Life in Plastic (Styrene, specifically)

Cunningham's Famous Phantom

May 29, 2021 -- 1/72 Hasegawa F-4J Phantom II
The client wanted the kill marks on the splitter plate.

Tiny Streak Eagle

February 2021 -- TOMYTEC 1/144 F-15A Streak Eagle, 2021

 

The Dying Gaul

My baby sister presented me with this challenge. Take this one-piece cast statuette mimicking marble, and bring him to life -- so to speak -- with paint.

Red hair and brown eyes, if you please. The eyes would  be a small problem in that whoever copied this guy from the ancient original, chose to animate his some with sculpted suggestions of irises and pupils. Like most, if not all sculpted humans, the original had smooth and featureless eyeballs.
I filled his as best I could with 5-minute epoxy. Sadly I couldn't do much about their lack of symmetry

It took about two hours to fill and clean up mold marks, fill in pinholes and generally get him as smooth as possible. I don't know what kind of material he is cast in. There was definite evidence that someone took some kind of a sanding/grinding wheel to  where there were rough spots or maybe some flash. It also looked to me that his chin was repaired with some not quite matching filler that needed more smoothing than it got.

The first step was to establish a proper pale skin tone consistent with red hair. This is the first coat, a test coat. Against a blue background, maybe. Against a white background he was definitely too dark. This layer did serve as an excellent primer coat, revealing a whole bunch more rough spots and lumps and bumps.
Whatever the material he's made of is, it filled well with Bondo spot putty.

The base paint I used was  Testor 1170 -- flat light tan. To get the degree of paleness I was after for the upper skin shade, I mixed it about one part tan to three parts flat white. I then mixed two more darker shades of the same for lower skin and shadows. I'd also end up using the straight 1170 for deep undercuts. Time to crank up the compressor and start to airbrush. Probably the biggest misstep came when I did his hair.  My idea was to lay in all the shadows in dark brown and then brush the orange on top of that. Unfortunately I didn't appreciate the orange's lack of covering power and it was quickly evident plan A would not work. And of course I'd started work on his face.Here his face is wrapped in Parafilm to protect it from orange over spray. The paint was Testor orange in the little 1/4 ounce jar. Highlights were done with a little yellow mixed in and shadows were just brown.

This is his face at an early stage. Shading done with artist's oils. The oils were only really effective on his face, fingers and toes. The bulk of the shading was done with the airbrush. There's a hole yet to fill on the tip of his nose.
The fact that he was cast as one with his shield, painting that item would prove to be tricky. Also, with the original ancient guy, the sculpture gave him the broken sword, scabbard and what is clearly a belt strewn under his right side. With this copy, instead of the belt, there's what I can only recognize as, what, shreds of torn fabric? What's that doing there? I have no idea. Ready to deliver. Less the paint and palettes, of course.

 
I read someplace that his wound suggests a sword stab through his ribs and into his right lung. In the real world there would be blood all over the place and probably bubbling down his chin as well. Much easier to paint only what which was molded on him.



Well that was a step out of the old comfort zone.

https://www.designtoscano.com/products/dying-gaul-sculpture-pd1948

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Gaul

.

Clipped-wing Spit

January 2021 -- Heller Spitfire Mk.XVI

Falcon/Clear-Vax canopy (not fitted as tight as I'd like) slightly modified Airfix pilot, slightly reduced in depth radiators, clear navigation lights, Model Maker decals. I started this on in '03 or '04. Got her to the nearly ready to paint stage, then let her languish. So happy to finally add her to the finished list.

A-10C Warthog

December 2020 -- 1/72 Academy A-10A modified to C standard.

The gentleman who requested this one also managed to track down in Spain (?) the sadly out-of-print Caracal decal sheet featuring Air Guard A-10s. (Good job Jim!) We are both Michigan residents, so it was clear which choice would result. (If you haven't used them, Caracal decals are about as good as they get.)

Jim also wanted a full load of weaponry. It's been years, maybe decades since I packed so much stuff under a warplane. Gotta admit, it looks pretty cool.

All in all I found the kit to be above average, although the opening half of the canopy didn't fit very well in the closed position. Also ground out the the front fan blades of the engines and replaced them with a solid styrene disk. Stationary fan blades in this in-flight presentation signals out of gas.

The real kit goof, and I didn't see it until I could do nothing about it, is the seat location in the cockpit. It's too far back, making the pilot also too far back. Hopefully there's enough good stuff going on with the model, that that error can be overlooked.

 

 

F4U-5 Corsair

December 2020 -- Hasegawa 1/48th F4U-5 Corsair

Mostly stock with the addition of a True Details seat, my own pitot tube and gun sight reflector glass. Also "relaxed" the elevators a bit. Revell/Monogram Pro Modeler decals.

1/200th C-141A

September 2020 -- DML/Dragon C-141A Starlifter

Someone else started it, I finished it.

Grumman FF-1

June 2020 -- 1/72nd Special Hobby Grumman FF-1 According to my record book, the last time I rigged up a 72nd biplane was in 1997 -- 23 years ago. It was significantly harder to do this time around. Not much fun at all, truth be told. But I'm pleased to show I haven't lost the ability. Yet. As for the kit, all I'll say is that if you want to take it on, you'd better be a very experienced modeler, and you'd better really want an FF-1 in your collection. The (incomplete) canopy is my own. Rigging is stretched sprue.

Bell X-2

June, 2020 -- 1/48 Fonderie Miniature Bell X-2
This is the Fonderie Miniature kit with the addition of some Collect-Aire X-2 parts. The cradle/tow dolly is all Fonderie Miniature and cast in white metal. Decals are Cutting Edge -- a sheet I don't believe was ever released and had no instruction sheet printed for it. Pilot is a Shapeways product. Let's just say this kit is rough and required a LOT of refining and checks to reference material. It's shown as it appeared before its final flight with the unfortunate Captain "Mel" Apt at the controls.








If you want to know more about the subject, this is a superb presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeuBtZYXSvg&t=885s

 

A-10A Thunderbolt II/Warthog

April 2019 -- 1/72 Hobbyboss A-10A Mostly out-of-the-box. Print Scale decals -- nicely printed, but not very flexible.