D-Day
This
part use to throw me off, D-Day invasion stripes. Now the kit comes with decals
for this and I decided to paint the wing stripes and use the decals for the
belly of the plane. In hindsight, I probably should have painted all of them
simply because the belly strips are a little trickier to do and you probably
would have liked to see that. Sorry.
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I’m
not fanatical about crisp, clean strips, perfectly straight and symmetrical
wing-to-wing. I have access to plenty of photos showing D-Day stripes being
slopped on to planes with rollers and paint brushes. They were rarely (in my
opinion and the opinion of many of the war vets I’ve spoken with), applied
with exacting precision. I have purposely painted the stripes by hand, no
masking, with a brush, in order to accurately duplicate what I’ve seen in a
picture some veteran gave me, but I know most of you want that clean look so
I’ll do what I can to accommodate.
See
photos 07,
08,
09 and 10
I
have measured the stripe width (off the decals), and trimmed some tape to that
size. I roughly measured out from the fuselage where the 1st
stripe goes then place one long piece of tape across the wing, making it look as
parallel to the aircraft as I can by eye. As you see in the picture, I’ve
placed the 5 bits of tape across the wing to give the end point and stripe size.
Place another length of tape across the wing marking the end point. I will
normally use a pair of calipers to measure from the first stripe edge to the
last stripe edge, just to make sure it’s kind of parallel with the other side.
See
photos 11, 12,
13 and 14
After
taping off the boundaries of the stripes, I made a pillow of paper towel, flip
the plane over and rested it on top of the pillow. Because I left some overhang
tape, it’s easy to line up the bottom side stripe boundaries. Just place more
tape on the back by lining up to the front tape. I added some paper towel to
prevent overspray, and then flip the kit back on its feet. Mask off the top side
including a piece of tape along the exposed flap innards (technical term). Spray
the white! I mix a few drops of blue in my white since I find it covers a little
better and make the white a little more believable in my opinion. Then once
again I remove the masking almost as soon as I’ve finished painting.
See
photos 15 and 16
Now
that we have the white, we need the black. I know the picture of this looks
confusing but really it’s not. Using the tape cover up the width of the first
white strip. Using pieces of tape cut to stripe width, just place side-by-side
right across until you get to the last stripe where you want to cover the whole
thing. Replace the centre piece of tape with a whole piece. To make a long story
short, you end up with what you see in picture ‘B’. Spray the black remove
the masking and there you have it, D-Day stripes. Since that takes care of most
of painting, I’m moving on to applying a coat
of Future.
Future
Coat
Future
floor polish is a modeler’s friend. There is information here at ARC that will
fill you in on all the uses and benefits so I will just tell you how I’m using
it here. First off, I never airbrush Future although many do. Invest in a really
good brush, maybe ½” to 1” wide. If you don’t buy a good one you’ll be
picking hairs off your kit all day. Future self-levels and rarely ever leaves a
brush mark. You can’t fool around while applying it or it starts to dry on you
and you will get some brush
marks. A second coat will take care of them though. I like two full coats on a
kit before I start to decal and usually apply the second coat an hour to an hour
and a half after the first coat. This provides a great base to work on and
allows you a cushion for removing screw-ups when weathering, touch-up painting
or adding chip marks.
See
photos 17 and
18
If I
feel like it I leave the Future coat to dry overnight and then start adding the
decals. I often start applying decals and hour or so after the Future coat
- What?!
No, no, no Future must dry at least
24 hours before applying decals!.
To be honest, it’s never been a
problem for me. I’ve never
really had any serious issues
doing this, other than some fogging of the decals which goes away when totally
dry. If not, then a quick touch up with Future takes care of it. I also dip the
painted canopies in Future then leave them on some paper towel to wick away the
excess. This gives you a scratch free crystal look to the glass.
Decaling
See
photos 19,
20, 21 and 22
Get
a bowl of really warm water (almost
hot), this activates the glue and softens the decal. Cold water is a no-no. If
you buy one of those coffee cup warmers you won’t have to keep changing the
water. Cut out the decal you need and place it
in the bowl. Within about 3 seconds it will easily slide off the backing paper.
I use a soft brush to wet the area where I intend to place it. I should say that
there are many ways to do this. Some people will put a setting solution under
the decal; some will use Future, some… something else, some nothing. Because
you rarely get a second shot at putting on a decal I don’t like to use
anything that will increase the risk of wrecking it while putting it on, this is
why I use warm water, brushed on where I intend the decal to go.
