1/32 Tamiya Birdcage Corsair Part Five

Before I begin, lets just say hello to my dog, Doughnut, miss that chap. This is one pooch that will not listen to anyone but me and will escape from any leash system ever designed by man.....Houdini incarnated!

Sleepy in the air-conditioned office. And its about to drop! Next.

Banged it hits the sack!

Engine with the masking removed. Some of the Vallejo paint has chipped and needed to be touched up with silver, not really a catastrophic event.

The star on the decal is weathered. However, for the blue portion, I will rub some pastels on it to fade it after the whole model is done and sealed in matte varnish.

Wing after it has been swept clean with brush wet with thinners. The weathering becomes very subtle.

The panels covering the fuel has a pink hue sprayed over it and washed to subdue the hue effects. This is due to the fact that fuel, kerosene type F-Gas fades the paint and evaporates quickly compared to diesel. Since it has to be refueled stationary with engines turned off, there is no chance of it making streaks. So, I clouded the whole panel with some pink to simulate the wear like we do see on our Army Unimogs, the Olive Drab turns pink in the sun after months of refueling and spills.

Bottom wing and fuselage has been black washed as well.

So are the tail fins and rear fuselage areas. The antenna root is fragile and is reinforced with cardboard to facilitate handling during spray painting and weathering.

See you next round.

1/32 Tamiya Corsair Part Four

In order to achieve chips proper, I have to get some silver base into the preshaded plastic. I chose to use water based Folk Art Sterling. Once dry, I can then coat this with water soluble hair spray and then chip. Trick is also to let enough time for the hairspray to dry in order to achieve a robust layering that is not easily dislodged by Enamel based Tamiya Panel Accentuators. I like to paint these on and then use the Enamel Thinners from Tamiya to streak and broom brush them to the sides towards the panel lines.

In Part 3 I forgotten to include a picture of how the engine has been masked. Basically, I cut up a tissue paper into a few parts and folded them into bolsters as discribed earlier and stuffed them and then cover the top surface with Tamiya Masking tape. This helps to prevent "ACCIDENTS", which is a disaster, after all the efforts we spent to paint and chip the engine. In this picture you can see the areas where I wanted the chips to occur painted in Sterling Silver.

Then the sides of the cockpit area, the walkways, the leading edges plus the engine cowlings are all painted to diluted AK Interactive's heavy chipping fluid. This is set aside to dry for 24 hours. Which is not enough, After weathering it later, I found the paint to be too soft and some figure prints were showing. I had to respray that section and set it aside to dry while I go get myself tortured in a 4 hours speed chase all over the island 5 am this morning! On bicycles of course. We took an extremely hilly route through Tampines Viaduct, old Lower Pierce, Mandai, Woodlands Industrial Park, to Admiralty Park, down Admiralty, through Yishun, then the windy Seletar Island next to the aerodome, all the way through Ponggol then Hougang and Old Tampines Road and then home! Very shag! Elevation gained today is about 800m in total. Nothing but cheonging with 3 other guys, 2 of which are in their twenties, half my age, and weight, it takes its toll after a while.

Once coat has dried, I tried to test the spray painting the bottom off white grey to see the effect.

Then I started to work in the colour at the bottom in glossy finish slowly. 30% paint, 70% Mr. Colour Thinner. It is sprayed with very low pressure. However, I have a faulty tigger mechanism in my Creos airbrush which is a huge frustration to use. The air trigger gets stuck downwards at very low pressures and I have to control the pull back to activate the paint on and off. Meaning, you can get overshoots easily, so, it took 3 hours to paint the bottom, which otherwise, I could have done in 1 without the problem. I had another 0.2mm Tamiya airbrush made by the same guys, however, this one, has an open top and spills easily with only 2cc content cup, can be a frustration as the paint may spill and its evaporating all the time. You cannot work on odd angles too. Unlike the Creos Mr. Colour 272. Without the trigger problem of course.

Tail fins carefully painted with the light grey. Leaving some areas showing huge shades. I wanted the strong contrast as the washes later are going to affect the contrast a lot, thereby, will blend it somewhat.

Bottom areas all clouded and happy. I read the article by Spencer Pollard some months ago on Model Aircraft International. The wheel bays, the cockpit rear window areas were painted wrongly with interior Olive Zinc Chromate. It should be bottom colours for the wheel wells, and body colours for the cockpit rear windows. In the rush to build the model, he also did not paint the interior parts of the rudder and filter areas in powdery pink, which is a mix of Rosa from Tamiya and Hull Red from Creos. I have written articles before for them, the dead lines, the need for clean background, moving my job back and forth from my table to the studio and then back, is a major headache. Also, the subject matter, to publish the newest kit before the other mags do it is also added pressure. I now prefer to let model making remain a hobby and forget the hectic scheduling of trying to write for magazines. In the end, I make better models and use this platform to share with those who love following my blog, which is almost on an "by invitation" only basis.

