Well, its one more day at the desk before I have to head back to work in the real world tomorrow. Was waiting for someone till 2 am so I did some work on the Shiden.
I did some experiment in hope to invent an new style of painting. I did not post shade this plane, instead, I use Tamiya Panel Accentuator Black to paint on the shadow places. The surface has to be gloss, so I Kleared it before hand. Then I use a brush wet with Tamiya X20 Enamel Thinners as described in Part 2. I sort of repeat it again as I may have missed out some pictures as I was working with my Samsung Galaxy S4 phone cam here and some using my trusty Canon Powershot G5. I have the EOS and L Lenses, frankly, for blogs, there is no need for those stuff.
With sweeping strokes of number 2 brush I modulated the black till we have a gradual tone from the panel lines being the darkest, to the centre of the panel, lightest....its like the SMURGE tool in photoshop. But its a wet method of enamel glazing, so to speak. Taking care to go in the direction of the airflow so that the dirt does not move forward and ahead of the lines but backwards towards the stern. This is very important, unlike AFV models.
Next I added the target reticle from Eduard for the Kyofu, on which this airplane was based on. The part is very small and with my 150 degrees far sighted glasses on full capacity, it was a tough thing to stick on, as its sits on transparent part, its glued in place using Ashley White Glue. The antenae at the rear of the cockpit was also a challenge. The canopy were painted and then chipped with silver and glued in place with a combination of White Glue and Tamiya Extra Thin Cement.
I then enhanced the chips around the wing area as these panels were removed after every flight to service and reload the guns. Also the chips on the ladder steps on the left side rear of the cockpit. I did more chips to the front cowling for Cannon loading hatches as these are opened every flight as well.
The whole plane is now ready for matte finish, diluted matte varnish and thinner medium and water is done to brush on by using number 4 brush. This is done on a almost off loaded and dry brush, so, it skimmed the surface like we would on painting figures. The end result is the reduction of the shine and make the weathering tones a little more gradual.
Happy with the progress so far.
See you in the concluding episode in a few days.
