What have I done here?

[Ian M]

Is that the real one, or the one you built last year Steve.

Mike: Steve is a gold mine of info (thank God). He has helped me out many a time.

Ian M

[stona]

Mine was in glorious Technicolor!



Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Wow, you can barely tell the difference! That's amazing!

[john i am]

Wow, you can barely tell the difference! That's amazing!

I can the prop is in the wrong position the devil is in the detail Mike

[Guest]

I can the prop is in the wrong position the devil is in the detail Mike

I swear I was just thinking that!

[john i am]

I swear I was just thinking that!

Lol

[Guest]

Steve, Laurie,Is there anything you don't know?!

Yes there is Steve but for the life of me I can not remember what it is. ops:o_O

That is very funny and I had a good laugh. Cannot tell Pauline my wife tho. as she will have a better come back. O yes she will. Plus she will fall about laughing.

Laurie

[stona]

I can the prop is in the wrong position the devil is in the detail Mike

You're not wrong John

Here's one of the original photos I took of the model when I was really trying to match it to the famous photograph from Spitfire:The Canadians.



I reckon I got the prop a bit closer then !



Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Now whilst you've all been researching, I thought I'd get back to my Hurricane which is now fully painted, it's just a case of putting the decals and fiddly bits on. This new tooling lark is an absolute dream, right up until I accidentally cut a fiddly bit when taking it off the sprue, I didn't think it an issue, but turns out it's structural! Take a look below:

On the left hand landing gear, we have a horizontal stick that goes under the sticking out thing right into the wheel well where it is glued.

On the right hand gear, that bit was accidentally cut taking it off the sprue and what's left doesn't reach the sticking out thing and it's particularly flimsy because of the lack of support. I fear when the glue's dried and I put the wheel on it's just going to collapse under the weight of the plane!

In other news, I had to respray this aluminium colour in an area here after the masking tape was removed, with this extremely close-up photo, you cannot tell where it was, so thanks for the airbrush advice! Worked a treat

[Guest]

Looking at it in a photo it looks OK Mike. Not much weight and providing you are gentle with it it should be OK.

But if you are concerned can you not make up from the sprue a piece to splice in where you have occidentally chopped it off. can you reuse the bit you chopped off ?

The landing gear is always fragile I have found. I have in the past used Super Glue the gel type to coat pieces which just gives an added strength. Also try not to fit the landing gear until the last moment or pad out with foam in order that the landing gear does not come in contact with the work top.

Laurie

[Guest]

I have in the past used Super Glue the gel type to coat pieces which just gives an added strength.

You sir, are a genius! The two offending pieces aren't in contact, but superglue happily bridges the gap and now it stands of its own volition:

Looking much more like a Hurricane now! It's still a bit loose, but it's only just been applied so leaving it upside down overnight to dry, but that's achieved exactly what I was after! Many thanks!

[Guest]

OK, last question (on this thread anyway, you guys are way too helpful to stop asking questions!)

So, just about finished with this build, got a bit of silvering but that's because I didn't gloss it before hand, but that's fine I know what I did there and it's on the underside so not overly visible. Only thing left is the canopy which is drying after being painted with a cocktail stick as masking it was too much of a pia!

Anyway, my question is about the colours, below on the left is the hurricane with Vallejo Model Air Dark Earth and Dark Green. On the right is a Spitfire with those starter kit acrylics, again in dark earth and dark green:

It's difficult to display on a camera phone, but the contrast is piss poor with the Vallejo colours where as the Airfix Starter and Humbrol (acrylic and enamel - I have both!) have a much better contrast as the dark earth isn't quite so dark!

I've only done one coat, which whilst not massively thick, is obviously thick enough for one coat in the spray booth, neither model had an undercoat so it was straight onto plastic. In the Hurricane, I sprayed the green over the dark earth which in essence was the undercoat. Colours I'm using are:

Vallejo 71.029 and Humbrol 29 for Dark Earth

Vallejo 71.012 and Humrbol 30 for Dark Green

Am I using the wrong colours, or wrong technique (or both!). I have seen one video where they do 3 or 4 really light layers which would work better, especially if I had a white undercoat, but I still think the contrast between these two Vallejo colours is not enough compared to Humbrol.

On another point, will this help with the scale effect? I've seen you guys talk about this where you need a higher contrast depending on the scale, how does that work?!

[Guest]

I have used the 71029 but matched that with 71016 for green. But there is not much difference between green 16 or 12.

But I use a white to lighten the colours to suit the scale. But have found these colours to be reasonably representative of the true colours.

You are never going to get a Humbrol or Vallejo in the Dark Earth or Dark Green as there is no exact match. Even found that an FS colour with Lifecolor and an FS colour with Vallejo are different. Used to get hung up on exactness but soon found I was wasting time and effort.

I find it always best to test colours before getting near to an airbrush. Test them in areas the size your are going to cover on the model. I take a long time over getting this right as otherwise you have closed the gate. Sacrilege I know but I alter the colours to suit what looks right. On the Merlin Helicopter, as mentioned before some where, the colours by Airfix just looked abominable. Looking at picture of Merlin's in action bore no resemblance to Humbol Colours or the colour the Merlin came out of the factory in.

Scale. I always lighten. I always use white. But may not use the (near) authentic colour to start with as this may destroy the colour. A bit of experience rather like testing UK, Guernsey and Jersey Cream. You soon find out. The answer to this conundrum is--------- Jersey Cream by a mile. Nice colour as well not yellow not to much white. Jersey cows are so clever.

Laurie

Bit of extra info on Jersey Cows. Why were Jersey Cows imported into Peru .

Answer. Peru has steep stepped hillsides. Peruvian cows kept falling from the hills and tumbling to the bottom of the valley. It was found that the so pretty Jersey Cows were sure footed and were not as stupid as the Peruvian sisters and managed the steps perfectly. This is a fact delivered to me by the Jersey Cow guru.

[Guest]

I have used the 71029 but matched that with 71016 for green. But there is not much difference between green 16 or 12.

Hmm, I have this, giving it a try on a busted plane

[Guest]

I avoid using white, the contrast change is too great. Cream, stone, yellow all work better IMHO, although it's always down to personal taste & the base colour in question.