Migina 1 - profile by Arc3371

[Weaver]

And? Wont the chosen paint job be rather work intensive as well or do you have a technique you care to share?

The PSR'll pass, apart from a few easy little touch-ups. The gear doors are poor, but life's too short......

The paint plan is this (shades of grey graded from 1 (lightest) to 5 (darkest)):

1. Overall coat of Grey 1.

2. Coat of matt varnish.

3. Mask off undersides and lots of square dots on forward 3/4 of fuselage and wings.

4. Overall coat of Grey 2.

5. Feathered coat of Grey 3 on rear/outboard 1/4 of fuselage and wings.

6. Mask off more dots of Grey 3 in rear/outboard 1/4.

7. Feathered coat of Grey 4 on rear/outboard 1/4.

8. Paint squares of Grey 3 on forward/inboard 3/4 using an eraser cut into a square "stamper".

9. Paint squares of Grey 5 on rear/outboard 1/4 using an eraser cut into a square "stamper".

10. Hand paint: lower rear fuselage with mix of gunmetal and aluminium, Black anti-glare panel, gunmetal gun barrels and blast troughs.

11. Remove masking and spray coat of matt varnish.

12. Apply decals.

13. Fit seat, pilot, canopy, engine nozzles and stores.

Oh, yeah, and knock up some sort of stand in the meantime......

Complicated enough?

[sotoolslinger]

Squirrils worldwide salute you

[Weaver]

LOL - the Grey Pride Parade GB is looking more attractive by the hour......

Couldn't forego the chance to have a cammo scheme called "Urban Squirrel" though....

[Mossie]

Complicated enough?

I'd've given up at step 2!

[Arc3371]

Complicated enough?

I'd've given up at step 2!

Frankly me too...

[Weaver]

Well you asked.......

Actually, I've hit a problem. I've been doing some paint tests, and the stamper idea just doesn't work: the "squares" always come out with rounded edges and the paint inside them is never consistent, alway "pulling off" one corner or another making it look thin. To put it bluntly, it looks crap.

This leaves two options, as far as I can see:

1. Paint the darker squares using masking. This means using about a mile of thin tape, since everything except the darker squares would have to be masked off.

2. Print up the darker square colours on decal paper. I could either print a solid block of colour and then cut it up, or print the squares individually. The trouble with this is that it will make the surface "lumpy" for when the proper markings go on......


HELP!

[pyro-manic]

Why not make a sort of stencil? Cut the square shape out of the end of a strip of stiff paper or thin plasticard, paint through that and then just move it around? A lot quicker and easier than masking off each one individually. You'd have to hand paint it, of course (but then to me masking and spraying it would seem like a huge amount of extra effort to go to for something like that. )

[Weaver]

Why not make a sort of stencil? Cut the square shape out of the end of a strip of stiff paper or thin plasticard, paint through that and then just move it around? A lot quicker and easier than masking off each one individually. You'd have to hand paint it, of course (but then to me masking and spraying it would seem like a huge amount of extra effort to go to for something like that. )

That has potential, and I'll give it a test tomorrow night - cheers!

I can see some potential problems with it though:

1. Most of the fuselage is curved surfaces, so if the stencil doesn't stick to the surface, how does it follow them?

2. The spacing of the squares is pretty tight, so it'd be hard to avoid smudging the last square whilst doing the next one.



Another idea has occured to me:

I'm already modifying Arc's original scheme by using squares instead of dots. I could modify it some more so that each base colour only has lighter squares in it, instead of a mix of lighter and darker ones. Arc's scheme has two zones, each with a medium base colour and lighter and darker dots: I could go to three zones, with the lighter dots in each one being the same shade as the base colour of the zone in front. I'll try a quick and dirty profile of this......

[Weaver]

Possible colour scheme mod (now 4-zone):

[Arc3371]

Go with whichever is easier, the 4 zone looks better though

[Arc3371]

A quick one with the 4 zone coloring

[Weaver]

Hey, nice one Arc - that looks great! You read my mind too - I was looking at how little fin area is available for a roundel and considering a red/gold-striped rudder!

[Brian da Basher]

To take pyro-maniac's idea one step further, Weaver, you could cut your square template from the tacky part of a Post-It note. That way it would stick to the curves of your model just enough, but wouldn't leave behind any residue. Lots of modellers use Post-It notes like this and usually get good results.

Brian da Basher

[Weaver]

Cheers Brian, but I've decided to go with the 4-zone scheme now.

Progress pictures. The Migina's back upstairs for some minor PSR fixes, having had an overall spray of Humbrol 147. This is the undersides and lightest squares colour.



Boy do digital photos flatter! What you can't see here is that the gear doors are very rough: I've actually re-scribed some of the filled lines now, just to make them consistent. The paint has also got a curiously mottled look in places: too much thinners, I think....



BTW, the rough-looking intake lip is actually internal masking tape, to protect the black.

[ysi_maniac]

A winner, no doubt