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

[DogfighterZen]

I really want to post something...... ...but words fail... ...I am so impressed with the Ta183..... ....the others aren't half bad either....love the Focke Wulf's....I'm going to go be alone now.....I think I'm going to cry....

Same here...  first the 209s... now that ta-183...   

[Mossie]

Wow, that is beautiful.    Kind of a shame you're going to cover it up, but needs must!

[matrixone]

Thanks guys!

There are still a few of these kits left in my stash and I might make a 'naked' version of this plane in NMF and wooden wings.

But before I do that one I have been itching to build one as a Luftwaffe machine that has painted out Luftwaffe markings replaced with Russian stars, and then taking pictures of it out at my airfield complete with aged black and white images...this way I can prove the Mig 15 really was developed from the Ta 183, after all pictures don't lie do they?


Matrixone

[Modelling_Mushi]

The wings of the Ta 183 were of wooden construction and I went ahead and painted on a wood grain effect on the upper surface on the wings near the wing root so that after the camo paint is sprayed on I can lightly sand off the camo paint to expose a little of the wood grain effect.

First up    Excellent work (as always).

I didn't know the TA183s wings were wood, so I'm feeling more educated now. One question (and apologies if you have already answered this before) how did you get such a good look for the wood effect?

[zenrat]

Kettenkrad looks good.  I've always had a weak spot for them.

[Gondor]

I didn't know the TA183s wings were wood, so I'm feeling more educated now. One question (and apologies if you have already answered this before) how did you get such a good look for the wood effect?

He's in league with the devil, or something like that. 

I have got to the stage of not usually commenting on Matrixone's builds as I have run out of superlatives hes work is so dam good 

Gondor

[matrixone]

Thanks so much for the kind words!

Modelling_Mushi,
The wood grain effect on the wings was done as follows:

Before any paint was put on the wings I scribed some very fine lines into the plastic in random places where I wanted the wood grain to appear, then some paint was mixed up to represent the base plywood color and that was airbrushed on.
After the paint had dried for a few hours some Future was brushed on, I waited a day before going on to the next step which was brushing on some thinned brown oil paint and letting it set for a few minutes before wiping if off. The oil paint settled into the lines I scribed beforehand and the final step was using some brown paint and a fine paint brush to add some other wood grain effects and wood knots.

The next step will be adding a clear coat to the wings to add some protection to them so that when I sand off some of the camouflage paint I won't erase the painted on wood effects too.

The above looks like a lot of work but its actually quite easy and give it a go on your next project where wooden structures are needed. Some of the WNW models would be perfect for this.


Matrixone

[matrixone]

Some new in-progress snaps.

First the Do 335, the splinter camouflage scheme turned out okay but is wrong after comparing it with photographs of the real thing...after studying all the photographs of the Do 335 that I could get my hands on I noticed that aside from the very early prototypes most Do 335's were painted with tight but soft edges to the splinter camouflage pattern.
Here is my model just after unmasking and its hard edged splinter pattern.

And here is the same model after I softened the edges of the camouflage pattern...much better.

The edges were carefully re-sprayed with one of the camouflage colors just heavy enough to soften them a bit.

And here are the Messerschmitts after they have had their camouflage colors painted on them.


The Bf 109H-12


...and here is the Bf 209K-4 after masking and painting on its KG(j)6 checkered tail band.


Matrixone

[Army of One]

Some great paint work there M.......I love the big Dornier.....not sure how it eould have come off against the P47/P51/Tempest but I'm sure it would have been lethal to any bomber......

[NARSES2]

It's the 209 I'm most looking forward to 

[matrixone]

Thanks guys!

From everything I have read about the Do 335 in flight it was quite nimble and VERY fast for a piston engine twin.

My Do 335 will be getting special armament for fighting bomber formations...more on that later.


Matrixone

[matrixone]

A couple more in-progress images of the Do 335 'special armor'.

The markings are now on it and some early stages of weathering has been done with oil paints.



Some work has been done on the Ta 183 too, its a bit of a mess I'm afraid....pics to be posted soon.


Matrixone

[matrixone]

Here are some snaps of the Ta 183, as you can see its in really sad shape!

I am finishing this one as a war weary early version of the Ta 183 that has been handed down to one of the schule squadrons because its completely thrashed and is no longer safe to fly in combat. This practice occurred with the Me 262 as well.




Matrixone

[NARSES2]

Lovely work as usual 

[matrixone]

Thank you again NARSES2!

...and even more in-progress pictures, this time its the Messerschmitts.

The Bf 109H-12 and Bf 209K-4 have had their markings put on them.



The oddly painted 109 on the right in these pictures is my paint mule I use for practice painting, as an experiment I used the salt weathering technique and sprayed on white paint over it to replicate some badly worn off temporary white paint as used on aircraft on the Russian front during the winter. I like the results of this painting experiment but I feel it would work much better on larger scale models.


Matrixone