The Modellers Guide

The Modeller’s Guide

Superdetailing, Painting and Weathering

Aircraft of WWII, with airfield accessories, ordnance and diorama

Aleksandar Počuč

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The Modeller’s Guide: Superdetailing, Painting and Weathering Aircraft of WWII Aleksandar Počuč

To my lovely 3 year old son Marko, gifted model breaker!


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book is dedicated to my first son Marko, who was born at the time it was being written. Special thanks is due to my dear wife Tanja for all her encouragement, motivation, understanding and patience. Thanks love! I would like to acknowledge and thank the following companies and people who kindly supported this book: The Cool Tool GmbH for their very generous provision of amazing multi tool The Unimat MetalLine and all of the accessories. The Airbrush Company for their very generous provision of Life Color paints, thinners, cleaners and Iwata Airbrush. Harder & Steenbeck GmbH for their generous provision of EURO-TEC 20A silent airbrush compressor. The Small Shop US Company for their kind provision of two amazing ‘Hold & Fold’ tools, cutting mats and brass rolling station. Graham from Relish Models for his kind provision of the 1:32 Tamiya Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IX and Baracuda Studios resin accessories. Essco Aircraft Company for their provisions of five aircraft manuals which helped me to build more accurate models in this book. Models For Sale Ltd. for their kind provisions of Testors Models Master paints. NeOmega Resin Kits Company for their provision of Vector resin engines, used on P-47D Thunderbolt in this book. Signifer Company from France for their provisions of resin airfield accessories used on Thunderbolt diorama in this book. Sell Model from China for their provision of magnificent 1:32 Trumpeter P-47D ‘Razorback’. Historex Agents for their provision of two resin figures used on Thunderbolt diorama in this book. Wesco Enterprises US for their provision of really magical ‘Magic Sculpt’ modelling clay. Panther Models UK for their provision of Hornet resin heads and airfield accessories used on Thunderbolt diorama in this book. My good friend and a club mate Vojislav S Stankov for his help with historical references and encouragement with daily question ‘is that book ever going to be done?’ My good friends and club mates Miroslav Šljivic, Nenad Miklušev and Pegi Stamenkovic for all of their support, encouragement, technical and historical references. My good friend Andy Bull for his support and help with some UK English translations. My good friend Mike Hopper for all of his support and help. My good friend Richard J Caruana for his support and help with Spitfire references.

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THE MODELLER’S GUIDE TO SUPERDETAILING, PAINTING AND WEATHERING AIRCRAFT OF WWII

CONTENTS Scale modelling: A love story ready to assemble

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CHAPTER 1: TOOLS AND MATERIALS 14 CHAPTER 2: TECHNIQUES 18 CHAPTER 3: BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT n SPITFIRE MK. IXC 28 n P-47D THUNDERBOLT 77 n JU-87D ‘STUKA’ 125 CHAPTER 4: MAKING A DIORAMA 148

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y story as being a modeller begins more or less the same as any other modeller's story, once upon a time when i was a little kid... I was born in 1982 in a loving family living in west Bosnia. One of the world famous military airbases constructed and completely hidden under mountain, Željava airbase, was just a few kilometers from our home and daily Mig-21 low level flights over our house left a passion for military aircraft ever since. From when i was seven years old, my father used to take me to air shows held at the airbase and my fascination and passion grew by looking at the men in flight suits and perfectly aligned natural metal Mig's. My modelling skills were at work with model trains at first, trying to make entire communities, tunnels, stations… out of wood. My first diorama was a small ‘wild west’ town with railway station and everything that goes with it, measuring five meters across and completely done from scratch. With being only 9 years old, making photographs of it was the last thing on my mind, something I regret now. With plastic models being my main focus for years now it is still hard to simply build a model out of the box without trying to add some scratch build parts, just to make the work more interesting. Over the years, my skills have evolved and been refined with constant modeling experiments. My models have been published numerous time in various modeling magazines and since I am not attending any competitions, seeing my models published is the right kind of food for my peculiar modeler’s ego. Now, i am a father of a wonderful boy named Marko, aged three, who is already showing his interest in scale models by going through the kit boxes and ‘dry fitting’ parts as he sees fit. Soon, I am about to become a father for the second time, this time a baby girl, Aleksandra. With being a father now becoming my main occupation as well as due to my work, there is less and less time for scale models which is kind of liberating at the moment. I still keep buying kits though, habits are hard to change… and for my interests, that’s evolving too judging by more and more ship kits, both wooden and plastic, safely stashed in my man cave. Apart from making models, I am also making paint masks for scale modelers which is now becoming more of a full time occupation than just a hobby. They can be found on shop.maketar.com. Currently living in Novi Sad, Serbia, with my wife Tanja and our son Marko, fourth family member on her way and eagerly waited for.

With kind regards,

Aleksandar Počuč The Modeller’s Guide to Superdetailing, Painting and Weathering Aircraft of WWII 7


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FOREWORD

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ooking back to the mid-1980s one remembers how the modelling fraternity was dwindling fast and nearly dying as computer games took over whatever free time was previously dedicated to model making. Fortunately this new fad did not last long and genuine modellers returned to more creative activities. Our launch at that crucial time of a new style modelling magazine, Modelaid International, helped to keep the modelling hobby alive during a period when other hobby magazines were closing down. This brave initiative also had the surprising effect of raising model standards in many ways, replacing the previous 'boys' hobby' mentality with a selective and mature approach to aircraft modelling. Over the last two decades we reaped awesome results from those whom one cannot continue to call modellers; they are now truly masters of an art that continues to seek perfection with every new creation. That modellers are exhibitionists is a very well known fact. And why not? There's not much satisfaction in spending hours, days and nights working on a masterpiece that is then put away inside a cabinet once it has been finished. Super detailing and weathering have become more and more specialised and beyond the modest means of someone like myself who used to build models to museum standards. So now I stick to super detailing and weathering my drawings in an effort to reach standards set by modellers, while enjoying whole heartedly their magnificent work as explained and illustrated in this wonderful publication by my friend Aleksandar Pocuc. His work is truly magnificent and should serve as a superb basis of learning for those who still consider themselves novices in the field, while without doubt they can also be a source of inspiration to established and experienced modellers. I continue to promise myself to take up aircraft modelling again when I retire. The big question is 'when'! Richard J. Caruana Malta – 2014



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SCALE MODELLING: A LOVE STORY READY TO ASSEMBLE

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verything you knew about plastic modelling, every model you built, all that you have learnt and researched, it needs to be done all over again, old knowledge is out, new technologies are in. If you’ve been into modelling for 30 years or just starting, obvious starting point is the Internet. And there it is, product of global informational revolution under your fingertips, all the information you’ll ever need just few clicks away: modelling techniques, tools, which airbrush nozzle you need, what type of cement to use, exact colour shades, the right brands and manufacturers, what’s inside that box, how’s the plastic looking, is it accurate enough, decal and paint options, aftermarket parts. Then countless references, photos, texts, book excerpts, walkarounds showing all possible details, forums, blogs, mailing lists, social network groups, SIGs, instant contact with thousands of fellow modellers around the globe, some more or less keen to help you, various experts and „hexperts“ advices, endless debates over historical accuracy of some oddball scheme or Spitfire prop shape. Then, there are all that new, super detailed kits, with hundreds of parts, high quality injection molding, accurate, researched, with gaudy decals printed in high quality, and all that repeated in all the popular scales. But that’s not all! Call now and get all the aftermarket parts you can and cannot imagine! Coloured photo-etched parts, detailed resin parts, even better decals printed abroad, turned metal gun barrels for tanks, metal casted tracks. If you’re into some rare and less popular subjects, there’s something for you too – short-run and resin kits, now with details and quality matching styrene ones. When you run out of paint, you can order it online, shop for some discounts, just like regular stuff you order. Lacquer and acrylic paints, authentic and general shades, various specialized thinners, flat, gloss, satin coats, decal setting solutions, weathering liquids, pigments, fillers, putties, paint retarders, paint cleaners, DIY resins...

It’s good to be a kit modeller these days, there’s plenty of goodies for us... And a few drawbacks... Take a look at some online pictures of completed kits, pure craft, skilfully built, detailed, painted and weathered. These are far cry from first models you did as a kid, with some basic tech skills, sharp box cutter, glue and, if you were too advanced, paint. If you need your model to look like that, then you need that new pricey kit, aftermarket resin seat and wheels, photo etched dashboard and seatbelts, super-clear vac canopy, thin-film decals, metal tracks instead that poor rubber ones, metal hooks... Add some precise engineering skills for photo etch bending, panel opening showing engine, radio set, guns and ammo, turret interior, lower ship decks, tail gunner’s pack of smokes, first aid kit, glycol tank, map of occupied Europe and half eaten wurst on the field shop table, somewhere in the Eastern front. You must know your chemistry too! Which putty reacts badly with what Japanese paints, what kind of primer undercoat for this marvellous metalizer, buffing it or not, which brand of setting solution will melt your decals, do you need cellulose thinner in acrylics, is that small bottle of thinner really that better than that bought in supermarket? Then, some machine shop skills for drilling all those tiny holes, cementing flimsy photo etch parts to non-existent details, major surgery for fitting that resin cockpit tub into fuselage, assembly of flaps hinges, tank aerials, AA gun intricate sights, ship railings and tiny float plane launcher, WWI biplane rigging (oh, the HORROR)... Don’t forget to gather all precious tools you might need: craft knifes, tweezers, chisels, pin vise, clip holders, pliers, files, sanding sticks, saws, scribers, micro drills, cutters, small electric drill with gazillion bits, magnifier glass, brushes, paint stirrer, airbrush and compressor, paint booth... Also, you need to be pure artist in he heart and painter by the hand. Good eye for all the various shades of grey, green and blue, steady hand for airbrushing,

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preshading, postshading, pin-washing, washing, drybrushing, filters, mists, grading, fading, layering, weathering, chipping, and to seal all that with several coats of clear varnish. But, that’s not all, in order to present your fine work, you must be a talented photographer. Build small photo studio, with correct lightning setup, uniform background, good dSLR camera, tripod, softbox, flash, zoom lens, and knowledge to operate all that if you want your photos to look like on „that website“, with cockpit details like in „that magazine“, without thick layer of paint showing, or fine dust on some parts, or dirty keyboard and coffee mug in the background. White balance, light settings, shutter speed, flash level, shades, dubious macro mode or not, priority settings, manual or auto mode, depth of filed, all that fancy talk. Still, it’s not over. You HAVE to prove authencity of your kit’s scheme, with period pictures, colour profiles, scans, heavy megapixels showing museum pieces, books, magazines, papers, websites – pure detective work, with bit of a historian and a philosopher. Then, how to present your work? Your own blog, where you set the rules, or some public forum, but not just any, as you must beware of those gritty old modellers, always ready to throw rotten tomatoes on your fine handiwork, make a laugh of it and ridicule you as a modeller, so you need to run and hide in shame. Or do you choose all friendly shoulder patting good days forum, where all you get are praises, superlatives and cheerful emoticons in several rows? Maybe those lethargic places, where your post don’t get any replies, positive or not? Or to take it to the competition? Put it just in the show section, or to compete with others? Is my model really up to it? Am I born modeller? Sure I am! Hey, that guy with long unpronounceable name spent six months on that kit, is he insane, who does that, that’s not fair?! And look at those kiddies, brush painted kits, ha-ha, missing half the parts, they don’t have

a clue. Maybe I could sneak into junior competition, I still look boyish, I need that medal! Or I’m modelling just for myself, just for fun, for positive energy, to past the time and relax from daily chores? Or to harvest all the praises? Booo, this competition is rigged, I’m not a winner. There should be more competitions, I need a chance to win win win! Or we need to calm down, it’s just a hobby? Or I must be the best? If you take back yourself to that kid gluing his first kit, and present him with all this complications, will you still be in for it? Why do we complicate things when grown up? And the modelling dilemmas of modern modellosapiens go on and on... It’s often said that we are living in golden times for modelling. Quantity and quality of new kits can’t be disputed, all the available information, connections with thousands of other modellers. The new age brought new norms, standards and expectations. Life style and tempo are different, people are changed and their social interactions are more dynamic, affecting all aspect of living, including our hobby. Total communications and global connections made the need to compete even greater, we are now eager to prove ourselves to total strangers, to step into this virtual arena and fight for our piece or recognition in modelling cyberspace, just like you fight and strive in your everyday life, to survive, to do better, do be safer. And why not? If one has the time, the means and the talent, with all the abundance on the market, it’s logical way to go. The problem is if it’s presented as the only way there is. Not all modellers need to have Advanced Modeller Syndrome, to make perfect kits. You should build kits for yourself in the first place. And learn as you go. Stagnation is also counter productive, always seek for better result. Many of the „returnees“ to the hobby are scared away when they realize wheat is ’the norm’ today, what they are expected to do, at what level. So take your time to learn, to try new techniques, read books



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and magazines, ask other modellers, practice. To be honest, these are not the real golden times of modelling, rather golden times of modelling business. Late 70’s and 80’s were the real golden times, as proven by ever more aging modelling demographics. The world is changed, back in the day it was just a hobby, meant to relax and have fun, kits were more crude and limited in range, there was no Wiki on click away, no forum pictures of the exact kit you were building, no WWW and vast amounts of information. Out of the Box was the norm. Scratchbuild details in the cockpit, thin seat sides, add foil seatbelts, drybrush instruments. Take wheels from the Matchbox kit as they are more accurate, and Airfix prop, suitable for this version. Cut off and control surfaces and put them in more dynamic position. Sand down overscale details, make sub assemblies, be spare on cement, use masks when painting, and better paint in few thin layers. Don’t use ALL the decals from the sheet, just for one version, mix paints for better shade, fix decals with varnish. Add subtle weathering, then matt cote over it. Be proud of it, put it in the display case, show it to your friends. Ask older modellers for advice, let them show you some tricks for even better models. Enjoy kits better than yours. Learn on your errors. Modelling should be relaxing, place where you go to recharge your ’batteries’, in this fast and stressful times. Precise manual work is known to stimulate endorphin production, that why DIY is still popular. Working on our little kits, we get better, happier, settled, more patient and focused, fulfilled with something that’s not our day job. And when the hobby becomes frustration, something’s gone wrong. Leave it for a while, take a step away, think, don’t push it. Be satisfied with your work and inspired to evolve, respect your standards first, then others’. They used to say: make one kit to try it, two for competition, three for display and all rest for yourself.

Going further, we get ourselves into new realm of critical modelling. Deep panel lines, rubber tracks, too short wings, accuracy issue, wrong cross section, raised panel lines, out of scale rivets, spartan cockpit, unbuildable, no weapons, no details, bad decals, lousy instructions – problems big today, not so big back then. You had to scratchbuild, now you can buy the specific part. Somehow you had more time for kits before. And there were no ’shake and bake’ kits, nor kits with over 100 euros price tag. You pay to save your time, and to get more accuracy, so you carefully choose kits to be bought. You forgot the times when you respected every kit you could find. And you get frustrated when the super new kit is discovered to have same old issues as 30 old one, just with 100 more parts for the interior that will be invisible once you close all the panels. Small box, 40 parts, two decal options, 1/72 in Europe, 1/48 in USA, a typical kit many generations of modellers know very well. Now we get everything in all the scales, 1/100, 1/144, 1/72, 1/48, 1/32, 1/35, 1/24. Kits with hundreds or a thousand parts. Ships, tanks, airplanes, vehicles, figures of all sizes... And there used to be just Airfix small soldiers, British, German, American, commandos. It’s hard to imagine old Matchbox kits available everywhere, every plastic frame in different colour, easy to assemble, cheap, all popular subjects, with small window at the back of the box, for kid to see colourful plastic. So father buys the kit in one of the numerous specializes kit stores, kid runs back home and assembles it at kitchen table in an afternoon. No painting, plastic is vivid enough and it has decals, what do you need more? And there was that magical box art, no CAD back then, no digital backgrounds and smeared hi speed flying 3D renderings, just good old hand drawn masterpieces, with bombs and explosions, Cross, Koike, Huxley, Knight, Velc... But, how do you sell it now against social networks, electronic gadgets, reality shows and killing evil zombies in

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full 3D acceleration? So, what’s the main problem with this hobby? It’s a dinosaur. Young generations smirk at it: what you like waste time building it? Your friends are horrified: what, you still play with that toys? And this dinosaur is looking at the incoming comet, slowly but surely filling the horizon. In order to survive, modelling needs to unstuck from 20th century and step into modern times. Yes, sure, details are better now, more refined, and precise. Still it’s manual labour, so strange to young generations. We need real technological boost, we need and „i“ in front of our terminology, iModelling, iWeathering, iWash, iPE, iDecals. We need apps for smart phones and electronic gadgets. Download app for Bf 109, Mustang or Panther tank, send it to 3D printer, choose painting options, markings and weathering level, click OK and wait overnight for your finished product. In few years, those slow printers will be at the scrap yard, new, smaller ones, will print in just and hour. If you are really at it, you can get those 5-minute printers, instead a new car. Of course, if you get a free app, then your models will be just OK, not bad, fit for back row on the shelf. Sometimes they have some bugs, so you get left Corsair wing on Focke Wulf model, asymmetrical USAF markings, French roundels out of register, unrealistic chipping, spartan details in cockpit, orange peel finish on NMF F-105. So you buy hi-end designer brand apps. Yes, you can get just most popular subjects, but those are perfect! The details, the paint finish, the subtle weathering! And for limited time offer, you get self photographing kit booth, for that superb jaw dropping images. On the next competition, you will surely get the right attention, judges know what the good apps are... So you’re sipping Pina Colada by the pool at your vacation, when sudden need for a division of Tiger tanks overpowers you, you touch few icons on your iGadget, and the 3D printing house makes overnight delivery to your room. But instead Tigers, you get

Shermans. With wrong tracks. Just when you finally break the bank and purchase dreaded printer (cartridges available separately), Tamayato introduces the next best thing in modelling, Styr’n’Bots(tm), nanotechnology wonder bots, that produce exact replicas on subatomic level. Now, that’s something rad! Finally we have true scale models, with ALL the details, no corners cut. Yes, it’s big buck, but hey, it’s a hobby. It’s modelling dream come true. Scale can be changed in the fly. Squadron markings changed in matter of seconds. Pilot can actually move his hands. Panel lines are overlapped, rivets flush and tiny, surface detail restrained. Tank suspension is better than original, zimmerit looks the part. Wing trailing edges razor sharp, wheel wells full of pipes and wires, canopies thin and clear, all control surface moveable, no silvering around markings, invasion stripes uneven, Russian T-34s have chalked in slogans with Nanochalk(tm). Real oil spills, real gun powder residue and exhaust stains. Hasego will pack their Styr’n’Bots in 523 different packings, but all will be the same inside. Mr.Styr’n’Bot will be the preferred brand for replenishing wasted little bots. Drogony will master armour kits, Slide Armor’o’Bots specially tuned to reproduce composite steels used to cast real tanks. Hornblower will be known for it’s unorthodox Special Mini Roboters, capable to reproduce to scales up to 10:1, with slight accuracy issues. Ravelle will be planning to reissue plastic kits in Plastic Nostalgic series. For those seeking the ultimate perfection, aftermarket RezNbots will be available... And then someone will have bright idea to send a Styr’n’Bot in the past to fix all the faulty plastic kits... So, we’re waiting for the future, until then enjoy building kits your way, learn and practice, while you still can, until they move Bot factories to Mars...

Marjan Urekar, IPMS Novi Sad, IPMS Serbia



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Chapter I TOOLS AND MATERIALS

TOOLS

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here is no trade without proper tools and the same stands for our hobby. Number and variety off tools that you use often depends of your modelling skills. Beginners usually work with basic tools only, modeller’s knife, tweezers, files and sanding sticks. With your skills improving, you will be able to do more complicated modelling tasks and would naturally require and use more different kinds of tools. We can divide all of them into three main categories, hand tools, makeshift tools and power tools. Hand tools are the most used tools in scale modelling for large variety of tasks like cutting, drilling, sanding, trimming, filling, parts holding, measuring, painting and so on. In terms of accuracy hand tools are invaluable and their limits are only determined by how skilled a modeller is. There are situations when we do not have an appropriate hand tool to do the task and then we make our own tool, those are makeshift tools which can be used for parts holding, model holding, strip cutting, sanding of irregular surfaces, rigging, scribing and all the other tasks we cannot buy a tool for. At the end, no matter how long you are in the hobby you can never have too many

tools. Every day, new tools are becoming available and made especially for us modellers in a never ending quest for perfect model. Scribing access panels, riveting, photo-etched parts cutting, bending, rolling... the list is endless. Power tools are something a lot of modellers argue about, are they appropriate and necessary in our hobby? Well, it all depends on what modelling material you are working with, personally i do not use power tools on anything made from styrene including plastic kit parts as well. The reason is quite simple, power tools sand, spin, cut too fast and will melt the plastic and even if you can adjust the speed they are still a lot more difficult to control than hand tools and after all, why would you need a power drill to make a hole in a small plastic part. So why do we need power tools in the first place? At some point, an average plastic kit modeller will become advanced modeller which now implicates use of resin upgrade sets, metal upgrade and replacement parts and finally, scratchbuilding. We can still rely on hand tools for some of the simpler tasks but as our skills improve we will get the urge to make our own parts, upgrades and conversions, that is where the power tools are irreplaceable for turning, milling, grinding, drilling... with accuracy and precision. Power tools require more

Basic tools for sanding, smoothing and polishing, all equally important. Blue makeshift sanding tools on the left hand side are a fellow modeller’s product and great thing for sanding cylindrical and round shaped parts. Sanding pads and Alclad polish cloths are perfect for smoothing and polishing painted parts as they are soft and when used with water will produce very smooth satin-like finish. Squadron sanding sticks are my favourites and i use them on plastic, metal, resin and wood with equally good results, wet or dry. Dark mesh clots is suitable for smoothing larger parts turned on lathe, also a perfect thing for gently rubbing over Alclad finish to get scratches and more realistic look.

Basic cutting tools every modeller should have. Three types of knives for different tasks, pointed tip blade for very fine cuts and trimmings, curved blade for trimming, cutting styrene rods and shapes and inside curved blade for separating moving surfaces, scoring styrene sheets and so on. Saws are important for cutting resin bits, kit parts and even small gauge aluminium and brass pipes. Small and sharp cutting pliers for detaching kit parts of the sprue, remember not to use these for cutting wires and things as you want them sharp for plastic.

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Tools for holding parts are especially helpful when working with small objects and in situations when you need a part to be securely held for painting but also to avoid holding and touching it with your hands. Particularly interesting is jewellers universal work holder with comfortable wooden handle and very versatile vise that can hold pretty much everything from figurines, kit parts, pipes, resin parts...

Reamers, pipe cutters, pin vices, callipers, sculpting tools, files, scribers and rivet makers are just as important for any serious modeller and scratchbuilder.

caution so be sure to wear protective goggles and hand gloves at all times. Remember, it is better not to see well with goggles than not to see at all without them!

PAINTS One of the most asked questions in any discussion on painting models either by brush or airbrush is which brand and type of paint is the best out there. Considering the number of brands and types of paints available on the market today, there is simply no straight answer to this question. First, we need to analyze the properties of each paint type, pros and cons, the environment we work in and of course the costs. Further in this chapter i will try to explain the basic properties of three most used paint types and my experience with each of them. Also, each of the three models in this book is painted with different paint type to help demonstrate paint properties and usage.

Enamel Paints I am sure that there is no

modeller who in some stage of his modelling have not used enamels, regardless of his favourite scale, period or point of interest. Enamels are oil based paints and that oil component is what determines their drying time ranging from a few hours to a few days, not so desirable having in mind a number of different colours and coats we have to deal with on a single subject. Brush painting with enamels over enamels is another bit of a problem as no matter for how long you leave it to cure they will dissolve one another more often than not and create bumpy and irregular paint surface. One way to avoid this would be protective acrylic based coat between two enamel coats. When we come to airbrushing, enamels are one of the best for the job, they have very fine structure and flow properties and since they are slow drying there is no chance of clogging or drying of the paint in the airbrush. You can use them for airbrushing large areas, shading, fading, filtering, panel line enhancing etc. Enamels

dry to a hard surface which can be easily sanded with fine wet sanding paper, sanding pads or abrasive cloth to achieve perfectly smooth satin finish. Highly diluted enamel paints will make a perfect wash for panel lines and recessed areas. Highly effective filters can also be made by highly diluting enamels and airbrushing it on the model. Adding thinner to enamel paint will shorten the drying time as thinner evaporates faster. To prolong drying time simply add small amount of artist oils to the mix. To faster the drying time use lacquer thinner instead of enamel, in this case the paint can be considered dry after just

a couple of hours and can be safely masked or over-painted. Enamel paint drying time also depends on humidity in the air, more humid the air is paint will dry slower. Some modellers like to protect their paint work by putting it into sealed plastic container to prevent dust particles sticking to the model which will only prolong drying time as by evaporating paint raises humidity in the container. The best thing after painting your model is to leave it aside on a tabletop for at least 24 hours. I have found the best results to be with Testors Model Master, Revell and Humbrol enamels. Enamel paints are flammable and toxic so use them in well ventilated area or outside only!

Lacquer Paints Lacquer paints dries by solvent evaporation and produces a hard, durable finish, in any sheen level from ultra matte to high gloss which can be often further polished as required. Drying time is shorter than for enamels, surface is generally harder, more durable and can be easily sanded and polished with dry and wet abrasives. Thanks to excellent surface properties of lacquer paints and to the fact that they can be produced in any sheen level, the best metalizer

Unimat Metal Line multi tool is an amazing piece of hardware being so modular and versatile. Lathe, milling machine, sanding, drilling, tool sharpening and grinding are just a few of many tasks this little machine can do. All in one and pretty much all you need in your workshop.



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Chapter I TOOLS AND MATERIALS

Never settle with one type or brand of paint as best results are achieved by combining them and experimenting.

paints we have now days are lacquer based, as well as the best primers and micro fillers. Generally, models and parts painted with lacquers can be handled, masked and over-painted in just a couple of hours while brush painting with lacquers over lacquers will not dissolve the paint. Oil washes can go directly over lacquers as enamel thinner will not dissolve or mix with solvent component. Lacquer paints are also more aggressive than enamel paints which is actually a good thing in our case as by airbrushing it on the model, solvent will melt an ultra thin layer of model plastic and will actually fuse the paint to the model creating even tougher paint finish. Lacquers, even with short drying time, will not clog the airbrush if diluted one to one paint to thinner ratio, thanks to excellent paint structure and flow properties lacquers are one of the best

paints for airbrushing. My favourites and the only ones i use are Gunze Sangyo Mr. Color paints.

