spaceman Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Hey Mike, you're really hard-working and make really your hobby enjoyment. I admire your meticulousness in painting of the shuttle. You must have eagle eyes to see such colour differences. Amazing!!!!!!!!!! But I can understand your ambition. If you have good close up photos where you can see all the details, you're going to make it just like as, large compliment, do continue so. And I am already looking forward on your MLP-SSWS update. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Loving the different shades you're using. Can't wait to get to this stage on my orbiter build. The problem I've had is finding photos online of Discovery that show that kind of detail from the early 90s. Digital cameras were not around then, and NASA doesn't have as much posted on their sites from the missions of that period. What they do have is often low-res and poor quality compared to the more recent mission photos. I'm having to dig up some old space books I've had in storage to get some of the details down. The upside is, shuttles back then did not look as wore out, so there's less weathering and discoloration on the airframe. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mark31 Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 your shuttle looks very good nice work keep on going. Mark Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 (edited) Thanks guys! :) There are many hi-rez pictures available online of the more current missions, especially after the Columbia accident. I've looked at a lot of pictures for this build. Next on the shuttle I'll start painting the black areas and start the decals. Mike. Edited July 4, 2012 by crowe-t Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 What shade of black do you plan to use? I'm guessing Flat Black? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted July 5, 2012 Author Share Posted July 5, 2012 What shade of black do you plan to use? I'm guessing Flat Black? I'll be using Testors Acryl (Flat) Aircraft Interior Black. It's just a shade lighter then black. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) Here are some more painting progress pictures. The tail, elevons and the rear areas around the OMS pods and SSME's are painted black. I'm still on the fence regarding the tile decals in these areas. I may apply some of the Cutting Edge decals to the tail, elevons and the rear areas and spray some thinned black over them. However I'm liking how it looks now so I'll decide later. I do have to fix a few spots of the black. For some reason I had a bit of trouble with the tape edges. Maybe it was the hot weather here?! Here is a quick Test application of the cockpit window decal. I have a 3 piece decal I'll apply for a better fit but I wanted to see how it looked. I was concerned the tile pattern between the 2 center windows would look too obvious for this scale but it turned out OK so I'm happy with it. Edited July 18, 2012 by crowe-t Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pinky coffeeboat Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Hello crowe-t, It's starting to look like an orbiter now!! I always like this stage of any build, when you start to apply the paint and the character of the model is taking shape. The wing RCC panels are really well done and capture the subtle variations grey shades. Masking the tail must have taken ages!! Looking good!! Jeff Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) Hi Jeff, Thanks for the compliments! :) After I removed the tape I thought the same, that it is starting to look like an orbiter. It must have taken about 4+ hours to do all the masking. I thought it would never end. Mike. Edited August 1, 2012 by crowe-t Quote Link to post Share on other sites
smn Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I'm wondering for quite some time now: Don't you do the single row of black HRSI tiles just behind the RCC panels on top of the wings? Simon Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) Simon, Yeah the row of black HRSI tiles behind the RCC panels will be done soon. I might be using the Cutting Edge tile decals for this and then will spray over them with some thinned black. Not sure yet so I haven't painted those areas. Mike. Edited July 29, 2012 by crowe-t Quote Link to post Share on other sites
smn Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Ah, I see. Just wanted to know why you didn't do them when you sprayed the other black areas. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K2Pete Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Ni-i-i--ice job Mike! :thumbsup: The masking job on the whole aft section is outstanding! ... and the window decals, nice and accurate and they fit perfectly!!! ... man ... you're doing a superb job on this model Mike! Are your Cutting Edge decals the original decals, or have you scanned and reduced 'em? And if so, are they laser printed or inkjet printed? Pete Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spaceman Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Hi Mike, great job done with your masking and painting so far. This black looks very vigorous, really pitch-black, which is really so strong? I noticed, that you have left very little distance with masking tape in front of the vertical tail, can you airbrush as accurate and clean? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
smn Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I'm not Mike, but yes. Besides being able to apply just a very thin coat of paint, you can work very precisely using an airbrush. You can use different types of nozzles for the "gun" and by doing this influence the area the paint will be sprayed on. To avoid the colour bleeding underneath the masking tape, just spray some clear paint over the seams after masking. This seals the masking and gives you very precise borders. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 That's in insane amount of masking, Mike! Four hours...I can believe it!! I think it took me an hour just to mask the windows on my build! Excellent results. Question: Why spray the black areas of the tail, as opposed to brushing it in? Any reason not to use a brush for this part? