W.I.P. pics of new projects....

[matrixone]

Kit,
The Arado will get standard Luftwaffe Nightfighter camo, in this case a base coat of pale RLM 76 with thin wisps of RLM 75 mottling.

Allan,
I prefer to build much of the cockpit first and then do the painting, the advantage to this is I don't risk losing the small bits whilst trying to airbrush them...they can easily get blown away! By having the small parts in place its not only easier airbrushing them but also helps when doing the detail painting too. I never have had trouble getting the airbrush to cover all the tiny nooks and crannies of cockpits, sometimes you have to be creative in how you hold the cockpit whilst painting it.
Below are two pics of the Blohm & Voss and Arado cockpits after painting, I had limited information and only one photograph to guide me in what the Blohm & Voss cockpit looked like so there was a little guesswork here. Getting good photographs of the Blohm & Voss cockpits are difficult since only one machine was forced down on the Russian side of the lines and the rest were either blown up or shot down. The Russians kept the lone damaged B&V P.194 for study and did not share any information about it until decades after the war ended.


The Arado cockpit...BTW, both cockpits do not show the instrument panels.


The He 162 wheels are nearly done with the weathering on them and fuselage seam lines were sprayed to check for defects.


Both Messerschmitts have had some tinted thinner sprayed over the markings to help blend them in to the paint work and also to add a little more wear around the wing roots...the gloss coat does not allow the work I did to show up very well right now but both models will be getting a flat clear coat soon and then I will carefully airbrush the exhaust stains on, after that's done the slight paint fading I just did will be more visible.



Matrixone

[matrixone]

Some recent work on the Mummy kit.

The base is mostly painted now so my attention has turned to painting the Cobra and figure.

A light colored base coat has been sprayed on the figure and medium gray has been used as the pre-shading color for the wrappings.
The face and left hand was painted using a special technique I have developed, the figure was held upside down and the airbrush held at a very low angle so that when I sprayed on the gray color the cone of the spray pattern was only hitting the raised areas of the face and hand. When the model is viewed right side up the gray paint only fell in the places normally in shadow...the result is a forced shadow effect that really makes the molded in detail in the kit ''pop''. Try this technique because it really works and it can be used on all types of models to get the detail to stand out.

The base, figure, and Cobra, will be getting a coat of Future later on and after that some work with oil paints.

Matrixone

[matrixone]

The Messerschmitt's are done, here is a quick teaser pic until I can take proper pictures of these models.




Matrixone

[Tophe]

Congratulations for this Me-609

[matrixone]

Thank you Tophe, glad you spotted this model since it is of a type of airframe you like.

More pictures of this model will be posted in a day or two.


Matrixone

[Tophe]

Matrix, you made a marvelous work as long as "Realism" (what-if department!) is concerned, while I prefer shapes. Do you have ideas of how you would have designed a (different!) zwilling Me-309 instead of Ing.Messerschmitt? I'd be glad to illustrate your ways on my twin-boom drawings topic.
EDIT: I don't want to pollute your very realist/plastic topic, so I have designed several derivatives of the Me-609 on my own topic http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,20326.1470.html - thanks anyway to have inspired this!

[matrixone]

Tophe,
The basic airframe is good enough, the one thing that I don't care for on the Me 609 is the main landing gear, its looks really strange having the nose gear wheels wider apart than the main gear wheels. I would have mounted the main gear on the other side of the fuselages and operate similar to that of the Bf 109 main gear.

Matrixone

[Tophe]

Thanks! So the improved Matrixone GmbH Ma-609 is born! at http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,20326.msg612566.html#msg612566
Thanks again!

[matrixone]

Tophe,
I will be posting pics of the finished Me 609 a little later today, from those pictures you will see what I mean about the main landing gear looking really strange.
The Me 609 might have looked okay in the air but on the ground its ugly, ugly, ugly! No matter what angle I took the ground level pictures I could not find one that made this aircraft look attractive.

A small update on my other builds...the He 162 has repairs done to the wings and I will finish up the construction on the airframe soon.
The Dragon Arado Ar 234P has been a P.I.A. in its construction, poor fitting parts making it difficult to avoid seam lines which means taking extra time to restore some of the panel line details.
Revell's B & V P.194 is progressing nicely, the cockpit/BMW003 engine pod did not fit together very well and some extra time has been spent smoothing the seam line down without destroying the delicate panel line detail.
The Mummy has been mostly ignored lately but I did finish the basic painting of the Cobra so I can now coat the Cobra with Future to prep it for the oil washes.


Matrixone

[matrixone]

The He 162, Arado, and Blohm & Voss airframes are built and I started painting them.

When I paint my Luftwaffe models I usually start with a base coat of pale RLM 76 followed by some pre-shading in a dark color. On these models I am doing something a bit different, I started by giving the models a coat of RLM 65 which is a little darker than 76 and then sprayed white paint on the panels themselves in dissimilar patterns leaving the RLM 65 only on the panel lines. When the paint dries I will give the models a thin coat of RLM 76 to tone down the contrast of the panel lines and the white patterns on the panels leaving them barely visible. The effect I am going for is a patchy/worn look to the paint.



Matrixone

[Tophe]

I like the asymmetric painting on the He-162, will it disappear at the end?

[matrixone]

Tophe,
Yes much of the white highlights will be covered up after I spray on the pale RLM 76. My goal is to just barely allow the highlights to be seen, this type of weathering technique has to be very subtle or it won't look right.

If one looks at a finished model that is weathered and the first thing you notice about is pre-shading, dark panel lines, or in the case of my models white highlights, than the model is probably over-weathered for that scale.

When weathering scale model airplanes less=more.


Matrixone

[PR19_Kit]

If one looks at a finished model that is weathered and the first thing you notice about is pre-shading, dark panel lines, or in the case of my models white highlights, than the model is probably over-weathered for that scale.

When weathering scale model airplanes less=more.

Hallelulja!   

I do wish some of the modelling magazine contributors would read, mark, learn and inwardly digest those words of wisdom! They have 'pre-shading' on the brain. Me, I won't have any truck with it at all.

[JayBee]

If one looks at a finished model that is weathered and the first thing you notice about is pre-shading, dark panel lines, or in the case of my models white highlights, than the model is probably over-weathered for that scale.

When weathering scale model airplanes less=more.

DITTO!

Hallelulja!   

I do wish some of the modelling magazine contributors would read, mark, learn and inwardly digest those words of wisdom! They have 'pre-shading' on the brain. Me, I won't have any truck with it at all.

[Captain Canada]

Nice work Matrix ! Digging the Wolfman Mummy too ! Just in time for Halloween eh ?