The Painting Process
I've had a bit of time lately to really get stuck into this build so what follows is quite a bit of pregress...
The splinter pattern has now been applied to the model. I followed my usual practice of pre-shading the primer with thinned black paint along panel lines and any recesses.
I then roughly outlined where the RLM71 needed to go with masking tape ensuring there was allowance for the RLM70 to overlap. I did this because I didn't want to completely cover the pre-shading with the base RLM71 so that the 70 would receive some shading too.
I then masked off the RLM71 ready for the splinter pattern RLM70 (black green).
This took some considerable time but I kept telling myself, 'I best get used to this as I've got two He111s and a Ju88 to finish in the same pattern!'
This is the result with the RLM71 straight from the Lifecolor pot (please note I'm trying to achieve small variations in colour so judging the actual colour of the Lifecolor paint is more difficult).
I felt the above result was very close in shade to the RLM70 (especially around pre-shaded areas) I therefore decided to lighten the RLM71 with a little RLM02 and yellow paint, mask roughly (with post-its) and apply again.
The ratio was roughly 3:1 RLM 71 to RRLM 02 + a little yellow to retain the hue of the colour.
The original colour is on the port wing with the starboard wing and rear fuselage being lightened with the new colour.
It is subtle but has made the splinter pattern stand out a little more...
...and here's the final pattern...
Later, if I feel that the colour has too much contrast, I can change the colour slightly with the use of filters. If you don't know what these are they are basically coloured washes (this is a trick pulled from my armour modelling). The application of a green colour wash will result in a subtle darker RLM71 shade whilst still retaining the variation in shade within the finish.
...and here's a pic of the underside with the pre-shaded RLM65...
I've got a bit of tidying up to do on the paint finish and I also need to apply the RLM70 to the spats but this shouldn't take long, hopefully I should have all this complete by the weekend.
Next time it's the
decals...
Cheers
Paul