ACRYLIC PAINTS Acrylic water based paints are relatively new in scale modelling and their popularity keeps growing. For a modeller who has been using enamels or lacquers transition to acrylics may seem hard or pointless. With acrylics, it is a whole different philosophy, they are paints of course but function in a completely different way than enamels or lacquers. Acrylic paints dry very fast and thus can often clog your airbrush if not diluted a bit more than other paints. Fast drying is one of many good sides of acrylics as you can spray one coat and handle it or use masks just a few minutes after as well as spray the next coat. Another good side is the fact

that water based acrylics are much less hazardous or non toxic at all and most of them are odourless. It is important to remember that if you are not spraying your models with lemonade, it is not healthy! Just if something says non-toxic that does not means that you can keep inhaling it all day long! Further good sides of acrylic paints are: you can dilute most of them with just water, if you mess up your model with acrylics, most of them can be relatively easily removed with alcohol or soapy water and without damaging you model. When it comes to brush painting, it is another great deal as you can paint with acrylics over acrylics after just a few minutes with no chance of dissolving the paint beneath. There is, in fact, one thing that i do not really like with acrylics and that is blending which is used on figures, diorama

elements and of course model parts. It is very simple to do it with enamels and oils as they are oil based, stay wet enough for you to work with them and the blending process goes smooth every single time. With acrylics it is a whole different story, layers and layers of different shades of the base paint, over-painting, feathering... The results are surprisingly good but the process itself is a bit too much, at least for me, oils were and will continue to be the only way to go. So, as almost all said above sounds great, why do not we all use acrylics only? When i first started using acrylic paints my experience was a mixed bag, one day it would all went great and the next a disaster. I simply could not get the proper paint to thinner ratio, my airbrush kept clogging, many times the paint simply do not cover the model well enough and

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above all, paint surface was not that tough as with enamels or lacquers. At present, i am using acrylics for most of the time and i am more than happy with them. So far, i have been using almost every single brand of acrylic paints available on the market and achieved the best results with Life Color, Gunze Sangyo Mr. Hobby acrylics and Tamiya acrylics.

Varnishes Varnish is transparent, hard and protective finish or film primarily used to seal and protect the painted surface, it is usually a combination of a drying oil, a resin, and a thinner or solvent. Originally transparent but may be designed to produce satin or semi-gloss and matt sheens by the addition of flatting agents. Scale models are not heavily handled or exposed to elements so in scale modelling varnishes are used as a barrier between different paint type layers and as a base for washes, weathering and decal placement rather than as protective finish. Most commonly available as enamel, lacquer and acrylic based. Due to better self levelling properties, varnishes are easily applied with both brushes and airbrushes, in two or three coats for the best effect. When used as a base for washes, varnish must be different typethen the wash is so if you are using oil washes, varnish should be acrylic or lacquer. In my experience, i have found the best varnishes to be from Life Color and Gunze Sangyo

acrylics as they are durable, easily applied and produce beautiful finish. As alternative to common varnishes very nice results can be achieved with floor polishes as Future and Pronto, most easily applied with wide and soft brush and also resistant to oil washes. It is advisable to seal finished models with two or three thin coats of varnish especially if dry pastels are used for weathering as they need to be sealed. If the model is painted with metalizers, varnish is not recommended primarily because it will ruin your metal finish but also due to the fact that it will not stick to some of them especially to those that need buffing, like Model Master and Gunze Sangyo metalizers. Enamel Varnishes and white paint tend to turn yellow over time, to prevent this from happening simply add a drop of blue paint into the varnish or white paint, it will stay perfect forever.

Before You Start Painting Many modellers propagate the theory that you should and must wash your model with soapy water before you start painting, well, i had never ever washed a single kit part and i cannot recall ever having a problem. Kit parts may have some mould releasing agents left on them but those are the least of your worries. Same applies for resin parts and kits. If the paint is not properly diluted and applied there is simply no magic that will keep

I have found acrylic varnishes to be the best as they dry fast and produce perfect results every time. Mixing a little of gloss varnish with matt paint will improve its flow properties and will airbrush easier.

it on no matter what you did to your model including washing it in warm soapy water, with point on the warm. If you have spare time to stand by the kitchen sink with an old tooth brush in your hand to wash your model, maybe consider tidying your work table instead. Another interesting dilemma concerns primers and priming of your model, do we have to do it and when we have to do it. The main point of using primers is to make a better surface for the paint to come. For some it is a must for others it is just another unnecessary step in the process. First of all, what is a primer? It is essentially a paint product that allows finishing paint to adhere much better than if it were used alone. For this purpose, primer is designed to adhere to surfaces and to form a binding layer that is better prepared to receive the paint. Because primers do not need to be engineered to have durable, finished surfaces, they can instead be engineered to have improved filling and binding properties with the base material underneath. Primers are used mainly on porous and water sensitive materials while using it on surfaces made of plastic is only necessary when making a drastic change of colour, in example, if you want to paint very dark plastic with light colours like white, yellow, light green as those are known for poor coverage ability. Having in mind that plastic models are likely to have some gaps along the seam lines due

to fit imperfections and that those gaps are hard to spot on unpainted model, it is advisable apply the primer prior to painting. I am often using ordinary grey paint for this task as its main purpose is to point the imperfections rather than to fill them. Acrylic or lacquer paints are the best solutions as they dry fast and are easy to sand. Priming your models prior to application of metalizers like Alclad, Mr. Metal Color and others is advisable although it is not necessary, the main point is to level and smooth the surface for better final paint surface results. Metalizers including Alclad will not craze or ruin the plastic and you can apply them directly on the model without priming it first. The best primers and micro fillers i have came across are Gunze Sangyo Mr. Surfacer and Alclad II Primer and Micro Filler.

Conclusion We are now back to that question about the best paint brand and type, let me tell you, there is no such thing as the best paint type or brand! All three main paint types mentioned above have their lows and highs and the best way to go is to combine them depending on a specific task or situation. It is not the paint type that makes a good modeller and airbrush artist but the time and practice only. Take the best of each and never stop experimenting as that is the only way to get results you have never achieved before.

Primers, micro fillers and putties.



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Chapter II TECHNIQUES

OIL TANKS NON CYLINDRICAL TANKS Scratchbuilding area around the engine may look difficult and challenging to some modellers but is actually quite easy. Apart from a whole bunch of wires, cables, tubes and hydraulic lines which are easily done with various gauges of lead wires and plastic cables from small electric devices

there are a few more parts that would require. Junction boxes, controllers, filters and connectors usually have very simple form whether it is a cylinder or a cube so those does not really require any special explanations or modelling instructions. Our points of interest in this area are hydraulic tanks as those can be a bit more difficult Moving the metal cylinder towards the point number two will produce elongated circle cross sections as can be seen on the piece that has been already bent.

to scratchbuild. We will start with non-cylindrical oil tanks like the one found in SBD Dauntless aircraft. Instead of bending a piece of styrene sheet and wrapping it around the cylindrical object i will use a piece of aluminium sheet for two simple reasons, styrene is elastic and would be difficult to get the perfect shape without heating boiling or heating it, on the other hand aluminium sheet is more plastic than elastic and once wrapped around a cylinder it will retain the perfectly round shape. Cross

section of our fist oil tank is elongated circle and to get that shape i am going to use one of the rollers from The Small Shop brass rolling set. First, we will measure and cut aluminium piece to be the same width as the tank. Start by bending aluminium piece over the cylinder to the point when you get aluminium sheet ends run parallel. At this point, we will move the cylinder a bit away from the bent part and toward the marked number two. While holding the cylinder firmly pressed to the table, we will

Convex oil tank side caps made from aluminium can be used for vacuum forming styrene parts if more desirable.

Process and the tools for the tank scratchbuilding. Dentist’s probe is used as a sculpting tool.

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Finished aluminium oil tank still secured with the tape while magic sculpt is curing inside and the kit tank which is wrong in both shape and size.

bend the point number two of aluminium sheet to the point when two ends meet. When cylinder is removed we should get elongated circle cross section while the elongation will depend on how much we have moved the cylinder from the first bending point toward the point number two. Cut the excess of aluminium with scissors and smooth the seam by pressing it with something flat while holding the cylinder inside the newly formed tank shell to give it a proper support while flattening the seam. Once we get a perfect shape we will secure it with a piece of masking tape to prepare it for the next step. As the sides of oil tank are convex our next step is to place the shell on a 3mm thick piece of styrene and tightly outline its outer shape with a pen. By drilling a couple of holes we will continue the job of cutting the shape by sharp pointed knife and finish it off with files and rolled sanding paper. Making a convex tank sides is now an easy thing, we will place a piece of aluminium 0.25mm thick over the styrene piece with opening and secure it with masking tape on the sides. Top press the aluminium trough the opening we will apply a small amount of soap to its surface and then start burnishing it down with the thumb. Take your time and keep going until you see the edges of the opening clearly showing on aluminium as we will use those lines our cutting guide when removing the

excess around the part. Some sanding will be required to get it fit into the tank shell perfectly so keep checking the fit constantly. Once both convex parts are done its time to fill in the shell with Magic Sculpt to give it strength. We will apply it to the walls with small amount at a time and distribute it evenly with sculpting tool, at the end simply fill in the rest. Before fitting the caps we will fill them with Magic Sculpt as well to prevent any damages that may happen when fitting them into the tank shell. To allow the clay to cure fully we will leave everything aside for some twelve hours. White

Finished oil tank looks good and ready for painting, after a subtle weathering it will look excellent.

glue can be used to fit the caps as it is easy to clean up with wet brush as opposed to CA glue which can make this a bit messy. Now, thin vinyl strips can be used to simulate fasteners, draining section made of Magic Sculpt, a piece of styrene for the filler cap plate and we are done here.

CYLINDRICAL TANKS Cylindrical tanks, due to their cross section being a circle are in many ways easier to scratchbuild than non-cylindrical ones. Using the process with bending of aluminium sheet over a cylinder is one way to do it while my

preferred method is turning it on lathe, it is easier, faster and the end result is better. Fully cured piece of Magic Sculpt rolled to form the cylinder is used as a starting piece. I will first make a few shallow passes with turning tool to form the perfect cylinder followed by further thinning of the piece with constant stops to measure its diameter with callipers. Once we get the desired diameter we will proceed with sanding paper to get a perfectly smooth surface. In this stage while the piece is spinning it is the best thing to use wet sanding to prevent overheating of the sanding paper.

Rolled Magic Sculpt pieces are just a perfect material for turning by being rigid, temperature resistant and with great machining properties. Before anything else a few layers of material are removed first to get a perfect cylinder. The Modeller’s Guide to Superdetailing, Painting and Weathering Aircraft of WWII 19


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Convex cap of the tank is nicely done with just a few passes with the tool.

After removing a few layers of material our lathe is reconfigured for making convex end to the cylinder. Pivot point position is essential for the curvature of the end part.

Once cut to appropriate length the other end of the tanks is machined. Red marker line is very visible while the piece is turning allowing a high accuracy in sizing the piece to its final length.

Convex side of the tank is quite an easy thing to achieve with Metal Line lathe by using a turning table as a pivot for turning tool. For smaller curvature of the cut we will move the turning tool away from the pivot point and vice

Compass cutter is used to cut perfect circles in the styrene sheet with the tank radius used as a measure. Note the red guides marking the bending line. Lightly scoring the lines with sharp pointed knife will make a perfectly straight bend. Fit is nice and tight.

versa. With just a few swings of the tool, followed with some wet sanding and our convex part of the tank is done. Width of the tank is then measured and marked, cut either with cutting tool on the lathe or by saw and the previous step is

section of the tank with folding lines marked in red. To get a straight folding line, a few very light passes with sharp pointed knife are made along the red lines. Seams are then glued with Tamiya extra thin cement from the inside followed by a light sanding of the edges from the outside. Once the square section is in place, rest of the details are made with Magic Sculpt and shaped with wet brush. Filler cap pattern is achieved by simply pressing the allen screw head on a piece of Magic Sculpt while still being soft.

repeated to make the other convex side to it. The whole process takes as little as 20 minutes. Compass cutter and sharp pointed knife are used to cut 0.25mm thin styrene sheet in a shape that will form the square

Any part is simple enough to be scratchbuilt with ease once divided into simple subassemblies. Apply small pieces of soft Magic Sculpt on the tank surface and shape it with wet brush to create oil line connectors. Round and flat brushes are great tools for shaping Magic Sculpt especially when moisten with water.

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INSTRUMENT PANELS

Main instrument panel piece looks flat and uninteresting as opposed to the lower section already painted with fine round brush.

I

n a never ending quest for that perfect looking instrument panel i have tried pretty much everything with more or less satisfying results. Kit instrument panels are either styrene or clear plastic and those can often be good but not good enough. Resin cast

The difference between pre-painted photo etched parts and the ones we have just painted is obvious. Screen printing also produces a surface that seems to have a thick layer of dust on it. Note the lower piece dials and the print offset shifted to the left.

panels are one step up from the kit parts but those are often still out of scale. Personally, i have found photo etched instruments to be the best way to go with very fine details, raised and recessed surfaces and clean openings. Further, two options are available, pre-painted and bare metal

so it is only natural to analyze both. Pre-painted photo etched parts can seem like a best option, well they are already painted if nothing else and will save us some time and eyes but what happens when we give them a closer look? Immediately noticeable are the colours which are somehow

wrong more often than not. Apart from the questionable colours, we can also notice that some printed elements are actually shifted to the side from metal surface details, a printing offset that gives the part a bit funny look. Last thing with pre-painted photo etched parts is of course the

A great thing about the dials printed on glossy transparent film is a perfect simulation of the glass covers. No need for tricks and drops of gloss paint, nice and neat.



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Finished instrument panels look very lifelike and busy even being as small as a thumb nail.

print itself which is rather dusty and grainy even when from the distance. Now, the best and only remaining options is to take bare metal photo etched instrument panel and paint it ourselves, it is easy, quick and the end result will be absolutely superior to anything else. I am going to demonstrate some of my techniques on Aires photo etched instrument panel for the

Eduard’s Bf-109E. To start off, dark grey is airbrushed on instrument panel parts as well as two layers of white at the back side of clear foil with dials. From this point, all we need is a fine pointed brush for painting the details. With the basic dark grey colour applied, everything now looks too flat and to change that, we have to enhance

raised details to get more of a three dimensional look. If you look at reference photos of instrument panels you will notice that raised rings around the dials have highlighted edge and so we are going to simulate highlights by applying lighter grey to those raised rings. When painting very small and fine details try to keep your brush at an

angle of approximately 15 to 30 degrees, almost parallel to the surface you are painting. Important thing to remember is that we are not painting with the brush tip but rather with brush sides as that is the easiest way to prevent brush hairs to slip of the tiny raised surface we are painting. Rest of the details are painted with corresponding colours in the same manner as the highlights. As for the placard writings, white paint and a brush with very fine tip is used in short wavy strokes made horizontal to simulate the text lines. Once we are done with brush painting the next step would be to attach the back panel with the dials by using small amounts of white glue distributed as tiny dots on the areas between the dials. As the last thing, handles are attached with cyanoacrylate cement and these parts are ready to be installed in the cockpit. When it comes to fiddly bits and things try not to use pre-painted parts, take your time and do your own painting, you will be surprised with the results.

ACCESS PANELS

C

utting trough the kit parts and opening access panels can seem hard and scary but that is really where all the fun starts as it’s not about just assembling anymore but making something that was not there, from scratch. Important thing to remember is that we are working with plastic and almost any mess-up can be fixed, filled and sanded, it’s not a rocket science really. The only tricky thing here is making the thin inner strip of the opening where the fasteners

are going through, the thing which requires a bit of time and patience. Before we start drilling trough the plastic part to make the opening, we must outline the panel on a piece of masking tape first to use it for cutting out the panel cover and inner strip later. Small, square piece of Tamiya masking tape is placed over the panel, then gently draw across the masking piece with sharp pointed lead pencil to find recessed panel line and once we find it we will use it as

a guide to outline the panel. Once done with outlining, we will transfer the tape to a piece of 0.25mm thick styrene sheet to make the panel cover and inner fastener strip. Here, we will use a sharp pointed blade to lightly score the panel line drawn on the tape. To make the things easier for handling, we are going to cut out the inner section first, hence just scoring the outline. Tape is now removed and stored for later use when we get to the panel cover. When making fastener

strip the hard part is to keep the strip width consistent especially when the entire part is very small. Thin strip of masking tape will help do the trick. First, place the strip along the outline from inside of the shape, follow the outline by gently pressing the strip down with your index finger while holding and curving the strip with precision tweezers. Masking strips are flexible enough to follow any curved line so this trick can be used on variety of similar tasks and in cases when we need any

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A piece of Tamiya masking tape and a lead pencil are used to mark the panel shape. Sharpen the pencil core by rubbing it against fine sanding paper to get crisp and accurate results.

Sharp pointed blade is used just to score the shape on styrene sheet as cutting it trough at this point will make the part difficult to handle when cutting out the inner section.

Thin strip of masking tape is flexible enough to conform to any shape. Once the strip is down, gently press adjust it on the styrene to for nicer final result.

Even though the part is only 5mm across it looks nice and accurate, well worth the time and effort.

kind of guides. Once we get correct shape a little touch up is done by using fine pointed tweezers to gently nudge and press masking strip to follow the outline tightly. This task requires patience more than anything else so if you do not get it from the first time, do it again. At this point we have two options, to cut the inner section of the shape using the tape strip as a guide or to mark it with pen and then cut it out, either way is fine as the job needs to be done slowly and carefully anyway. I am using the tape strip as a guide as its faster. Sharp pointed blade is used to gently

score the inside shape of the tape with several light passes, again requires patience and time but it is worth every effort. I will now remove the tape and cut it trough by using scored cut line as a guide. Once the inner piece is out, fine sanding paper tightly rolled is used to sort out the edges and smooth the cut. It is best to drill the holes for fasteners now and before we cut out the entire piece simply because it is easier. A few light passes with sharp pointed blade along the outline will do the job and out part is ready. Our next task is to cut out the opening on the kit part to

accommodate the part we just made. Start by drilling a few holes trough the panel and then simply connect the holes by cutting the area between them with sharp pointed blade. The same blade is then used to touch up the edges with the panel line as our guide. Trim the plastic with blade almost to the panel line and then continue with fine sanding paper tightly wrapped around the metal rod or round file. Sand the excess material with light and consistent strokes but constantly keep checking the fit of the part we made earlier. Once the fit is perfectly tight we will dry-fit the part and then

apply very small amount of Tamiya extra thin cement from the inside of the fuselage half. As the cement is very thin, capillary force will make it run along the seam without making a mess. Further, fine touch-ups and adjustments of the part can be made before we leave it aside for an hour to cure. When the cement is fully cured everything will be sanded from the outside of fuselage half to make the seam smoother. In some cases, when we have photo-etched access panel frame, it is somewhat difficult to position it perfectly mainly because those parts are ultra thin, rigid and smooth which makes them difficult to glue as well. I will take Eduard’s Bf-109E and Aires photo-etched radio access frame and door as an example. To fit the panel frame we would need to thin the plastic part around the opening to avoid huge ‘step’ between the plastic and photoetched part as that areas was almost flush on the real aircraft with barely visible difference between the frame and the rest



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Drilling a number of holes trough the plastic is one of the easiest and fastest ways of making the opening. It is better to use smaller drill bits for this job as they provide better accuracy, especially important when working with small openings.

Drilling holes along the panel line makes it easier for us to trim the excess material.

Once we trim the excess with the blade a set of various tools is used to smooth the edges. Files are used right after the blade and then we will smooth the edges with fine sanding paper wrapped around metal tube, especially good for rounded corners.

Not all fastener holding frames are done in one piece, in this example of Airacobra wing we are using styrene strips of different length for each section of the opening.

Different openings require a bit different approach for each. Note just partial fastener holders on the radio opening, far right hand side.

Basic electric junction box is being made from styrene sheet and various styrene sections still awaiting lead and copper wires to be added. The box has been made larger than the opening as more of it will be visible when looked from different angles.

Opened access panel always tend to add more life and depth to a model. Opening all those panels and making what’s inside them takes time and patience but the result pays off.



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Photo etched part is positioned and secured in place with a single piece of masking tape. Gently pressing it with hot soldering iron will melt the plastic and fuse the two parts together.

Some gaps have been filled, everything sanded smooth and ready for masking and painting.

of the fuselage. Once scale to 32nd scale, we should pretty much make the two sections be on the same level with no recessed areas. I will use a simple trick with soldering iron to achieve this. Before going further please note that soldering iron is very hot and can burn your skin or melt the plastic parts if not handled very carefully. First, make the opening on the fuselage where the radio access doors are marked by using the same method with drilling holes and cutting, explained before. We

the fuselage. We will start from the corner and will move soldering iron tip for roughly 2mm each time until we get to the point where we started. Keep the soldering iron in contact with photo etched part for at most one second at a time otherwise we can melt the fuselage beyond repair. The point here is to slowly impress the metal part into the plastic fuselage so they are both at the same level and to do it evenly it is important to touch the part with soldering iron in short intervals with constantly

will make the fuselage opening slightly larger than the photoetched opening but smaller than its outer dimensions. Tamiya masking tape is now used to accurately position and secure the part on the fuselage. It is important to use Tamiya or similar paper tape here as they are heat resistant and will not melt when we start heating the photo-etched part, vinyl cannot be used. With everything in place we can heat up soldering iron and begin by gently pressing photo-etched part against

moving the hot tip around. Good idea would be to try this with some spare photo-etched parts and spare plastic pieces. When metal part is finally fused to the plastic we will sand the surface smooth and its ready for painting. All we need now is to make the paint mask for which we will use photo-etched door as a guide. First the interior paint will be applied to the frame and then protected with paint masks. Once the model is painted and mask removed we will get the perfect looking radio access opening.

INTRODUCTION TO PAINT MASKS

P

retty much all markings featured in this book have been painted by using paint masks and before you come to the point where their use is explained, i would like to make an introduction for more in depth overview of masking materials, performance and high and low points. There is no much point explaining the use and

application of the decals while the paint masks are something relatively small number of modellers use and many more are afraid of, with no good reason actually. With the decals and masks being two different means for achieving the same thing it is only natural to make a short comparison between the two and try to find highs and lows on each. Decals have always

been and currently are the most popular way of marking scale models for a few good reasons. First and foremost, every scale model that we buy comes with the decal sheet with markings for one or more aircraft. Decals also provide fast and clean way of marking application, all you have to do it to get them wet and apply them on the model. Ultra small elements like pilot names, kill

marks and various servicing stencils would be impossible to achieve without waterslide or dry transfer decals. As for the low points, there are plenty of those as well. Quality of the decals is something we are never sure of, the print quality can vary from good solid colour to ultra thin and translucent, colour shades are sometimes off and there is nothing you can do about



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Chapter II TECHNIQUES it, carrier film can be brittle and crack as soon as we try to position the decal on the model, thickness is another issue if the decal need to conform to a curved surface, adhesive being too weak and so on. When it comes to paint masks the situation is a bit different but still not the ultimate or perfect solution for applying markings. For a start, paint mask give us the ability to control the colour which is actually a huge advantage over decals. Paint masks, if carefully stored, can be reused a couple of times which is another huge advantage over decals or dry transfers. Using paint masks does involve a bit more work as each colour of masking element must be separately masked of and painted but the end results are superior to any kind of decals. No surface preparation is need for painting with masks as long as the paint layer below is properly cured. Once painted, markings can be easily weathered by sanding, paint

chipping or scratching and will never produce silvering regardless of the surface condition they were painted on. After all, markings on real aircraft were also applied with paint masks. Using paint masks is easy and convenient way to achieve great results. With everything above said it seems like paint masks are the perfect solution for all of our troubles, or are they? Painting larger elements with masks is easy and effective, same goes for smaller but simpler elements. Problems start with small elements as unit badges, letter and numbers smaller than 2mm or 3mm in height and similar more complicated things. With today's technology it is possible to cut almost indefinitely small masking elements but since it would be impossible to apply them, those would be pretty much useless. Also, we need to overview an important factor in mask performance and ease of use, a material they are made of. Currently, most popular

materials for die cut masks are vinyl and yellow rice paper tape often referred to as Kabuki tape. Specially developed for masking purposes, semi transparent vinyl is flexible, easy to use and thanks to its low tack water based adhesive, very safe for any kind of painted surface. Flexibility will allow it to conform on curved surfaces, transparency will make it much easier for accurate positioning on the model and water based adhesive will not lift the paint or leave any residue on painted surface. Due to its structure, vinyl is perfect for very fine and complicated cuts with lots of detail but still, vinyl has a major drawback, it shrinks! Once cut, vinyl will retain its shape and form for some 24 to 48 hours depending on the size of masking elements, after that it will start shrinking and creating gaps along the cut lines making it unusable for most of the part. Shrinking factor is minimal or not present at all on shapes smaller than 10mm which makes it perfect

for small and more detailed masking elements. Another interesting masking material is rice paper tape known as Kabuki, the same material Tamiya masking tapes are made of. This ultra thin, paper like material is flexible, will never shrink and can be stored for years. For those wanting to make their own masks Kabuki is perfect as it can be used in any laser printer, once the masking pattern has been printed on it all you have to do is to follow the print lines with sharp pointed scalpel. The only problem with this masking material is a fact that it is made of tiny rice fibres which makes it impossible to cut masking elements smaller than 5mm with accurate results. Now, we have a clear picture, vinyl for small masking shapes while Kabuki is just perfect for all elements larger than 5mm. By combining the two materials, we have precision cut paint masks good for all element sizes and shape, with no shrinkage!

Just hours from being cut vinyl is already shrinking and exposing white backing paper. In case when we have to use more than one masking element on the model we would not be able to get a good fit which can result in paint getting in the areas between the two masks.



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Chapter III BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT

SPITFIRE MK. IXc



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SPITFIRE MK. IXc Kit summary Tamiya has pushed limits once again with their marvel of a kit Supermarine Spitfire in 1:32nd scale, a kit so smartly engineered and well detailed it simply cannot fail to impress you in every possible way no matter how picky you can be! To start from heart of the beast, Rolls-Royce Merlin power plant is probably the nicest and most detailed part of all the injection moulded kits i have ever seen and for sure better than some aftermarket resin engines too. Being a kit for itself, the engine will take a weekend of your time but considering a level of detail and the fact that it will be all visible at the end, it is worth the effort. Cockpit is just as nicely done but would require some wiring to go from excellent to perfect. Kit exterior surface features very intricate recessed panel lines and rivets, nothing out of scale. Other nice features are hinged moving surfaces, magnet attaching of the cowling panels and screw system for attaching the landing gear and engine. With just a few more parts there could be option to display the front upper fuel tank and the radio hatch opened but to be honest, that would just spoil all the fun of scratchbuilding.

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Chapter III BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - SPITFIRE MK. IXc

BEFORE WE START Aftermarket sets used in this build: ■ BarracudaCast - 32001 Spitfire Seat with Leather Backpad ■ BarracudaCast - 32002 Spitfire Cockpit Door with Separate Crowbar ■ BarracudaCast - 32003 Spitfire Cockpit Upgrade Set ■ Maketar Paint Masks - 32040 RAF Supermarine Spitfire MK.IX

Tools and materials: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Cyanoacrylate glue Tamiya cement Tamiya extra thin cement Scalpel and tweezers Drilling pin vise Masking tape in various widths BluTack Sanding sticks and files Mr. Surfacer 500 and/or Mr. Surfacer 1000 Pacer Formula 560 - Canopy Glue Styrene sheet in various size and thickness Lead, copper and flexible wire

Unimat wood turning chisel is simply the best tool for thinning out plastic parts thanks to its curved sharp tip.

