Euginius Horbachezski Tribute Part 5 of 5 P51B Mustang

I have decided in the last post that we will add the pilot to the scenery to jazz up the whole outlook as a tribute to the great ace whom has his name splashed on the vertical stabilizers of the Polish 100th Anniversary Mig 29 Fulcrums. A Distinguished Service Order recipient and 16.5 kills with 4 V1 flying bombs under belt is no mean fit for this Skolski Circus leader of 315 Squadron. Leading the squad out to France in 1944 while still being sick, he went MIA and the body of the crash was located in 1947 I read somewhere.

My fellow model maker and teacher of fine arts Ee Keok Lye whom I knew for 40 years, told me to tone down on the contrasts to make it a little bit more gradual between cheek and the highlights, that I did with some basic skintone, salmon rose glazes. Result is quite gradual under the cheekbones, Quite happy with it.

I started work on the body of the bust by workin gon the life jacket. The arms needed some trimming after we allowing the glues to ooze out. The joints were then carved back to get the sewing seam line. Primed in black and overcasted with white. Both Tamiya super robust paint with retarder from Tamiya to prevent rough surface being formed. Thinner is the Gunze leveling thinner. Here the beige is done, high lighted and some shadows added beneath each fold.

Extreme shadows are added and highlights too. These are blended to achieve a smoother transition. Black is use to mark out the sewing seams.

The flying tunic is given 4 coats of Prussian blue glaze from Vallejo. Then dark Prussian blue, transparent Blue from Mig is used with some black wash to accentuate the extreme shadows, Then I continued to glaze the overall tunic with my cheap Pantel No. 4 brush.

Highlights marked in with skyblue and whites. Then I continue to glaze it with the Prussian Blue only to find it blotchy. Opening the tube, I discovered that the paint bottle is solidifying, perhaps it sat in the shop for sometime with some careless customers not tightening the cap properly after opening it. So I headed down to Midpoint Orchard Plaza to buy a replacement bottle. Costing me 4 hours, $15 in fuel, parking and Electronic Road Pricing just to but the $3.90 blue.

The wires in resin found in the kit is kind of stiff, so, I twisted some 24 gauge brass wires instead and drilled holes in the ear caps to plug. The wires are primed and attached to the duplex junction which I used the original one, I drilled a 1mm hole in the 1.3mm dia tube of resin. Care is exercised not to crack the resin part. Then all is held in place with 5 min Araldite Epoxy,

Then I worked on the risers and diagonal straps of the T10 chute. I used white, black, grey, violet and blue to get the shading.

I added the woolly pully and the purple scarf. Attached the twist release of the 4 point harness.

The head is test fitted and trimmed to get a nice fit.

The head is glued with normal Araldite Epoxy and left to set for 24 hours. The joint is painted over with dark purple shades to blend with the scarf. The metals are marked in, darkened, highlighted at this juncture.

The rank of a Major, which was posthumously award to Capt Horbachezski was marked onto the sleeve. The Oxygen hose was masked and spray painted. The yellow portion is toned with lemon yellow and white to give it a more 3D look wishing it not to look like a barber shop spin tower.

A closer look at the hose.

Started work on the dog with red brown, black, neige brown and desert yellow.

The dog is test fitted. Looks okay. I need to tone the face of the dog to highlight its facial features.

 

The dog is finally attached permanently with Araldite Normal. Next, I need to add the spooled up leather strap and the strap end dangling. The latter I made with CA Glue stiffened paper. The hand is attached.

The left hand and gloves are now attached and held in place with blue tack over 48 hours to cure. The right hand received some toning in orange and browns and some light skin tones for highlights to get my preferred gradual tones. I am quite happy that its done. Despite an earlier disaster of dropping the bust and it falling to pieces.

Trumpeter P51B Mustang III Part Three

Surprise was in store for me when all that masking tapes and masking sol is removed. Smoke out from within! Its not something that can be corrected. After all the puttying and sanding.....painting and now this. The spots and oversprays are easily removed by using Tamiya rubbing compound or toothpaste with a cotton bud. But fog from within for some reason unforseen in my 42 years of making this stuff! Buffling! Enough of rumbling. How to fix this is the crux.

