Monday, August 17, 2015

Work in progress vol.17 : U.S. 82nd Airborne with base: READY


Subject:
U.S. 82nd Airborne with base
Scale:
1/9
Manufacturer:
Legend productions
Price
US$30,00+ shipping
Description
Resin cast. No decals
Comments
This is  Legend's 1/9 U.S. Airborne trooper bust. The quality of the casting is fantastic, with no air bubbles. Details are very nice and not affected by the resin molding blocks. Bellow you can see the parts you get in the box. They came in a sealed bag with bubble plastic for protection. As this is a construction description, more details will be added along the building process. 

1) Kit parts:







2) Painting the face: I used the lifecolor flesh paint set for the face. You get six bottles of acrylic paint, witch are: two base colors, two highlight tones and two shadow tones.

First i gave the head a primer coat using tamiya XF19 grey:

Next i airbrushed the lightest skin tone base color of the Lifecolor set:

Next i airbrushed the first shadow tone in some areas:

When i got a good definition of the recessed parts of the face, i blended the tones with a very diluted solution of the first base color.

Now, with a pointed paint brush, i added several layers of highlight and shadow, always with  diluted paint. It is better, when working with acrylics, to get several light layers and not all colors in a single time.

At the end, to avoid the "clown look" on the face of my figure, i again airbrushed a heavily diluted solution of paint. This time i used Tamiya flesh.

Know, using Vallejo acrylics, i painted the eyebrows and the eyes.


Using dark grey also from Vallejo, i painted the hair


Just a light drybrush with a sand color added a nice tone to the otherwise pure black hair.


Next came the last details of the head.



3) The helmet: Again i used a prime coat with Tamiya XF-19

Next, i airbrushed a coat of Tamiya Khaki drab.

I then drybrushed a yellow tone to the helmet to highlight the net.

Several details were also painted with Vallejo acrylics.

4) The head is almost finished. Some small details will be added once it get attached to the torso.

5) Torso: I started by working with my airbrush. First a sand color was applied as a base coat. Then i added brown to the base color to paint the shadows. I increased contrast by adding white to the base color and applying it to the more superficial parts of the kit.


To decrease contrast to a more realistic level, i airbrushed a very diluted solution of the base color over the model. It was diluted to a 9:1 ratio of X20A thinner to paint and airbrushed with high pressure and from 15cm away.



I think it is easier to work with a paintbrush over a gloss finish. You get better control over the paint flow. So i sealed the work done so far under a coat of future.

Then came the brush. First i painted the shadow areas close to the edge of the details. I used Vallejo acrylics for this job. Here the color chosen was English uniform


Once the shadows were completed, i used a light color to increase contrast at the edge of the details. This time i worked with Vallejo Iraqui Sand mixed with white in a 2:1 ratio.


Once the edging was done, i painted all the details with several colors from the Vallejo brand.




All parts were brought together  and sealed under a coat of future.

The gloss finish was eliminated by a final coat of Humbrol Matt varnish.

The project is complete! This is a kit more related to painting skills then other subjects. I like to practice with these different skills ranging from airbrushing to paintbrushing.


Sunday, August 16, 2015

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Aircraft walkaround vol.51 : Boeing B29 Superfortress Atomic Bomber - Remembering 70 years of the atomic bombs attacks



Subject: Boeing B29 Superfortress
Location: USAF Museum, Dayton, Ohio, USA 2014; National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC, USA 2012; Fantasy of Flight Museum, Orlando, Florida, USA, 2013.
Comments:The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. It was one of the largest aircraft operational during World War II and very advanced for its time. It featured a pressurized cabin, all dual wheeled, tricycle landing gears, and a remote, electronic fire-control system that controlled four machine gun turrets. A manned tail gun installation was semi-remote. The name "Superfortress" continued the pattern Boeing started with its well-known predecessor, the B-17 Flying Fortress. Designed for high-altitude strategic bomber role, the B-29 also excelled in low-altitude nighttime incendiary bombing missions. One of the B-29's final roles during World War II was carrying out the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and NagasakiDue to the B-29's highly advanced design for its time, unlike many other World War II-era bombers, the Superfortress remained in service long after the war ended, with a few even being employed as flying television transmitters for the Stratovision company. The B-29 served in various roles throughout the 1950s. The Royal Air Force flew the B-29 as the Washington until phasing out the type in 1954. The Soviet Union produced an unlicensed reverse-engineered copy as the Tupolev Tu-4. The B-29 was the progenitor of a series of Boeing-built bombers, transports, tankers, reconnaissance aircraft and trainers including theB-50 Superfortress (the first aircraft to fly around the world non-stop) which was essentially a re-engined B-29. The type was finally retired in the early 1960s. The B-29 production total was 3,970 aircraft. Dozens of B-29s remain as static displays but only one example, Fifi, remains on flying status. As of 2015, another B-29 is being restored for flight. A transport developed from the B-29 was the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter, first flown in 1944, followed by its commercial airliner variant, the Boeing Model 377 Stratocruiser in 1947. This bomber-to-airliner derivation was similar to the B-17/Model 307 evolution. In 1948 Boeing introduced a tanker variant of the B-29 as the KB-29, followed by the Model 377-derivative KC-97 introduced in 1950. A heavily modified line of outsized-cargo variants of the Stratocruiser is the Guppy / Mini Guppy / Super Guppy which remain in service today with operators such as NASA.
Perhaps the most famous B-29s were the Silverplate series, which were modified to drop atomic bombs. They were also stripped of all guns except the tail gun to be lighter. The Silverplate aircraft were handpicked by Lieutenant Colonel Paul W. Tibbets for the mission, straight off the assembly line at the Omaha plant that was to become Offutt Air Force BaseEnola Gay, flown by Tibbets, dropped the first bomb, called Little Boy, on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Enola Gay is fully restored and on display at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, outside Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. Bockscar dropped the second bomb, called Fat Man, on Nagasaki three days later. Bockscar is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-29_Superfortress) .