Paints used: Artist oils: ■ Burnt Umber ■ Black ■ White ■ Yellow LifeColor acrylic paints: ■ LifeColor LC27 Matt Clear ■ UA207 Schwarzgrau ■ UA205 Rotbraun ■ LC06 Matt Red ■ LC03 Matt Yellow ■ UA511 Hellgrun ■ UA208 Anthrazitgrau ■ UA046 Neutral Grey ■ UA028 Grey ■ LC01 Matt White ■ UA524 US Neutral Grey ■ UA605 Dunkelgrau ■ UA095 Sky

Radio access door frame ready to be glued to the fuselage. Slightly rounded corners will help to get tighter fit without any gaps between the frame and fuselage.

THE BUILD It is not a strict rule to start working from the cockpit but i find it rather logical as this way we can mate the two fuselage halves together as soon as the interior is done and continue working on the exterior assembly.

Apart from the kit parts, we are going to add some wiring to the cockpit walls, scratchbuild the back section of instrument panel, open up the radio hatch and add radio receiver. We will start with opening the radio hatch to avoid too much handling of

Tamiya acrylic paints: ■ X-1 Gloss Black ■ XF-2 Flat White ■ XF-3 Flat Yellow ■ XF-7 Flat Red ■ XF-8 Flat Blue ■ XF-53 Neutral Grey ■ XF-58 Olive green ■ XF-60 Dark Yellow ■ XF-62 Olive Drab ■ XF-63 German Grey ■ XF-65 Field Grey Humbrol acrylic paints: ■ Matt clear cote - aerosol

Rib sections and radio receiver holder glued in place.

30 BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - SPITFIRE MK. IXC


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We have made just the sections which would be visible once the radio is in.

Basically just a few details will make a lot of difference and your model to stand out.

This view shows more of the radio holder ‘L’ section.

the fuselage halves once we start adding the wires. As the fuselage wall is rather thick we need to thin it first and the best tool to do so is modellers chisel or in this case, Unimat MetalLine woodturning chisel. Start by scraping inside section of the wall roughly 10mm around the hatch to get large enough flat surface to accommodate hatch frame. Extra care must be taken here as we do not want to thin the wall too much and to ruin the part so after every few scraps with the chisel check the progress by placing the part in front of the light bulb and by looking through it, more transparent the section is means it is thinner. Once we are done with the chisel, sand the surface smooth. Next step is cutting the radio hatch out either by using sharp pointed modelling knife and working over recessed panel line or by drilling holes through the panel

and cutting our way outward which is rather easier way. Once we drill a couple of holes it is easy to connect them with sharp pointed knife and then carefully continue by cutting small amounts of plastic at a time and once you come to the panel line continue with fine grain sanding paper to smooth corners and edges of the hatch opening. Steel rod wrapped with fine sanding paper is the best tool for rounded corners. Next thing is to make inner frame of the hatch opening, that is where the access door is fastened to, First, we place a piece of masking tape over the hatch opening from the outside of fuselage half leaving roughly 10mm of the tape around the opening, then mark the line on the tape by gently rubbing graphite pencil on the edge of panel opening until we get a clear line of the panel. We will now transfer that marked

piece of tape on 0.25mm styrene sheet. If we cut the opening on the styrene sheet now by scoring marked line on the tape with sharp pointed knife, we would get the access door and to get the frame we actually need to make the opening smaller than the door. First, we will lay some masking tape on the cutting surface and by using ruler and sharp knife cut 1mm strips. Masking strip is now carefully laid inside of the marked panel line on the piece of tape we placed on styrene sheet earlier. Be patient and careful to get a neat bend of the masking strip as that strip is actually width of our hatch frame. Once masking strip is on, sharp pointed X-Acto knife is used to carefully cut the opening by using masking strip as a guide, it is even better to cut a bit away of masking strip and to touch it up with sanding paper afterward. Dry fitting the frame is necessary to align everything properly and to ensure best result at the end. With the radio door frame now in its place we would need to make two rib sections that would go on either side

of the opening just like on the real Spitfire, once done it will look busier and more realistic. The same 0.25mm styrene sheets is used to cut the rough shape of the fuselage and then sanded and dry-fitted a couple of times until we get a nice fit. Here again, 3mm wide masking strip is laid to follow the curve of newly made part and to help us get consistent width of the rib section. Before we cut the section out, a couple of 2mm holes are drilled to along the rib part. Since the cross section of fuselage is slightly different on each side of the opening, we will repeat the process to make second rib part instead of just copying the first one. To finish the radio bay we need to make two 'L' shaped rails on each side of the door as those are holding the radio receiver in place. 3mm wide styrene strip is used for lover section and the same strip with drilled holes for sides. Side strip is cut at an angle so that one end is wider than the other while the holes are drilled to follow this geometry. With everything positioned and glued our radio bay is finished and we can



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Level and quality of the details out of the box is amazing, however, a few wires and cables are necessary to make it complete.

Copper, lead and plastic wrapped wires are used to make the cockpit wall busy and realistic.

move to the cockpit walls. Since the kit parts for the cockpit are detailed and crisp enough we will only be adding a few wires here and there and a few resin bits from Barracuda Studios. Kit instructions are suggesting that we should paint and assemble the cockpit wall sections separately that is, lower wall section should be first mated with the rest of cockpit elements before finally being glued to the fuselage.

In our case, when we want to add more details and wiring to the walls this is not the best or easiest way to go, instead we will glue the wall sections to the fuselage before doing the rest. It is a good idea to have your reference photos and books at hand at this stage to help position all the wires and lines at the right places. Copper wire and various gauges of plastic wrapped wires are used for

the job. There is no too much philosophy here, small holes drilled to accommodate and better hold the wires when appropriate, CA glue applied sparingly with the toothpick and we are pretty much done. When the glue is cured, gently press the wires with fine pointed tweezers co conform them on the wall bumps. A few dry-fit tests are necessary when adding wires to the cockpit as the fit without them is perfect and we want to avoid mess-ups later. Oxygen hose is missing in the kit so we must make one. Plastic wrapped wire is first stretched between two fingers and the lead wire is wrapped around it tightly to simulate flexible hose surface. When we get desired length of the hose, both ends will be glued with CA glue and cut

to measure. Small pieces of copper wire are now inserted on both ends and will help us secure the hose to the wall and oxygen bottle. By the time i have finished adding all the wiring to the cockpit walls an idea of exposing upper fuel tank seemed more and more tempting and interesting so i have decided to go with it. Removing sections of fuselage halves should be, indeed, done before anything has been done on the cockpit walls simply to avoid any mess but it should not be a problem either way. Upper fuel tank cover is slightly raised from the rest of the airframe and it is actually very easy to cut it out. Sharp pointed curved blade is used for the job, first make a few light pressure passes

Thin lead wire wrapped around a flexible wire makes a perfect oxygen hose.



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along the line where the fuel tank cover meets the fuselage to make a good guide and then a few passes of the knife with a little pressure applied will do it. Once the fuel cover section is removed a fine sanding paper is used to smooth the cut line. With everything done on the fuselage halves we will move to the cockpit interior. Since we are now making the aircraft with fuel tank cover removed, some further amends of the kit parts are needed. First thing that will be visible behind upper fuel tank is the back of instrument panel with all the wires, cables and gauges, none of it present in the kit so we will have to make it. Also, since we are introducing a fuel tank, some of the parts will have to be removed to accommodate the tank in that space. Kit instrument panel and if just perfect but we have to remove everything behind it and make new back panel which will then hold the instrument panel. We will use the kit part to outline its shape on styrene sheet and cut a new one out of it, basically we will have the lower section with rudder pedals and instrument panel separated. New instrument panel backside which we have made from the styrene sheets will now get all the gauges made from various radius styrene rod sections. Each gauge will then get a small extension made from a lot smaller radius styrene rod, which is where the wires and cables will go into. To better position and secure the wires, we will drill a hole in each gauge extension. Copper, lead as well as plastic wrapped wires are used here for a few reasons, copper and lead wire is used for rigid lines as those can be easily bent and curved while the soft plastic wrapped wires are used for rubber cables and lines which have a non linear or non uniform shape.

The best tool for accurate and clean cuts and the fuel tank cover cut out from the fuselage. Note the red line marking the point up to which the fuel tank goes.

New instrument panel backside which we have made from the styrene sheets with gauges and all the wiring in place.

Once painted with dark grey and all the beautiful details of the instrument panel backside come to life. Simple but effective.



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Fine pointed brush is used for all the little details to help create three dimensional and busy look. For best results without over-painting surrounding areas keep the brush almost parallel with the part surface while painting.

With everything in place, two thin coats of LifeColor UA207 Schwarzgrau are applied as that will be our final colour for these parts. The details are now more visible and looking good except for one thing, instrument panel kit part is now too thick and we will need to sand it down. Take a larger sheet

White or wood glue which dries clear is used to secure the decal on the back of the instrument panel. Front side of the decal has been covered with transparent tape to represent the dial glass covers.

of medium coarse sanding paper and start sliding the part over it, back side of the part of course. Try to change direction with every stroke to prevent thinning it too much on the edges, also try to press it down with equal pressure. Check the part thickness after every few strokes, 0.2 - 0.3mm thickness will do. Our next task

Hand painted details on the instrument panel and the decals with dials will make it look superb once finished.

is painting the front side of instrument panel as explained in previous chapter, fine pointed brush is used for all the little details to help create three dimensional and busy look. For best results without over-painting surrounding areas keep the brush almost parallel with the part surface while painting. With the

painting done next step is to sort out the dials. Tamiya has made a very smart choice here with the decals which look like plain black dots on the decal sheet due to the fact that dials are painted on the bottom side, so no panic. Decals that come with this kit are more than bad and i really hope it is only my kit with this problem.

Back side with wires and gauges is brush painted in a few shades of grey and brown followed by light grey highlights applied at the top edges of gauges and top sides of wires and cables. Highlights are important for better visual appearance just as much as wash or shading.



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Primer coat is airbrushed on all cockpit elements to cover different colours we got with added wires, metal and resin parts.

Centre front section is raised with a piece of styrene sheet and the dial panel is fixed to it with white or wood glue to prevent decal damage.

Finished instrument panel is well detailed and ready to be fitted in the cockpit later on.

Rigid, fragile and almost no adhesive are just some of the things i have noticed here. To fix this problem i am going to use clear tape placed over the decal face and then cut it to shape, this will have two effects, first the tape will represent the glass on the dials and will reinforce the decal. Also, we are not going to use clear parts supplied in the kit for instrument panel. Fine pointed brush is used to apply and distribute evenly white glue on the back of instrument panel part where our over-taped decals will be placed. After nicely positioning each decal w will set it aside for an hour or so before joining the two parts of instrument panel together. In a meanwhile, back side with wires and gauges is brush painted in a few shades of grey and brown followed by light grey highlights applied at the top edges of gauges and top sides of wires and cables. Highlights are important for better visual appearance just as much as wash or shading. Finally, front and back panel

are glued together with Tamiya cement used sparingly and away from areas with decals, two or three tiny drops are more than enough. Centre front section is raised with a piece of styrene sheet and the dial panel is fixed to it with white or wood glue to prevent decal damage. Our instrument panel is now done and ready to be installed later. Primer coat is now airbrushed on all cockpit elements to cover all the different colours we got with added wires, metal and resin parts. Acrylic green paints are known for their poor coverage and we would need to airbrush a few thicker layers on in order to cover all colour variations and get even and consistent green surface so the primer coat is very important here, even a grey acrylic paint will do. Pilot seat is our next step, beautifully detailed and casted by BarracudaCast, much better option that the kit seat. Primer or grey paint is applied first followed by two coats of LifeColor UA205



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LifeColor UA205 Rotbraun is airbrushed on the seat and followed by a thin coat of LC06 Matt Red to make a perfect base colour for overall oil wash.

Burnt Umber artist oil is diluted to the consistency of melted butter and applied with large soft brush over the entire seat. Once the piece is covered in oil, use a clean soft brush and keep brushing until you cannot see any brush strokes visible and the entire surface is smooth and even.

Rotbraun. The seat now looks too brown and to get the correct shade we will airbrush a thin coat of LifeColor LC06 Matt Red which is somewhat translucent as a result of poor coverage properties, this will make our job easier and also give us the perfect colour at the end. For the final makeup, Burnt Umber artist oil is diluted to the consistency of melted butter and applied with large soft brush over the entire seat. Once the piece is covered in oil, use a clean soft brush and keep brushing until you cannot see any brush strokes visible and the entire surface is smooth and even. Wipe the brush after every few strokes to remove excess oil faster and better. Highlights are now created by applying small dots of white artist oil to raised surfaces which is then blended in with clean and dry brush. When blending artist oils over artist oils use gentle stubbing motions with the brush to get very soft and smooth transitions between the two colours. Set everything aside for a day or so for oils to cure. Artist oils dry by oxidation instead of evaporation as modelling paints do and thus oil drying time can range from a few days up to a few months. I am always using enamel thinner to thin oils which make them dry much faster and do not smell even as close as bad as turpentine. Beautiful thing about working with oils is their drying time which allows us to mix and blend them on a model for a longer period. Oils diluted with enamel thinners will dry in one or two days depending on how much thinner we use. When buying artist oils you really need just a few: white, black, red, blue, yellow, burnt umber, burnt sienna and that is pretty much everything we need to mix any colour we would ever need. Since those will last for a

lifetime it is a good idea to go with more expensive ones for their superb quality. As i am going to use oils for the rest of the cockpit elements a proper light green paint has been made by mixing LifeColor LC03 Matt Yellow and LifeColor UA511 Hellgrun in 2 to 5 ratio. When mixing paints make sure to get enough of the mixture as we will use that later as well. Two light coats of our green are now airbrushed on cockpit walls and the rest of the cockpit elements. Before we start brush painting small elements and details, subtle shading and fading is done with Tamiya acrylic paints to enhance all the beautiful details of the cockpit and to get more three dimensional look. First, Tamiya X-1 Gloss Black is highly diluted with medical alcohol in 1 part of paint to 9 parts of alcohol ratio. Important thing here is to use alcohol instead of Tamiya thinner or water for one simple reason, alcohol evaporates very fast and since the paint is highly diluted this fast evaporation will allow it to dry instantly when airbrushed from very close range instead of running all over the surface if we have used water or original thinner. Shading is done from very close range, keep the airbrush nozzle 5 - 10mm above the surface, make the air flowing at all times and release very small amounts of paint by pulling the airbrush trigger just a tiny bit backwards. I have found the best results to be if sprayed at 2 bar (22-23 PSI) pressure. Good thing with many airbrush guns these days is the locking system at the back of it which is used to limit the trigger movement. To test the paint flow and adjust the locking system, we will use a sheet of paper and make a few runs with the airbrush

When blending artist oils over artist oils use gentle stubbing motions with the brush to get very soft and smooth transitions between the two colours.



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over it, keep the distance between 5 - 10mm and keep going until you get very narrow black paint trail similar to one made with the pencil. Once we get nice, sharp and narrow paint trail we are ready to start shading the cockpit. Shading is done around all the raised details mainly to accentuate the shadows and thus give

us more three dimensional appearance. Next thing is fading of the surfaces between the raised details and cockpit wall lines. To avoid getting too much of a contrast we will use highly diluted Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow in just one or two light passes over those surfaces. This process is very easily

overdone so check your work after each pass of the airbrush until you are satisfied with the results. Our goal is to make subtle variations which will be a base for further steps in painting. Lead pencil is now used to accentuate dark lines and edges where flat surfaces meet raised details, we can also use it to make scratches and paints chips where appropriate, although i sometimes use dark grey paint for this job. Finishing one by one of the cockpit elements starts with oxygen bottles. To get more details out of the simple kit part the first thing we will do is to paint on some placards. Masking strips or hand cut square mask can be used to airbrush LifeColor

Lead pencil is used for tiny scratches and for enhancing recessed lines and corners.

A drop or two of yellow is mixed with base green and brushed on edges and raised details for more three dimensional appearance.

Subtle shading and fading is done with Tamiya acrylic paints to enhance all the beautiful details of the cockpit and to get more three dimensional look.

Main cockpit elements after shading and fading process is done. Fading is done with very diluted Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow.



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Masking strips or hand cut square mask can be used to paint placards.

Dark grey is airbrushed and ready to get the final touch, the text.

Fine pointed brush and light white paint are now used for placard text. Note the scratches which further adds to the final appearance.

To finish, we will apply diluted Burnt Umber artist oils and treat it with clean dry brush until we get smooth surface free of any brush strokes. Connecting pipes at the top are now painted with Gunze Sangyo MC218 Aluminium.

UA207 Schwarz Grau on. Try not to use black paint as there is nothing absolutely black from the moment aircraft leaves the factory, first layer of dust will make the black

to become dark grey. Fine pointed brush and light white paint are now used for placard text. Use white paint diluted 1 to 1, wipe the brush on paper towel and make dotted

horizontal lines to represent the writings. You can also use red paint for some parts of the text. Scratches on the bottles are done with fine pointed brush and LifeColor UA208

Anthrazitgrau, a few random irregular shapes and splotches are painted here and there. To finish, we will apply diluted Burnt Umber artist oils and treat it with clean dry brush

The rest of the cockpit details are now brush painted and some random paint chipping and scratches done with Anthrazitgrau. All the tiny bits brush painted, note the writings on some of the details done by fine pointed brush and white paint.



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Importance of detail painting is obvious here, right hand side cockpit wall looks busy and lifelike while the floor and behind the seat section looks boring and featureless in spite of the great surface details present.

until we get smooth surface free of any brush strokes. Connecting pipes at the top are now painted with Gunze Sangyo MC218 Aluminium. The rest of the cockpit details are now brush painted and some random paint chipping and scratches done with Anthrazitgrau. To make the cockpit look more used, dirty and interesting, i am going to treat it with Burnt Umber oil which will further enhance and accentuate subtle shading and colour variations giving it

more depth. Burnt Umber is diluted to roughly the same consistency of LifeColor paints and applied over the entire cockpit wall are with large flat brush, gently to avoid any parts breaking off. Again, large flat, clean and dry brush is used to remove the excess oil from the cockpit wall with gentle strokes as if you were wiping the dust off. Clean the brush with paper towel after every few strokes and repeat the process until you get very smooth and even surface

Burnt Umber is diluted to roughly the same consistency of LifeColor paints and applied over the entire cockpit wall are with large flat brush, gently to avoid any parts breaking off.

free of visible brush strokes. Small amount of white artist oil is then applied on surfaces between raised details and blended in with clean dry brush by using gentle stubbing motions. Wiping or classic brushing motion is not good for blending oils as it will basically move the paint from one side to the other making areas with visible border lines between paint shades. On the other hand, stubbing motions of the brush will make very subtle and smooth transitions

between colours. Again, wipe the brush clean after every few seconds to remove the excess oil paint. At this stage we will also use small amounts of green artist oil on some areas to create more green colour variation since blending white over Burnt Umber is toned down green shades. Repeat the process for the rest of the cockpit area and always make sure that you do not apply the oils over enamel paint as this will result in mixing the base paint with overall wash and

Small amount of white artist oil is then applied on surfaces between raised details and blended in with clean dry brush by using gentle stubbing motions. Wiping or classic brushing motion is not good for blending oils as it will basically move the paint from one side to the other making areas with visible border lines between paint shades.



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Blended oils always look good and always give us that worn out look and feel.

Green oil mix is blended in next to avoid too much fading with white since blending white over Burnt Umber is toned down beautiful green shades of the cockpit wall.

ruin everything. If you are using enamel paints for the base airbrushing seal it with two light coats of clear matt varnish. Also important thing to mention is that the surface must be matt in order to apply overall oil wash with success. With overall wash applied to all cockpit parts the final touch to this area is to accentuate highlights of edges. Light green colour is applied on all edges with fine brush in

perfect. While the fuselage is in one piece, we will prepare everything for upper fuel tank installation but first, we have to scratchbuild it. Making this type of fuel tank is fairly easy, the most important thing is to get the cross section correctly. First step is to glue together the two pieces of the fuselage we cut out before, the tank cover. Once done, it will serve as our template for the tank cross section. Once we mark

a way that we actually paint with brush sides and not with the brush tip to prevent over-painting other areas. Edge highlights have to be very subtle to avoid too much contrast but to make edges stand up a bit from the other areas. Now is the time to dry fit all the cockpit parts and two fuselage halves to see if everything goes along nicely. After a few nudges here and there the fit seems to be

the section on a piece of styrene sheets and cut it out we will use that cut out shape to make a few more copies. Front side of the tank feature an inspection opening, simply a round hole. As for the tank skin we will use rectangular piece of styrene sheet 0.25mm thick reinforced with another one slightly smaller piece to prevent deformations in the next step. This ‘skin’ is treated with rivet wheel from the outer

Oxygen bottles installed and because been weathered separately of the cockpit wall they will look a bit different which is a good thing as this will create more interesting looking cockpit.



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Cockpit is dry fitted to check and see that everything fits nicely and tightly before we mate two fuselage halves together.

The same overall oil wash applied to the rest of cockpit elements followed by edge highlighting to further accentuate three dimensional effect and to make to cockpit even more interesting.

side. Tank front and back caps are now glued upside down positioned to touch the smaller reinforcing rectangle so that the outer skin overhangs the caps. Make sure that the caps are positioned at the centre so that the skin ends meet at the centre once wrapped around. Tamiya cement is now applied along the cap edges and the rectangular styrene part is gently wrapped around.

Once both ends meet, tight wrap the tank with masking tape to hold everything firmly pressed. Gently roll the tank back and forth on the table to help the skin to conform evenly without any gaps on the tank side, at this point you can tighten the tape if necessary. All this sounds just a bit easier than it is to do, do not give up if your first attempt is unsuccessful as mine was

Tank front and back caps are glued upside down positioned to touch the smaller reinforcing rectangle so that the outer skin overhangs the caps. Make sure that the caps are positioned at the centre so that the skin ends meet at the centre once wrapped around.

too! After a few hour and when properly cured we will continue adding fuel lines to the tank but also filler cap ring and the filler cap which is taken from the kit. Fuel lines are made from styrene rods and bent with tweezers to simulate rigid pipes. Primer coat or in this case LifeColor UA046 Neutral Grey is airbrushed on and our fuel tank is ready to be test fitted and further detailed later.

Fuel tank is further detailed with styrene rod and sheet sections which will contribute to the final look of the Spitfire front Section.

Fuel tank and tank cover fasteners are made from styrene channel sections, top part is cut at an angle to accommodate the fuel tank and small holes drilled where the tank cover fasteners are screwed. When making these holders, make one and then use it as a template for all the others to have them all the same. Place one on the left side and one on the opposite

Once painted, all the details of the tank simply pop out allowing us to spot any mistakes or gaps we would need to take care of before the final paint layer comes on.



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Tank cover plate holders are made from styrene channel sections cut at an angle, simple to make but hyghly effective detail.

Front fuselage sections are masked of and tank cover holders sprayed with interior green mix. Airbrush from the outside and with the airbrush close to the surface to prevent over-painting other areas inside the cockpit.

Fuel tank cover holders are treated the same way as the rest of the cockpit and the tank is test fitted in to check if everything comes along nicely.

side, when two are in place gently position the fuel tank to test if it fits tightly between them. Continue adding two by two along the edge of fuselage section until you have them all lined up, keep constantly placing the tank in place to check the fit. If the glue cures and you need to reposition the piece simply touch it with Tamiya Extra Thin cement to melt the joint and reposition the part. Six more holders are positioned to the back of instrument panel area and after an hour of curing time, they are ready to be painted. Same procedure as for the rest of the cockpit, fuselage is masked off, light green mix is airbrushed on and then finished with oils. Fuel tank is now test fitted again to check once more if everything is as it should be. Instrument panel is now also test fitted and any fit issues sorted out at this point so everything can be just positioned on its place once the model is finished. Instrument panel will remain separated from the lower section until the very end as otherwise it would be more difficult to handle the model with all the wires in place. Top half of the kit part G6 has to be cut off to the middle of locator pins to accommodate the fuel tank. Test fitting the Instrument panel dry fitted to the lower section, note scraped paint from the panel top and side sections to help glue to make better bond once we install it.



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Fuselage halves glued together and the instrument panel dry fitted for one more check that everything fits without any problems.

Once fully cured, Magic Sculpt can be worked just like any other resin casted art. Here, a piece of it is machine sanded to form the basic shape for radio receiver.

Styrene strip, rod and sheet sections are used to add all the details on the radio receiver. Small pieces of vinyl are placed as placards.

Simple but effective, it does not matter how much visible the piece will be, every single piece we dedicate our time to will help to create award winning model at the end.

Radio receiver test fitted to the radio bay to see if how far back it needs to go, we must be careful now not to nudge it over the rails as it would be hard to get it out since the fuselage is now permanently glued.

Radio hatch door temporarily attached with BluTac.

fuel tank with G6 part in place will necessary of course. Our job with the cockpit is almost done and the only thing left to be made is radio receiver. A solid piece of Magic Sculpt is first cut to basic shape and then sanded on Unimat machine. Steel vice is used to support the piece while it has been shaped to form the

receiver. With the main shape being done, various details have been made with styrene strips, rods and sections, everything is then airbrushed with LifeColor UA207 Schwarzgrau. Fine pointed brush is then used to paint all the details, placards and edge highlights. Radio bay cover is made from 0.25mm styrene

sheet and slightly curved by pressing it on one of the Small Shop brass rolling cylinders. Rivet wheel is used to make the rivets before the part has been curved. With the cockpit being done it is time to start putting the airframe together which is rather straightforward and a bit boring task as with

every Tamiya kit, so there is really no point in explaining already simple steps from the instructions. Instead, we will continue with preparations for painting the model. As with all of my builds, canopy sections are masked first but fixed on the model at the very end of the build. This will ensure that the canopy stays clean and

Proper masking requires time and patience to ensure no paint will enter the cockpit and all the small details will stay where they should be. Kit cockpit door have came handy to and save some time masking the door opening.



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Behind the wings section on the lower side of the model is outlined with narrow masking strips and filled in with larger pieces of masking tape. No need to mask the lower wing area as we are going to airbrush from the top side mostly. Two bamboo sticks have been pushed through the opening on both sides of the cockpit and will help hold the model for painting.

polished, if we attach it at the beginning there is always a risk of paint sneaking in under the masks and ruining it. Masking off the cockpit and fuel tank

areas is time consuming tasks but otherwise pretty simple and straightforward. The only thing we should be careful with are those fuel tank holders and

tank cover fasteners which can easily broke off. Kit door is used to fill the gap and secured with a few little blobs of BluTac from the inside. Underside of the Spitfire is airbrushed first with custom mixed Medium Sea Grey, LifeColor UA028 and LC01 in 1:1 ratio. Two thin coats are enough to cover everything nicely and to preserve all the delicate and crisp surface details. Tamiya masking tape is then used to mask off lower

sections of the fuselage while the wings lower section is left unmasked as there is really no need. Ocean Grey is next to be airbrushed on upper surfaces and here is where i did some experimenting with a few shades and layers of grey. First, two thin coats of LifeColor UA524 US Neutral Grey are airbrushed on, this is slightly a lighter shade than we need but will serve as a base for panel fading and darker shade finish. Fading of panels is now done with

Two thin coats of LifeColor UA524 US Neutral Grey are airbrushed on, this is slightly a lighter shade than we need but will serve as a base for panel fading and darker shade finish.