While thinking of how to solve the problem, I carried on doing the rest of the job first. Refining the chips and putting in the undercarriage etc.

I put on the fuel tanks, drilling in the piping and weathering the undercarriage the mud splashes etc.

Doing the wheels and weather the tires and doors. Mud and sand as the planes were operated from open fields.

Putting them together is tricky as its plastic with no metal reinforcement and no real estate for drilling and putting in rods of brass in the wings.

Spraying yellow, then masking them and put in the black and grey, Streaks of grime and chips made from Vallejo Air Chrome Silver.

And chips are added onto the tip of the prop cap. Smoke stacks are painted and Tamiya Buff is sprayed on, followed by Hull Red and then small amounts of black that is extremely highly diluted.

I rummage through my stash of more than 400 kits in the store room and cupboards, I chanced upon this British Tank crew that seem ok to convert with some minor sculpting, it should play the part of a window cleaner.

For starteds, I need to change some surface details and change the right foot pivot angle to suit the plane's wing angle on the ground. I cut it till breaking point and plug in a sprue number tag. Melt the whole lump in Butyl Acetate. After 20 mins, the plastic is soft but firm enough to work like Milliput.

Then the left leg needed an lower angle of bend at the knee. I cut it with Tamiya sprue cutter 3/4 way and waging in another sprue number tag, Again we use Butyl Acetate to melt the whole zone for reworking.

The centre of gravity looks odd, so, the legs need to open up to over shoulder width length. The torso also needed to be more upright. So, cutting along the glue seams, wages in fine tuned with 0.3mm Evergreens. The left but has to be cut to not make it appear like a prosthetic limb! Again melt with Butyl Acetate.

Whack it with epoxy putty to fill up the holes, then use the extras into making a wrinkle rag. Then the plastic flashes and mold marks and superfluous details that was on the tank crew. Arms came from another figure. Test fitted on the wing and looks ok.

What is missing is the head. Looking through my store of Hornet's heads and gotten one that I liked.

I chose one with the SHAG ME MAN! look. 

It was sprayed with GAIA Black primer for the acrylics to come.

White applied and now all things go from here on painting the head.

Two days later, wow....very happy about my choice. Looks great!

Try fitting looks good too for me.

Next, I added in the soap suds from a top secret formula....heh....heh. Then I painted in gloss drip lines of Vallejo Gloss Varnish.

Then a brain wave hit me. I ran down to the local store to purchase a pilot from Life Miniatures. This will give me a good scene on the foreground for a tribute to the pilot who led his squadron against the Luftwaffe while still spotting a fever.. His last sortie for a young 27 year old Squadron Leader. Brave soul born in Kiev and grew up in Poland!

The resin kit was washed in hot hand soap to remove the mold wax. Sprayed black GAIA Primer and top sprayed with Tamiya XF1 White.

After painting the eyes using White, Prussian Blue and Sky Blue. The top lashes received a line in black and bottom lid some wash of Vermillion. The Flesh are painted with shadows in red brown and burnt violet.

Some highlighting using natural flesh and Pink Rose.

Then while wet, we spot in some red brown and a 50:50 mix with Pink Rose. Wet on wet glazing method.

The face received some matte varnish to even out light distribution.

The shades of shadows are glaze over with Vermillion mixed with satin varnish and glazing agent.

Pink Rose mixed with light flesh to blend the edges of the shadows and the top sides. Light flesh mixed with white is used for etching out the wrinkles and top side spots to form sheens from facial oils. Work also started with the head dress and gas mask.

Touching up the pupils with black edges and iris

Happy on how it turned out. There was a spot of white on the left check, I was worried and when I took a closer look with my 2.0 glasses, its just a speck of chipped putty, Brushed off easily with my No.4 brush. What a fright.

Work on the head dress is a hit or miss, after 2 days of struggling I am quite happy with how it turned out. I am sure with some brown washes and black to soften the edges, I will be home!

Putting in the details takes some time, there were zippers and buckles, 

Till we meet next time HAPPY MODELLING BRETHREN!