My entry...Focke-Wulf Ta 283

[frank2056]

One bad thing about this kit is the landing gear legs are glued in already, it will not be easy trying to work around them during painting without breaking them off. There already has been a few close calls.

I got around that by putting some tape around the gear, then using some blue tack to seal off the gear bays and provide some support to the gear.

[matrixone]

Thats a good idea Frank, I will be using a thin piece of balsa wood to help brace the landing gear legs.

Matrixone

[matrixone]

At last, something to show on this model...I primed the ramjets with gloss black and painted Alclad II on them this morning. After the Alclad sets up for a few hours I will apply some damp salt to the ramjets for the salt weathering that will follow.


The camo will be painted on soon.

Matrixone

[Taiidantomcat]

seamless 

[matrixone]

Thank you Taiidantomcat,
I had wanted to have a new in-progress pic posted today but I had a problem painting my other two models today which kept me busy with them.
I have had an opened 10 year old bottle of Aeromaster enamel paint that I had been saving for special projects and tried painting with it and could not get it to go through the airbrush that well when spraying fine mottles and I made a couple mistakes that I will have to fix later on. I know better than to expect such old paint to work correctly but I tried anyway

Matrixone

[matrixone]

Did some painting on the Ta 283 today, I put the first color of RLM 83 on the topsides and after the paint dries I will finish up the camo with some RLM 82 green in the ragged scheme.



BTW, those lumpy looking things on the ramjets is salt I added for chipping the paint, after all the camo paint is on I will stick some tape on the salt to lift it from the surface to reveal the Alclad II and I hope it will look like chipped paint.

Matrixone

[dumaniac]

Looking good

Bernie

[matrixone]

Thanks Bernie!

I just finished painting the ''ragged'' scheme on the Ta 283, I hope to have a pic of it posted later today.

Matrixone

[Doc Yo]

 Looking forward to seeing it. On salt weathering, I learned not too longa go from a friend who's a lot better
at it than I, that you can use a variety of salts, depending on the effect. Some varities being far coarser,
others, like popcorn saly, being very, very fine grained.

[Taiidantomcat]

Great start, will look great when the salt barnacles come off 

[matrixone]

Doc and Taiidantomcat,
This is what the Ta 283 looks like after the rest of the camouflage paint is on and most of the salt scraped off...



There will be more paint chipping done on the ramjets, the rest will be done by a silver colored artists pencil and silver colored paint.

The camouflage seen on this aircraft was developed by the Germans to provide very good ground concealment and at the same time make it almost invisable from above when it was taking off or landing...the only times that this airplane could be shot down by enemy fighterbombers.

I airbrushed this camo scheme freehanded, no masking done. I will need to mask off a few areas when I paint on the tactical markings, which will be those of Luftflotte 4.

Matrixone

[Gondor]

That "paint chipping" looks great Matrixone, not so sure about the camouflage though

Gondor

[matrixone]

Thanks Gondor!

About the camo, who knows what the Germans would have come up with in 1946!


Matrixone

[Gondor]

About the camo, who knows what the Germans would have come up with in 1946!

Very true Matrixone, they could have used WWI colours with a late WWII scheme.

Gondor

[dumaniac]

yes - and if they retreated to Bavaria, who knows what forest they would be flying out of - it could just be the camo scheme for 1946

looks good to me - the salt trick looks great on the nacelles

Bernie