This is the
wonderful Tamiya F4U-1/2 kit done straight out of the box with the exception of
some Eduard seatbelts. Model was painted using Model Master Acrylics,
simply because these are about the only paints I can get sent via airmail here
to Guam! The technique is a mix of what I call multi shading, which
involves both pre and post shade techniques. First I lay down the plain
base color straight from the bottle, followed by the usual lightening of the
inside of panels. I’m not subtle about the color difference, the plane
looks like a patchwork quilt at this point.
Click on
images below to see larger images
This is then
followed by a very thin coat of the base color over the top. This
starts the blending process. Gloss coat and decals come at this
point. After they dry I flat coat with a touch of Buff or other
light color. I then go back to the middle of some panels, and areas
of high sun exposure, with more flat coat mixed with about 10% of buff or
white. The percent is pretty much random, which I think adds
interest. At this point I’ll apply a panel line wash followed by
overall tinting with artists oils, much like filter coats when building
armor.
Once the filter
coats are dry I go back and do the old very thin mix of black/red brown over
panel lines on heavily used areas. In the case of the Corsair I also went
back with some very thin white to add streaks, again much like with armor.
A Prismacolor pencil was used for paint chipping. Finally I went back over
the whole thing with a flat clear coat. This final coat still had a tiny
amount of white in it, as I didn’t clean the brush after the streaking step.
Worked out alright, lucky for me I hadn’t been painting bright WW1 colors
instead of white! Decals were from the kit. Had a good time with
this kit. Modeling out here in Guam can add a little challenge as supplies
are pretty hard to come by. Improvise, Adapt, Overcome!
Andrew Marriott
|