Hello and welcome!
There are still available spots for the airbrush workshop on Sunday, so register per mail if you're interested. I managed to break my Iwata HP-C this week, so it could be a very interesting edition. :-)
Last weekend the Braderie got rained out a bit, so an extra thanks to everyone who stopped by!
I managed to make some good progress on the models last week.
First off, the McLaren. I looked up some footage from Francorchamps 1990, where Senna won, and found some details. First off, the McLaren cars drove around with 'Marlboro' markings, so extra decals have been ordered. Second, the sides of the cars. Tamiya provides a rectangular piece that you have to cut along vertical lines to get the correct size. However, looking at the footage, it appears the sides tapered off in a long streak on the bottom. So I roughly cut out the shape using my scriber, then sanded it smooth.
As they're mirrored, I could lay them on top of each other to make sure they're exactly the same size and shape:
I'll have to be careful I don't bend or break these parts during painting...
The black undersides were sprayed, with some areas taped off to receive different colours. I also painted the gearbox and the seat belts:
Hopefully this week I can put some of these parts together.
The Bloch received some wingroot weathering, using Silver Oilbrusher:
This kind of paint damage occurs because the pilot needs to walk on the wing to get into the cockpit. A mechanic helps him strap in, so the other wing receives the same kind of weathering. As I painted this in oils, it needed a few days to dry. A brownish wash goes over it to tone down the contrast.
The guns and pitot tube were also installed:
I expect I can give it an overall
Satin Varnish this week, remove the cockpit masks, glue the navigation and landing lights, install the bead sight on the nose and then it's finished! Depending on the final outcome, I may take it with me to
Geel and enter the contest.
On to the Viggen; I sprayed the wing and tail leading edges with black. I couldn't find any clear pictures of the underside, so I didn't spray it there. The canard edges also weren't always black, so I left it off there, as well.
The air intakes needed to be resprayed in aluminium/silver. I know it's very easy to overspray, so I went a bit overboard on masking:
I still forgot a small area on the left intake... So I'll need to re-mask and respray. Again...
It's looking good, though:
Finally, lots of progress on the T-72.
I've been looking at pictures of Finnish T-72s. It appears the rear fuel drums were rarely installed. I cut off the brackets, and drilled four small holes in the mounting plates, representing the bolt holes for the brackets:
They're not perfectly aligned, but it's decent enough. The good news is that because the drums and their fuel lines don't need to be installed, they won't be in the way of the engine hatches, which I can leave unglued and removable!
Only the very rear deck part will need to be glued. That one is only half-covering the fan blades, so I'll be able to show off the complete engine.
I almost finished the turret interior. Here's the roof:
I gave a limited interior wash to the protruding detail and the buttons, then used a Medium Grey drybrush to bring out the checkered pattern of the spall liner (?).
The turret ring was completed as well:
Black oil paint on the seats to give them a bit of texture, Interiors Wash and grey drybrush.
The gun was painted in
Russian green, and drybrushed with Light Olive:
This one still needs some extra weathering, after I install the coaxial MG mount.
The rangefinder/aiming scope has some nice detail (fingers for scale :-) ):
As per usual for such small details, I painted the coloured buttons with oil paints, which flow better than acrylics.
The forehead guard and hand holds still need to be painted.
That's all.
See you next week!
