Area 88 1/72 - F-8E Crusader (CRASH)

[strobez]

As I mentioned in my other thread, I seem to have gathered several partially finished Crusaders.  So I thought I'd put at least one of them to good use and try to make an Area 88 40th Anniversary project 1979-2019.  Shin's F-8E Crusader is shot down in the third chapter of the manga, so I thought "WHAT IF... it was discovered after spending the last 40 years in the Asranian desert?"

First up... here's the story...









- insert story of how Kanzaki betrayed Shin by getting him drunk and tricking him into signing enlistment papers to join the Asran Mercenary Foreign Forces -

[strobez]

Now let's catch up the build, already in progress.  I think the pictures speak more or less for themselves.  I had a half-finished Academy Crusader... I snapped it in half, roughed up the aluminum undercoat and then used 3 passes with the hairspray technique to give it an extremely chipped white/grey/blue paint job.  I didn't do anything to the grey (it's the same colour scheme as my other recently finished Crusader) because the contrast with the chipped white and aluminum is already pretty hard to notice, but I did add a 2:1 ratio of white paint to the blue to achieve a faded look.

More to come...

[Old Wombat]

That's looking really good, mate!

[chrisonord]

Looking good so far 
Chris

[NARSES2]

That's looking really good, mate!

It is indeed. It's a very difficult thing to do well

[zenrat]

<insert popcorn emoticon>

[strobez]

Thank you gentlemen. I tried the salt technique for chipping... or at least took a stab at it, but I'm not sure if I did it correctly. I sealed the chipped blue paint with a coat of Future, because otherwise it's too fragile and will continue to shed paint I wanted to keep. However that made the pieces hydrophobic, which led to the salt not sticking to anything, which in turn, made it very hard to paint. I mostly just ended up using my airbrush like a leaf blower and spread the salt EVERYWHERE. The end result was mixed... but live and learn.

[PR19_Kit]

It certainly looks very 'distressed', as they say in the antiques world. 

[chrisonord]

It certainly looks very 'distressed', as they say in the antiques world. 

Or "suit DIY enthusiast "
Looking  good.
Chris.

[Old Wombat]

Can't say I'm a big fan of the darker spots which the Future^TM appears to have caused but it still looks pretty good, just not quite as good... Sorry.

Disclaimer: I am NOT a salt technique expert!

The salt is, generally, meant to go under the paint (or over a "metal", "rust" or "wood" coat, then under subsequent layers). If you wanted to protect the bottom (metal/rust/wood) coat then a decent flat/matt lacquer would have been better than the glossy floor polish. The salt technique doesn't work well with enamels or lacquers as top coats (Don't ask how I know, I don't wish to talk about it. ) but can be used with multiple layers of acrylics if you're careful. The salt works best in little clumps, which can be added to for multi-layered paint effects.

Oh, & remember to let the lacquer coat protecting your base coat dry really well!

[strobez]

That's useful info.  I didn't like the dark blue either, so I'm doing my best to get rid of it...

The technique was trickier than expected, but I'm glad I only used acrylics or it would've been much worse.  Seemed simple... wet, salt, paint, brush...

[Old Wombat]

It is a pretty basic principle but not quite so easy in practice.

[zenrat]

It certainly looks very 'distressed', as they say in the antiques world. 

Or "suit DIY enthusiast "
Looking  good.
Chris.

A renovators delight...

[strobez]

Ok so... another update... basically... I just painted a bunch of stuff.  A bit of a wash with the Tamiya panel line wash, a bit of "sand coloured" wash to give it that "left in the desert" look... and then some light ghosting in black paint to bring out some of the contrast.  I also gave the bullet holes more accentuated features by giving them a burnt iron look.  I'm not sure what else to do... so I started glueing some of the bigger bits in place.

[Dizzyfugu]

That's looking very good!