See
photos 23, 24,
25 and 26
I
keep the wet brush handy while sliding the decal in place. If it stops easily
sliding around before I have it where I want it, then pushing the wet brush up
underneath the decal puts a fresh layer of water under it allowing it to once
again be easily moved around. You can keep a decal “alive” indefinitely with
this method. Once you have it in position, tear off a piece of paper towel and
using the torn fiber part (like in the picture), just touch it to the bottom of
the decal and it will wick out all the water. I give the decal at least 4-5
minutes before I use the decal setting solution. You have to use decal
setting solution to make the decal conform to the finer shapes on the kit.
See
photos 27 and
28
Apply
liberally without putting pressure on the decal or you risk moving it. Once you
hit it with the solution you don’t want to be having to move the decal back
into position. The solution very quickly “melts” the decal making movement
without damage almost impossible.
Let’s
say you get up to stretch a little now, because this is nerve wracking stuff!
You get yourself a drink and come back to the kit say after 15-20 minutes.
Don’t have a mouthful of drink when you sit down to check on the decal because
you’ll most likely spit it out the first time you experience the
“wrinkling”. Relax… it goes away, just like in the series of photos you
see here. In the end its smooth, tight and well formed to the cracks, crevices,
rivets or whatever else there may be.
Once
all the decals are on, let them dry over night. Next day if any bubbles have
formed you can just poke them with a pin and re-apply decal setting solution.
When the solution been on for a few seconds use a soft brush to dab the bubble
for just a second or two. Let it dry for a couple hours, repeat if needed.
Hey
Man, Give Me My Props…
See
photos 29,
30, 31 and 32
There’s
not much that is difficult about this process, but there are a couple things you
might want to use. First gather up the pieces, clean them up, test fit and
correct if need be, then glue together. Take the time to use some sanding sticks
to thin out and clean up the seams on the prop.
See
photos 33,
34, 35 and 36
Spray
the prop your preferred shade of black. I hand paint the centre of the prop in
steel or aluminum (whatever I have handy), but I like the chrome finish on the
hub itself. I find hand painting this never gives the clean effect I’m looking
for, so I normally punch a hole in a Post It note and place it over the hub
after the part underneath has dried.
Using
the airbrush I spray the hub and let it dry thoroughly before removing the Post
It note. In this case I just used the aluminum paint but wanted to show you what
I would have done if spraying the hub, chrome.
See
photos 37,
38, 39 and 40
Tape
the prop tips like you see in the pictures and then you’re ready to take
advantage of your gravity fed airbrush!
See
photos 41 and
42
Stir
up some yellow then take a Q-Tip and dunk it in thinner. Now place the Q-Tip
into the yellow and then push it against the side of the airbrush bowl while
turning it between your fingers. This puts just a very small amount of thinned
paint in my cup to paint the tips. It’s very fast and you’ve literally used
a few drops of paint, no waste. That’s hard to do with a suction fed airbrush.
Spray the tips and remove the mask.
Guns,
Guns, Guns
I
have made guns by tightly rolling aluminum foil around a piece of wire,
stretched sprue, plain old bits of brass tube, and other stuff. Mostly they
didn’t look that great. I do give in and buy the aftermarket guns for
commission builds because it’s the kind of detail that really makes a big
difference on a finished kit. For this ‘D’ we’re going to use what came in
the box. Do you remember earlier on in the article when I was centre punching
the nubs for the ignition wires? We’re going to do the same thing here. Take a
pointing thing and make a light mark on the end of the barrel. If you’re way
off centre, then just sand it off (because you just made a light mark), mark it
again. If it looks centered then push the mark a little deeper. This will guide
the drill and keep it in the middle.
See
photos 43, 44 and
45
Take
your pin vice and drill into the end. Make one or two turns and just check that
it looks to be in the right spot, then drill away. You don’t have to go that
deep to get the effect of a hollow gun barrel but I have drilled1/8th
of an inch into them without wrecking the gun. If you’ve never done this you
might think this is pretty hard to do by hand, but it isn’t. You go for it!
See
photos 46 and 47
Pretty
much the last colour I use for painting guns is Gun Metal; I prefer the paint
type you have to buff to get the metal look you want. I use the MM metalizer
either magnesium or titanium. Sometimes dark grey, then rub pencil led on them.
While I’m attaching the guns, I clean up and glue the Pitot tube in as well.
Let’s look at where we are now.
