What's on my desk? Part 117.
Good morning!
With the Easter holiday just a week away, a couple of announcements:
- Sunday 5th of April is Easter. The city of Mechelen has decided that on Easter there won't be a Shopping Sunday, so Modelist will be closed this Sunday.
- Tuesday April 14: Modelist will (probably) be closed for some shop reorganization. Keep an eye on this space for more info.
- Don't forget the Duffel club's modelling day on 19th April. Zaal Den Biet, Naalstraat 43F, Duffel.
On to the builds then!
I've made some good progress on the Ford Focus. The red coat was resprayed to my satisfaction, and after drying was in its turn masked off for another application of white. That's where we are now:
I just need to get the white as smooth as possible, then I can spray a gloss coat and fix the decals. I need to be very careful peeling off the masking, because I've already damaged the blue decals underneath, despite the protective varnish.
As you can see, the wheels are also done and attached to the chassis.
For the Viggen, I've found the courage to restore the nose. Lots of filling, lots of sanding...
I've painted the yellow-red nose and tail markings for the Bloch. As the Vichy French air force used the same blue-white-red roundel the Free French used, Goering ordered Vichy planes to be painted with red and yellow stripes on the nose and tail. Masking these off was relatively easy on the tail. Just calcu-guess how wide the stripes need to be and cut out pieces of masking tape of the correct width (in this case I settled on 4mm).
Same goes for the nose, but because of the curve the cowling makes, I used strips of 2mm laid side-to-side (and one on top to mask the seam), overlapping them somewhat over the front. To get the correct spacing, I used a strip of 6mm tape, cut down to 4mm, re-using this every time.
The masking aligns somewhat with the cylinder bulges, but on the underside the 4mm width is slightly too narrow. The last yellow stripes are a bit wider, but as these go over the air scoop, it doesn't stand out too much.
So with everything masked, I could finally airbrush the red colour. It turned out pretty nice. The bright colours will make this a real eyecatcher.
Next up: masking the tail & spraying the camouflage. The nose came loose, so I won't have to mask that off at least :-) .
The rudder should be painted in the French tricolore, so that's another bout of extra masking...
Lots of masking this week, because I've been making steady progress on the T-72. Lots of small parts go in the interior, and I'm trying to airbrush as much of these as possible. First off, after finding some interior images of a (Czechoslovak) T-72, I decided the Blue Grey was too light. So I resprayed the inside with Intermediate Blue. The side walls were sprayed Insignia White, as I didn't want to use straight bright white for these quite big parts, then masked off and sprayed the boxes (fuel tanks?) Rotbraun, once again based on the photo, as Amusing Hobby suggests Dark Brown.
The round covers on that big box in the middle were painted by hand, in two metal shades.
Here's the right-hand side wall:
All but three of the boxes and thingamajigs on this wall are moulded in, the rest are separate parts. Just one was hand-painted. Can you tell which?
One notable feature of the T-72 (and all subsequent tanks based on it), is the autoloader. Using an autoloader allowed the Soviets to dispense with an extra crew member, reducing the crew to just 3. And allowing for a smaller and lighter tank.
This autoloader uses a carousel under the turret basket floor, and Amusing Hobby has provided it in all its glorious detail. The carousel itself needs small rollers added to some of the upright posts:
Then 22 double trays are mounted on this. Double, because the ammunition for the tank is in two parts: the round itself, plus a separate propellant charge. Here are the trays, painted. They definitely need a second coat of Russian Green:
Amusing Hobby have provided just 12 projectiles to fit in these 22 trays. Pity, because that means you need to source 10 more from somewhere else to depict a full load.
Lots more small details ahead!
That's about it, I think.
See you next week!