Revell 1/48 Beaufighter

[Deleted member 7181]

Thanks Jim. First time I've tried this method and it's trickier than it looks to follow the straight lines perfectly. Fairly happy with the outcome though.

 

[BattleshipBob]

Thanks chaps.

Bob, a bit hit & miss if I'm honest. Some have come out pretty well, some are a bit deep, and a few aren't exactly straight!

I've got a cheap scriber which does quite well if I take it steady but can easily cut too deep. I did a few others with the blade from my new JLC razor saw and that does a really nice job, but I found it harder to keep it in a straight line, even when following a taped edge. A bit more practice and I should be ok I think.

Its a skill all right, some of mine certainly wander off the straight and narrow lol

 

[Jakko]

it's trickier than it looks to follow the straight lines perfectly.

I’ve never tried preshading myself, but you could try spraying some more of the base colour over the parts where you strayed too far from the panel line?

 

[Lee Drennen]

It look fine Andy really shaping up

 

[Deleted member 7181]

Thanks Lee, and knowing my luck Jakko I'd stray off line with that as well!

To be honest I think my hands are a bit wobbly due to a significant hospital appointment that's coming up in a few days and stressing me out. Since stress can aggravate my condition it's a vicious circle

Anyway, onto the beauty of lacquer paints - after about an hour I started masking up the lower half ready for the upper colour.



John didn't have any Ocean Grey in stock unfortunately so it got Dark Sea Grey, which is very similar. I left more of the pre-shading visible here, but hopefully not too much, figuring the upper surfaces would be more prone to bleaching anyway.



And after removing the masking. The engine cowlings cover the mess at the front, and there are only a couple of minor boo boos to touch up where I wasn't perfectly accurate with the tape, so on the whole it's gone well.

 

[AlanG]

Pre-shade panel lines not straight? Don't worry about it. Real panel line shading doesn't conform to straightness all the time. Depends on where the dirt builds up and is rarely even (like what modellers paint).

 

[Jakko]

Looking good

 

[stillp]

Looks great Andy.
Pete

 

[Deleted member 7181]

Thanks chaps.

I still haven't decided whether to have a go at the invasion stripes. Done well I think they look great, but I need to pluck up the courage first!

 

[Jim R]

Hi Andy
I would call that a success.
Jim

 

[Jack L]

Yet to try pre-shading (working up to it before I attempt my 1/35 Spitfire), but yours is an example I would be aspiring to. Spot on Andy!!

 

[Jakko]

I still haven't decided whether to have a go at the invasion stripes. Done well I think they look great, but I need to pluck up the courage first!

I didn’t find them difficult to do at all, on a few 1:72 scale planes anyway. Then again, I began by painting the stripes (white first, then mask and paint the black) before doing the rest of the plane — adding them after the rest is painted may be a little more difficult, I suppose. OTOH, I’m confident this is easily within your skill, certainly looking at the masking you did on this model already.

 

[Deleted member 7181]

Thanks all.

Jack - it's my first time so I'm pleased with the result. I think next time I'll try a bit of mottling/marbling as well to vary the finish even more. I'm not a big fan when it's overly done but a bit of subtle variation might look well.

Jakko - I figured if I did the main painting first I'd always have the stripes as a cover up if it went wrong lol. Plus I suppose it's more accurate to paint them afterwards, not that you'd ever be able to tell the difference though. I know in real life these might be slapped on shoddily since there were thousands of aircraft to do in just a couple of days, so if I do make the odd mistake I guess I can blag it off as "realism"

 

[yak face]

Looking great andy , excelkent paintwork , cheers tony

 

[Deleted member 7181]

Thanks Tony.

Decided to bite the bullet and tackle those stripe today. After a bit more research it seems they would have been 24" wide for a twin engined fighter like this, which scaled down pretty nicely to two strips of the 6mm 3M fine line tape I have.

At first I wasn't sure whether to paint it or roast it!



I then built up a few layers of well thinned down white, trying to avoid the single-block-of-stark-colour look



Then some more masking for the black. If my wife had her way she'd get me to leave it like this, since she's a life long Sheffield Wednesday fan!



Then a few coats of "almost black", again applied carefully to give some variation, and it was time to unwrap. There are a couple of places where the paint has tracked under the tape at a panel line, but nothing a little touch up and wash won't sort.







In between all the masking and drying times I started on some of the smaller pieces like the yellow for the propeller tips. The spiky exhausts were given a coat of steel as a base for a bit of light rust work.

I had a hard time finding colour references for the torpedo so went with something similar to the instructions, a custom blue/grey at the front, with the main part being a mixture of steel and silver, which turned up just in the nick of time from John at the shop. I'll hand paint the wooden "fin" at the back later.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Andy
Glad you decided not to roast it. Setting fire to stuff is only for mad people experienced guys like John R and Ron. Their insurance cost is ridiculously high
Seriously that looks great - really come out well.
Jim

 

[JR]

Andy isn't Jim nice only said experienced as Ron is included
Looks fine to me mate.

Hope your appointment goes ok .

 

[Deleted member 7181]

Thanks chaps. I can't remember ever doing so much intricate masking but I think it's paid off.

And thanks John, fingers crossed.

 

[Jakko]

I figured if I did the main painting first I'd always have the stripes as a cover up if it went wrong lol.

That works both ways, though: if you do the stripes first and it goes wrong you can just put the camo over them and pretend you never tried adding them

I know in real life these might be slapped on shoddily since there were thousands of aircraft to do in just a couple of days, so if I do make the odd mistake I guess I can blag it off as "realism"

Only really if you’re talking about planes in the immediate aftermath of D-Day, to be honest. There are photos of them being applied freehand with large brushes on 4 or 5 June, but ASAP afterward these were replaced with much neater (straighter) ones. Still, you can of course claim the model represents a plane on those couple of days Not that you need to, looking at the photos.

 

[outrunner]

Looks really great, hope I can get as good with paint as you are.


Andy.