Part of the wing that I tested the white is masked in order to allow me to paint it in the upper colours. This is done with extreme care not to rip off paint later as parts are coated with AK Interactive Chipping Acrylic Fluids.

The dividing edge is masked with blue tag for a soft edge finish. The remaining areas covered with Tamiya Masking tape.

The top colour is applied. The shadows has greatly been subdued. This is then painted over with Tamiya Black Panel Line Accentuators. And then boom  brushed to the sides to create lines and uneven surface texturing.

The same wing after broom brushing off the washes. The rivets, the shadows and the gradual tonal differences are beginning to create an interesting pletora of hues of the same colour.

The panels are clouded over with lighter tones of the same colour giving emphasis on to top surfaces. The refueling area, I need to cloud with some pink tones later to simulate discolouration by spilled fuel on paint.

Side view of the highlights. I try to preserve the verticle rivet lines to create variations in the skin, even though some parts of this is covered with decals, I wanted to have the option to position the decals with the freedom to move it around without too much ACCIDENTS from happening!

The harsh contrast tones are then subdued with an overspray of the highlight colour with more dilution with Mr. Colour Thinners. Now, the model is read for decals and chipping later. Enough done for the week. I gotta to catch Captain America!! See you the next post.

1/32 Tamiya F4U Corsair Part Three

Masking the engine is a tough job as it bleeds both from the front and rear. Use of tissue paper cut and folded into bolsters are shuffled inside the loose gaps and topped with Tamiya masking tapes.

There was also a need to lower the depth of the cowling covers with the engine framework in the front fuselage. Tamiya intended it as a snap together system with gaping 1mm free play front to aft, which means in actual life size, the gap of the panel line is 32mm! OMG, that is atrocious. I used Valejo and fill up the gap slowly and finally used the black Valejo paint to paint over the surfaces of the model. This is set aside to dry for about 12 hours. After a good nigh't sleep, I used an old cotton rag and wet it roughly and begin to rub down the black surfaces to accentuate the rivet details.

Then I started to use Tamiya X1 Black with 80% Mr. Colour Thinners to mark out the shadows. This is done with extremely low pressure and 2 to 3 coats is required.  

 

Care is taken not to over do the thing otherwise, the thick paint will kill the shallow rivet details in the aftermath coats of silver metal, gloss, 2 coats of top coats including post shading with a AK Interactive Wear and Tear in between.

Corsairs tend to wear in a certain way. As the Marines used the aircraft on sandy Pacific unprepared or checker plate reinforce runways, sand is thrown up onto the aircraft at higher speeds in take off and landing. This results wear in the following areas, including human marks.
1. Leading Edges of the wings
2. Front of Engine Cowling
3. Front of Engine Block (done before assembly as previously mentioned)
4. Wing root area
5. Loading bays for the WHOLE NINE YARDS, meaning the Browning M2 Ammo hatches
6. Foot hold areas on sides of cockpit
7. Wing Roots.

These were given an acrylic water based coat and polished 2 hours later. Then its sealed in place in Klear to set aside to cure for 24 hours. Next the fun part, coloring the aircraft. I have a choice of aftermarket thin printed decals for 2 version of the RAF and 1 US Marines version. I have not decided as to which route I will like to pursue.

Till you see the resultant post, all is speculation till we get to actually painting the excellent model.

Cheers.

1/32 Corsair Part Two

A week has lapsed and much work is done. painting and assembly of the engine. I decided to omit the wires as they are not visible when the cowling is covered. However, the engine itself with close to 100 parts is a challenge on its own.

Before that I made the tail sections, the ailerons, the flaps and the rudder movement assembly. Which I painted with Hull Red mixed with Rose Pink.This is one insitu on the trees and weathered by light tone drybrushing in 2 highlights and Tamiya Panel Line Brown Washes.

The the pink sections are assembled and touched up to the cut areas into the tail sections.

Silver chips are added last to increase the interest in the paintwork.

After the marriage of the engine to the fuselage, I notice the top and bottom cowling covers, which are meant to be detachable, are slightly too small for the engine, leaving a 0.5mm gap of both sides. Its not a big deal, as I filled up with Vallejo grey paint over 2 days by dabbing on some and wiping off the excess. Repeat after 12 hours for 4 times.