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Fading of panels is now done with Tamiya light grey mix, Flat White XF-2 and Neutral Grey XF-53 in 1:3 ratio highly diluted with alcohol. A bit heavier layer is applied on the top sections of the fuselage and leading edges to create more pronounced highlight effect.

LifeColor UA605 Dunkelgrau is thinned 1:1 paint to thinner ratio and airbrushed over the entire upper surface in one thin layer to tone down faded surfaces and to slightly darken everything.

Tamiya light grey mix, Flat White XF-2 and Neutral Grey XF-53 in 1:3 ratio highly diluted with alcohol. A bit heavier layer is applied on the top sections of the fuselage and leading edges to create more pronounced highlight effect. When fading panels, keep the airbrush roughly 15mm above the model surface and keep moving the airbrush constantly to prevent too much paint in

intensity and tone variations should only be noticeable when holding the model at arm’s length distance. LifeColor UA605 Dunkelgrau is thinned 1:1 paint to thinner ratio and airbrushed over the entire upper surface in one thin layer to tone down faded surfaces and to slightly darken everything. As the line between Ocean Grey and Dark Green should

one spot. Pull the airbrush trigger just enough for a very faint mixture flow. Generally, proper alcohol to paint ratio for fading is 9:1, airbrushed at 2 Bar or 22 PSI pressure. Proper fading should look random, uneven and very subtle. From my experience, if you can see the difference in colour tone when holding the model and working with the airbrush, you have gone too far. Colour

be feathered and soft we will use BluTac sausages for masking. Since the model is painted with acrylic paints, one very important thing should be done before proceeding with BluTac application, two coats of flat clear cote. If we place the BluTac without a flat clear layer it will leave nasty and greasy looking stains on the paint surface and those will not simply dry

Since the model is painted with acrylic paints, one very important thing should be done before proceeding with BluTac application, two coats of flat clear cote. If we place the BluTac without a flat clear layer it will leave nasty and greasy looking stains on the paint surface and those will not simply dry and vanish.



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For easier masking and painting of the engine covers simply put a ball of BluTac on a barbeque stick and then position the covers on to it.

and vanish. I have found that Humbrol aerosol clear matt is the best solution for this while LifeColor or Tamiya flat cote will not do. With the flat cote dry, BluTac is rolled in thin and long sausages and carefully positioned on the model, no need to press it down. Areas that should stay in Ocean Grey are now filled with masking tape while Post It notes can be used as well. Do not try to fill those areas with masking

liquids like Maskol as you will never be able to separate it from the BluTac. For easier masking and painting of the engine covers simply put a ball of BluTac on a barbeque stick and then position the covers on to it. Dark Green custom made mix is now airbrushed on. Keep the airbrush perpendicular to the model surface to get nice and soft line between the colours

Dark Green is now airbrushed and faded in the same fashion as the Ocean Grey before.

and to prevent the paint from running underneath the BluTac. Dark Green is now faded in the same fashion as the Ocean Grey before. My Dark Green mix has been intentionally made lighter than it should be to demonstrate darkening with oils. Once the masks are removed from the model there is no an easy way to make that green darker without reapplying the masks. This process may seem

unnecessary but there are cases when we want to lighten or darken some areas and oils are simply the best and easiest way to do it. Yellow and Black artist oils are mixed to get the green and then the shade is fine tuned with adding more of either colour. Oil mix is then diluted with enamel thinner in 1:1 ratio and carefully applied on green surfaces in thin layer. The best way it to put some at the centre on the

General problem with LifeColor paints is that they get lighter as they dry and in this case make a perfect setting for darkening with oils.



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Top engine cover is treated with dark green oil mix and compared to our airbrushed LifeColor Dark Green, difference is obvious.

Oil green mix is diluted to consistency of melted butter and carefully applied on the green areas of the model, flat clean brush is then used to distribute and blend oil mix but also to remove excess paint.

green areas and distribute it outwards. Keep the oils away from the green border line for about 2-3mm as that area will be filled in when we start smoothing the mix with clean brush. Large flat and clean brush is now used to remove excess oil and to smooth the surface. Brush strokes

final oil layer is very thin all the fading we have done on the base green is still visible, of course small amounts of white oil paint can be used in some areas if needed and blended with clean and dry brush. We will leave the model aside for 48 hours to allow oils to properly cure before sealing

should start from the edge of the green area and towards the centre of it. Repeat the process until you get smooth and even surface with no visible brush marks. IF some of the oil paint crosses onto the grey areas simply wipe it out with a q-tip moistened with enamel thinner. As the

everything with flat clear. While the paint is drying, i will start working on the engine which is quite a kit on its own. Actually, Tamiya’s kit engine is quite better detailed than many of the aftermarket resin engine sets i have seen. With just a few bits and wires added it should look beautiful. I will

As the final oil layer is very thin all the fading we have done on the base green is still visible, of course small amounts of white oil paint can be used in some areas if needed and blended with clean and dry brush.



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Drilling small holes on some of the engine parts will help us fix the wires later.

start with drilling holes in all the places where the cables and wiring will be placed. Holes will also be drilled on the frame that holds side engine covers where the fasteners are screwed. Firewall section is well detailed and it is a perfect

Engine side panel frame is well detailed but we need to drill through the locking nuts to make it more realistic.

base for further improvements, mainly cables, wires and hydraulic lines. Again, copper and plastic wrapped wire is used to add more realism and life to this section. Styrene rod is bent and used to represent rigid hydraulic lines.

More holes have been drilled on the main engine section to easily attach copper wires and plastic wrapped cables.

All the wires are now bent and connected to various firewall parts. Detailing now continues with the main section of Rolls-Royce engine. A piece of styrene rod is glued on the right hand side between the two engine blocks and twelve

holes are then drilled trough to accommodate ignition cables. Instead of just using the wire, we are going to cut off small pieces of plastic wire wrapping and place it on one side of each of the twelve copper wire pieces to simulate caps and to

Basic engine assembly look great even just out of the box, with some wires and extra details it will look better than most of the aftermarket resin engines.



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Firewall section is well detailed and it is a perfect base for further improvements, mainly cables, wires and hydraulic lines. Styrene rod is bent and used to represent rigid hydraulic lines.

All the wires are now bent and connected to various firewall parts.

A piece of styrene rod is glued on the right hand side between the two engine blocks and twelve holes are then drilled trough to accommodate ignition cables. Instead of just using the wire, we are going to cut off small pieces of plastic wire wrapping and place it on one side of each of the twelve copper wire pieces to simulate caps and to further add more realism.

Thicker plastic ends of wires are then glued in the holes with small amount of superglue.

Wires are now carefully bent inwards.

Same goes for the engine sides where pieces of styrene rod will be used together with ignition wires we just made.



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Chapter III BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - SPITFIRE MK. IXc further add more realism. Thicker plastic ends of wires are then glued in the holes and bent inwards. Same goes for the engine sides where pieces of styrene rod will be used together with ignition wires we just made. More copper wire is then used to add various installation lines to the engine body. Keeping the wire straight and bent at an angle is important when simulating rigid lines and metal pipes. Flexible plastic wrapped wires are now added to the engine supporting frame. As majority of these

Copper wire is then used to add various installation lines to the engine body. Keeping the wire straight and bent at an angle is important when simulating rigid lines and metal pipes.

Flexible plastic wrapped wires are now added to the engine supporting frame. As majority of these lines run along the metal bars they should be properly fastened. Thin strips of self-adhesive aluminium foil are used to fasten the cables to the frame.

Dry fitting and constant checking is needed at this stage as we are adding a lot of extra details which can disrupt the perfect fit of the parts.

lines run along the metal bars they should be properly fastened. Thin strips of selfadhesive aluminium foil are used to fasten the cables to the frame. Aluminium strips are wrapped toward the inside so that both ends are hidden when looked from the outside. Fine pointed tweezers are now used to squeeze aluminium strips so that they conform to the cable for more natural look. Dry fitting and constant checking is needed at this stage as we are adding a lot of extra details which can disrupt the perfect fit of the parts. Some wires and cable need to be trimmed in order to make everything fit together nicely. Hydraulic fluid tanks got their pipes as well as pipe fasteners made with aluminium strips. With wide variety of colour elements used in detailing the engine area, primer coat is airbrushed on everything for easier inspection and further detailing if desired. Uniform colour of the entire assembly makes it easier to spot any mistakes and messed up areas. Everything is now

Addition of simple elements and details makes a great improvement of the kit parts.



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With wide variety of colour elements used in detailing the engine area, primer coat is airbrushed on everything for easier inspection and further detailing if desired.

divided in to two groups for painting, engine parts are airbrushed with LifeColor UA207 Schwarzgrau mixed with a drop of gloss cote for satin like finish while the engine frame and the firewall section have received two thin coats of our cockpit green mix. One side of the engine supporting frame is left loose

as if assembled now it would be difficult to paint all the details from the inside. Green colour is followed by shading with Tamiya X-1 Black to create more contrast and a base for further detail enhancement. Fine pointed brush is now used to paint all the details. Aluminium strip fasteners are painted with black in a way

Constant dry fitting of all the parts is essential when adding extra details to the kit parts.

that we paint two narrow strips on each side of the fastener so it would look like the real thing where the rubber piece is placed under the fastener ring. All the screws and rivets are painted with slightly lighter shade of yellow-green which is then used for raised details and edge highlights. Cables and wires are painted in a

few different shades of dark grey to avoid even and boring single colour elements. Some placards have been painted on hydraulic fluid tanks in the same way we did it for oxygen bottles earlier. Burnt Umber overall oil wash is now applied to all firewall and supporting frame elements, everything except the engine itself. Oil

Some of the wires and cables will be trimmed off later.



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Chapter III BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - SPITFIRE MK. IXc The engine frame and the firewall section have received two thin coats of our cockpit green mix. Note that one side of the engine supporting frame is left loose as if assembled now it would be difficult to paint all the details from the inside.

Shading with Tamiya X-1 Black is applied to create more contrast and a base for further detail enhancement.

Fine pointed brush is now used to paint all the details. Aluminium strip fasteners are painted with black in a way that we paint two narrow strips on each side of the fastener so it would look like the real thing where the rubber piece is placed under the fastener ring.

wash is applied to tone down all the colours and to make everything look heavily used, dusty and dirty. Great care must be taken here when applying the ways because of all the small and fragile elements so take your time to do it gently and slowly. Side panel fastening frames are treated more heavily to simulate wear and tear of frequent panel removal and servicing. Paint chipping is applied with light yellow-green and fine pointed brush around screw holes. Area around exhaust is further treated with black-brown oil mix to simulate deep shadows, heavily burnt oil stains and dirt. Oil tank and carburettor air intake will be painted in natural metal finish and before doing so, some surface preparations are needed in order to get the metal finish to look right. First, both parts are sanded so that there are no perfectly

smooth areas, then they are treated with micromesh cloth to make the surface even and with tiny scratches all around. Gunze Sangyo Mr Metal 218 Aluminium is now applied with large flat brush without any special procedure just simply brushed on and left aside to dry. Some twelve hours later a soft paper towel is used to rub the parts for some twenty minutes or so, slowly and by applying just a little bit of pressure. Buffing the painted surface will make it shiny but because of tiny surface scratches it will look more like the real aluminium than if we simply brushed it onto smooth surface of the part. There is really no accurate recipe here, once you start buffing you will know when to stop once you are satisfied with the final metal look. When buffing is done, some subtle shading is applied and then the part is gently rubbed with



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Some placards have been painted on hydraulic fluid tanks as well as paint chipping on side panel supporting frames.

micromesh cloth to accentuate the scratches and used look a bit more. The only drawback of Gunze Sangyo Mr Metal Good looking natural metal finish is always difficult to achieve, simple technique of buffing and burnishing Gunze Sangyo Mr Metal 218 Aluminium is my favourite.

Burnt Umber overall oil wash is now applied to all firewall and supporting frame elements. Oil wash is applied to tone down all the colours and to make everything look heavily used, dusty and dirty.

paints is the fact that they will leave metal particles on your fingers if touched which really depends on how much

you buff them, more buffing means less paint residue on your fingers. One option is to spray flat or satin cote over it but that would then give us more oxidised aluminium look. I simply leave it as is and i do not touch it,

simple and effective enough. Engine coolant tank is painted and weathered in the same manner. Now, the engine! LifeColor UA207 Schwarzgrau mixed with LifeColor gloss cote in 3:1 ratio is airbrushed as a base colour. Before the dry-brush

Oil tank looks shiny and scratched, some weathering and shading will make it look more realistic.



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Chapter III BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - SPITFIRE MK. IXc Main engine parts are airbrushed with LifeColor UA207 Schwarzgrau mixed with a drop of gloss cote for satin like finish.

We will use Gunze Sangyo Mr Metal 218 Aluminium as main dry-brush paint and Mr Metal 214 Dark Iron for getting the dark shine on some of the engine sections.

The brush should not leave any traces on a flat surface but should make nice highlights on the raised details and edges. Note when drybrushing, always use a side of the brush only, never the tip!

process i would like to explain some basics of dry-brushing with metallic paints. Again, we are using Gunze Sangyo Mr Metal 218 Aluminium as main dry-brush paint and Mr Metal 214 Dark Iron for getting the dark shine on some of the engine sections. Medium size flat brush is used for this task. Shake and open the paint bottle, dip the brush in the paint that is left on the bottle cap and brush will pick up enough of it. Now, start brushing the paper towel until no more paint trails are visible and then continue for a few more strokes, we want the brush completely dry! Take a piece of painted plastic from spares box and test it, the brush should not leave any traces on a flat surface but should make nice highlights on the edges. Also, when dry-brushing always use a side of the brush only, never the tip! Start with gently brushing all the raised edges and details while holding the brush at low angle so that the side of the brush is touching the part. Brush strokes should be as if you were wiping the dust off, light and gentle. This engine is simple perfect for this type of work and as soon as you start you will notice a huge difference and amazing level of details. Once the entire engine is brushed go for one more round and do not touch it with your hands. This is all done with just one brush dip into the paint, if the trail becomes faint simply apply little more pressure. Some of the parts have to be painted in natural metal and to do so, gently brush the part with brush tip or even stubbing motions with the brush will do. As only the finest metal paint particles are left in the brush, the finish of those metal parts will look fabulous. The same process is repeated with Dark Iron paint which is applied to the large and flat areas of the engine to give it dark metallic shine. The engine is now carefully fitted to the frame and the firewall section, some nudges and cable rearrangements are necessary for everything to fit together nicely. I will not glue the engine as some more adjustments may be needed later, the fit is so nice and tight that glue is not required anyway. Side cover holders are now fitted as well although with some minor issues caused by cables and wires, again a few nudges with tweezers and everything is in its



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Some of the parts have to be painted in natural metal and to do so, gently brush the part with brush tip or even stubbing motions with the brush will do.

The main engine section is now warn off enough and all the details are highly visible.

place, safe and sound. Engine cover frame is locked in place with tiny drops of super glue applied with the toothpick. Exhaust pipes are painted with LifeColor UA207 Schwarzgrau and then Burnt Umber oil was is applied.

the exhaust parts onto a piece of BluTac wrapped around the barbecue stick. Engine assembly is now complete and ready for one final touch to be perfect and almost ready for ignition. Another drybrush round over the entire thing,

While the wash is still wet we will dust it with rust coloured pigments or dry pastel powder. Pigments will stick to wet oil and create irregular coarse surface just like on the real thing. For easier handling and painting i have arranged all

this time more subtle so we do not end up with all metal looking front section of the Spitfire. The brush is this time wipe off even more vigorously than before for the engine. We will concentrate on the cables and wires and then engine

The engine is now carefully fitted to the frame and the firewall section, some nudges and cable rearrangements are necessary for everything to fit together nicely.



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No glue is used until side panel frames are fitted in.

Exhaust pipes are painted with LifeColor UA207 Schwarzgrau and then Burnt Umber oil was is applied. While the wash is still wet we will dust it with rust coloured pigments or dry pastel powder.

Side panel frames are now fitted as well although with some minor issues caused by cables and wires.



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The engine and firewall assembly is now compact, solid and well detailed. Another dry-brush round over the entire thing, this time more subtle so we do not end up with all metal looking front section of the Spitfire.

frame and supporting bars. Very light and gentle brush motions will create barely noticeable but highly effective edge highlights. As for the cables, only the top sections are treated which makes them more noticeable and the whole area to look busier and complex. Some modellers like to use light grey or white paint for the dry-brush of the engine and surrounding elements while metallic paint works the best for me. It is easy to work with, produces very smooth and realistic highlights and one brush dip can last for hours of dry-brushing. As the finest metal particles from the paint will remain in the brush after it

has been wiped off, the final result is guaranteed to be perfect. With the engine section now being done i will sort out all the other details before continuing the paint job and the markings placement. Upper fuel tank is next. Subtle shading is done with Tamiya X-1 Black highly diluted with alcohol which will be our base for further weathering with oils. A piece of 0.4mm thick aluminium sheet is now cut to measure and shaped to form the tank cover. Shaping is done by simple conforming the piece on the kit tank cover that we have separated from the fuselage earlier. Fuel filler

cap hole and fastener holes have been drilled before we shaped the piece. Size of the piece is 28.5mm wide and 44.5mm long. If you do not want to mess around with aluminium tank cover even though it is really easy job, you can thin out the kit piece

and get almost the same result. I could not resist to test Gunze Sangyo Mr Metal 218 Aluminium here and paint the kit tank cover with it just for comparison with the real aluminium piece, the result i have got looks pretty close to the real thing. Burnt umber oils

Side panel frames are locked in place with tiny drops of super glue applied with the toothpick.



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Subtle shading on the fuel tank is done with Tamiya X-1 Black highly diluted with alcohol which will be our base for further weathering with oils.

Aluminium tank cover is formed by bending the piece of aluminium sheet over the kit part.

Kit part representing the fuel tank cover is brush painted with Gunze Sangyo Mr Metal 218 Aluminium and compared to the real aluminium piece, looks pretty close to the real thing.

Cover now fits perfectly to the fuel tank which means we will be able to show it in its place once everything is done.

are now used to make the fuel tank and its cover dirty and with fuel stains concentrated around the filler cap. Oil paint is diluted with enamel thinner in 1:1 ratio, applied in very small dots around the filler cap and then blended with clean

and dry brush. Process is the repeated once more with black oil paint applied in even smaller amounts around the filler cap and blended in. Same procedure is followed on the tank cover which is previously been painted in Ocean Grey

and Dark Green. A few light strokes with micromesh cloth along the cover edges will reveal bare aluminium and make the piece look more warn out. Cover now fits perfectly to the fuel tank which means we will be able to show

it in its place once everything is done. Landing gear is then treated the same way with the shading first and a few dots of Burnt Umber in the most recessed areas. Wheels are painted black and then

Oil paint is diluted with enamel thinner in 1:1 ratio, applied in very small dots around the filler cap and then blended with clean and dry brush to create fuel stains on the fuel tank as well as on the cover. A few light strokes with micromesh cloth along the cover edges will reveal bare aluminium and make the piece look more warn out.



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Landing gear assembled, painted and shaded with Tamiya X-1 Black. Gunze Sangyo Mr Metal 218 Aluminium is brushed on the rims.

drybrushed for a few minutes with Gunze Sangyo Mr Metal 218 Aluminium until completely covered. Radiator air intakes are painted with LifeColor UA207 Schwarzgrau and then drybrushed with Gunze Sangyo Mr Metal 218 to bring out all the fine surface details. Landing flaps are now prepared for panting in bare metal finish as i am going to place them in down position. Ejection pin marks are all over the inside area of the flaps and we need to remove them on order to get satisfying results.

Since all the pins are located between flap ribs we cannot just sand them dawn, instead we will use curved blade knife to scrape them away first. Curved section of the blade is pressed beside the ping and pulled over it while applying a little pressure to it. Scraping motion is done in one direction only and until the pin mark is flush with the surface. Fine sanding paper is then rolled in a cylinder and gently rubbed back and forth to smooth the surface and make it even. With all the details done and

Curved blade is used to scrape off ejector pin marks from the landing flaps.

Again, Mr Metal 218 Aluminium is used to accentuate all the beautiful details of the radiator intakes.

oil paint dry on the Spitfire it is time to move on with finishing the model. Further random fading of green areas is now done with Tamiya paints XF-65 Field Grey, XF-62 Olive Drab and XF-58 Olive green, each mixes with a little bit of XF-3 Flat Yellow. Important thing here is the fact that this fading is done with matt instead of gloss paints which make things a bit more difficult. Matt paints dry faster than gloss paints which also have a better flow in the airbrush. To compensate for this fast drying

Fine sanding paper is wrapped around a piece of brass tube and used to smooth down any imperfections on landing flaps.

we will add distilled water to the mix so the final mix ratios for the fading would be 1 part paint, 5 parts alcohol and 3 parts water. After the fading process, the entire model will receive a thin coat of matt varnish and it is ready for masking and painting of the markings. With no particular reason, fuselage code letters, band and tail letter are the first to be painted with custom made Sky mix consisting of LifeColor UA095 Sky, UA204 Dunkelgelb and LC01 White in 5:4:1 ratio. LifeColor UA095

Craw bar is easily made from a piece of styrene rod.



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Further random fading of green areas is now done with Tamiya paints XF-65 Field Grey, XF-62 Olive Drab and XF-58 Olive green, each mixes with a little bit of XF-3 Flat Yellow.

Fuselage code letters, band and tail letter are the first to be painted with custom made Sky mix consisting of LifeColor UA095 Sky, UA204 Dunkelgelb and LC01 White in 5:4:1 ratio.

White is airbrushed first for fuselage roundels and tail fin flash.

Followed with dark red mix made of Tamiya XF-7 Flat Red and XF-63 German Grey in 8:1 ratio.

Sky can be used here alone but it simple did not look right to me, apart from the fact that i really enjoy mixing paints. Poor coverage of the mix requires three or four coats instead of two so be careful when removing the masks not to tear the paint which is now a bit thick. Roundel masks are now positioned and surrounding areas additionally masked off.

roundels and then covered with masking elements for the next colour. When placing roundel masks use a few strips of Tamiya tape over the mask and lift all masking elements in one go, together with masking frame. When positioned on the model, remove all masking elements leaving just the frame on. Spray red mix for upper wing roundels and then put

White is airbrushed first for fuselage roundels followed by dark red mix for the wing roundels. Dark red mix consist of Tamiya XF-7 Flat Red and XF-63 German Grey in 8:1 ratio. Do not worry if the red now looks a bit too light, i will look just perfect once the clear cote is on. Red mix is sprayed at the centre section of wing upper and lower side

back the mask elements so that they fit the frame. Now remove outer ring leaving the centre ring in place and covering the red area. Blue mix is now sprayed on the outer ring of the roundel. Dark blue mix consists of Tamiya XF-8 Flat Blue, XF-7 Flat Red and X-1 Black in 4:1:1 ratio, again this will look a bit lighter than we need but will be good once



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All the markings are now sprayed and unmasked, roundels still looks a bit too light which will be taken care of with a thin coat of mat varnish.

Fuselage roundel masks have lifted some of the paint of the fuselage code, fine pointed brush is then used to touch up chipped letters with our custom made Sky mix.

we spray the clear coat on. As i have not waited long enough for the paint on the fuselage codes to dry properly i have to deal with consequences. Fuselage roundel masks have lifted some of the paint of the fuselage code, not a big deal but unnecessary step in the process. Fine pointed brush is used to touch up chipped letters with our custom made Sky mix. upper wing walking area lines are masked and

painted together with fuselage code MK126 in LifeColor UA207 Schwarzgrau. Entire model is now airbrushed with Future floor wax polish to prepare the surface for panel line oil wash. You can now notice that our roundels are darker and looking perfect. Mix of Burnt Umber and Black oil is prepared and diluted with enamel thinner in 9:1 paint to thinner ratio and applied with round medium sized brush. Brush is first soaked in oil

A small lump behind the empty cartridge ejection hole will make it impossible to apply the kit decals, masks have done excellent job here.



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Lower side of the model is now treated with oil wash with more mess to simulate heavier oil streaks, dirt, wear and tear. Wash is applied without too much care, along the panel lines, here and there.

wash and then we just have to touch recessed panel lines with the brush tip and capillary force will do the rest. Best points for applying the wash are places where two or more panel lines meet, that way we cover larger areas with each

brush to model contact. As oils tend to settle down in enamel thinner, shake the bottle every so often to get the best consistency of the mix. Lower side of the model is now treated with oil wash and rather with more mess to

simulate heavier oil streaks, dirt, wear and tear. As the entire surface is covered in rivets we will apply the wash to only some of them to avoid too many rivets shadowing the other details. Wash is applied without too much care, along

the panel lines, here and there. Few hours later when the wash is dry we will start working our way from front to tail with thinner moistened cotton swab, few light strokes and the rotating the swab tip to start again with clean section. Keep the cleaning strokes in the air flow directions as that way we will get very nice looking oil and dirt streaks going from the front sections of airplane. Try not to be too neat and clean everything to be like new, lower areas of the aircraft do need to look dirty! Sometimes when working with enamel thinner When the wash is dry, we will start working our way from front to tail with thinner moistened cotton swab, few light strokes and the rotating the swab tip to start again with clean section. Keep the cleaning strokes in the air flow directions as that way we will get very nice looking oil and dirt streaks going from the front sections of airplane.



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Airbrush shading is just as important as the oil wash for highly effective weathering.

A thin layer of future is sprayed on for placement of decals and stencils. Note how that one layer affects the colour of roundels which are now just perfect.

Kit decals have proved to be rather difficult to apply, poor adhesive resulted in silvering on every single decal element. To fix this, a drop of white glue diluted with water is brushed on the spot and decals applied while it is still wet.

Humbrol matt clear is now de-canned into an empty jar and airbrushed on the model to seal everything. Flat surface now looks good but some more panel fading can be done, Tamiya XF-53 Neutral Grey mixed with white in 1:1 ratio is randomly sprayed on some panels, gun bay covers and fuselage spine line.

over Future, we can encounter colour lightening and discolouration on some areas, nothing be worried about as the top flat coat will straighten this out. Panel line shading is next to be done on lower sides with highly diluted Tamiya X-1 Black. Keep the airbrush very close to the model and spray with barely visible mixture flow. Again, shading should not be very noticeable when looking from close range. A bit heavier shading is done around empty cartridge disposal openings, at the root of Hispano cannons and in the wheel bays. When done, another layer of future is sprayed on for placement of decals and stencils. I have tried every possible solution but the kit decals are simply relentless, silvering no matter what you do. Almost at the end of my patience i got an

in warm water for about 10 seconds and then dip just the decal without backing sheet

idea to try and sort it out with white glue diluted with water, and it worked! Dip the decal

in diluted white glue, once positioned on the model gently remove excess glue mix with

Highly diluted Tamiya X-1 is now used for panel line shading and creating dirt streaks on upper surfaces.



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Chapter III BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - SPITFIRE MK. IXc Pieces of Tamiya tape have been used along panel lines to airbrush the streaks and dirt marks on some panels, mainly behind gun covers, on ailerons and rear moving surfaces.

