Fujimi 109K finished pastel mottle and dubious markings

[Allan]

continuing my theme of pastel mottle and a mishmash of decals here is my recently-finished Fujimi 109K...I have some spare parts from this kit left over if you are interested in anything...my decaling is letting me down a little as I can't quite get the knack of making them settle down properly...also some of my spray work is rough, not smooth, which perhaps means that I'm not holding the brush close enough to the surface of the plane...and I've boobed with the fus band and have made it too wide...still, it was a fun and easy to kit to make and has scrubbed up well enough
Allan in Canberra

[kerick]

Looks damn good to me!

[zenrat]

What wonderful colours.  Especially when shot against the yellow sponge.

When i've got a sandpaper finish from my airbrush its been because the vent hole in the top of the jar has been blocked severely restricting the paint flow.

[NARSES2]

I do like that, fantastic scheme 

[DogfighterZen]

Looks good, those colors match up really well.

...When i've got a sandpaper finish from my airbrush its been because the vent hole in the top of the jar has been blocked severely restricting the paint flow.

Either that or spraying too far away from the model? I've had that on one of mine and realized the paint was drying up before touching the surface of the model. I tested on an old model's wings, left wing sprayed from around 5/8cm distance and the right wing was sprayed from around 15/20cm. Left one was smooth, right was sandpaper rough.
And i've also found that over thinned paint can contribute to the cause...

[dumaniac]

nice concept and camo

[zenrat]

Looks good, those colors match up really well.

...When i've got a sandpaper finish from my airbrush its been because the vent hole in the top of the jar has been blocked severely restricting the paint flow.

Either that or spraying too far away from the model? I've had that on one of mine and realized the paint was drying up before touching the surface of the model. I tested on an old model's wings, left wing sprayed from around 5/8cm distance and the right wing was sprayed from around 15/20cm. Left one was smooth, right was sandpaper rough.
And i've also found that over thinned paint can contribute to the cause...

5 to 8cm?  I spray closer than that.
Learning to use my airbrush was (still is) a steep learning curve and in hunting for advice and guidance on the interweb the most useful thing I read (possibly written by Don Yost, I can't remember) was to think of your airbrush as a 1/25 scale (the advice was related to model cars) spray gun and set paint flow and spraying distance accordingly.
However, the most useful thing I have learnt building models is that there is no one "right" way to achieve a given result and that others may get the same or better quality doing the exact opposite to what I did.

[comrade harps]

What wonderful colours.

Totally agree. 

[DogfighterZen]

5 to 8cm?  I spray closer than that.
Learning to use my airbrush was (still is) a steep learning curve and in hunting for advice and guidance on the interweb the most useful thing I read (possibly written by Don Yost, I can't remember) was to think of your airbrush as a 1/25 scale (the advice was related to model cars) spray gun and set paint flow and spraying distance accordingly.
However, the most useful thing I have learnt building models is that there is no one "right" way to achieve a given result and that others may get the same or better quality doing the exact opposite to what I did.

Yup, that's the normal distance for me but, i guess it depends on what type of work needs to be done, on the mottled camo of the Me-262 i did go in closer, around between 1/2cm away from the model. I also reduced the paint flow by lowering the air pressure to the minimum that my compressor allows, and closing the needle's action up to where i had the trigger moving back only just a couple of millimeters.
Anyway, i totally agree with you, there are a lot of different techniques and so many factors that can influence the results that, IMHO, the best way to find out what works for you is testing stuff yourself.

[NARSES2]

For many and various reasons I have never owned/used an airbrush however the November issue of SAMI has the first of a promised series of air brush tutorial articles. Now it is sponsored, as so much is nowadays  , but I will be reading with interest as I'm being pestered by my niece about what she can get me for Christmas. The parameters I've been given are, shall we say generous  , so maybe, just maybe ? ?

Now Harold (Weaver) has picked up a very cheap general purpose one for me (thanks mate) which I will get at Telford and intend using for varnish, so that will help break me in. So maybe it is time I bit the bullet, especially as it will be financially neutral  "Moi, tight ? Never " 

[DogfighterZen]

For many and various reasons I have never owned/used an airbrush however the November issue of SAMI has the first of a promised series of air brush tutorial articles. Now it is sponsored, as so much is nowadays  , but I will be reading with interest as I'm being pestered by my niece about what she can get me for Christmas. The parameters I've been given are, shall we say generous  , so maybe, just maybe ? ?

Now Harold (Weaver) has picked up a very cheap general purpose one for me (thanks mate) which I will get at Telford and intend using for varnish, so that will help break me in. So maybe it is time I bit the bullet, especially as it will be financially neutral  "Moi, tight ? Never " 

Way to go!

[zenrat]

For many and various reasons I have never owned/used an airbrush however the November issue of SAMI has the first of a promised series of air brush tutorial articles. Now it is sponsored, as so much is nowadays  , but I will be reading with interest as I'm being pestered by my niece about what she can get me for Christmas. The parameters I've been given are, shall we say generous  , so maybe, just maybe ? ?

Now Harold (Weaver) has picked up a very cheap general purpose one for me (thanks mate) which I will get at Telford and intend using for varnish, so that will help break me in. So maybe it is time I bit the bullet, especially as it will be financially neutral  "Moi, tight ? Never " 

Good luck with it.  Starting with varnish is a good idea.  I find the hardest thing to get right is judging the thinness of the paint.  It's all very well to say "like low fat milk" but that's a subjective thing to judge by eye when swirling the stuff round in a jar looking at how it coats the glass.

[NARSES2]

Good luck with it.  Starting with varnish is a good idea.  I find the hardest thing to get right is judging the thinness of the paint.  It's all very well to say "like low fat milk" but that's a subjective thing to judge by eye when swirling the stuff round in a jar looking at how it coats the glass.

Yup that's one of the things that's been putting me off, the other is cleaning. What exactly does low fat milk look like ? I'm a semi-skimmed user  Seriously maybe the series of articles will give an idea on mixing ratios for each type/range of paint ?

[Old Wombat]

Last one I read (several years ago) said "butter milk", I had no idea what they were talking about.

In fact, despite having finally seen butter milk for the first time earlier this year, I still don't.

I'm still experimenting but, so far, a 50/50 mix of thinning agent (water/thinners/methylated spirits) to paint is working pretty well for Tamiya paints (acrylics).

Other paints are more problematic (LifeColor paints, for example, don't seem to react well to being thinned at all).



Oops!

By the way: Well done, Allan! Dubious markings is what we's about, isn't it?

[Hobbes]

Mixing ratio is somewhat of a black art. Gloss paint doesn't seem to need as much as matt, for example.

I get a rough finish wen I use too little thinner.