Engine is weathered and chipped with Silver paint on grey. Washed in black and brown washes. The whole engine is highlighted to give extra contrast as it will be in a dark shadowed part of the model.

Marriage of engine to fuselage. A bit tricky as the fit is quite difficult.

The top of the halves did not flush well on top and needed some work. I used putty in the form of Vallejo Grey over 2 days and 4 sessions to flush out the line gaps.

Here you can see the gaps being filled up. Next is more filing and sending using very light pressure and 400 grit, followed by smooth emery sticks from the neighbourhood girlie shops. The pink, white and grey type.

Finally, I am working on the wings. Its a challenge as it has 2 main options for up and down, so, I made some errors and needed to tear the wings apart and repair them and put them back together. This is time when I wished I lived in Japan where I can order from Tamiya spare trees B, C and M for to make new wings and junk the ones that went bad. Afte struggling till 4 am for 2 nights, I managed to scrape through without feeling that the parts are a let down. There are about 10 diagrams in the centimeter thick instructions that were confusing. With the small photoetched parts being the brunt of the difficulties. Finally, I must say, its all behind me right now without much problems left.

Tamiya 1/32 F4U Corsair Birdcage Part One

Well, I was working on the Hasegawa Stuka but Luckymodel's seat belts from Eduard was delayed, so, I have to put that project aside and work on the Tamiya 1/32 scale Corsair.

This is a breathtaking build as the parts in the cockpit alone was 16 stages covering 5 pages! Painting it and using the Eduard Zoom kit was no mean feat. The dials needed me to file down the transparent part which was very thick, and then paste one layer on another, which I felt was not very good, so I added CA into the layers and then correct the blur with Johnson Klear on the dials.

Then the bulkhead and the side consoles were weathered. The green is Gunze, a mix of my own from the Israeli Green with some Catapillar yellow and a dash of white to warm it up. These are further washed with Tamiya enamel black and brown washes to warm the colour further and take in the shadows.

The raise areas are highlighted with Vallejo Olive Green with 50% white added to increase the contrast of the raised details. The photo etched panels are a little too shiny, so I drybrushed the panel with some neutral grey with some blue added to it. Then toned down with matte varnish.

Document carrier is painted hull red and drybrushed with buff. I washed it with Tamiya Panel Black and set it vertical for gravity to enhance the look of shadows. Seen here is before the wash. The dials were filled up with Klear. Note the highlighted details even though most of it will be very faint.

A view of the front fire wall with side panels attached. The wheels and bobs were chipped with aluminum and then later I painted the bob heads red according to the instructions. The Eduard detailed throttle system was junked and I kept the kit's offering but added the decal from the Eduard set to increase contrasts and details in the side walls to make it a little more interesting.

Another view of the cockpit firewall.

The rear bulkhead was painted insitu on the tree to ease handling and the cut off parts of the sprue is then touched up when ready for assembly. The seat belts on the photoetch of Tamiya looked like 308 stainless steel and it behaves like one. It does not respond to glue well and parts of the nylon release straps, depicted as a T shaped part number 6 were junked, I prefer to use paper dipped in Super Glue instead for better manageability. Bending the belts to conform to the seat was a nightmare. Painting it and shading it as well is too since nothing sticks well to 308 stainless steel. I wished Tamiya will junk this and go back to copper or steel. To prevent corrosion associated with the 2, Tamiya can opt to plate them later. This prevents the nightmare of trying to bend them to shape to look natural.

Finally, the backward part is married to the cockpit assembly, this alone took about 80 man hours of work as the whole area is hand painted. No airbrush is used as I wanted the wear and tear look. Chips on the bucket were also added before I added the belts.

The cockput completed at long last. Next is to bring this thing into the body halves without the headaches for painting later. There are parts of the canopy that needed to be added and masked into the cockpit before the marriage of the halves, this poses a serious challenge. Nothing bazzare though.

Final Look of the cockpit.

Kawanishi N1K1 Part 4

2 weeks of home renovations take a toll on work. Sawdust everywhere took a week just to vacuum.

Then there is a move into the new hobby centre from my table.

But after 2 days of highlights and rubbing down and chipping, the N1K1 Shiden is almost done. With only the Machine gun ports and dorsal antenna.

Highlights are sprayed onto the top surfaces to replicate some sun baking. Some extra chips are added via using a silver pencil.

The props is in with chips using cut sprue and painting. Nose cone is rubbed with Colgate.

Shading the top surfaces.

The air filters added and the fuel tanks weathered.

Rear rivets after highlights.

Almost there. See you in a few days for the finale/ Then we start work on my 1/32 Hasegawa Stuka G2 Kannonenvogel.

Cheers