Shading should be subtle and barely noticeable.

A bit heavier shading is done on ailerons and recessed areas where they meet the wing.

Well diluted is much more easy to control and we can always make another pass with the airbrush contrary to thick mixture where mistakes are highly visible and hard to fix.

wet brush which is also used to position the decal in its place. This has been the only problem with the build so far, not sure if it is just my kit or Tamiya got it wrong somehow with this one. Humbrol matt clear is now de-canned into an empty jar and airbrushed on the model to seal everything. Flat surface now looks good but some more panel fading can be done, Tamiya XF-53 Neutral Grey mixed with white in 1:1 ratio is randomly sprayed on some panels, gun bay covers and fuselage spine line. Light grey fading can be applied on green surfaces as well as long as it is barely noticeable. Highly diluted Tamiya X-1 is now used for panel line shading and creating dirt streaks on upper surfaces. Pieces of Tamiya tape have been used along panel lines to airbrush the streaks and dirt marks on some panels, mainly behind gun covers, on ailerons and rear moving surfaces. Black mixture for shading is barely noticeable on yellow Tamiya tape which shows how diluted the mixture is, almost transparent. Mixture well diluted is much more easy to control and we can always make another pass with the airbrush contrary to thick mixture where mistakes are highly visible and hard to fix. Canopy placement is next, it has been masked off and painted each time we were painting the main airframe so the colour is consistent. We could attach it at the beginning but then the masking has to be done much more carefully to prevent any misting of the clear parts from the inside which them implicated their removal, polishing and so on. Attaching clear parts et the very end ensures that

they stay clean and clear, polished and shiny. Small amount of Pacer Formula 560 Canopy Glue is applied along the contact surface with the toothpick and the parts are then carefully positioned and adjusted so that the fit and alignment is perfect. Cotton swab is moistened with water and excess glue is gently wiped off, away from the clear area to prevent smudges. Sliding canopy section is simply placed on the top of fixed clear part once everything else is done. Instrument panel backside wires and cables are now trimmed and carefully diverted to go below the fuel tank and trough the holes we drilled trough the surface where the instrument panel is mounted. We will also gently press all the wires slightly backward to get enough room to insert the fuel tank but also to get more realistic look of that section with all the wires cramped in that little space. The fuel tank is not glued in place as there is no need for it, wires and firewall section will hold it in place firmly enough so it does not pops out when you move the model. Another option is to fix it with a little bit of BluTac at the bottom. A tiny holes are now drilled at the tip of both horizontal stabilizers to accommodate the antenna wire which is made from stretched sprue. One end of antenna wire is inserted in the hole on the tip of left stabilizer and secured with tiny drop of superglue applied with a piece of copper wire. Now, we will drill two holes on each side of the fuselage just a little behind the radio door, its already marked on the model and we need to drill trough. Antenna wire is now patiently pushed through one hole and a few seconds



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Instrument panel backside wires and cables are now trimmed and carefully diverted to go below the fuel tank and trough the holes we drilled trough the surface where the instrument panel is mounted.

Attaching clear parts et the very end ensures that they stay clean and clear, polished and shiny. Small amount of Pacer Formula 560 Canopy Glue is applied along the contact surface with the toothpick and the parts are then carefully positioned and adjusted so that the fit and alignment is perfect.

All the little pieces are now fitted in except for the fuel tank which is fixed in placed with a little bit of BluTac so we can nudge it if needed when installing the engine assembly.

later it came out at the other side of the fuselage. This end is now carefully tightened with tweezers, trimmed to measure and inserted into the hole at the tip of right stabilizer and fixed with superglue. This way seems easier to me while it is not the only way to do it. Engine assembly is now carefully mounted to the fuselage and the radio door is glued in its place with a little bit of superglue. Radio door supporting bar is made from thin styrene rod. Our Spitfire is now done and ready to be displayed. Just a little effort for

a great reward! Tamiya’s Spitfire is easily one of the nicest models i have ever assembled, pure joy in every possible way. Almost completely a care free build with no need of planning twenty steps in advance or constantly wondering is everything going fit nicely at the end, in fact i do not think that you can mess it up even if you want to. Now, i must mention that it would be nice if we got those gun bays a bit more detailed and a couple of Hispano cannons but hey, let’s not be too picky.

Landing flaps mechanism which protrudes the upper wing is glued with superglue and brush painted with Mr Metal 218 Aluminium.



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If you decide to leave the spinner cap off, paint the inside area with LifeColor UA207 Schwarzgrau and dry-brush it with Mr Metal 218 Aluminium.



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P-47D THUNDERBOLT



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P-47D THUNDERBOLT Kit summary Trumpeter’s P-47D ‘Razorback’ looks like a perfect kit from the moment you open the box, but after detailed check of all the parts some things start to look wrong. Trumpeter is known for their rivet mania and this kit is no exception. I actually do like riveted kits as they can really improve overall look and add to realism of the model. There is no doubt that every single rivet that was present on real Thunderbolt is represented here and that is not the problem, however, their size is. Deep and rather large rivets are not in scale here, fortunately there are ways to make them look just right. Another thing is the firewall area which is taken from their P-47N version of the kit and certainly not suitable for our Razorback. Wings to the fuselage fit could be better as well as the tail fin root filet which is present on one fuselage half while simply not there on the other. On the other hand, engine and cockpit parts are crisply and well detailed and fairly accurate. Good selection and amount of bombs, rockets, rocket launchers, fuel tanks, spinners and propeller variants is another bonus and high point. What looks like a mixed bag here is actually a good kit which can be easily turned into a great looking model with a little time and effort, even for not so advanced modeller.

78 BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - P-47D THUNDERBOLT


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Chapter III BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - P-47D THUNDERBOLT

BEFORE WE START Aftermarket sets used in this build: ■ Eduard BigED BIG3266 P-47D-20 ■ Vector Scale Resin Engines 32001 Pratt & Whitney R-2800 A/B style ■ Hobby Decal ST32001V1 P-47 Dry Transfer Stencils ■ Maketar Paint Masks - 32039 P-47D Thunderbolt ‘Lethal Liz II’

Tools and materials: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Cyanoacrylate glue Tamiya cement Tamiya extra thin cement Scalpel and tweezers Drilling pin vise Masking tape in various widths BluTack Sanding sticks and files Mr. Surfacer 500 and/or Mr. Surfacer 1000 Pacer Formula 560 - Canopy Glue Styrene sheet in various size and thickness Lead, copper and flexible wire Magic Sculpt modelling clay Brass tubes Modellers saw

Paints used: Artist oils: ■ Burnt Umber ■ Black ■ White ■ Yellow LifeColor acrylic paints: ■ LC27 Matt Clear ■ LC01 Matt White ■ UA042 Chrome Yellow ■ UA006 Green ■ UA045 Non Specular Intermediate Blue ■ UA207 Schwarz Grau

Side panels have been cut out with sharp pointed blade and the edges smoothed with fine sanding paper. Top side panel covering hydraulic tanks and lines has been removed as well.

THE BUILD The build starts with inspection of the fuselage and making plans for panel openings, what can be done to make the model look dynamic and interesting and above all, what’s the easiest way to do it. First thing that i would like to be visible is the rear compartment of the engine and the firewall area. Side panels have been cut out with sharp pointed blade and the edges smoothed with fine sanding paper. Top side panel covering hydraulic tanks and lines

has been removed as well. P-47N variant had this section opened towards the engine area while P-47D ‘Razorback’ variant had a closed sections for hydraulic tanks and various installation lines which means that we will have to make that container from styrene sheet. With closer inspection it is pretty much clear that everything from the firewall area has to go as almost nothing is done right. Oil tank is a bit strange in shape and size as well as the water tank which is somewhat too

Tamiya acrylic paints: ■ X-1 Gloss Black ■ XF-64 Red Brown ■ X-32 Titanium Silver ■ XF-10 Flat Brown Alclad II Lacquers: ■ Duraluminium ALC-102 ■ Dark Aluminium ALC-103 ■ Semi Matt Aluminium ALC-116 ■ White Aluminium ALC-106 ■ Polished Aluminium ALC-105 ■ Polished Brass ALC-109 Gunze Sangyo paints and primers: ■ Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium ■ Mr. Surfacer 1000 Testors Model Master enamel paints: ■ 1790 Chrome Silver ■ Revell enamel paints ■ 09 Matt Anthracite Grey ■ 036 Matt Carmine Red

Firewall frame part is made from styrene sheet by outlining the original part first. Bottom section is then glued first and left aside to cure before we press it against the firewall part to conform to its shape.



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Hydraulic tank container which sits at the top of the firewall is made from 0.25mm thick styrene sheet.

flat and too wide. Considering that we need to make new tank another problem arises, engine supporting frame which would be too narrow to accommodate the oil tank. Kit part which represents the firewall frame has some junction boxes that are out of place and the part itself was a bit twisted, not sure this is a general problem or just with my kit. Firewall frame part is made from styrene sheet by outlining the original part first. Bottom section is then glued first and left aside to cure before we press it against the firewall part to conform to its shape. Clamps are now used to hold the pieces together for an hour or so. Hydraulic tank container which sits at the top of the firewall is made from 0.25mm thick styrene sheet. Two rectangular lumps found at the bottom of that upper sections have been removed and the opening is then measured.

Magic Sculpt is used to make most of the details behind the engine. Note the bad shaped water tank at the far back.

Some pieces of the new part have been cut and trimmed a few times in order to get perfect fit. Once the part is done and fits tightly into the opening we will make the top frame where fasteners are screwed into and glue it in its place. New part is now glued to the firewall section while the two fuselage halves are dry fitted. This is important as if we simply glued it to the firewall while detached from the fuselage it may not fit the fuselage opening later. Container is glued to the firewall only and not to the

Clamps have been used to hold the new firewall frame in place until the glue fully cures. New firewall frame is thinner and better looking.

fuselage halves too. Engine supporting frame is next. Styrene rod 1.8mm thick is used for the main frame bars and 1.4mm diameter rod for the cross bars and oil tank support. A bit larger diameter styrene rod is used for the base structure which is bolted to the firewall frame, 2.5mm diameter will do. This rod is now drilled with 2.2mm drill bit to make a pipe of it. We could use a styrene pipe in the first place but the pipe walls are too thick to look good. Next step is to cut one end at very high angle to get sharp cone.

Another one, thinner piece of styrene rod is now inserted into newly formed pipe from the back side and to about 1mm from the coned opening. Small and shallow hole is now drilled here to simulate the screw head opening. Four of these pieces are requires and all of them are the same size and length, approximately 6mm long from the base to the cone tip. Smaller diameter piece which was inserted from the back side of the coned pipe will be left to stick out some 2mm and would be fitted into the hole on the firewall frame.



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Scratchbuilt engine supporting frame, oil tank and upper container dry fitted to check for any eventual fit problems.

Four holes are now marked and drilled in the firewall frame and four coned pieces dry fitted in place. Cone opening is facing outwards and an angle of 45 degrees. A piece of styrene rod 1.4mm in diameter is now measured and cut to fit

between the upper two coned pieces and then glued to those two carefully not to glue it to the firewall. Pieces of 1.8mm diameter styrene rod are now measured to fit between coned pieces and the forward engine firewall.

More panels have been cut open by using drill and cut technique. Metal strip with fastener holes is made from narrow piece of styrene sheet and glued in place.

New pieces will be glued roughly at the same position where the kit frame would go. One end of each bar is not also cut at an angle to form the cone. It is hard to explain at which angle this should be cut but it is very easy to get it right. First, cut the cone at approximately 60 degrees angle and then dry fit it, coned side should go on the base structure piece and the other end should go the forward engine firewall inner ring. Now just correct the cone angle is if does not sit tight on the base structure coned pipe. Sounds complicated but it is not, a few test fits and some wasted styrene rod and we are done. Photos will actually explain it a bit better and show how simple the structure is. With the engine support frame now done i have got

the urge to open two more little panels going from the junction box panel towards the front. Holes are drilled along the panel line and then connected with sharp pointed blade. Opening edges are then sanded with small square file and later with fine sanding paper wrapped around the file. Styrene strip is then glued to the forward opening edge, the thing that holds the side panel. Lower section between the two side panels did not have this piece where fasteners are screwed into. When cutting narrow strips from the styrene sheet use steel ruler and very sharp blade. Do not cut all the way trough in one go as the will deform and twirl the strip, instead do it with a few light passes of the blade until the strip is separated from the sheet. When attaching



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Again, Eduard photo etched parts are a great improvement over kit part for the gun sight.

Eduard photo etched set is welcomed addition to the cockpit. Kit instrument panel back plate is used and further detailed with lead, copper and plastic wrapped wires.

the strip to the curved edge first glue one end and leave it to fully cure the apply glue along the entire edge and slowly conform the strip to the edge shape and hold it a few seconds with tweezers. Once i get a bit tired from working on one section of the model i simply start working on something else. This helps me not to try to finish something at all cost and as soon as possible just because i got tired of it which usually ends up with not satisfying results. As the cockpit does not require too much work and improvements we will start working on it now and finish it before getting back to the firewall and engine area. Kit cockpit features fairly large amount of crisp details and the only thing missing here is a few bundles of cables, wires and pipelines to make it look decent. I will be using Eduard’s pre painted photo etched parts for further detailing, not all of them though. Lead wire,

soft and flexible plastic wrapped wire and stretched sprue are used for cockpit detailing. Floor section of the cockpit received a few hydraulic and installation lines mainly in the forward section behind rudder pedals. Cockpit heating pipes are represented with thin styrene rods at the centre forward section. Styrene rods and stretched sprue are ideal for these kinds of tasks, they are easily conformed to any shape and glued in place with a drop of Tamiya extra thin cement. Another advantage is the fact that you can stretch a sprue in any desirable thickness. Kit instrument panel back side features some basic details but considering the fact that just a very small part of this section will be visible at the end, it is enough to make it

0.25mm thick styrene sheet section is fitted to the cockpit wall to as a base for further detailing. Piece of styrene sheet is use used to make two rib sections, one for each side of the junction box.

Different gauges of styrene rod sections are now glued to this square section to represent connection points for various installation lines.

look good. Different thickness of lead wire and plastic wrapped wire have been used for lines and cables, some of very thin wires were twisted and bundled together for more realistic look. Upper sections of the instrument panel part are trimmed with modelling knife as they are sticking out when Eduard’s pre-painted photo etched instrument panel is fitted. Bundled thin wires, lead wires and stretched sprue are used to detail cockpit

walls in the same manner as the floor. Section of styrene rod is added as the cockpit light on the left hand side wall. Eduard’s back side section is a great addition and just a shame it would not be fully visible once the pilot seat is installed. With the cockpit tub and most of its details now in place, gun sight is next before we can start painting. Combination of kit parts and Eduard’s photo etched parts will make this highly visible



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Chapter III BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - P-47D THUNDERBOLT part a real eye candy. Thick lead wire is also added and inserted through the upper side hole to represent a tube for delivering hot air to the gun sight glass. Some care must be taken when adding details to the gun sight assembly as tiny photo etched parts are making it fragile. We are now going to add details to the outer left side cockpit wall which would be visible through the opened access panels. Larger access panel that we have opened reveals the junction box with various kinds of hydraulic

and electrical lines and installations. The easiest and most convenient thing is to add all the parts and details directly to the cockpit wall rather than directly on to the fuselage. With supercharger cold air pipes glued in place, the cockpit wall fits perfectly to the fuselage half and makes just enough space in between to fit all the details of the junction box. Now a 0.25mm thick styrene sheet section is fitted to the cockpit wall to as a base for further detailing, better solution than filling and sanding all the gaps on the outer cockpit wall section. Piece of styrene sheet is now

use used to make two rib sections, one for each side of the junction box. These parts are not that important as they will be visible only when looking from certain angle from the front and back of the airplane, enough for a little extra effort to make them and to add more realism. Dry fitting the parts is necessary with addition of each new element to this section to ensure that everything fits together nicely and to avoid fixing things later. Cockpit wall is now dry fitted to the fuselage and lead pencil is used from the outside of the fuselage and trough the opened access panel to mark the spot where we should place the main

parts of the junction box. Square section made from 2mm thick styrene strip is now glued to the cockpit wall as a base for all the little details. Different gauges of styrene rod sections are now glued to this square section to represent connection points for various installation lines. Smaller gauge rod sections are then glued to the side of some of the larger rod sections to make junction connectors and further add more life to this area. Fine pointed tweezers are used to hold and position all the small elements, to glue them in place it is enough just to touch the brush of Tamiya extra thin cement with the part. Stretched sprue and styrene

Junction box with various installation lines will add more life to the model.

One more dry fit before we start painting just to make sure everything fits nicely and all of the elements are visible trough the panel openings. Even without the paint everything looks nice and busy with lots of fine and crisp details.



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Panel frames have been recessed slightly for more interesting and three dimensional look.

rod are now used to make installation lines which can be nicely bent by twisting them around a piece of brass tube. To add more diversity and realism we are going to make ‘T’ sections by using two pieces of styrene rod to represent junction connectors often found in junction boxes. Each end of this connector is fitted with pieces of styrene rod or stretched sprue. Two parallel styrene rod parts are now added the forward section

of the cockpit wall to be visible trough the two small access panels, like on the real ‘Jug’. One more dry fit before we start painting just to make sure everything fits nicely and all of the elements are visible trough the panel openings. Even without the paint everything looks nice and busy with lots of fine and crisp details. As previously with the Spitfire, cockpit is primed in grey before painting to get all the parts in one colour and to

LifeColor UA042 Chrome Yellow is airbrushed in three thicker coats to get good enough coverage, as the paint is semi gloss leave a few minutes between coats to allow it to dry.

avoid too many paint coats as the green paints used have terribly poor coverage properties, especially LifeColor UA042 Chrome Yellow. Outer side of the cockpit wall with all the installations is painted first. LifeColor UA042 Chrome Yellow is airbrushed in three thicker coats to get good enough coverage, as the paint is semi gloss leave a few minutes between coats to allow it to dry. LifeColor UA006 Green is mixed with LifeColor

UA042 Chrome Yellow in 1 to 1 ratio and airbrushed on all cockpit parts in two light coats. Fuselage area behind the cockpit is also airbrushed with interior green mix and everything is ready for some fading and shading. Tamiya X-1 Black is highly diluted with alcohol and airbrushed from very close range around raised detailed on all cockpit parts as well as on the fuselage section behind the cockpit. Cockpit floor is more heavily

LifeColor UA006 Green is mixed with LifeColor UA042 Chrome Yellow in 1 to 1 ratio and airbrushed on all cockpit parts in two light coats.



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Tamiya X-1 Black is highly diluted with alcohol and airbrushed from very close range around raised detailed on all cockpit parts.

treated than the other parts as the floor is naturally dirtiest section of the cockpit. We can as well use overall oil wash here but a bit heavier shading will do. A drop of yellow paint is now mixed with our interior

green mix and airbrushed on open areas between raised details to create more contrast and colour variation. Any light yellow-green mix of Tamiya paints can be used as well, diluted with alcohol, high

pressure and close range works the best. A few drops of white is now added to interior green mix and used for dry-brushing of the parts as they still look a bit too flat even after fading and shading. Light brush strokes over raised details will do the trick, remember that we are dry brushing with brush sides and not with the tip, actually it is more like dragging a flat brush over the details. Gunze Sangyo Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium can be used for dry brushing on the cockpit floor around the pedals and areas where pilot’s feet would wear and tear the surface. All the cockpit features and details are to be painted next, fine pointed

brush and LifeColor paints are used for the job. Constantly cleaning the brush with water after every few details painted will keep it soft and flexible, otherwise it would stiffen and make the painting difficult. Brush is lightly wiped off after every dip in the paint so that just small amount is left on the brush to prevent over-painting surrounding elements. Cable ties and fasteners are also simulated by painting light grey or black stripes across some of the wires and installation lines. For some of the smallest details we will use Eduard’s pre-painted photo etched parts, mainly placards, throttle side cover and map and document case cover. Those few details are very nicely

Fuselage section behind the cockpit has received the same shading treatment.



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Eduard’s photo etched pilot’s seat looks much better than the kit part, its much thinner and more detailed. Cockpit floor is more heavily treated than the other parts as the floor is naturally dirtiest section of the cockpit. We can as well use overall oil wash here but a bit heavier shading will do.

represented with photo etched parts and look more realistic than if painted on. Other cockpit parts are present in the pack as well but those are simply too flat and certainly not appropriate for 32nd scale, instead i will rather paint the kit parts which would give us more three dimensional look. Switch boards and all the switches are carefully painted and the final result is superior to any pre-painted aftermarket part. When painting switches, it is enough just to paint the top face rather than painting sides as well, those are to small and delicate and i would eventually paint the area around it. Edges of larger cockpit elements are carefully painted in light grey for black parts and light yellow-green for green parts to simulate highlights and add better feeling of depth. Air hose is painted black and dry brushed with light grey to accentuate fine

A few drops of white is now added to interior green mix and used for dry brushing of the cockpit parts.

surface details. Pilot seat is treated in the same manner as the rest of the cockpit, edges are painted in light grey to add highlights. Magic Sculpt

All the cockpit features and details are painted with fine pointed brush and LifeColor acrylic paints.

is used to make the seat cushion, after combining the two components we will set it aside for some two hours until it hardens enough for easier

All the cockpit features and details are painted with fine pointed brush and Life Eduard’s photo etched placards are used in the cockpit but all the other elements are brush painted as photo etched parts look too flat in this scale while the kit parts have perfect surface details. Color acrylic paints.

sculpting. Aluminium rollers are used to thin the piece to 1.5mm in thickness, a square shaped piece is then cut out with sharp pointed blade to

Simple but very busy looking cockpit wall. Eduard photo etched document case cover is used to replace kit part.



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Chapter III BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - P-47D THUNDERBOLT Gunze Sangyo Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium can be used for dry brushing on the cockpit floor around the pedals and areas where pilot’s feet would wear and tear the surface.

Seat cushion is made with Magic Sculpt and improves overall appearance of the seat.

fit the seat. While still barely workable, we will add seams along the edges by lightly pressing the modellers saw

teeth into the part. Last thing to do is to slightly deform corners so they are not sharp and perfect and to bend the cushion so it conforms the seat shape. Cushion is then painted with Tamiya XF-64 Red

Cockpit is carefully dry fitted to check for any potential problems, so far so good.

Brown followed by an overall oil wash to give it more leather like look. Gun sight is the last part left, even though overall black it does not have to be lifeless and boring. After carefully

inserting transparent film in to the frame. Reflector part is carefully cut out from the transparent film and glued in place with white glue as superglue would mist it. Photo etched crosshair is glued last

Another angle shows opened panels, junction box and installation lines a bit better.



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Even though overall black, the gun sight does not have to be lifeless and boring. Eduard’s photo etched parts make a great deal of difference on this part.

Photo etched instrument panel is now glued in place together with side gauge panels. As a final step, rudder pedals are dry brushed with Gunze Sangyo Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium.

as the most fragile part. By holding the assembly for the plastic section we will add some edge highlights and do some light dry brushing, just enough to accentuate more details. To get the effect

instrument panel is now glued in place together with side gauge panels. As a final step, rudder pedals are dry brushed with Gunze Sangyo Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium. Cockpit tub is now carefully assembled

of shiny optics we will add a drop of Testors Model Master 1790 Chrome Silver at the top part of the optics tube, do not brush it on just touch the part with the brush and the paint will cover it. Photo etched

and ready to be fitted later on. With the cockpit finished, we are now getting back to the engine and firewall section. As the kit water tank is incorrect in shape and size we need to make a new one, with Magic

Assembled cockpit tub ready to be fitted in the fuselage. Note the instrument panel wires, carefully painted and bent downward.

Another angle shows instrument panel dials and beautiful details of the cockpit wall.

Pilot seat is still missing seatbelts which would be fitted at the end.



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As the kit water tank is incorrect in shape and size we will make a new one with Magic Sculpt, tank left hand side is then drilled to accommodate filler tube which is made from a piece of styrene rod.

Before we fit the water tank in the firewall section, some details have been made from styrene rod and sheet sections to recreate hydraulic lines and cables.

New water tank fits perfectly and will look good once painted and weathered, a piece of BluTac can be used to temporarily hold the tank in place while adding some of the cables and installation lines.

Sculpt of course. After mixing equal proportions of the two components we will leave it aside for some two hours to harden and become more workable. Magic Sculpt can be worked right after mixing the two components but at that point it is too soft and sticky, we would need to use a lot of water on our fingers as well as on tools to prevent the mass sticking to everything it touches. We can also use talc powder as well but either way the mass will still be very soft and difficult to keep its shape. If we leave it aside to harden, the mass become more solid and easier to work with, it does not stick as much and does not deform easily. Making of the water tank starts with the cube shape which is placed on a piece of styrene sheet just to avoid sticking the mass on the work surface. Plastic ruler is now moistened with water and we can start deforming the cube to get desired shape. Place the ruler at the top of the

mass to make a seesaw and start pressing one end of the ruler so it touches the table and then do the same with the other, repeat a few times with light pressure applied, just like the seesaw. This process will give us sort of rectangular cross section of the piece but without sharp angles. Now, wet your fingers with water and start rounding the piece around the sides by moving index fingers around the piece. When we get the desired shape, we will smooth the entire piece by gently rubbing it with wet index fingers. we can also use sculpting or dentist’s tools. The piece is now set aside to fully cure overnight, we will then use some sanding paper to correct its shape if needed. Smoothing with wet fingers will make the surface as smooth as glass and to paint it we would need to do some sanding with fine sanding paper. Water tank left hand side is then drilled to accommodate



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Junction boxes of various shapes and sizes are made from styrene rod and strip sections and attached to the frame beams. Holes are drilled on each of the junction boxes for easier addition of the wires and cables.

filler tube which is made from a piece of styrene rod. Larger diameter rod section is used to make a filler cap. Sections of styrene rod, tube and strip are used to make most of the firewall installation elements. Rigid hydraulic lines have been made from 0.4 and 0.5mm styrene rod bent over brass tube to get nice bevelled angles. Tamiya extra thin cement is used to glue everything the main firewall part. Small pieces of styrene strip are glued to the firewall frame and some holes are drilled trough to accommodate lines and cables coming from and to the fuselage and the cockpit. Water tank is dry

Firewall elements dry fitted to the fuselage for one last time to check if anything needs to be fixed before the painting.

fitted a few times to check if everything goes along nicely, a piece of BluTac can be used to temporarily hold the tank in place while adding some of the cables and installation lines. Engine supporting frame is now detailed furthermore before the painting. Junction boxes of various shapes and sizes are made from styrene rod and strip sections and attached to the frame beams. Holes are drilled on each of

Main firewall section is airbrushed with Alclad II Duraluminium ALC-102 without any primer or special surface preparation in two light coats and left aside to fully dry.

the junction boxes for easier addition of the wires and cables. Small rectangular pieces of self adhesive vinyl are placed on some of the boxes to represent placards. Some ring clamps are placed randomly on the frame beams as well as behind the junction boxes for more realistic look and feel. To make a ring clamp simply wrap a tiny strip of styrene around the frame beam, hold the ends with fine pointed tweezers and apply a

Tamiya X-1 Black is used for shading which is now rather random than just concentrated around recessed areas and angles. This area of the aircraft is very dirty, dusty and oily and so the shading is a bit heavier. Overall oil wash can be applied as well.

tiny drop of Tamiya extra thin cement, when the glue cures simply cut off excess material with sharp pointed blade or small scissors. Everything is now dry fitted to the fuselage for one last time to check if anything needs to be fixed before the painting. Main firewall section is now airbrushed with Alclad II Duraluminium ALC-102 without any primer or special surface preparation. Two light coats are sprayed on and left aside

Water tank is painted with Alclad II Semi Matt Aluminium ALC-116 and then sealed with LifeColor LC27 Matt Clear. Two vertical strips are now masked of and painted black to represent the tank fastener belts, actually the black strips are rubber that goes beneath the steel belts.



