Avia B.534
Komentarzy
Alec KVery nicely done Dave 👍 Would you mind sharing the Tamiya color numbers you used for the topside color? I like your shade. The rigging looks great btw.
David AndrsHere is the witch brew: 7: Red + 8: Yellow + 3: Blue + 3: Black + 11: White. I used the gloss version and the mix matched nicely with a reference picture (one that I liked). When I applied a flat coat of clear (after decals), it shifted all colors a little bit, made them lighter. I assume that is just the nature of the beast. I still liked the shade, so no problem there. Let me also mention that the shade looks lighter in the real life than on the picture.
Also, you should be able to get a good result with flat version of the paint. I purposely used primary colors, so the mix can be used with other brands, not just Tamiya. I did a gloss version, because as I learnt recently it should have a finer pigment and I was also trying to eliminate spraying a coat of gloss clear, which I have trouble airbrushing. But that's another story... This worked well for me in the end.
Alec KFantastic. Thanks for the info and advice. I have a B-534 on my docket, so this will come in handy. I understand that Avia used a lighter and more brown version of the Czech AF khaki than the other manufacturers. The question with the Slovak B-534s is whether they were repainted with RLM colors during their service with SVZ.
Regarding your gloss coat comments: I have thus far used Testors gloss over flat acrylics. It's easy to apply and dries fast, plus, no airbrushing 👍. Works well for me, FYI. Happy modeling!
David AndrsYeah, I saw a lot of pictures using brown. Some were from a museum and I was wondering how close the paint was.
Regarding the color for SVZ, the same thought crossed my mind. Did they keep the original paint and added the yellow bits or was the plane completely repainted. So, yes, this is a bit of "sci-fi" 😉, but I like how the plane looks.
For larger surfaces, I go with an airbrush, because (a) I am better with it, (b) I can better control the thickness of the layer and (c) actually keep the layer thin (too much variation when hand painting - may be I need to practice more 😉). For the clear, I think I need to try a thinner mix, open the nozzle more and spray from bigger distance (at least that worked a lot better for spraying gloss white this weekend). When I tried the last time, I was getting grainy surface, which kind of ruined it for the applying decals. And I got some paint retarder, so I need to try that as well...
Martin OostromWell Sir, this model looks mighty fine to me.
Crisp painting, some subtle weathering and some lessons for me. Thanks for posting 👍
Album info
The kit from Eduard was excellent. The fit was what one would expect in 21st century. All seam lines were filled with Tamiya surface primer. I had to use some putty at the bottom front part, but that was my mistake rather then a problem with the kit. I lost only 2 rivets sanding. There is not a huge number of parts which may be attractive if you want to build a biplane and you never did it before. Getting the wings aligned is not a big problem, see some of the WIP pictures what I did. A bigger problem was the rigging - that was a pig of a job, but mostly because I was trying to use invisible mending thread. I spend 3 sessions on just that and the rigging is not even intensive. I think on my next biplane I will fall back to the old school method and will use pantyhose thread (😉)
As for painting: the underside is Vallejo silver. That sprayed quite all right. The rest is Tamiya. The green/khaki/gray (whatever) is a custom mix (7: Red + 8: Yellow + 3: Blue + 3: Black + 11: White).
The decals went of flawles