See
photos 48,
49, 50, 51, 52 and 53
What
Have I Forgotten?
I
know there are a few things about this build I haven’t really covered; a bit
of weathering and paint chips as an example. I’ve tried to show some of the
subtle difference a wash makes. This is difficult to do on a foiled aircraft
because the camera really doesn’t pick up the change on the foil part all that
well, but I think you get the idea. The result is much better on the painted
surfaces of this P47 but still a bit of a challenge. The reason it is a little
more difficult is; no matter how thin the aluminum foil, it’s still thick
enough to round out the small edges. This means when you start to remove the
excess there is no sharp ‘lip’ in the crevasses to ‘hold’ the dirt wash
in. We’ll manage though.
See
photo54
There
are several other things – I forgot to show you what I do for formation lights
(very cool), and how I use powders. I didn’t show all the decaling tricks,
forgot to mention that I applied another coat of Future of the whole kit after
the decaling was finished, didn’t add the prop decals, didn’t really finish
all the weathering either. We could have cut the ailerons and rudder out and put
them at a nice angle. Usually I try to remember to turn the tail-wheel as well,
this give a little more realistic look to it. Although I didn’t do it on this
build, I could show you how to color the bezels around gauges easily. So many
things I’ve neglected!
See
photos 55 and
56
Normally
(if it wasn’t foil), I would spray clear flat on the kit after all the decals
and final Future coat has dried. The weathering really starts after that coat.
There is so much more I could have done but I’ve just plain (“plain” get
it?), had it. Like I said at the beginning, this project has taken a long time.
This was the first plane I really didn’t have to build for someone in quite
awhile; I bet I started this thing a year and half ago. No, it didn’t take
that long to build it’s just that there were several projects in-between and I
had to keep going back to this when I had time.
See
photos 57 and
58
In
an attempt to get you to understand this hobby, pay strict attention to what
I’m about to tell you. It is one of the most important parts of this whole
article.
Because
this kit stayed on my bench for so long, I hated it. It got to the point where I
groaned every time I thought about having to work on it. It hung over my head
like the Sword of Damocles.
At times I thought I’d just
scrap it and forget about the article. Even now the planes not really
finished, but I am… and that is important to digest. I just wanted this
project to go away.
See
photo 59
You’ll
see articles on ARC where someone will say something like… “I just can’t
get into it lately”, “It’s not fun anymore”, “I just want to give up
sometimes” etc. etc. When I see these I want to post a response that says
something like “stop whining”, “suck it up”, “walk it off”, “shut
the hell up”, (do I sound grouchy?), but I understand them completely. I feel
that way often and not just about models. One of the things I like most about
the hobby is the fact it’s there, whenever
I want it.
If I don’t want to finish a kit, I
don’t have to.
Sometimes when I struggle to complete something I just go into the room, do one
thing, then leave. That one thing may be sand something, glue something, just
cutting a piece off a sprue. The thing I do may take 10 seconds or 1 minute.
Funny thing is sometimes, before I release it, 3 hours has gone by. The hobby is
there any time I want it, even if I never want it.
See
photo 60
Here
is another telling part of this tale. Although the finishing (kind of), and the
documenting of this kits construction has removed an immense burden from my
shoulders (frankly, if it wasn’t for this article the kit my never have gotten
built), I’m already thinking about doing a build to document just weathering
and dry brushing! Frying pan… fire, go figure, but writing and documenting is
a pain in the neck. As a matter of fact, it takes away some of the joy of the
hobby for me. So don’t look for that anytime soon.
Lastly,
some people are going to strongly disagree with some of the things I’ve said
in this article and probably send me a lot of “corrective” emails. That’s
ok, that’s what it’s all about... how you
do something it’s not about what’s right or what’s wrong. You will form
your own opinions of good and bad. You may like everything I said here but in
awhile you’ll find your own ways, your own tricks. Someone will probably write
me someday to say something like “Hey do this, this way… it’s a lot easier
than what you said in your article”, and you know what? I probably will use
your suggestion.
Oh,
one more thing. There is a lot of concern regarding the decline in interest in
this hobby. I’m not sure I’m saddened by it all that much. Let’s face
it… if we had the options our kids have today, how many of us do you think
would be building these things? My kids have dozens of fascinating options when
it comes to entertainment and playing. I had a stick to play with when I was a
kid ;-) But I digress…
…if
the lack of interest in this hobby does concern you, I give you this piece of
advice; “Each one, teach one”
Larry Shred
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