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Forward fuselage inside sections are airbrushed with Alclad II White Aluminium ALC106 also without previously priming the surface.

LifeColor LC27 Matt Clear is applied next followed by shading with Tamiya X-1 mixed with XF-64 Red Brown.

Heavily weathered and stained, our firewall now looks like it really saw some action. Dry fit test before we glue fuselage halves together.



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When using LifeColor paints on multi coloured parts, it is necessary to prime all the parts to avoid different tones of the paint as a result of poor coverage.

Painting the two sections of engine supporting frame and forward firewall separately, not necessary but gives more control of the final appearance as the front part will be more weathered and warn off.

The same interior green mix we used for the cockpit is now airbrushed on the front section.

Overall Burnt Umber oil wash is applied next.

Large clean brush is used to remove excess oils and to blend everything nicely. More black oil paint can be added to darken this area further as it is located behind the engine and some soot and black dust would be present.

Details on the oil cooler air intake tube are painted with fine pointed brush, aluminium section between belt fasteners is painted with Gunze Sangyo Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium. This section is now done and awaiting the engine to be fitted.

to dry for an hour or so. Alclad II Dark Aluminium ALC-103 is then sprayed in cloud pattern to make subtle variation in colour. Water tank is painted with Alclad II Semi Matt Aluminium ALC-116 and then sealed with LifeColor LC27 Matt Clear. It is not necessary or advisable to seal Alclad Lacquers but in this case it will provide a good base for weathering. Two vertical strips are now masked of and painted black to represent the tank fastener belts, actually the black strips are rubber that goes beneath the steel belts. Before masking over any kind of varnish applied over Alclad, use masks on palms of your hands a few time until the adhesive is almost all gone otherwise it will easily

lift varnish of the surface. To simulate those, we will cut two thin strips of self adhesive aluminium tape and place it over the two black strips so that a little bit of black is visible from both sides of aluminium strip. Highly diluted Tamiya X-1 Black is used for shading which is now rather random than just concentrated around recessed areas and angles. This area of the aircraft is very dirty, dusty and oily and so the shading is a bit heavier. Overall oil wash can be applied as well. Once everything is dry we will take a mesh cloth and start rubbing the parts gently and randomly. Any paint applied over Alclad is removed easily while Alclad surface is very tough, this will make our job easier and the final result will

look good. Mesh cloth will remove layers of Tamiya paint and oil wash leaving very fine and nice looking scratches where the clean aluminium paint breaks trough. Same procedure is now used on the water tank. Forward fuselage inside sections are airbrushed with Alclad II White Aluminium ALC106 also without previously priming the surface. LifeColor LC27 Matt Clear is applied next followed by shading with Tamiya X-1 mixed with XF-64 Red Brown. Mesh cloth can be used here as well to gently rub off some of the shading and clear varnish. Overall Burnt Umber oil wash is applied and everything set aside for a few hours to fully dry. With the cockpit and the firewall

section now done we will dry fit everything once more before the fuselage halves are glued together. Some extra care is needed when mating fuselage halves together as some pieces will need to be nudged a little before everything seats together nicely. Next in line is the engine supporting frame and forward firewall. As we have white parts here we will airbrush it with the primer first as the green paint will turn out lighter if sprayed directly on to the white surface. The same interior green mix we used for the cockpit is then airbrushed followed by shading with Tamiya X-1 Black. Overall Burnt Umber oil wash is applied next. Details on the oil cooler air intake tube are painted with fine pointed brush, aluminium



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Our first step is to add some details to the back side of the engine, starter and high speed generator are made from Magic Sculpt parts turned on Unimat lathe. Supercharger to carburettor pipe mount is taken from the kit and attached to the upper back side of the engine as it will be visible once everything is finished.

LifeColor UA045 Non Specular Intermediate Blue is mixed with equal portion of LC01 Matt White and airbrushed on the engine in two light coats.

Tamiya X-1 Black is now used for shading to create shadows and more depth to all the beautiful details present on this part.

Burnt Umber overall oil wash is next to give the engine oily and used look, generously applied and then smoothed and blended with clean and dry flat brush. Back section of the engine is further treated with black oil paint nicely blended with layer below.



Gear box cover, centre front section, is now gently rubbed with clean and dry paper towel to remove as much oil paint as possible so it becomes more blue-grey than brown. This section of the engine is usually a bit cleaner than the rest of it.

section between belt fasteners is painted with Gunze Sangyo Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium. This section is now done and awaiting the engine to be fitted. Kit engine assembly is a build on its own, a lot of crisply moulded parts and details combined with Eduard’s photo etched set will look amazing once assembled and painted, however, another thing got my attention a lot before i even started working on the Thunderbolt - Vector resin #32001 Pratt & Whitney R-2800A/B. This is my first resin engine from Vector and i must say it is simply amazing down to the smallest detail, it does require some additions and will look superb once finished. Our first step is to add some details to the back side of the engine, starter and high speed generator

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Cylinders are now painted with LifeColor UA207 Schwarz Grau as a base for drybrushing with Tamiya X-32 Titanium Silver.

Dry-brushing is done by brushing the cylinder vertically to avoid silver paint of getting into recessed areas.

Burnt Umber is then mixed with small amount of black oil and applied over the entire surface.

Clean brush is used to remove excess oil paint and restore metallic look to the cylinder.

are made from Magic Sculpt parts turned on Unimat lathe. Supercharger to carburettor pipe mount is taken from the kit and attached to the upper back side of the engine as it will be visible once everything is finished. Main engine section is now ready for painting. LifeColor UA045 Non Specular Intermediate Blue is mixed with equal portion of LC01 Matt White

and airbrushed on the engine in two light coats. Tamiya X-1 Black is now used for shading to create shadows and more depth to all the beautiful details present on this part. Burnt Umber overall oil wash is next to give the engine oily and used look, generously applied and then smoothed and blended with clean and dry flat brush. Back section of the engine is further treated with

black oil paint nicely blended with layer below. Gear box cover, centre front section, is now gently rubbed with clean and dry paper towel to remove as much oil paint as possible so it becomes more blue-grey than brown. This section of the engine is usually a bit cleaner than the rest of it. Cylinders are now painted with LifeColor UA207 Schwarz Grau as a base for

dry-brushing with Tamiya X-32 Titanium Silver. This combination will leave recessed areas painted black while all of the raised details will be nicely accentuated with silver. Dry-brushing is done by brushing the cylinder vertically


Cylinders are now carefully positioned and glued with superglue to the main engine part, one by one making sure they are all aligned properly and facing the right direction.

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Exhaust pipes are painted with LifeColor UA207 Schwarz Grau followed by random dry-brush painting with Tamiya X-32 Titanium Silver.

to avoid silver paint of getting into recessed areas. Burnt Umber is then mixed with small amount of black oil and applied over the entire surface. Clean brush is used to remove excess oil mix from the part followed by more cleaning of the lower cylinder section with paper towel or cotton swab to get more of burnt oil stain look. As with any other area with many same parts it is the best to work on all of them at the

Burnt Umber mixed with black oil paint is applied next.

same time, is does not only saves time but ensures that all of the cylinders are finished in the same manner. Cylinders are now carefully positioned and glued with superglue to the main engine part, one by one making sure they are all aligned properly and facing the right direction. The engine now looks very nice, dirty and used even with just a few basic parts on. Before we continue adding wires and all the other small

Some careful manoeuvres and a few nudges are required to insert the engine into the opening mainly because of that carburettor intake we fitted from the kit.

Excess oil is removed with clean brush.

and fragile details, it is a good idea add exhaust pipes first. By doing this we are trying to avoid handling the engine too much with all the tiny parts mounted on. Exhaust pipes are treated the same way as the cylinders, LifeColor UA207 Schwarz Grau is airbrushed first followed by random drybrush painting with Tamiya X-32 Titanium Silver. Classic dry-brushing is a bit different from dry-brush painting which

is done by stabbing motions of the brush rather than if we were wiping the dust from the part. Brush is dipped in paint and cleaned on the paper towel until the point when no more visible traces of the paint are present on the paper. Part is now dry-brush painted with stabbing motions of the brush, some force is used in order to transfer small traces of paint to the part. We are after the effect of bare metal pipe blackened

Tight fit and almost no glue required, shame that the back side of the engine will be barely visible once everything comes together.



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from smoke and oil stains even though our painting process is reversed. Engine is now test fitted to the frame and forward firewall to check if everything fits nicely. Some careful manoeuvres and a few nudges are required to insert the engine into the opening mainly because of that carburettor intake we fitted from the kit. Kit forward cowl supporting ring is correct in shape and size but it is a solid ring while we need a channel section. Triangle shaped file is used to score the shallow channel along ring’s outer surface, Tamiya scriber is then used to make it deeper and wider so we can shape it further with the sanding paper. A small

square piece of medium coarse sanding paper is bent in half and used along the channel so that both channel walls are sanded at the same time. Be careful here not to thin the walls too much by carefully pushing the sanding paper all the way around the ring in one stroke. Small holes are then drilled trough the ring in pairs of two to simulate cowl fastener holes. BluTac is used to temporarily fit the ring to the engine so we can mark contact points between cylinders and the ring. Small pieces of 0.5mm styrene rod are then glued on those marked points also in pairs of two with small space between them to accommodate cylinder

heads. Magnetos are painted with LifeColor UA207 Schwarz Grau and glued in place. Pushrods are made from styrene rod, painted with Tamiya X-1 Black and carefully mounted with fine pointed tweezers. Ignition ring holes are now made wider and deeper to accommodate copper wire used for ignition cables. When adding ignition wires we will go in pairs of two again, adding two wires and then securing them with a drop of superglue. Once the glue is fully cured we will adjust the wires and trim of the excess with small sharp scissors. With all the wires in place it is time to paint them brown, fine pointed brush is used for this. Small strips of self

Triangle shaped file is used on the forward cowl supporting ring to score the shallow channel along ring’s outer surface, Tamiya scriber is then used to make it deeper and wider so we can shape it further with the sanding paper.

Connection points between ignition ring and wires are then painted silver as well as some rings above the strips. Our Pratt & Whitney R-2800 is now finished.

Magnetos are painted with LifeColor UA207 Schwarz Grau and glued in place. Pushrods are made from styrene rod, painted with Tamiya X-1 Black and carefully mounted with fine pointed tweezers. Copper wire is used for ignition wires.

Ignition wires are painted brown and small strips of self adhesive aluminium tape are then wrapped around each pair of wires roughly around the mid section of cylinders. The Modeller’s Guide to Superdetailing, Painting and Weathering Aircraft of WWII 99


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All the fasteners are now removed from the cowl supporting ring located in front of the cowl flaps in order to use it as a template for bending aluminium channel.

adhesive aluminium tape are then wrapped around each pair of wires roughly around the mid section of cylinders. Strips are wrapped from front to back so we can hide strip ends behind. Fine pointed tweezers are then used to press mid section of the strip between the two wires. Connection points between

ignition ring and wires are then painted silver as well as some rings above the strips. With this last step our engine is finished. As new resin engine will be fitted to the model a few more kit parts need to be sorted out in order for everything to come together. Cowl supporting ring located in front of the cowl flaps does not fit anymore

Six tubes are cut to match the length of kit launchers and then glued together with superglue.

so we have to make a new one. Thin aluminium strip 3mm wide is used to make ‘U’ channel with a little help of The Small Shop’s large photo etch bending tool. With 3mm wide aluminium strip, we will have 1mm for each channel wall and 1mm for the bottom section. All the fasteners are now removed from the kit part in order to use it as a template for bending aluminium channel. One end of the kit part is placed in the channel which is then carefully conformed to the part from the inside and thus forming a new ring. At the end, a kit part should end up fitting the channel from the outside.

To drill the holes perfectly aligned with the top of the tube, both launchers are place next to each other and the still ruler is then pulled a few times over the tubes, it will leave visible trace that is at centred at the top.

Instead of making one fragile and delicate assembly i will simply glue all of the cowl flaps on to the kit part.

Small jeweller’s hammer is then used to flatten the sides of aluminium part after which the kit part is removed. Although Eduard has supplied all the bits and pieces to assemble cowling flaps i have decided to go with a little different approach. Instead of making one fragile and delicate assembly i will simply glue all of the cowl flaps on to the kit part. Easier to assemble and looks equally good. Kit part recessed lines between the flaps are first filled with Tamiya putty and then the entire surface is sanded with coarse sanding paper

Kit assembly compared to our scratchbuilt rocket launchers, the difference is obvious.



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to make a better surface for superglue to get a grip on. Same thing is then done with photo etched flaps, back side is sanded with coarse sanding paper while the parts are still on their sprues. One by one flaps are detached from the sprue and then slightly curved by pressing them on top of aluminium cylinder from The Small Shop’s rolling set. We need to make a perfect fit with entire part surface. One by one flaps are then glued with superglue to the kit part. Photo etched cowl flaps are then sanded with very fine sanding paper in order to get a good surface for the paint. With the engine area now done, we will move on to the fuselage corrections, armament and ordnance before we start with painting of the model. I have always loved the look of those 4.5 inch rocket launchers hanging under the wings and decided to skip the bombs and mount rocket launchers only. After inspection of box parts it is obvious that those are unusable. They do

Eduard photo etched parts will greatly improve back side of the rocket launcher. All the tiny bits should glued just before the painting to avoid breaking them off.

have some details but the assembly looks like a part of a cheap toy. Fasteners are moulded together with the tubes which are not hollow, back end looks funny and i doubt it would be acceptable for 72nd scale let alone anything bigger. As those belt fasteners are the worst part and cannot be fixed i have

decided to make everything from scratch rather than spend hours of correcting kit parts, how complicated can it be anyway. For 4.5 inch rockets in 32nd scale, our new tubes should have 3.5mm inner diameter, that is 4mm outer diameter if we use brass tubes. Six tubes are cut to match the length of kit launchers

and then glued together with superglue. When gluing the tubes together align them first, tape them with a piece of masking tape and then pour some superglue in to the centre opening between the tubes. Few drops at a time so that the glue can slowly run down between the pipes. Keep a paper town bellow to

Belt fasteners are made from self adhesive vinyl cut in 1.5mm strips and wrapped around the tubes.



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Chapter III BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - P-47D THUNDERBOLT prevent overspill. Once the glue is fully cured, we will use Tamiya putty to seal centre opening between the pipes and later smooth everything with sanding paper, coarse first and then very fine to get nice and smooth surface. Next step is to drill two holes on top of each launcher to fix the top supporting tube and hangers. As the holes need to be perfectly aligned we will use a little trick to mark the top line on the tubes. Both launchers are place next to each other and the still ruler is then pulled a few times over the tubes, it will leave visible trace that is at centred at the top. Distance from each end of the launcher to the hanger hole is measured and holes drilled. Hangers are made from hypodermic needles and styrene rod. Supporting tube is made from 1.5mm brass

Fuel tank is now put together and sanded with very fine wet sanding paper just enough to leave barely visible surface scratches as a base for Alclad paint. Eduard photo etched parts have been added after sanding. Wheel wells are painted with LifeColor UA042 Chrome Yellow in a few thicker coats. Tamiya X-1 Black is then used for a bit heavier shading followed by overall Burnt Umber oil wash.



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tube which has been drilled to accommodate hangers. With the top section mounted, brass tube sections are inserted at the back end of launchers so that the section left outside is 7mm long. Back end tubes which are then sealed with pieces of sprue which is then dome shaped with sanding sticks. Eduard photo etched parts are then mounted on the back end tubes. To make belt fasteners i am going to use self adhesive vinyl, cut in 1.5mm strips and wrapped around the tubes starting at the base of the top supporting tube. All of the strips are then further secured in place with a touch of superglue at the starting and ending point. Everything is now painted in olive drab and shaded with Tamiya X-1 Black along recessed areas and the front section. I have spent a couple of hours making rocket launchers but the end result is highly superior to kit parts, well worth the effort. Fuel tank is now put together

and sanded with very fine wet sanding paper just enough to leave barely visible surface scratches. As we are going to paint the tank with Alclad II lacquers surface has to be flat rather than very smooth to get the best effect of used and weathered aluminium. Eduard photo etched parts are glued on at the end before panting to avoid breaking anything of. Our next task is to paint wheel bays and covers before we mate wing halves together. LifeColor UA042 Chrome Yellow is airbrushed in a few thicker coats because of its poor coverage. Tamiya X-1 Black is then used for a bit heavier shading followed by overall Burnt Umber oil wash. Wheel well covers are painted and weathered in the same way. Wings are now assembled and all the seams sanded. I am going to display the model with one gun bay opened so the next thing is to add all of the photo etched parts to the gun bay, very welcomed addition which will

Wheel well covers are treated in the same way.

really make a huge difference. Wings are now carefully glued to the fuselage with a lot of aligning and nudging. Model is now set aside for the glue to fully cure. Before we start painting the model there are a few things that we need to take care of. When applying natural metal finish to a model even the smallest surface deformation or crack will be highly visible because metallic paint reflects light very well

and any deformation will reflect the light in different direction thus making it to stick out from surrounding. As i have already mentioned, Trumpeter’s kit has its flaws and we need to sort those out in order to get not only satisfying but superb paint finish. First thing is the gun barrel cover on both wings. Once glued in place these parts will sink into the wing leading edge which is a bit of a problem.

Fillet between vertical and horizontal stabilizer is present on the right hand side while it is barely visible on the opposite side. Narrow vinyl strip is used to mark the filet line and placed on the model to meet the fillet from the front side of the model. Tamiya putty is now used in a few thin layers to raise the surface on the left hand side and make the fillet clearly visible and in level with the opposite side of the fuselage.

Masking tape is used to mark the gun barrel cover outline used for cutting vinyl template later.

Gun barrel cover area is masked off and Tamiya putty applied in a few thin coats. Wet and dry sanding paper is then used to level and smooth filled area.



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Chapter III BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - P-47D THUNDERBOLT Wheel bay is filled with paper tissue to support masking tape. Use sharp pointed blade to cut the tape along the edge of the wheel bay.

Gun barrel covers should actually be slightly raised from the wing leading edge surface due to the fact that those were metal sheets placed on top of the wing surface. This is an easy correction which starts with marking the cover on a piece of Tamiya masking tape so we can make the proper cover later. Now, masking tape is used to mask off the area in question so we can fill it with Tamiya putty, 3 - 4 layers should be enough but make sure to leave some

curing time between layers. Once the putty is fully cured, sand everything with medium coarse sanding paper while masking tape is still on. Fine wet sanding paper is used next to smooth everything flat with the wing surface after the tape has been removed. Piece of tape with marked cover on it is now placed over thicker self adhesive vinyl and cut out by using steel ruler and sharp pointed blade. Vinyl adhesive is strong and long lasting so there is no need to

use any other glue. Vinyl can also be painted over just like the plastic. Another correction is also needed at the tail section of the kit. As a result of poor moulding, fillet between vertical and horizontal stabilizer is present on the right hand side while it is barely visible on the opposite side. If we paint the model without doing anything about this it would certainly look bad. Narrow vinyl strip is used to mark the filet line and placed on the model to meet the fillet from the front side of the model. Tamiya putty is now used in a few thin layers to raise the surface on the left hand side and make the fillet clearly visible and in level with the opposite side of the fuselage. After a few hours of drying time, filler is gently sanded with fine wet sanding paper while the vinyl strip is still on the model, just like we did on the gun barrel cover earlier. Last thing before we start airbrushing is to mask off wheel bays, cockpit and the

engine area. Since we have painted everything with water based acrylic paints a thin coat of lacquer matt varnish will be sprayed on the wheel bays if we are to use so called ‘wet masking’. Wet paper tissue is like a sculpting clay and makes a perfect material for masking areas like the wheel bay. Pieces of paper tissue are soaked in water and then used to fill the bays up the top. Sculpting tool or tweezers can be used to refine the top edges. In this case, i am going to use another masking system with Tamiya masking tape. Pieces of tape are placed over the wheel bay so that they cover the surrounding areas as well. Sharp pointed blade is then used to cut the tape along the edge of wheel bay. Before placing the tape we can put some dry paper tissues in the wheel bay to support the tape even though there is a step along the edge that can do the job. The tape is then carefully

Cockpit and the firewall areas is carefully masked with Tamiya masking tape and small gaps filled with BluTac.



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Placed under the lamp for inspection, light is making a clear shadow along the gap that stretches almost along the entire model’s lower surface.

placed along the drilled strips that support the engine bay covers and if needed some tape is placed from the inside to fill any gaps on the side. Cockpit is masked with small pieces of masking tape and any gaps filled with BluTac. You can notice that the canopy will be masked and painted separately and then mounted at the end. This way the canopy will be well protected and cleaned after painting to remain crystal clear. Side openings are masked with pieces of semi transparent vinyl. When painting models with metalizer paints it is necessary to apply the primer coat for one reason, primer will reveal any gaps and surface errors which would

be highly visible once the metalizer is airbrushed on. Also, when priming a model as a preparation for natural metal finish it is advisable to use primer-filler instead of just any grey paint. My choice is Gunze Sangyo Mr Surfacer 1000 which is a liquid filler-primer ideal as a base for metallic paints. A drop or two of lacquer thinner is added to the primer before we airbrush it on the model. Primer is airbrushed at a bit higher pressure at 20PSI and in two or three thin layers with a few minutes of drying time between the layers. Once done we will set the model aside for a couple of hours so the primer can fully dry. We will then carefully inspect the entire surface of the model for possible gaps,

deformations and errors. Place the model under the lamp and rotate it slowly while looking the surface for any dark shadow spots marking the gaps. Mark any problematic areas with highlight marker or lead pencil. The most noticeable is the bottom side seam between the two fuselage halves which was invisible before the primer. This gap is filled with Tamiya putty and sanded smooth with very fine wet sanding paper. After filling and sanding all the gaps the primer is airbrushed again for another check. Once everything looks good it is time to polish the model with Alclad Micromesh Cloth, keep the model surface wet and gently rub with the cloth until it is like a glass, smooth and shiny.

You will notice that a few coats of primer are toned down the rivets a bit and they are not as deep and noticeable as before which is a good thing. Now to the metal finish. There is no best or ultimate method for achieving natural metal finish and every single model that i have done has been painted in slightly different way. Experimenting is a key word here especially having in mind that not all of the real natural metal aircraft were the same as aluminium can vary from bright and shiny to dark and dull, this depends on many factors like age, weather conditions, theatre of operations and so on. I will try to explain one of my techniques for natural metal painting using Alclad II



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Chapter III BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - P-47D THUNDERBOLT Painting starts with two lights coats of Alclad II Polished Aluminium ALC-105 which will be our base for further painting techniques.

Alclad II is a great thing for metal finishes but simply airbrushing it on the model would not make a masterpiece of it. Paint finish now looks too uniform and shiny.

lacquers and Gunze Sangyo Mr Metal paints. Painting starts with two lights coats of Alclad II Polished Aluminium ALC-105 which will be our base for further painting techniques. An hour later, a thin coat of Duraluminium ALC-102 is airbrushed on to tone down polished look and

to give some colour variation. After one overall coat with Duraluminium we can spray more of it on the model in cloudy pattern to further create difference in shininess for more realistic look. Randomly chosen panels are now masked off and sprayed with Dark Aluminium

ALC-103, one light coat on some of the panels and two or three coats on some others to further create slight differences between panels. We are after a subtle variation in shininess and colour, nothing too vibrant. D-Day stripes and markings are next and before we start playing with effects on metal finish again. All the markings, roundels, fuselage and tail codes and D-Day stripes are painted on using masks while Hobby Decal P-47 dry transfer stencils are used for small elements like propeller blade logos, pilot name and similar. When working with dry transfers, make sure you keep them in resealable bag as they will become rigid and difficult to apply otherwise. The tail numbers and identification stripes are masked off first followed by wings and fuselage masking. As we are going to paint D-Day stripes, outline of entire stripe area is masked of first by using narrow strips of masking tape as narrow strips are more flexible as easier to work with on curved and irregular surfaces. To keep the straight line try to follow panel lines that is to keep the masking strip parallel to those lines. When we have outlined D-Day stripe sections on wings and fuselage, LifeColor LC01 Matt White is airbrushed on in two or three thicker coats and left to fully dry. Pieces of plastic bag can be used to cover larger areas instead of using masking tape. We will now make invasion line spacers to help us make them all the same width. Wing



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Randomly chosen panels are now masked off and sprayed with Dark Aluminium ALC-103, one light coat on some of the panels and two or three coats on some others to further create slight differences between panels.

invasions stripes are 16mm wide, fuselage stripes 14.3mm while the tail identification stripes are 12mm wide. 16mm long masking strips are placed on the wings so that they touch the outline masks and then mask the area between those markers which should remain white. Roundel masks are now placed on the white area of the fuselage followed by 14.3mm long markers and masking of the section between them. Same masking procedure is now used for the landing flaps. Cowl and propeller are masked as well as we are going to use the same paint for invasion stripe, tail stripe, propeller and all the other black painted areas. Everything is now airbrushed with LifeColor UA207 Schwarz Grau or Revell Enamel 09 Matt Anthracite Grey, again no absolute and pure black but rather a bit faded black. Wing roundel outline masks are

The tail numbers and identification stripes are masked off first followed by wings and fuselage masking as we want to paint all black areas in one go.

D-Day stripe areas is outlined and the rest of the model can be masked of with a piece of plastic bag, much simpler and faster than covering the entire thing with masking tape.

Landing flaps are masked for the white paint to be airbrushed first.

16mm long masking strips are placed on the wings so that they touch the outline masks and we then mask the area between those markers strips which should remain white. Use of these marker strip will make it easier for us to get equal invasion stripe widths.



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Invasion stripe areas on the fuselage is outlined with masking strips, painted white and the roundel mask placed on. Once we pant the black stripe, area underneath the mask will remain white for the star while the dark blue will be airbrushed later.

All the parts have been masked and ready to receive a coat of LifeColor UA207 Schwarz Grau or Revell Enamel 09 Matt Anthracite Grey, no pure black paint.



