discussion British Airborne - Red Devil - Dragon kit

[pjgtech]

My next kit is already under way.
Spotted this Dragon kit up on the top shelf of my local model shop, looks like it had been there a while, there were a couple of other similar figures, one was a US infantryman, not sure about the other. I had an Uncle in WW2 who did at least one parachute drop, maybe more, not sure if was an actual Para or not, so this one spoke to me.....
I have never done a figure before, and doing the face seems a bit of a challenge to get it "realistic", but hey, I'll give it a go! Lots of YT vids to watch, Lol...
Some pics of the box and sprue....

 

[pjgtech]

Made a start this afternoon, think I'm deffo gonna paint in sections?
There's a few small gaps, on a couple of the seams/joins along the body, so this is my first try with model filler [Gulp!]
Filled the gaps with a tooth pick, tried to go very lightly.
I'm guessing I will need to be careful when it dries and I start sanding back, so as not to lose other details.
How long does this filler take to dry, does not seem to say on the tube?
Looking forward to this one though....

 

[PaulTRose]

Good luck
be interesting to see how you get on

 

[Jim R]

Well you are certainly having a go at different aspects of the hobby. I'll enjoy seeing how you get on.

 

[pjgtech]

Well you are certainly having a go at different aspects of the hobby. I'll enjoy seeing how you get on.

Lol, yep, in for a penny and all that!
Done a few tanks now, but still on the shelf I have a Motorbike, a German Halftrack and just ordered a De Havilland Mosquito to try.
Will see which type/genre I like best.....

 

[Richard48]

Good on ya.Theres a few figure buffs on here including me.Id assemble the figure and making sure the sten gun lines up with the hands.Milliput is also good for fairing in gaps.Some great vids on Youtube including guys like Milan Dufek etc who do some great figures.These Dragon kits used to be great value.I used to pick them up around a tenner.I saw Das Werk has reissued them and at Telford SMW they were over 25 quid for some.With some fettling and resculpting and sharpening detail with a scalpel they can be excellent.
We are watching with interest..
Richard

 

[pjgtech]

With some fettling and resculpting and sharpening detail with a scalpel they can be excellent.
Richard

Thanx for that there are a couple of bits where the detail is faint, had not thought about using a scalpel to redefine bits, might give that a go.
I'm not really a perfectionist, I just enjoy the building/painting process.

 

[pjgtech]

Little update, primed bits last night.... so made a start....

 

[pjgtech]

And a bit more, put on first very thin coats today, I'm thinking lots of thin coats, slowly build up the colours....

 

[pjgtech]

Thinking ahead a little bit, but this figure does come with a plain black base and the figures feet are just plain flat, so I assume its just meant to be glued straight onto the base, but.....

Would it be better to maybe drill the base and one of the feet, and insert a small dowel or pin to aid with stability once the model is finished?

Thoughts? cheers

 

[Tim Marlow]

Thinking ahead a little bit, but this figure does come with a plain black base and the figures feet are just plain flat, so I assume its just meant to be glued straight onto the base, but.....

Would it be better to maybe drill the base and one of the feet, and insert a small dowel or pin to aid with stability once the model is finished?

Thoughts? cheers

I would definitely drill and pin it, there will be a fair bit of weight on that joint. Paper clip wire would work well at that scale. In fact, I’d drill the feet/ankles and base, and insert the wire into the feet before I started painting.

 

[pjgtech]

Hmm, not sure about the colours on this one. When I bought this kit, the guy in the model shop recommended me Mr Model paints and he had a colour chart that matched up with the paint numbers on the instruction for this kit, but....

The brown for the trousers looks way too dark, after couple of coats and after drying.
The light brown/beige for the jacket is way too light, after couple of coats and after drying.

So may have to lighten one and darken the other to see if it looks any better.
Onwards.....

 

[pjgtech]

Pics showing the box artwork and my current colours, they clearly don't match?
I know the artwork is only a "guide" but I want it to look sort of realistic.
As I said the trousers look too dark and the tunic/jacket looks too light.
Obviously I have not put the camo pattern on yet.

