Had some free time lately. With summer finally melting the last of the snow up here I've been in the garage working on my engines lathe and models.
First we have the original deck color. I should have referenced some photos or looked at the box. It was much too light and with the deck detail I washed away by power spray laquer thinner over the earlier hand painted stuff it really was bad. So I sprayed some really thinned out brown to give it a darker matte coffee look.
Sprues are starting to empty out!
Some of the last "peices" to "build". Radar tower.
Here you can see the final hull and deck paint job with the decals ready to be applied after a matte clear coat. Everything to this point has been airbrushed. Theres a lot of hand painted details to finish off before the clear-coat comes but other than the antenna work and rigging shes about done.
(I HATE stretching sprues. I've tried lighters, stoves, heat guns, everything I can think of and people say its an art.... its luck. My best technique so far is to first glue an extra peice of sprue on all 4 sides of one, then heat up a peice of steel to a light red on the workbench and then roll it along it with my finger (Carefully) until its molten and then grab it up quick and let gravity take care of the rest. You get some really nice straight peices in the middle that way, but its like working with glass shards. I've done my fair share of ariels on planes and a couple boats but this boat requires about 4 feet of stretched sprue.
unfortunatly you just dont get the same look from thread. Andof course when you try to glue the stretched sprue its so thin that just the little bittoo much cement and it melts the end and its too short and garbage for that perfect length you cut)
Some peices before painting them a nice mix of 6 parts naval grey with 1 part ocean blue (and a touch of Testors metallizer... I love adding that to anything I put a splash in anything that isnt supposed to be matte it just gives it an extra special look that you dont notice per-say.. but adds to the wow factor. Its like an aluminium (really really really fine particles in clear) but ground much finer and much thinner than regular paint). The best I could get for that navy ship blue color. If you look closey at the above pic you can just see the color difference. It really shines up close cause its a slight slight color change, but really adds detail.
Ive REALLY increased my fine airbrushing skills on this boat. The smoke stacks were airbrushed without any guides, infact the only parts I taped up were the deck and hull to get straight lines. The rest was free hand with my smallest (.010) tip on as low a pressure as I could get for flow (about 8-10 psi). I've been using these new paint cups lately that are 3 parts, a main cup where the paint goes into the airbrush up a channel in the side that goes into the outlet, the inner cup that holdes the paint with a hole in the bottom that feeds into the channel and of course the top. Its been a learning experience cause it takes a couple seconds to get the paint flowing through the channel but I'm in love with them. You can fill them up with paint outside the airbrush since due to the channel it doesnt spill out since its above the paint level even if you fill it above the outlet so you can have as many colors ready as you want, plus a 2oz suction feed glass cup with laquer thinner for a quick clean between colors and really increases workflow. I love them. They come in 1/16 oz sizes too which is nice, just a dollop of paint and a splash of thinner and you have the perfect amount for spraying some small parts. Plus the lids only have a pin-prick sized air hole (since they are designed for low-flow, detailed work) whereas usual gravity feed cups have a huge hole. so it keeps the mess down and lets you keep your paint mixed well by giving it a quick shake with no spillage or having to put your finger over the cups hole. Love them.
http://www.testors.com/product-catal...ories/feed-cup they call them side feed cups.