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placed next and first painted white and then with star back in place surrounding area is painted dark blue. Nose art is also painted using masks and Revell 36 Matt Carmine Red which is also used on landing flaps to paint red squares. Everything is now set aside overnight to fully dry and later gently wet sanded with Alclad Micromesh cloths to smooth the surface to satin finish. Properly dried LifeColor paints can be wet sanded just like any enamel or lacquer paint. Gunze Sangyo Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium is now used to create realistic metal finish effects on the model. Propeller spinner is treated first but before doing so, we have to prepare the surface. Alclad Micromesh cloths are used wet from medium to very fine to smooth and polish the spinner. Tamiya fine polishing compound is then applied with paper tissue and rubbed for a few minutes until the part becomes shiny like gloss coated. Very small amount of Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium is now applied on the top of the spinner with small flat brush. We will now hold the propeller assembly from the back side and cover the spinner with paper tissue, now by twisting the spinner in the paper tissues we are actually dispersing the metalizer in very thin layer and polishing it at the same time. It is wise to mask propellers and everything except of spinner cap to prevent transferring metalizer paint. Two minutes or so of spinning the prop assembly left and right should do the trick, spinner is now very shiny and looks like it was actually made from metal. Same technique is now used on the rest of the model, Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium is first applied randomly with flat brush and a few moments later polished and dispersed with clean paper tissue wrapped around index finger. When applying Mr. Metal Color metalizers with brush, clean the brush with paper tissue first so that very small amount



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Fresh from the factory, clean and shiny, we are going to change that now.

Nose art is painted using masks and Revell 36 Matt Carmine Red.

Very small amount of Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium is applied on the top of the spinner with small flat brush and then buffed with clean paper tissue for a couple of minutes for shiny and realistic metal finish.



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Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium is applied randomly on metal surfaces of the model and gently buffed with paper tissue, not too much buffing to avoid shiny finish.

Different spots will get different amount of buffing to create more interesting and realistic metal finish. The main goal is to get some areas more shiny than the others.

of paint remains on the brush, do not brush the model with soaked brush as this will accumulate too much of the paint on the model surface and will not look good once polished. Try to make random scratches and splotches with dry-brush technique but with some pressure applied so that enough paint remains on the model. When polishing and dispersing the metalizer do it randomly and with different pressure of the finger so that some areas are more shiny than the others, this will also create slight colour intensity variation which further adds to realism. During the polishing some metalizer paint will end up on invasion stripes, anti glare surface and markings which

tend to mix with each other, something that we would never normally do will now actually create interesting effect. A couple of hours later when oil wash is dry we will repeat the process of polishing with clean paper tissue wrapped around the index finger, this tame gently and without too much pressure and until oil wash smudges start to disappear. As oil wash is now mixing with the base metalizer paint, we are getting darker and smudged surface areas. More oil that mix with the base paint will create less reflective spots and will give us weathered and distressed look of the model. Once again, metalizer over-paint is cleaned with cotton swab soaked in enamel thinner. Same procedure is

is not a problem as all those elements are painted with acrylic paints while Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium is enamel based paint and it is easily removed with cotton swab soaked in enamel thinner. Natural metal finish now looks good and uneven but still a bit flat so we are going to do panel line wash with oils next. Burnt Umber oil paint is mixed with a little bit of black oil and highly diluted with enamel thinner. Small fine pointed brush is now used to apply the wash on panel lines and most of the rivets. Generally try to keep as little mess as possible by drawing straight lines with the brush over rivet and panel lines. As both metalizer paint and wash are oil-enamel based they will

Small fine pointed brush is now used to apply the wash on panel lines and most of the rivets. Generally try to keep as little mess as possible by drawing straight lines with the brush over rivet and panel lines.

used on the canopy while it is still masked to prevent any paint crossing over on to the clear areas. Removing the paint from transparent parts with enamel thinner would damage and mist them. Gun bay has been masked off and airbrushed with LifeColor UA042 Chrome Yellow. Highly diluted Tamiya X-1 Black is now used for shading areas in the gun bay and along the main panel lines on the aircraft but also behind exhausts as a dark base before more brown is airbrushed on. Mix of Tamiya X-1 Black and XF-10 Flat Brown is used for landing flaps shading as well as for wing leading edges, aircraft bottom side, landing gear and behind exhausts. Kit .50 cal Browning guns

As both metalizer paint and wash are oil-enamel based they will tend to mix with each other, something that we would never normally do will now actually create interesting effect. Once oil wash is dry, more buffing will mix the base Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium with oil wash which will further create more diverse surface appearance.



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Kit .50 cal Browning guns have been assembled without barrels and painted with LifeColor UA207 Schwarz Grau as a base for dry-brushing which is done with Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium. After dry-brushing the guns are airbrushed with very thin coat of Tamiya X-1 Black to tone down shininess and make the finish more like gun metal.

Hypodermic needles are used to make gun barrels after which everything is carefully fitted to the gun bay. Kit vinyl ammo belts are used as being more realistic than Eduard photo etched parts.

have been assembled without barrels and painted with LifeColor UA207 Schwarz Grau as a base for dry-brushing which is done with Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium, our all purpose magical paint. After dry-brushing the guns are airbrushed with very thin coat of Tamiya X-1 Black to tone down shininess and make the finish more like gun metal. Hypodermic needles are then used to make gun barrels and everything is carefully fitted to the gun bay. Eduard photo etched parts are used to make gun feed belts while the ammo belts are taken from the kit, they still look more realistic than photo etched ones. Ammo belts are painted with



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Mix of Tamiya X-1 Black and XF-10 Flat Brown is used for landing flaps shading as well as for wing leading edges, aircraft bottom side, landing gear and behind exhausts area. Access panel frames are brush painted with LifeColor UA042 Chrome Yellow and later received thin layer of Burnt Umber oil wash.

Fat bird looks mean even without the engine.

Alclad II Polished Brass ALC109 without any prior priming. Black paint is then brushed along the centre section of the belt to simulate joints. Access panel frames are brush painted with LifeColor

in the same manner as the rest of the aircraft with more accentuated brown shading to simulate ground dust and dirt accumulated on lower sections of the aircraft. We are now getting back

UA042 Chrome Yellow and later received thin layer of Burnt Umber oil paint diluted with enamel thinner for more weathered look. Wheels, wheel bay covers and landing gear struts are weathered

to the engine area for the last time to add wires and cable lines but also to make new supercharger to carburettor pipes as those from the kit are no longer fitting in. All the small details have already

Wheels, wheel bay covers and landing gear struts are weathered in the same manner as the rest of the aircraft with more accentuated brown shading to simulate ground dust and dirt accumulated on lower sections of the aircraft.



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Engine assembly still looks a bit barren without all the wires and cables.

Lead and plastic flexible wires are used for most of the lines with thicker plastic wires used from and to the oil tank and oil cooler while the lead wires have been used for rigid lines and hydraulic pipes.

been painted on the firewall and engine supporting frame and we will now start adding hydraulic lines and electrical installation cables. Lead and plastic flexible wires are used for most of the lines with thicker plastic wires used from and to the oil tank and oil cooler while the lead wires have been used for rigid lines and hydraulic pipes. Fine pointed brush is used to paint ring clamps on most of the cables and lines with metallic,

white and black paint. Four holes have been drilled trough the forward firewall for the oil line going from the oil tank to the oil cooler on one side and vice versa on the other side of the engine. Engine assembly is now ready to be fitted to the aircraft and since we have a perfectly tight fit of the engine supporting frame and the firewall, no glue will be used. [fig289] [fig290] [fig291]

Magic Sculpt is now used to make thin and perfectly cylindrical sausage for new supercharger to carburettor pipes. Once you have a piece of Magic Sculpt mixed simply roll it between two sheets of thicker styrene to get perfectly cylindrical rod, this is done some two hours after we mix the clay to prevent sticking it on everything and for easier sculpting. When rolled to proper diameter, like the kit pieces, and almost completely

cured we will then gently shape it to fit behind the forward firewall and the main firewall. In this stage the pieces are almost like wire and will retain any shape. When both pieces are bent and shaped to fit we will leave them aside for a few more hours until completely solid. Pipes are then brush painted with Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium, polished like we did it earlier and the last touch is optional, satin varnish and some shading with Tamiya



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Magic Sculpt is used to make thin and perfectly cylindrical sausage for new supercharger to carburettor pipes.

Fine pointed brush is used to paint ring clamps on most of the cables and lines with metallic, white and black paint.

When Magic Sculpt sausage is almost completely cured we will then gently shape it to fit behind the forward firewall and the main firewall area.



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A small hole is drilled half way through the back side of the navigation light clear part.

A drop of red and blue paint is now applied to the inside of the hole, one light red and the other blue. Final result is coloured bulb beneath the light transparent cover.

Pipes are brush painted with Mr. Metal Color 218 Aluminium, polished and shaded with Tamiya X-1 Black. Black vinyl strips are used to make flexible rubber joints followed by a slightly narrower strip of self adhesive aluminium foil to recreate metal ring clamps.

X-1 Black. Black vinyl strips are now used to make flexible rubber joints followed by a slightly narrower strip of self adhesive aluminium foil which represents metal ring clamps or fasteners. Navigation lights are one of final touches on the model and to make them look good we are going to drill a small hole through the back side of the clear part. Hole is drilled at an angle so it is pointed to the mid section of the outer light arch. A drop of red and blue paint is now applied to the inside of the hole, one light red and the other blue. Final result is coloured bulb beneath the light transparent cover.

Cowl flaps are now carefully mounted from the top together with cowl holding frames and our Razorback is ready to be placed on diorama which we are going to build later. At the end, Trumpeter has offered a decent kit with a few flaws here and there. Those often discussed rivets proved to be a good and nice looking detail after all and as long as they are not accentuated too much. Few coats of surface filler-primer also helped here by making them less deep and pronounced. Some minor fit issues around lower side wing root section and miss configuration of the firewall area can be sorted out with



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Small hydraulic tanks are made with Unimat lathe and fitted to the supper firewall container. Wires and hydraulic lines are made from lead and copper wire.

Cowl flaps are now carefully mounted from the top together with cowl holding frames.



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very little effort and some scratchbuilding. The decals are something that is a total

miss here, poor register, questionable colours and small elements so poorly printed that

they are completely unusable, luckily there are plenty alternatives here whether you

decide to go with aftermarket decal or paint mask set.



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JU-87D ‘STUKA’



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JU-87D ‘STUKA’ Kit summary Revell re-box of Hasegawa’s kit is supposed to cover 3 Ju87 variants: D1, D3 and D5 but unfortunately this is not exactly the case. Just to clarify things, to build Ju87-D1 variant you need a partial shroud of the exhaust that is just not there on the model although someone was aware of it judging by the box art. One of the main differences between D1 and D3 variants was this partial shroud that was cut back on D3 variant for installation of flame concealing exhaust pies and that is what you get in the box, so there is no out of the box D1. To build early variant of Ju87-D3 you need to sand down metal non-slip skids on the wing roots as early D3 had flat rubber surfaces instead. Not so much of the hard work but the thing is that it cannot be build straight out of the box that is, without minor interventions. All in all, a large box full of very fine details, a bit shallow panel lines and maybe too thick transparencies to my taste, enough ordnance, two external fuel tanks and two little fellows, pilot and a gunner together with the large decal sheet, everything together suggesting many hours of fun.

126 BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - JU-87D ‘STUKA’


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Chapter III BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - JU-87D ‘STUKA’

BEFORE WE START Aftermarket sets used in this build: ■ Eduard - Biged photo etched set 3254 ■ Aires - Ju87 D/G cockpit set 2068 ■ QuickBoost - Ju87D propeller QB-32022 ■ MDC - SC1000 Bomb CV32046 ■ Maketar Paint Masks - Junkers Ju87D ‘Desert Doras’ MM32002


Cyanoacrylate glue Tamiya cement Tamiya extra thin cement Scalpel and tweezers Drilling pin vise Masking tape in various widths BluTack Sanding sticks and files Mr. Surfacer 500 and/or Mr. Surfacer 1000 Pacer Formula 560 - Canopy Glue Lead, copper and flexible wire Modellers Saw

Paints used: Revell enamel: ■ 84 Leather Brown ■ 15 Yellow ■ 05 White ■ 09 Anthracite Gray ■ 330 Fire red Model Master enamel: ■ 2088 Sand Yellow RLM79 ■ 1701E Military Brown Flat FS30117 Tamiya acrylic: ■ XF-23 Light Blue ■ XF-22 RLM Grey ■ XF-16 Flat Aluminum ■ X-19 Smoke Oil paints: ■ Raw Umber ■ Burnt Sienna

Kit cockpit looks decent with addition of Eduard’s PE parts and some wires but still lacks some major details. Most of the photo-etched parts have been fitted in using Formula 560 white glue applied with a toothpick rather than CA glue that tends to go all around and even to ruin the work. White glue leaves you more freedom in positioning the parts, it’s much cleaner to work with and can be removed with water.

THE BUILD The build starts with careful study of the instruction as blindly following it may get you into troubles just a few steps later. The cockpit is first and in this build the biggest task due to its complexity and all the photo-etched parts that needs to be fitted in. For a worm up, i will drill the holes in the fuselage for installation of the armour plates for just in case that i decide to incorporate them later, if not, those are just four tiny holes that needs to be filled with putty and sanded in a minute but for sure easier than trying to drill the holes when the cockpit is assembled and glued to the fuselage

Aires cockpit set really is a great addition to the model, just looking at all those detailed pars, makes you inpatient to start working on it.

halves. Now, when i already have a drill chuck in my hands why not take care of those holes in the wings for installation of the wing racks, as those are easily forgotten once you start putting the wing halves together and your bird starts to look right. Cockpit itself has very nice details and with a bit of scratchbuilding, mainly wiring and other installations, it will be a real beauty. Interior assembly is pretty much straight forward with a few exceptions: it’s not a good idea to assemble the zwilling MG81Z twin machine guns and glue it to its holder at this stage as it can be easily broken during further work

First coat of Tamiya XF-63 German Grey applied and the cockpit looks busy already.



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Fine pointed brush is used for painting small details.

Initial dusting of the cockpit floor with pastel powder.

on the cockpit. It’s a good idea to paint the section behind the pilot seat - the radio section, separately and attach it to the cockpit floor just before closing the fuselage thus making sure that everything is painted and taken care of properly, but before we get to the painting part, a lot of metal parts needs to be fitted in first. It’s time for opening the Eduard’s BigED photo-etched set that contains more than enough parts to turn the model into a master piece with four photo-etched frets just for interior, three containing the parts for the cockpit and one fret with the seatbelts, the

much that i am using it more and more on some other parts too. With the most of the photo-etched parts glued on, various gauges of lead wire, copper wire, stretched sprue and plastic coated wires from some old or broken electronic device comes into play now for different types of cockpit installations and wiring, the part that requires more time than photo-etched parts but the result is worth it. Now that everything is in its place, it’s time for airbrushing the interior in RLM66 black-grey and for this we can use Tamiya XF-63 German Grey or Revell

fun starts... When it comes to the glue for photo-etched part there is no too many options, we can use cyanoacrylate or the better option, water soluble white glue. Great thing about white glue is that it gives you more than enough time to position part, it will not run over and ruin anything, has no ugly smell and if anything goes wrong, just wash it out with warm water and a cotton swab. I prefer to use “Formula 560 - the world’s best canopy glue” as it’s very strong, versatile and for sure, the best canopy glue i have ever used, in fact i like it so

74 Gunship Grey, either way the results will be almost the same once the clear matt is on. Once the paint is dry, remaining pre-painted photoetched parts can be glued on and everything is ready for a bit of weathering just to make it look used. For the most of weathering part i am using dry pastel powder which gives great results and in case that i overdo, very possible scenario, it can always be washed off with water and redone. With the cockpit being almost done and ready to be fitted into the fuselage, i was now determined to

Cockpit floor with the radio section temporary fixed on. Subtle shading, dust and dirt is achieved by using dry pastel powder. Try to do it with subtle and gentle movements of the brush almost like wiping of the dust from a delicate piece of art.



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Side walls received the same treatment with pastel powder. For chipped paint i am using Tamiya XF16 Flat Aluminum and a fine pointed brush followed by another round of dusting with dry pastel just to blend everything.

Eduard’s PE instrument panel dressed up with some control sticks made from stretched sprue together with Aires gun sight.

do another one, Aires resin cockpit set and to compare the two. The moment after opening Aires box i had a feeling i won’t regret doing this just by looking at all those beautifully casted resin parts. The scalpel was already in my hands and minutes later all the parts were cleaned free of casting flesh. This time, we will use cyanoacrylate glue

light coats. Cockpit now looks even more busy and detailed and one simply cannot resist to start brush painting all those crisp details. Fine pointed brush is now used to paint all the small elements, cables, wires, junction boxes, controls and everything else that is there. With all the details now painted we will add some paint

to fix resin parts to where they belong making sure to leave the radio section to be fitted in at the end. Cockpit sidewalls have been glued to the fuselage before painting for easier handling and to avoid possible mess and damage by gluing it later. All of the cockpit elements are now airbrushed with RLM66 that is, Tamiya XF-63 German Grey in two

chipping with Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum. Paint is slightly thinned and applied randomly with small fine pointed brush mainly along the edges and raised details but still mostly at lower sections of the cockpit walls. Cockpit floor is treated a bit heavier around the places where the pilot and gunners feet would be to simulate more pronounced wear and tear. Colourful and busy interior is almost done. Majority of details has been painted with fine pointed brush, a lot of time spent here but the result is worth it.



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Result of combining Eduard’s PE parts with Aires cockpit set is maybe the most visible here, shame as a lot of it will be invisible once the two fuselage halves are glued together.

It’s never too much wires and installations, boxes, dials... note the beautifully detailed Aires seat with Eduard’s photo etched seat belts.

A must have for any serious modeller, grey scale pastels as well as all the other coloured, mainly earthy, sandy and yellowish. A few different brushes kept just for pastel jobs.

More weathering, fading and shading is now done with dry pastels as opposed to airbrush technique used in previous builds. Dry pastels are very interesting to work with, they

are applied easily and just as easily removed if needed, also you can find them in a great range of colours. Important thing if you intend to do paint chipping is that you do it

Photo etched parts for radiators took almost the same amount of time as the cockpit.

Everything looks ok so far but the problem now is, if we turn the model on its belly we can damage the radiators and all the hard work. Note the jig made from 3mm styrene sheet to support the model and lift it up.

before the dry pastels as that way chipped areas will be under the dust and dirt and will look more realistic then if we did it after dry pastels. As i am going for the desert camouflage and having in mind that this particular aircraft was stationed in the desert, we are going to do a bit heavier dusting with dry pastels. We will start with the darker earthy colours and going to lighter tones and sand colours to almost white at the end. Good idea is to have dry pastel grey scale set as those are the most used for shading and fading. To make the

powder out of dry pastel sticks we are going to use a scalper or a piece of medium coarse sanding paper. If using scalpel, simply scrape the pastel stick with light pressure strokes of the scalpel and collect the powder on a piece of paper or in a plastic cup. Easier option is to rub the pastel stick on a piece of sanding paper and get the powder. Light grey pastel powder is brushed on the cockpit floor areas first followed with sandy and earthy brown shades. Use large flat and soft brush to apply the powder with soft brush strokes as if you are brushing the dust



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Chapter III BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - JU-87D ‘STUKA’ Eduard’s photo etched parts may be tiny but they greatly improve the level of detail.

off. Fuselage and the wings are the next stage of our build, photo-etched radiators are now test fitted in as it is much easier to fit them now then with the fuselage and wings assembled. With everything double checked, the two halves of the fuselage are first dry fitted a couple of time to make sure the cockpit fits nicely and everything is as it should be, in the right spot. As with previous builds, i do not like the look of the tail section, it looks a bit boring and the rudder perfectly lined up with the vertical stabilizer, maybe if we do a minor

surgery to separate the rudder and then turn it a bit to the right it will look better. I just love the look of the rudder slightly turned to the side, really adds more life to the aircraft. Cutting the rudder off is not too much of a trouble, sharp pointed modellers knife does the trick. Now, filing the seams, restoring the rounded pivot edge of the rudder and the thing is ready to be fitted back on the tail but this time turned a bit to the right side to make it look more interesting. Edges of vertical stabilizer are thinned with file and sanding paper to accommodate new

Best way to separate the rudder from the fuselage is by using sharp pointed blade instead of scriber as it will remove some plastic from it and we want to avoid that. Several light pressured passes with the blade will do the trick.

rudder pivot cylinder and to look more realistic. Gap at the top of vertical stabilizer is filled with a piece of styrene strip and sanded flat. Cylindrical pivot edge of the rudder is made from a piece of sprue glued to the rudder and the sanded off to fit the vertical stabilizer. Fuselage halves are now glued together and seams sanded smooth few hours later when the glue is fully dry. Joining the wings to the fuselage proved to more difficult thing that anticipated. Right hand side wing was the most problematic and almost as if it was taken from another

Back to the rudder or actually filling the gap on top of it and thinning the edges where the rounded rudder edge needs to be fitted later.

model and another scale, a whole day of work just to sort it out. With the wings and landing gear in place we can

If they had Stukas in World War One, it would look something like this.



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Olfa compass cutter is a must have tool for any modeller. All kinds of circular shapes are easily cut from styrene sheet, in this case mass balance parts for elevators.

Elevator and its mass balance lowered down a bit. Separating the mass balance part is easiest with sharp pointed blade.

move on to the tail section again. Dry fitting of the rudder showed no problems but before fitting it permanently we will separate elevators from horizontal stabilizer and drop them down a bit. Same procedure as with the rudder, sharp pointed blade is used to separate them and a piece of styrene rod to make cylindrical pivot edge. Some care must be taken when cutting of the mass balance part as it can

Horizontal stabilizers and the rudder ready to be fitted on the model.

be tricky but a few very light moves with the scriber and then pointed scalpel blade will do the trick. Dry fitting of all pieces is a must here if we are going to do everything properly. Lowering the landing flaps is our next task. Stuka had very distinctive flaps and they really look much more interesting when displayed in down position. Here again, constant dry fitting of the parts

Flaps control rod just doesn’t look up the scale so the new one has to be made from 0.6mm hypodermic needle.

The tails section looks more dynamic and interesting then if it was left the way it was.

is necessary as each flap consists of 3 main parts and bunch of smaller ones. Flap controlling rods have been cut off and pieces of hypodermic needle used instead to make it more down to scale. When installing the flaps we have two options, two do it now and before the painting or to do it at the end when painting is done. If we do it now, we must be careful later when handling the model as the flaps are very

And looks good once fitted to the wing.

fragile but also sanding of the lower wing sections would be difficult with flaps on. On the other hand, painting itself will be much easier of we have the flaps on the model at the same time. I have decided to glue them on now and to solve any problems later. We will now make a new wing leading edge light, first a small hole is drilled trough the centre of a piece of sprue. Much larger drill bit is then

Flaps down and rudder tilted to the side really add to dynamic look and feel.



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Making of a new landing light starts with drilling a piece of sprue with 0.8mm drill.

used to widen the hole so that we get doomed hole as deep as it is wide. Now, a small piece of self adhesive aluminium foil is placed on top of the doomed hole and burnished in with cotton swab. Small drill bit is used to drill a hole through the centre again to accommodate the bulb which is made from a piece of stretched sprue exposed to a candle flame for a second just enough to melt the tip and get a small bulb like form. Stretched sprue tip is then

Continue with the drill bit that is almost as the sprue piece in diameter and just make a few twists, enough to make a shallow coned hole.

cut off and inserted into the hole in the light base, Testors Model Master 1790 Chrome Silver is then used to paint the bulb. Once the light has been installed, a piece of transparent self adhesive tape is placed over the opening and Eduard’s photo etched light frame is glued over the tape. The tape is then cut around the frame with sharp pointed blade and removed. Now we

A piece of self adhesive aluminium foil is used to make the light look more real and a cotton swab to press it into the hole and polish it at the same time.

have a perfect and very thin clear cover for the light which is now going to be more visible and realistic. We are now going to mask the cockpit and prepare the model for painting. While masking the canopy i have noticed some problems that we will have to sort out before we start mixing paints and airbrushing the canopy and the model. For some reason, Hesegawa has messed up the sliding canopy section and while it’s all ok if you plan to place it in a closed

position, which would be a true shame with all the beautiful cockpit details, it simply cannot fit on the middle, fixed canopy part. As the part is too small to fit the fixed canopy section we have two options here, we can make a silicone rubber mould of the original part then make a plaster copy and then vacuform a new part over that plaster cat and the second, we can try to adjust the original part which would be very tricky thing to do and avoid tiny cracks that will ruin the

Take a piece of stretched sprue, bring it near the candle light just for a second and it’ll make a perfect bulb cap. Cut it off so that you have something like 3mm of the sprue to hold it, using fine pointed brush touch it with the Tamiya XF16 Flat Aluminum, pierce the aluminium foil and insert the stretched sprue with the bulb cap on it into the hole.

Finished landing lights now looks great. For protective glass we are using transparent self adhesive tape.



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Italian sand sprayed on.

BluTac sausages arranged on the model.

whole job. In I have opted for the second choice here. First cleaning the part of the sprue and then the tricky job begins. Point is to slowly heat the part above the electric stove with the heat protecting gloves to save our fingers for the later part. So, put on the gloves and start by holding the part some 10cm above the heated stove for 4 or 5 seconds and the very gently push the side walls of the part away from each other but again, very gently to avoid the damage. Repeat the process a few more time while constantly checking if the part is nicely fitting the fixed canopy part. The whole point is to do it very slowly and gently while making sure you don’t melt the part, it’s always better to heat it more times than to try to heat it once and to ruin the part. Process can take up to 10-20 minutes warming and pushing the walls of the part and eventually it will fit perfectly. Just to make things clear, make sure you do it slowly and gently otherwise

start looking for a replacement part somewhere. Detailed research on a subject started a few weeks before i even opened the model box and now i just remembered one particular scheme that caught my attention, desert Ju87 suspected to wear Italian paints, a combination of Giallo Mimetico - Sand and Marrone Mimetico - Brown, a very unusual and distinctive camouflage that simply had to be used in this build but also, i want to avoid boring standard Ju87D scheme and paint it in unusual and less used desert colours. There were just a few Ju87 “Doras” wearing the desert colours and my choice is a D-3 variant with the markings S7+KS on the fuselage. This particular aircraft belonged to 8. /StG 3 in Derna, Libya and was shot down on November the 1st 1942 by an allied fighter, both the pilot and gunner captured wounded. It was not unusual for Luftwaffe aircraft to wear Italian paints

in Africa as they were often forced to over-paint standard camouflage with desert colours to avoid being spotted by allied bombers while being on the ground. When modelling a WWII subject with unusual and not standardised paint scheme, it’s a bit difficult to get the colours just right especially with limited colour photo references available and in many cases we must rely on colour profiles and hours

and hours of research. After collecting data from more than 30 books written about air war in Africa, Italian squadrons in Africa and of course, about Ju87 in Africa, i came to conclusion that this particular Stuka wore Italian paints: Giallo Mimetico - Sand and Marrone Mimetico - Brown, knowing that, some more research and comparing of the paints and i can start mixing my own shades.

An hour later and the masking job is done. Remember, if you want to reuse BluTack, use the Tamiya tape. Avoid using Maskol, although, there are situation when you just have to use it, like on the right hand side stabilizer.



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After the brown is sprayed over and masks removed, Stuka now looks like chocolate and vanilla cake. Too strong contrast will be sorted out with fading and shading.