 

[pjgtech]

Another question please....
How would you replicate the bits of beige camo strips on the helmet? (see pic)
The supplied helmet has no strips showing? (see pic)
Tiny bits of tamiya mask paper?
Tissue paper and superglue, as I think this is used to replicate fabric, bed rolls, tarps, etc isn't it?
Or any other ideas?
Cheers

 

[Tim Marlow]

Good resource for WW2 uniforms can be found here:

https://www.artizandesigns.com/painting-guides.php

You may have to do colour matches for other companies paint, but remember this. At this time in history colour matching would be cursory, and wear and weather would lead to fast fading and colour change, so near enough is good enough.

 

[pjgtech]

You may have to do colour matches for other companies paint, but remember this. At this time in history colour matching would be cursory, and wear and weather would lead to fast fading and colour change, so near enough is good enough.

Thanx for the link. Yeah, I agree about fading, being dirty, etc so colours will not be 100%, and TBH I'm not after perfect, in fact I am not good enough for "perfect" anyway, but you want it to look as best as it can.
I will have a tinker with altering the colours a bit.
Cheers

 

[Tim Marlow]

Bit more, along with an SBS, here….
https://sites.create-cdn.net/sitefiles/34/1/1/341115/Matt_Hingley_BritPara.pdf

 

[Steven000]

I wouldn't use tamiya masking tape for the small strips, I find that paint does not adhere well on the tape, flakes off rather easy... now that I'm thinking about it, would probably work if you paint some superglue over it first, when dry it makes the tape hard and paint has a better grip on it, cheers

 

[pjgtech]

I wouldn't use tamiya masking tape for the small strips, I find that paint does not adhere well on the tape, flakes off rather easy... now that I'm thinking about it, would probably work if you paint some superglue over it first, when dry it makes the tape hard and paint has a better grip on it, cheers

Cheers, I'll have a little experiment maybe with tissue paper, plain paper, maybe thin strips of normal masking tape as thats a bit rough, so may hold paint ok? I'll see see what works (or what doesn't).
If I get no success, then I can always leave the helmet plain, but would be nice to get some "texture" on there....

 

[pjgtech]

Well might have had a little victory here, we'll see.
Wanting to put some camo strips on the helmet, as per message above, so tried couple of things....
Normal, eg: printer paper was just too thick and looked wrong.
Tissue paper was almost impossible to work with in the tiny strips I needed!
Then I noticed a receipt, which uses that very thin till roll paper, cut off a couple of strips, hmmm, could work....

So I folded the thin strip in half, then in half again, and again, and so on, until in the end I had a sort of concertina effect on the strip, with lots of fold lines, which then made cutting the big strips, into much smaller strips, a bit easier. The first tiny strips I cut were not tiny enough, still a bit chunky.
So my second attempt gave me much smaller strips, but they all looked a bit too uniform. So I found that if a nipped them up and twisted them a bit with my tweezers, they started to look a bit more like camo fabric, rather than bits of paper.

Painting them was a right pain, they are so small they would either stick to my finger, the tweezers or the brush, but I got there eventually!
I was also holding my breath most of the time, as these tiny bits of paper would have blown G*d knows where if I breathed on them!
Let them dry for a bit then tried a couple of test strips on a bit of old sprue, hmm, they seem to stick ok, (using Tamiya extra thin).

So, time to bite the bullet and see if I can get the tiny painted strips onto the (equally tiny) helmet.
Taking my time, being very careful, doing one at a time, I slowly built up a layer of camo strips, and, they don't seem to look too bad! TBH I surprised myself as I thought it would look awful.
I think once they have fully dried I'll try and rough them up a bit, maybe twist them a bit more with the tweezers, maybe try to cut a few edges so they don't look so "square" and touch up the bits of paint that came off. I initially just had the helmet dark brown, but last night mottled it a bit with a dark green and that seems to work too.

Have to say I am really liking this little figure....
Anyway, some more pics of the little helmet all camo'd up, sort of....