1/72nd Hawker Typhoon

[blunce]

That sucks! I've had a bit of the same problems with an F9F-8 I'm working on right now. I used dry transfers for all the lettering and when I masked to spray the leading edges in Alum., a couple spots of the lettering got removed with the tape. I think lesson learned is to spray the details first, mask them, then paint the rest of the paint scheme.

Tough break about the red decal though. How you gonna go about adding teeth?

[2qwik4u]

Well, the nice thing about the decals is that the teeth are separate. The reason they did this is because they had no photographic evidence were you could actually tell if the inside of the mouth was red or just the color of the background camoflage. I could just put the teeth on there and call it good, but I think it looks so much better with the red inside. Especially with the more colorful postwar markings with the blue spinner and the blue and white checked fuselage band.

By the way blunce, did you find some aftermarket decals for your Cougar? I've got a kit, but the stock decals are pretty bad. I can't seem to locate any.

-Dave

Edited August 3, 2011 by 2qwik4u

[blunce]

By the way blunce, did you find some aftermarket decals for your Cougar? I've got a kit, but the stock decals are pretty bad. I can't seem to locate any.

-Dave

No, I just used what was in the kit. But I really only used the yellow "Rescue" arrows and the National insignia (only because I didn't have any spare in 1/72). For all the lettering and numbers I used Woodland Scenics Dry Transfers.

Brian

Edited August 3, 2011 by blunce

[Deacon]

Dave,

Just catching up with a few builds as I haven't been on a while.

I like the camo very much mate, great job. Just out of interest, a lot of

modellers talk about 'hard edge' and 'soft edge'. Do you know when the change was made,

or did it depend on aircraft type etc?

All my camo is hard edge any way as I use a hairy stick. I got fed up with the air brush

as it was too much phaf, masking, mixing paints, trogging to the garage, spraying

(so long as the paint wasn''t too thick), cleaning pots, stripping the air-brush......

With a paint brush, you pop the lid on the paint, add a little water and paint to your

hearts content, at you desk, in the warm. :D

But then, the air-brush gives you the ability to pre-shade and other great techniques.

Deacon

[2qwik4u]

Deacon, thanks for the comments.

As far as the camo, I'm not sure when or if a transition was made between hard and soft edge camos. As far as I know, all the RAF stuff in WWII was hard edge, whereas all of the US stuff I've seen is soft edge. I'm not an expert by any means, so I always default to my references.

I enjoy airbrushing, I just don't care for the preparation before and the clean up afterwards, which is why I try and work in batches, where I have multiple subjects ready to go all at the same time. It helps with paint waste too. Besides, I'm lucky. My wife has allowed me to have two separate hobby rooms, one for my plastic stuff, and one for my RC stuff, which is also where I have my paint booth because the room is bigger. Both rooms are in my finished basement, so I can airbrush in warmth and comfort!

-Dave

[achook-achook]

The camo really looks good.

[2qwik4u]

Well, in one of my other build logs, someone, and I won't mention any names, cough Grenadier37 cough threatened me with the hose if I didn't make anymore progress on this, so I worked on it a little last night.

As I mentioned before, when I tried putting the red decal for the sharkmouth background on, it broke apart. Luckily, the teeth are separate decals. So what I did was place the decal sheet back in the clear bag, and put a piece of Tamiya tape over the decals. I then traced the outline of the sharkmouth decal on the Tamiya tape. I cut that template out and used it to mask off the area on the side of the model.

So now it's all ready to be painted, which I will probably wait until this weekend to do.

-Dave

[2qwik4u]

Here's a little progress for ya.

Sharkmouth background area has been sprayed on. I used MM Ford Engine Red because its glossy, and that's what I had in the airbrush at the time! I did get a little bleed through/overspray in a couple areas, but the teeth decals covered it up.

Yes, I did say the decals covered it up, because afterwards I sat down and put them all on there!

I started with the teeth decals first, because those seemed to be the hardest ones, and boy was I right. The Aviaeology decals are really nicely printed, but they are really stiff. I found that the key is really hot water. Basically as hot as I could get it out of the tap. The teeth were a little oversized, and I would have really liked it if they were printed in top and bottom, left and right, instead of just left and right. Oh well, a little Microsol, and some heat from my lamp, and I got them to behave. I did have to trim a tooth from the top row on both sides, and I did have to take some of the tips off after it dried, but overall, I'm happy with them. Speaking of screwups, make sure you get these decals in the exact place you want them when you first put them down! I didn't with one the first fin flash, and I had to chip it off. I stole both of them from the Academy sheet, so the red is a little off from the othe markings. Oh well. The instructions suggest cutting the checkerboard tail stripe into top and bottom halves. I highly recommend that. I matched up the left and right seams on the top and bottom. The tops fit perfectly, but the bottoms were a little off. I had to trim a small sliver off to get the codes to fit.

I'll do some weathering next, and then it will be clear coat and final assembly.

Thanks for following.

-Dave

[Dirkpitt289]

WOW, that is most impressive

[Milo]

That is one handsome Tiffie!

[2qwik4u]

Thanks for the comments guys, I'm glad you like it.

I had a few minutes available to work on it last night, so I started weathering it.