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) Ni-i-i--ice job Mike! :thumbsup: The masking job on the whole aft section is outstanding! ... and the window decals, nice and accurate and they fit perfectly!!! ... man ... you're doing a superb job on this model Mike! Are your Cutting Edge decals the original decals, or have you scanned and reduced 'em? And if so, are they laser printed or inkjet printed? Pete Thanks Pete! I scanned a set of 1/144 Cutting Edge decals and had them printed on a Laser Jet printer. They are printed on white decal paper. Hi Mike, great job done with your masking and painting so far. This black looks very vigorous, really pitch-black, which is really so strong? I noticed, that you have left very little distance with masking tape in front of the vertical tail, can you airbrush as accurate and clean? Hi Manfred, The black is actually Aircraft Interior Black which is a shade lighter then standard black. After I painted the black I sprayed on some Testors Acryl clear gloss for applying the CE Tile decals. The gloss is making the black appear a bit darker as well is the lighting. Before spraying I taped paper over the rest of the shuttle so the only areas exposed were the areas I wanted to paint black. That's in insane amount of masking, Mike! Four hours...I can believe it!! I think it took me an hour just to mask the windows on my build! Excellent results. Question: Why spray the black areas of the tail, as opposed to brushing it in? Any reason not to use a brush for this part? Thanks Hotdog! The masking is the hard part that I don't exactly love about painting. I like the clean look the airbrush gives and I'm also not the best brush painter so I mostly spray everything. Edited July 18, 2012 by crowe-t Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Zombie_61 Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) ...and I'm also not the best brush painter so I mostly spray everything. I'm the same way Mike. Unless it's very small detail stuff, I can't seem to hand brush without leaving brush strokes, so I like to spray paint as much as possible because it results in a much nicer and smoother finish. And I've never owned an airbrush, so I can certainly sympathize about having to do so much masking; it can be time consuming and tedious, but the results speak for themselves. Speaking of which, I have to agree with Jeff. With the paint work progressing nicely, the "character" of your Orbiter is starting to show and it looks great! I'm really enjoying this thread! Edited July 18, 2012 by Zombie_61 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stevenichols Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Mike superb work there, keep it up. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) Thanks Zombie! I'm starting to believe I'll finish this one yet. :lol: After thinking about it for a while last night I decided to go for it and apply the Cutting Edge decals to the tail, upper wings and the other areas in the rear. I still have to apply the decals around the SSME's and on the rear of the OMS pods. These decals are a set I had printed from a scan of the 1/144 Cutting Edge tile decals. I lowered the Saturation and Contrast and feel they look a bit better then the originals. I'll spray some thinned Interior Black over these upper areas. The bottom tiles will just get some weathering with pastel chalks. Well that's the plan for now. Here are some pictures of the areas with the decals I applied today. The black around the perimeter of the tail as well as the rear of the elevons and a few other spots got covered with the decals. When I sprayed the black I wasn't sure how many of the decals I'd use and needed to paint the black first in case there were areas that still showed through. I'll only be applying a light amount of the thinned black over the decals so I needed to be sure the white was covered. Edited July 19, 2012 by crowe-t Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hotdog Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Mike, How much did you adjust the saturation and contrast on those tile decals? It doesn't look like it made much of a difference. It doesn't look like they're dark enough. I know you plan on going over it with a thin wash of black to fix the look of it. Maybe it's just the contrast with the aircraft interior black you used that's throwing me off. Have you done a test of the tiles on a piece of scrap plastic and put the wash over it to see how it will look? Will you have to mask off the white areas again in order to do the wash over the decals? Seems like a lot of extra work! Also, did you end up having to modify that window decal at all? When I scale it up to 1/100 and compare it to the window decal that came with my Tamiya kit, it's a bit different proportionately. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 (edited) Mike, How much did you adjust the saturation and contrast on those tile decals? It doesn't look like it made much of a difference. It doesn't look like they're dark enough. I know you plan on going over it with a thin wash of black to fix the look of it. Maybe it's just the contrast with the aircraft interior black you used that's throwing me off. Have you done a test of the tiles on a piece of scrap plastic and put the wash over it to see how it will look? Will you have to mask off the white areas again in order to do the wash over the decals? Seems like a lot of extra work! Also, did you end up having to modify that window decal at all? When I scale it up to 1/100 and compare it to the window decal that came with my Tamiya kit, it's a bit different proportionately. I lowered the saturation - 50 and the contrast -10. It's the contrast of the interior black and the lighting. Most of the shuttle in the pictures I posted looks a bit washed out. These decals are actually quite a bit darker then the originals. The picture below shows the difference. I went with this shade mostly for the bottom tiles. With some pastels it should look the part. I did do a test with the wash over the decals and it looks good. I did that test on a 'junk' shuttle but have used it to test a number of paints since so there isn't any of the test left and unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. I will have to mask off the white areas again to do the wash. It's a lot of extra work but it's necessary in order to use the airbrush. The window decal is a perfect fit for the Revell shuttle. I just have to make an adjustment or so because when I placed the tape something went off a bit. Edited July 19, 2012 by crowe-t Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 I applied some more tile decals around the SSME/OMS areas. Since the Cutting Edge decals are designed for the Minicraft stack kit some pieces had to be added to make them fit the Revell orbiter. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spaceman Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Hi Mike, I only can repeat my puff piece, great job done with your painting and with the tile decals now. Your shuttle more and more looks like the real thing, outstanding and amazing!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mriccio Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Hi Mike, this is really turning out fantastic. All your hard work is paying off, very nice indeed. Look forward to seeing this through! Marco Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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