envisioned at the beginning. It's a combination of things including my loss of touch, the color of the wash being too dark, the decals being too colorful (I decided that I like the low-viz, which was my original plan), wrong placement of a few decals (got lousy and did not check my references), and my futile attempts at correcting some of the shading after the wash. All in all, I slipped into a careless rush-mode which created all sorts of problems. I thought about it for a while and took the plunge!

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I used an oven cleaner to strip the paint and decals. Things seemed really promising at first. The paint and decals came off splendidly. However, the primer (Surfacer 1200) was so tough that I wrestled it for quite a while. At the end, I ended up up with a spotchy base and managed to break off a few antennas in the process.

With that, I accepted my defeat. I am not too upset or anything as I learned quite a bit of lessons. My biggest disappointed is with the hard-to-find GSI Aqueous colors I wasted. I also want to acknowledge the immense help you have all provided along the way.

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I took some time off to decide what I wanted to do next. I had an F-4E and a Tornado, but it was hard to wrap my head around them with my mind still on the bug. So I decided to undertake a new F-18F :D . I hope the experience will help me. I thought I would continue with this thread instead of ending it. Things have been naturally moving much more smoothly as I know the tricky parts of the model now. Here is some WIP:

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All in all, I'd argue that this was an unthrifty move with flavors of an obsessive-compulsive nature :D . So I don't really recommend this to anyone else, but at the same time I am eager to see what will come out at the end. Lost a battle but not the war...

Edited by Janissary
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