I know that there are lots of different ways that other people do this, but I thought I would show you how I do mine. Nothing fancy or exotic, for me simpler is better. (Remember KISS? Keep It Simple Stupid? I exemplify that last S...)

Anyway, I usually start with panel lines first by applying a wash. For this I use a product called "The Detailer". It's available in a bunch of different colors, but my favorite to use is brown. I apply it liberally (slop it on) to all of the panel lines, rivets, and raised areas. It's water based, so it won't attack the MM enamel paint underneath.

After letting that dry for 10-15 minutes, basically long enough to tack up, I'll start wiping it down with a slightly wet paper towel. If you want more control, you can also use a wet cotton swab or a wet brush, but you have to be a little more careful too or you can easily pull too much away.

I usually start with the wing and start wiping from front to back in the general direction of airflow. This will do two things. It will remove the layer of dried wash from the surface of the wing, but leave it in the recesses. It will also pull the wash that has been lifted back along the wing surface, lightly streaking it as it goes. It gives a nice subtle effect.

And after the whole underside is done.

And the topside before and after.

A close up of the tail after it has dried overnight.

[2qwik4u]

You might have noticed that I hadn't done anything to the wheelwells yet. I don't like using "The Detailer" on the wheelwells because its a little too thick and it can be difficult to remove the excess. For this, I use Citadel washes, in this case "Devlan Mud", which is a muddy brown color (go figure). This stuff is designed for wargaming figures, and is a little pricey, but its the best wash I've found so far. It's also water based, so just like "The Detailer" that I used earlier, if you make a mistake you can wipe it off with a little water or rubbing alcohol.

The other nice thing about it is it's like all of that stuff made by Ronco. You just set it, and forget it!

Basically, just slop it on so that it looks like this:

Let it sit overnight and presto:

That is exactly how it looks when dried.

Maybe not the best or most realistic methods in the world, but I like the way that it looks, and its pretty easy and foolproof.

I've still got some more weathering to do, so stay tuned.

As always, thanks for following along.

-Dave

[Bigasshammm]

Awesome.

[2qwik4u]

Thanks Kris.

Ok, weathering part II.

First up, I broke out my Tamiya Weathering Sets. Basically they're little makeup-like kits, but in colors that you probably won't ever catch your wife/girlfriend putting on her face. I use these for exhaust and gun gas staining, and I also tried some chipping with the silver.

For the exhaust and gun gas staining, I use the Soot color from set B, and I apply it with the little applicator that the set comes with. I also used a small paint brush to apply some on the belly panels behind the radiator exhaust.

In addition to the Soot color, I also apply a little of the Oil Stain color to the center of the Soot smear for the exhaust staining.

After that, I decided to try out my MiG pigments for the first time. I used Dark Mud and Europe Dust.

The Dark Mud color was used primarily for any dirt/mud that may have been kicked up from the main wheels on the underside of the wing and the rear tailplane. This was applied with a small brush.

For finer work I switched to some artist's colored pencils.

I basically just take these a make small marks where I think its appropriate. Sometimes I will use my finger to smudge it slightly to knock down the contrast as well.

[2qwik4u]

After the weathering, I pretty much just had to paint the little parts and put the rest of it together.

I found that Model Master Bright Blue matched the blue checkerboard on the tail pretty well, so that is what I used to paint the spinner and the inner gear doors.

While I was working on the little detail stuff, I grabbed a #80 drill and drilled out the cannon barrels.

And here she is all finished up.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out. As far as assembly goes, the Academy kit is really nice. Everything pretty much just fell together. I'm not a Typhoon expert, so I can't really speak to the accuracy. I'll post more photos of the finished product over in the completed builds thread.

Thanks for following along!

-Dave

[Neo]

Love it looks great

[MIG Mikkel]

WOW!

It turned out realy great!!

[HOLMES]

And here she is all finished up.

builds thread.

Thanks for following along!

-Dave

............ Dave

I have been following this with a smile on MY face and the finished Hawker Typhoon looks FABULOUS....

EXEMPLARY workmanship and she looks a BEAUTY... looks EXQUISITE ..

BRAVO ...NICE job..

[Dirkpitt289]

BRAVO!!! Well done build. I.m especially grateful for the time you took to explain the weathering.

[stevehnz]

Dave, that looks Great. Theres only one thing wrong as I can see. NOT ENOUGH PICHERS. :lol:

Seriously, would love to see some more & closer pics of this, is there a ready for inspection thread to come?

Steve.

Edited October 10, 2011 by stevehnz

[2qwik4u]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Steve, what would you like to see? I did post some other pictures in the completed builds thread. If you would like I can take some more pictures and put them up here. Just let me know.

-Dave

[Bigasshammm]

Looks awesome. I'm gonna have to grab that Tamiya weathering set.

[2qwik4u]

Looks awesome. I'm gonna have to grab that Tamiya weathering set.

Thanks Kris.

I highly recommend the weathering sets. My favorite one is set "D", especially for cars. The burnt red and burnt blue look fantastic on racing exhausts.

-Dave

[Grenadier37]

Nice Tiffy Dave!

I guess I'll have to put the hose away...for now. <_<

[Andrew Doppel]

That came up terrific David. Well done.

Regards

Andrew