My closest match for Giallo Mimetico - Sand is Model Master Sand Yellow RLM79 mixed with a few drops of white and Revell 015 - yellow. Closest match to Marrone Mimetico - Brown is Revell

084 - Leather Brown which will be properly faded and lightened later on the model. With 60 to 40 paint to thinner ratio i have a very thin mixture that will allow me to build up the paint coats very slowly

Initial shading solved the contrast problem, now that’s better.

and get the effect that is satisfactory. Upper side is first to be painted in this case as it’s easier to mask the upper side rather than the lower with all those radiators, lowered flaps, bomb racks etc, so the first comes Italian sand. Since i don’t like pre-shading or anything that goes under the paint, this first round is very simple. Overnight drying time is plenty and we can start thinking about the second colour and the best way to mask the pattern. There is variety of ways to mask irregular pattern on the model, using cut-out paper masks, self adhesive vinyl masks or my favourite, BluTack ‘sausages’ and Tamiya masking tape. Masking a

scheme pattern using BluTack is great for both, sharp and soft transitions between colours and the best thing is, you can reuse BluTack over and over for years even if it’s heavily painted you can just play with it with your hands and it will turn blue again. First steps is to make long and slim “sausages” using a ruler or your fingers and then laying those on the model in a pattern you want to achieve. The next step is masking the parts we don’t want to paint with brown colour with either Tamiya masking tape or with Maskol but be careful, Tamiya tape will easily come of the BluTack and you’ll be able to reuse it and in case that you want to use Maskol or any



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other masking solution, you can say goodbye to BluTack as its impossible to separate those two but in same case we simply do not have the choice. With the brown paint on and a few hours later the model looks a bit like vanilla and chocolate cake with that strong contrast which we need to soften down radically by using light shades of brown and sand colour. Shading and blending part is all about mixing original colours with white, yellow, light brown and then spraying a very thin mixture of it over the model, about 80 to 20 thinner to paint ratio is used for shading and fading with enamel paints. I started with already mixed Italian sand adding a few drops of white and a drop of yellow, keeping in mind that this aircraft was in the desert and the sun, heat, sand and dust did their part to make it look faded, dusty and with desaturated colours. Start working from the inside of the yellow areas making it lighter to the outside where they

meet the brown making it a bit darker. With yellow areas now properly faded but still looking a bit strange and uniform, it’s time to darken the panel lines using Model Master Sand Yellow RLM79 that will look perfect on faded Italian sand paint. A bit different procedure goes for the brown areas where i want to make panels more visible by spraying thin coats of light brown on the central parts of the panels and thus leaving the darker areas on the panel lines, another eye catching and very effective technique. After the brown areas are done, i will get back to the yellow areas and touch it up a bit more where the light brown paint has over sprayed the yellow and, with both colours now faded and shaded i can amend it a bit more here and here until i am satisfied with the results. Another thing that i did in this stage is spraying the fuel stains and streaks from the main fuel filler points with very thin darkish brown shades but be careful not to overdo. Now,

With the markings sprayed on we can proceed with some more shading and fading but also adding the fuel streaks and panel lines.

Walking surface received some paint chipping again by using Tamiya XF16 Flat Aluminum and a lead pencil. Stencils are on as well and the brown wash has been applied to subtly enhance the lines.

Exhaust pipes and front canopy temporarily fixed into place. Note that the radio section behind the pilot’s seat is missing primarily for easier masking of the interior.

Fine wet sanding pads have been used to wear of fuselage markings. The Modeller’s Guide to Superdetailing, Painting and Weathering Aircraft of WWII 139


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A piece of styrene strip is wrapped around the bomb as this detail is missing on the kit part.

Pieces of styrene rod as well as some photo etched parts are now used to create more details.

The bomb is now painted with Alclad II Dark Aluminium ALC-103 as a base for paint chipping.

Medium coarse sanding pads are used to sand off some of the paint and to reveal metal beneath.

Maketar Paint Masks ‘Desert Doras’ mask set is used for the markings. From the kit decal sheet, we can use just a few stencils, everything else

is dry and cured for about 24 hours, some very fine sanding pads and water are used to fade sprayed markings and blend it with the rest of the paint job, thing that is hard to achieve with decals. Part of the job that consists of masking entire upper surface is always a bit tricky and the least thing we want now is to ruin the paint job that has been done so some extra care is needed to mask it all properly and with accuracy. Spraying the lower surfaces is a routine followed with spraying of the markings and then darkening of the panel

will be sprayed using masks prior to applying the first gloss coat for the stencils and panel line wash. After the markings are sprayed on and the paint

lines and recreating some dirt and oil leaks and streaks. Gloss coat is on and the stencils as well, followed by the sandy-brown wash and the matt coat at the end. It’s time to unmask the cockpit and start assembling small parts, canopy, belly SC1000 bomb, radio antenna and machine guns. We are now going to add some details to the SC1000 bomb by using styrene strips and sheet. First, a piece of styrene strip is wrapped around the bomb as this detail is missing on the kit part. After measuring the exact length of the styrene piece, we will glue one end in place and wait until the glue is fully cured before wrapping the strip around the

MDC SC1000 bomb is a beauty for itself, very easy to assemble and it simply must look good.



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This time the chipping has been done with a lead pencil only.

Kit machine guns with Eduard’s photo etched barrel and the gun sight.

bomb completely. This will ensure that the styrene piece does not move when we bent it. Before applying the glue to the rest of the strip section, we will secure it in place with a piece of masking tape. Pieces of styrene rod are now used to create other details that will make an average piece of the kit into a detailed model for itself. Bomb is now painted with Alclad II Dark Aluminium ALC-103 as a base for paint chipping. Hellblau, the same paint we used for lower sections of the Stuka is now airbrushed on the bomb and set aside to fully dry. Medium coarse sanding pads are used to sand off some of the paint and to reveal metal beneath.

I will also assemble and paint a resin casted SC1000 Bomb from MDC, very well detailed and very fast to assemble. This time, the bomb is painted in Sand Yellow and paint chipping is done with soft lead

pencil randomly rubbed here and there for highly effective finish. Zwilling MG81Z gun barrels are made from Eduard’s photo etched parts wrapped around hypodermic needle and rolled

over the table by pressing it with steel ruler to get perfectly cylindrical form. I have decided to go with QuickBoost resin propeller blades but as they are just slightly different from the kit parts, no one would



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Stuka had some canopy frames mounted from the inside and some from the outside and it needs to be represented correctly. Final touch ups on this canopy part by adding frame rivets with Maketar rivet masks.

even notice the difference whichever ones you decide to go with. Spinner is sprayed with II Dark Aluminium ALC103 first and then all the other colours are applied, masking of spinner rings is done with thin masking strips. Fine sanding pads are used to wear of some of the black paint from

Combination of Eduard’s PE parts and Aires resin parts is visible here too.

the propeller blade root area. Maketar Paint Masks used for painting the rivets on the canopy makes the job easier and produces excellent finish. For attaching canopy parts, we will using Formula 560 glue, it’s simply the best. Adding the details is pretty a straight forward task and that

Kit propeller blade on the left and QuickBoost blades on the right hand side, it’s not so much of a difference but its noticeable.

being done, we will do some more touch ups with the brush and dry pastels powder. Some paint chipping is now done on the wing root where the crew would normally walk. Subtle blending of all

parts is essential as we don’t want anything to out of the picture but again, be careful not to overdo, use different brush sizes and do it in passes rather than saturating one area with the powder

All canopy parts ready to be placed where they belong.

Spinner is sprayed with II Dark Aluminium ALC-103 first and then all the other colours are applied, masking of spinner rings is done with thin masking strips. Fine sanding pads are used to wear of some of the black paint from the propeller blade root area.



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With the huge bomb mounted on its belly, Stuka looks mean now. Wheels are also fitted in and dusted with dry pastels to simulate the desert ground dirt.

before moving to another. Looking at some photos of the real thing will help more than anything else in getting the feel for the weathering and blending, a bit of patience and subtlety will for sure, provide very rewarding final result. At the end, another excellent model from Hasegawa in Revell box which makes it even better when you consider the price. The model has its flaws with the right side wing and the

sliding canopy section but for sure nothing that will ruin the joy of building it. Eduard BigED PE set is excellent and always welcomed addition, and even with a bit high price it’s still a great value for money having in mind the quality and the quantity of the parts that you get. Aires resin cockpit set speaks for itself, high quality resin, crisp and very detailed casting does the trick every time. Combined with Eduard BigED PE set opens the door to

Another view of the cockpit, radio antenna and the guns. Pacer Formula 560 - Canopy Glue is used to attach canopy parts.

endless possibilities for detailing the cockpit. QuickBoost - Ju87D propeller is more accurately represented than the kit propeller blade but nothing too serious that we could not live with it. MDC SC1000 Bomb is really beautiful and detailed but as with the propeller blade, bomb provided in the kit can be a bit detailed up to a very satisfactory level.

Sliding canopy sections sits funny on the top of the fixed middle canopy part, something Hasegawa did before on a couple of other models and something that we need to take care of.



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Chapter IV MAKING A DIORAMA

MAKING A DIORAMA FIELD EQUIPMENT AND ORDNANCE Building and painting field equipment slightly differs from building and painting aircraft models. Ground equipment is usually much more stained, dusty and muddy. In this case, it’s more of armour modelling than really anything related to aircraft and in terms of techniques used, it’s a matter of making everything more worn out and neglected with no air stream stains, of course.

148 BUILDING THE AIRCRAFT - MAKING A DIORAMA


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BEFORE WE START Aftermarket sets used in this build: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Signifer - SN32001 Forked lift USAF WWII Signifer - SN32004 Starter cart USAF WWII Hornet - HH4 Bare Heads With WWII Haircuts Pegaso Models - PM-PT026 SS Tank Crewman, 1944 Verlinden - 1108 Oil Barrels Verlinden - 2706 USAAF WWII Refuelling Unit Verlinden - 1856 M5 Halftrack Stowage Set MiniArt - 35101 U.S. Motorcycle Repair Crew


Cyanoacrylate glue Tamiya cement Tamiya extra thin cement Scalpel and tweezers Drilling pin vise Masking tape in various widths BluTack Sanding sticks and files Styrene sheet in various size and thickness Lead, copper and flexible wire Magic Sculpt Unimat Lathe

Parts layout of Signifer’s SN32004 Starter cart USAF WWII kit. Crisply casted with plenty of detail and simple to assemble, Very effective for any ‘maintenance’ diorama.

Paints used: Artist oils: ■ Burnt Umber ■ Black ■ White ■ Yellow LifeColor acrylic paints: ■ LifeColor LC27 Matt Clear ■ UA207 Schwarzgrau ■ UA205 Rotbraun ■ LC06 Matt Red ■ LC03 Matt Yellow ■ UA511 Hellgrun ■ UA208 Anthrazitgrau ■ UA046 Neutral Grey ■ UA028 Grey ■ LC01 Matt White ■ UA524 US Neutral Grey ■ UA605 Dunkelgrau ■ UA095 Sky Tamiya acrylic paints: ■ X-1 Gloss Black ■ XF-2 Flat White ■ XF-3 Flat Yellow ■ XF-7 Flat Red ■ XF-8 Flat Blue ■ XF-53 Neutral Grey ■ XF-58 Olive green ■ XF-60 Dark Yellow ■ XF-62 Olive Drab ■ XF-63 German Grey ■ XF-65 Field Grey Humbrol acrylic paints: ■ Matt clear cote - aerosol

Starter cart painted in green mix and fixed to aluminium strip by BluTac for easier holding and painting.

First element of our ground equipment will be Signifer - SN32004 Starter cart USAF WWII, resin model with only a couple of elements. Two thin coats of light green are airbrushed on the main cart part, same mixture as we were using for our Spitfire interior made by mixing LifeColor LC03 Matt Yellow and LifeColor UA511 Hellgrun in 2 to 5 ratio. Scratches have been applied heavily with fine pointed brush and

LifeColor UA208 Anthrazitgrau, making sure we do not overdo. Try to keep shapes irregular and random, try to source some photographs from the internet of similar ground equipment and look for areas that have been beaten the most. Most heavily scratched areas are those most exposed or most touched/ stepped on. Small details like voltage gauges, various switches and buttons have been painted in



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Fine pointed brush is used for painting on scratches and peeled paint.

few different colours, mostly as seen on some reference photos as those of this particular cart are a bit difficult to find. Next step is application of diluted Burnt Umber artist oils and we then treat it with clean dry brush until the surface is smooth and free

of any brush strokes, we will repeat this process one more time to enhance heavy usage look. Exhaust drum and pipe system has been hand painted in dark brown then treated with diluted Burnt Umber and then heavily saturated with ‘rust’ dry pigments to achieve burnt

Every single detail counts. By painting gauges, buttons and placards we are breathing in life into our model.

and rusty look. Lead wire have been used for power lines, painted in different colours, again more by hunch as I just could not find a reference for those. Leave the part aside to allow oil paints to dry completely, for some 24 hours. Next and final step would be

some drybrushing, again we will use Gunze Sangyo Mr Metal 218 Aluminium paint. Lightly dip flat brush into the paint and make sure to give it a good clean with the paper towel before using it on the model. Start by gently brushing all sharp edges and raised

Burnt Umber artists oil paint has been heavily applied in order to make our cart look heavily used, stained and warn out.



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Chapter IV MAKING A DIORAMA Lead wire has been cut and used as cables, different colours are a guess in this case due to lack of reference.

Dry pigments applied to entire model by clean brush simulate dust and dried oil stains. Wheels would be treated with earth like colour pigments.

Drybrushing with Gunze Sangyo Mr Metal 218 Aluminium paint will further enhance details. Lead wire is used for power supply cable and placed hanging over the bar.

details to give it nice highlight and more three dimensional look. Oil paint and pigments were used on wheels as well, for this one it’s best to choose dark brown pigments but this will depend, of course, on the type and colour of the surface of our diorama. For a desert diorama we would use ‘sand’ pigments rather than dark brown mud, and so on. Next, we are going to add more elements to our diorama setup to make it more ‘alive’ and realistic. Here again, take your time to study WWII photos of aircraft undergoing maintenance to best understand the setup and everything that your diorama should have. In this case with my diorama, it was not done by specific photo or situation, it’s rather made up setup while different scene elements come from various photos, mainly from French airfields. Most of those scenes had various wooden crates with spare parts and so we are going to add a couple. Styrene sheets 0.4mm have been cut to approximate measure for each side of the crate. Each piece has then been sanded with coarse sand paper to achieve natural wood texture and grain, here we would like to draw sand paper in only one direction, along the longer axis. Now, to make it to look like it was assembled out of a couple of wooden slats, we will measure equal spacing along shorter axis and draw lines with Tamiya scriber, to represent recessed lines between wooden planks. We can do the same procedure for our makeshift work bench and just add connecting planks made out of styrene beams, 3mmx0.4mm. Yellow paint will be sprayed on all wooden elements and later washed with Burnt Umber oil paint. Oil and dirt stains on the workbench can be done by dripping a few drops of gloss



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Exhaust system has been painted brown, washed in oils and saturated with rust dry pigments.

black mixed with dark brown paint. Cargo trailer has been scratch build out of styrene sheets 0.3mm thick. Reference

photos and dimensions of G-518 ‘Ben Hur’ cargo trailer can be found on the internet. The only thing that we would

need to source for the trailer are the wheels and those can be taken from 1:32 Tamiya US 2 ½ Cargo Truck kit or you can

purchase resin wheels set for the same kit, it’ cheaper. Painting airfield ordnance is pretty much straight forward,

Wooden crate and makeshift workbench placed on top of Verlinden oil barrels, a simple test of the layout. The Modeller’s Guide to Superdetailing, Painting and Weathering Aircraft of WWII 153


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Unimat lathe is an amazing and easy to use tool for making various diorama elements, in this case a barrel has been turned in just three minutes.

Fire extinguisher is another thing you will always find on any aircraft maintenance site.

4.5 inch rocket is something rarely available as aftermarket parts, easy and simple to turn it on Unimat lathe. For turning various pieces you can use modellers wax, resin sticks, aluminium or brass rod, with amazing results.



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Another test for diorama layout. Frequent layout tests can help us see if something would need to be added or taken away.

first of all, a couple of light coats of our ‘green’ mix, LifeColor LC03 Matt Yellow and LifeColor UA511 Hellgrun in 2 to 5 ratio. Scratches are done with sharp pointed brush and LifeColor UA208 Anthrazitgrau. At this point,

Bomb attachment rings have been made from lead wire wrapped around brass tube and then cut with sharp blade.

we can play with airbrush shading, first is always light shading with much diluted yellow paint followed by dark shades of black. Shading process has been described in detail already in previous chapters. Again, Burnt Umber artist oil paint has been used

Finished bomb rings ready to be glued to the bomb.

Eduard PE bomb parts, scratch built bomb stand and lead wire rings will greatly improve appearance over kit original part.



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Custom text cut on vinyl foil will serve as a stencil for spraying markings on our wooden crate.

to finish everything of to get a nice looking olive drab colour. Bombs have been further treated with mesh cloth dipped in Anthrazitgrau and then randomly blotched on the

bomb creating impression of peeled paint. With our ground equipment sorted it is time to take care of the ground crew. I was trying to find a suitable atmosphere

for my diorama and so the figures had to match that peaceful moment I was trying to achieve. Initial plan was to have two figures standing and talking but it felt too busy

so I’ve decided to go with one ground crew member comfortably sitting on an ammo crate while cleaning a small engine part. Here’s where it gets tricky as we are Wooden crate containing aircraft spare parts is now ready for oil wash. I thought it would be interesting to have a cargo trailer somewhere on my diorama especially if loaded with various accessories we would usually find on maintenance area of an airfield. The trailer is quite simple in shape and can be easily scratch built.



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Finished and ready to be painted, G-518 ‘Ben Hur’ trailer was often seen in Europe after D-day landing.

Light and dark shading creates contrast and excellent base for overall oil wash.



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Signifer - SN32001 Forked lift, shading and scratches make a simple part look busy and detail rich.

Small details and big difference. Attachment rings and fuse took a few moments to scratch build and the results are very rewarding.

Mesh cloth dipped in Anthrazitgrau and then randomly blotched on the bomb creating impression of peeled paint.

Oil spills and stains can be achieved with airbrush. Hold airbrush close to workbench part and without pressing the trigger, pull it back and quickly release so the needle ‘spits’ highly diluted gloss black.

Difference between airbrushed and oil washed barrels. Burnt umber on light green creates fantastic olive drab shades.

Small parts have been turned on Unimate lathe, rockets, fire extinguishers, spinner caps, oil cans… cargo trailer oil washed and ready to be loaded.



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Scratch built barrel and fire extinguishers next to Verlinden oil can. Painted markings on fire extinguisher add to realism.

Fine sharp pointed brush has been used to outline figure details. All recessed areas can be painted with diluted dark brown paint to simulate shadows. Boots and belt have been painted black.

Injection plastic figure from Dragon feature a lot of nice details. Milling bit is used to make space for Hornet resin head placement.

After careful sanding of any seams figures received two light coats of XF-49 Khaki as a base for oils.



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Overall oil wash with diluted Burnt Umber works like a charm creating nice shades and warn out look on our guy’s clothes.

Airbrushing skin tone colour paint on figure’s face and then washing it in oil will create realistic skin appearance. Boots have been further treated with earth tone dry pigments while oil wash was still wet.

Final pose for our mechanic.

Hair can be painted black or dark brown with lighter colour drybrush to enhance details. Figure is placed on ammo crate to see if any reposing need to be done before gluing everything together. You can easily repose a figure slightly by heating it with hair dryer first.



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Fine pointed brush has been used to paint eye brows and eye balls. Ears can be drybrushed with white to accent highlights.

limited with 1:32 figures, you cannot simply imagine a pose for your figure unless you are prepared to do major re-posing of the figure, which I was not. So, what I could do is to browse the internet for every possible figure or figure set in 1:35 scale as those are much more common. A German soldier figure posing as serviceman on USAF P-47, why not! With proper colours of his clothes he is just another poor guy trying to play his part in the war. I really do not go to extremes but rather like to make my work easier when possible, at the end who is going to notice any difference?! Hornet resin heads came in handy as original figure heads were lacking details.

For more realism our seating guy got a new, smiling face. It would be a bit unnatural to have two mechanics facing each other with serious face expressions and just looking at each other. New head comes from Hornet head collection as well.

Yet another test pose with a few accessories around. Maps and mechanic manuals can be simply painted on any home printer, treated with oils and folded a few times to appear more real.



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Main material for diorama ground work is actually sand and dirt collected by the side of the road. Also keep handy a couple of sand paper sheets, wood glue and mesh cloth. Bamboo stick is used for levelling sand.

Diluted wood glues is poured on our plaster rock as well as on area around it, next we would scatter fine sand and dust on it.

Another view showing our diorama base sprinkled with diluted wood glue. At this point we can use fingers or bamboo stick to level sand and remove excess.

Once we’re done with groundwork setup we would seal it with sprayed diluted wood glue and leave a couple of hours to set. Wood glue dries clear.

Further airbrush shading can be done with various colours to touch up anything we are not happy with but also to create more contrast and add realism.



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Autumn yellow grass has been poured on wet wood glue first. Be careful when applying wood glue as glued grass is hard to remove later on.

GROUNDWORKS With diorama layout planned and everything else finished, our last step is building diorama base. After mocking the layout of all object on a piece of paper in roughly 1:1 scale we can easily determine the size of base for our diorama. Custom made picture frame will be perfect in this case just replace the glass with thin plywood sheet and we are ready for the next step. Using sand, dirt and materials found outside to make a diorama base usually makes a mess so I always do this part outside, balcony will do as well. To protect diorama base frame we are going to mask it off with any sort of tape you have available, in this case I am using wide Tamiya tape. Also keep handy a couple of sand paper sheets, wood glue and mesh cloth. To start applying sand and dirt collected by the side of the road, we will first spread

a thick layer of wood glue onto plywood sheet and simply just spread the sand and dirt over it, let the small pebbles and larger chunks go in as well. Start spreading sand in thinner layer and allow each layer to soak in the glue before spreading another layer. White glue will stay wet for about 30 minutes, more than enough time to finish this step. After spreading the sand and dirt on the base, we can place larger pebbles and chunks here and there where we see fit and to avoid getting our diorama too flat. I’ve made a plaster rock cast in Woodland Scenics rubber moulds and placed it into the base corner to make it look more natural and interesting. With everything in place the best way to seal everything in place is to spray on diluted wood glue with water and spray it on the base using empty window washer bottle with sprayer on top. While still

A couple of larger stones showing trough the grass, those can be added before or after we apply the glue and pour the static grass.

wet, press down some areas of the diorama by your hands to make nice and smooth area where most of equipment and our ground crew will be placed. Set it aside to dry for a couple of hours. Once the base has set and dried, we will proceed with airbrush shading by spraying diluted XF55 Deck Tan on some areas to get some contrast and variety of colours. To apply grass, a diluted white glue has been spread on the base in blotches by large flat brush. For grass, I am using static grass and it comes from a few brands, Javis, WWS, Woodland Scenics etc. Now,

for nice, rich and thick grass we are going to pour the stuff straight from the bag and a lot of it. Good thing here us to mix a few different static grass colours like autumn, spring or summer with emphasis on summer green. Keep in mind that there would be no grass on areas where our ground crew works and walk, pathways would also have no grass. I have deliberately placed different grass colours on different areas to demonstrate that it can be easily painted with airbrush into any colour. Set everything aside for a few hours to dry before using



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Larger area has been treated with wood glues and to be covered with green summer grass. Try to keep grassy areas irregular and random in shape. Also, note a few different colours of grass being placed on our diorama, some will be airbrushed and retouched later.

Various shades of green and yellow have been airbrushed on grass areas. This is t show that no matter what colour your grass is, we can always easily retouch it either by brush or airbrush. Note small piles of rocks, removed from work area and piled up, washed with oils and drybrushed with off white paint. Detail easy to make but greatly improves realism and overall appearance.

large clean brush to brush off excess grass from the base. You can now play with yellow grass and sprinkle a little bit here and there to give impression of burnt grass. You can add crushed dried leaves small branches and so on. As a last thing, yes again, I like to add highly diluted black artist oil to areas without grass and after that has dried, drybrush

falls onto the base like a rain, otherwise if too close it can blow off some of the stuff, like that fine sand we added. All we have to do now is to carefully arrange all diorama elements onto the base. I don’t use any glue to fix models to the base, there’s simply no need for that. There you go, making a nice looking diorama is not a big deal of effort or time.

those areas with light brown and tan colours. We can also scatter around fine white sand as well, just to give more contrast to our ground work. Before placing everything on the base, we will apply one final spray with Humbrol Matt clear cote to seal everything in place. While spraying from the can, keep it at least 30cm from the base so it basically

This type of diorama base will take a few hours of your time but will add a lot to your scale model’s appearance. As for photographing your models and diorama, play with different light setups and try using printed background image, this is effective way of showing different backgrounds and diorama moods. Happy modelling!

Basic diorama elements placed for a test, nothing will be glued in place as I am never sure where some of it will end up on our layout. Bare ground treated with oils and drybrushed with various brown pants. Some yellow static grass was scattered over some areas of green grass. Dried leaves can be crushed and scattered around as well.



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The Modeller’s Guide: Superdetailing, Painting and Weathering Aircraft of WWII ADH Publishing, Doolittle Mill, Doolittle Lane, Totternhoe, Beds. LU6 1QX


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Everything you knew about plastic modelling, every model you built, all that you have learnt and researched, it needs to be done all over again, old knowledge is out, new technologies are in. If you’ve been into modelling for 30 years or just starting, obvious starting point is the Internet. And there it is, product of global informational revolution under your fingertips, all the information you’ll ever need just few clicks away: modelling techniques, tools, which airbrush nozzle you need, what type of cement to use, exact colour shades, the right brands and manufacturers, what’s inside that box, how’s the plastic looking, is it accurate enough, decal and paint options, aftermarket parts. Then countless references, photos, texts, book excerpts, walkarounds showing all possible details, forums, blogs, mailing lists, social network groups, SIGs, instant contact with thousands of fellow modellers around the globe, some more or less keen to help you, various experts and „hexperts“ advices, endless debates over historical accuracy of some oddball scheme or Spitfire prop shape...

With plastic models being my main focus for years now it is still hard to simply build a model out of the box without trying to add some scratch build parts, just to make the work more interesting. Over the years, my skills have evolved and been refined with constant modeling experiments. My models have been published numerous time in various modeling magazines and since I am not attending any competitions, seeing my models published is the right kind of food for my peculiar modeler’s ego. Now, i am a father of a wonderful boy named Marko, aged three, who is already showing his interest in scale models by going through the kit boxes and ‘dry fitting’ parts as he sees fit. Soon, I am about to become a father for the second time, this time a baby girl, Aleksandra. As for scale modelling, that will wait for some time...

Cover photos by

Aleksandar Počuč

For details of other books in our range visit:

www.adhpublishing.com

The Modeller’s Guide to Superdetailing, Painting and Weathering Aircraft of WWII ADH Publishing, Doolittle Mill, Doolittle Lane, Totternhoe, Beds. LU6 1QX

P180 - WWII AIRCRAFT BOOK.indd 1

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