1/32 Trumpeter MiG-3, March 1942. First time doing winter whitewash with whitewash paint, i.e. non-acrylic, non-enamel, non-latex water-based paint. Bought it in the kiddie-art section of the local store. Most of the weathering-off of the white was done with my fingers. Very therapeutic. I haven't seen a MiG-3 with topside stars on the wings; but I like red stars, so there they are. I recently picked up some EZ line for the antenna wire, plan to add that next time I take this down from the wall.
Saturday, September 25, 2021
Sunday, May 30, 2021
P-38 Lightning
"During a sweep over France on 18 August, 12 Mustangs of No. 315 (Polish) engaged 60 German fighters of JG2 and JG26, which was in the process of taking off and landing near Beauvais, France. In the ensuing battle, the squadron was credited with 16 victories, 1 probable and 3 damaged for the loss of one pilot, Squadron Leader Eugeniusz Horbaczewski. Conversely, German claims were that 12 aircraft had been lost and that they had themselves shot down 6 aircraft (one of which was claimed to be a Lockheed P-38 Lightning)." -Wiki
This old Revell 1/48 kit (1964) came with Richard Bong decals, but I wanted to do invasion stripes. I applied nose markings which I had lying around from the aforementioned Polish RAF unit. Voila, instant mysterious Polish Bong-doppelganger that was downed in France.
Left off the usual bits, e.g., Pitot tube, antenna, prop-blade decals, stencils, mass weights on the elevator. Put the front landing gear on backwards with crazyglue, decided to leave it as is. I think the standard invasion stripes look too wide on P-38s, so these are about 15% narrower than spec. I didn't want the white stripes butting against the bare metal surfaces, so I reversed the colors as well.
Tiger I
Tamiya's ancient 1/35 scaleTiger I. Vegetation is pampas grass stuck into holes drilled thru homemade spraycan-painted celluclay on plywood. I have a deep bookcase now, so was able to have a relatively big base to get the 'endless steppe' vibe I like so much. Back in the 70s I did my first pampas grass dio, and dutifully crushed the stalks the tank treads would have crushed. So ugly. I'll never do that again. Mural courtesy of my wife. What else...tank is assorted washes of craftstore acrylics including 4 shades of green, 3 shades of brown, 2 of yellow. Tow cables are the original soft plastic endpieces cut off and drilled out, with picture-hanging wire crazyglued into them. Minimal weather with oils and a pencil. Used the Tamiya zimmerit rakes for the first time. I trust they are to scale, but my old eyes need reading glasses to see the resulting texture. I know, men pointing in dioramas is corny, but I love that DML-Dragon cavalryman, so sue me.
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Junkers Ju-88 Nachtjager
A few pix of the 1993 1/72 AMT/ERTL Ju 88 G Nightfighter. Old decals are not behaving, I may get some aftermarket ones. First pic in-progress.
Friday, February 19, 2021
Ansaldo SVA
1/50 Ansaldo SVA Artiplast kit manufactured in Chirignago, part of metropolitan Venice, in 1975. On August 9, 1918, 11 SVAs from the Serenissima squadron participated in the Volo su Vienna/ the Flight over Vienna; more about that at the link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_over_Vienna Handpainted with craftstore acrylics, primed with local spraycans.
Wednesday, February 10, 2021
P-51 D
Monogram's 1/48 'Detroit Miss' Mustang from 1977. Yellow, red, black, brown, and two silver tones all from local (Ecuador) hardware-store spraycans. I left off the invasion stripes and added the red tail. I didn't like the look of the olive-drab anti-glare panel, repainted that black. Left off all the stencils except for the one with the little Red Cross emblem. Used thin strips of black and red electrical tape in lieu of painting the canopy bits. Ancient decals mercifully went on without any drama. Bit of history here: http://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft/18428
