Allan's new projects Raiden and two 109s

[NARSES2]

Nice interior mate 

[Allan]

thanks Chris
here's the Zero with its first coat of light grey.....help needed here I think....at the wing root you can see the paint has dried a little sandpapery and I think it's because the paint is bouncing from the fuselage onto the wing and not drying properly...any hits on how I can make it look better...like gettting closer with the airbrush?
Allan

[matrixone]

Allan,
The best way that I have found to avoid the rough texture at the wing roots is to paint them first and put the paint on a little heavier there than you would on the rest of the model.
Painting the wing roots first is even more important when using Alclad metal finishes.


Matrixone

[Captain Canada]

Nice ! These are turnimg into awesome aeroplanes Allan ! How did you make the seatbelts ?

[Allan]

Captain, the seat belts were made of wire wrapped around a flat piece of plastic and then cut with a curved blade..then threaded through some Tamiya tape...the technique may be found on the net...here's the Zero mottled and then sans modelling tape...my best mottling ever, I wager...I used the airbrush I have posted piccies of, the one with the 0.5 nozzle and it worked wonders...I think I can use it for 1/72 mottles if I'm careful...pressure used was around 40 psi with the nozzle protector removed and the needle poised about half an inch from the surface of the plastic.... a small piece of white paint was dislodged by the tape and so I'll have to repair it with some gentle spraying, assuming I can't find a Hinomaru to cover it..as you can see there was next to no paint bleed as I masked and then sprayed on a thin coat of the masked color...now to let the model dry and remove some tape residue...then some weathering

[NARSES2]

  Mind you I don't think it will get through Aussie quarantine with those spots 

[Allan]

and here's the Otaki Zero finished
a real fun build this one, with the mottle accomplished by cranking up the air pressure to about 35-40psi and the paint squirted out of a 0.05 nozzle...then the whole plane covered with matt varnish with some flat grey paint added to it, a technique I will use again...the Xtracrylix red went on beautifully over flat white and the flat grey is from the WEM line....the green is WEM as well and I think it is Mitsubishi green....the white is Tamiya enamel...after masking these colors I first put on a coat of the masked color before the next color to prevent paint bleed and it worked quite well...I decided to have some fun with the prop and boss and so wood-varnished them...I've done the same with the Raiden, which as you can see is coming along nicely and will be in Marseille's markings...the cannon are super long and came from the spare parts box and the pitot tube is one of the cannons that came from the Zero kit...couldn't think of anything else to use...tail wheel was "painted" with a propelling pencil lead...I often use pencil lead when the wheel is so extremely tiny like this and would severely test by brushing skills
anyway, what do you think?
Allan in Canberra

[Old Wombat]

Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful, Allan!

That's what I think.



Guy

[NARSES2]

That's come out really well Allan, fantastic job 

[Allan]

thanks very much fellows...the Whif angle to this plane is pretty tenuous at best---just the red tail and wooden prop/boss, but all the same I hope it passes muster
a fun build this one and now I'm looking forward to acquiring some more of these Otaki Japanese planes like the Hayate and Shoki
Allan in Canberra

[Allan]

here's the Raiden just about to receive its canopy..more piccies later
Allan

[NARSES2]

Nice work on the cockpit Al

[PR19_Kit]

That cockpit's large enough for a party!   Is it a big aeroplane?

[dumaniac]

hey Allan

nice goin' man !

love that first model

cheers Bernie

[Allan]

thanks blokes..I scraped the paint away from the gunsight glass before cementing the canopy to the fus...it's real hard to paint a small piece like the gunsight...
and now I need some advice...how to best represent a soft division between the blue and sand midway up the fus of this plane??....I know some techniques like attaching thread or string to the edge of a piece of tape and so raising the tape a little from the surface of the model...I've even thought of using a piece of boiled spaghetti in place of the thread/string....or even folding over the edge of the tape so as to raise it proud of the fus surface
and more ideas?..I'm not keen about playdough rolled into a long thing piece, though
yes, it's a biggish plane and my fav Japanese one....must have been a real roomy pit
Allan