GB
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
1/72 Italeri Mig-29 UB part 4
After the paint was well dry I spayed a coat of Future of the whole model and let it dry for a day. The decals are from Mini Print and went on without any problems. The MP set comes with a nice set of stencils but I decided to use the ones from the Italerie sheet instead. Since I'm not doing a super-detail job I went with the fewer and simpler stencils. Besides I want the focus to be on the tiger stripes. Another coat of Future sealed the decals. I darkened the panel lines with a mix of lamp black and raw umber oil paints heavily thinned.
GB
GB
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
1/72 Italeri Mig-29 UB part 3
I started on the painting. After masking off the canopy, I began with pre-shading the panel lines with a mix of Model Master Black and Dark Earth.
. The painting guide that comes with the decal sheet is a bit misleading. The tiger stripes are referenced as Grey Green but the FS reference was definitely not. Luckily a Humbrol colour reference was also provided which I was able to cross-reference with the help of Urban Fredriksson's wonderful colour reference charts hosted onIPMS Stockholm. What I settled on was Model Master Light Gray #1732 with MM Lt. Ghost Gray #1728 for the stripes. I was a little suspicious because to my eye the colours were very close to each other at least in the bottle.
I began by laying down the the Ghost Grey following the painting guide.
I allowed the stripes to be broad because the next step was to use a liquid mask to refine the stripe pattern.
Once the mask was set I oversprayed the entire model with Light Gray. The next steps were to spray the black anti-glare strip and Dark Gull Gray #1740 areas such as the radome and tail tips.
Once the mask was removed the contrast turned out pretty well.
Next comes the decalling, weathering and under carriage.
GB
. The painting guide that comes with the decal sheet is a bit misleading. The tiger stripes are referenced as Grey Green but the FS reference was definitely not. Luckily a Humbrol colour reference was also provided which I was able to cross-reference with the help of Urban Fredriksson's wonderful colour reference charts hosted onIPMS Stockholm. What I settled on was Model Master Light Gray #1732 with MM Lt. Ghost Gray #1728 for the stripes. I was a little suspicious because to my eye the colours were very close to each other at least in the bottle.I began by laying down the the Ghost Grey following the painting guide.
I allowed the stripes to be broad because the next step was to use a liquid mask to refine the stripe pattern. Once the mask was set I oversprayed the entire model with Light Gray. The next steps were to spray the black anti-glare strip and Dark Gull Gray #1740 areas such as the radome and tail tips. Once the mask was removed the contrast turned out pretty well.
Next comes the decalling, weathering and under carriage.
GB
Thursday, January 10, 2008
1/72 Italeri Mig-29 UB part 2
Here is some progress from last weekend and bit during the week. I thought it might be a good idea to crazy glue some weight into the nose to keep her from being a "tail sitter".
After putting the two halves together I noticed a raised seam just behind the cockpit. At first I thought it was a panel line but it is in fact a mold line. It does sort of follow a panel line but it goes right across fuselage in places where no panel line should be. I checked the bottom and the same seem is there too. Fortunately it is not too difficult to get rid of. I just found it rather odd.
Next comes the tedious work of filling gaps and seams. I've used Tamiya putty and a fair bit of sanding. Some panel lines had to be rescribed after.
As an added touch for the canopy I build some review mirrors. I cut short lengths of plastic stip, rounded off the corners and glued a short piece of plastic rod. To keep the little pieces in place I've used a loop of Tamiya tape on a popsicle stick - used this for painting too. I painted the mirrors black then silver where the mirror would be.
Notice that the rod is a little long - this was just for ease of assembly. I trimmed them down before gluing them in place. I also painted the inside canopy frame. I brush painted rather than masking and airbrushing.
In this shot you can just see the mirrors. I think they add a nice touch. I also added what I believe is a hood for the pilot. On some Mig-29s this is blue but photos of the plane I'm doing show it to be grey. This was replicated with plastic strip.
Masked off and ready for painting.
I was thinking that with the wings and tail fins in place I was ready for painting but I forgot about the intakes! Italeri renders these as two parts. Unfortunately the two halves don't join together snuggly on their own which made test fitting a little tricky. However I could see that some filling and sanding would be inevitable.
What I ended up doing was to glue one half down and line it up with the engines then glue the other half down. I still had to play around to get the best join but as you can see the is still some clean-up work to do.
The worst part is the front of the intakes which didn't line up very well at all. On top of this I goofed and glued the intake doors. I should have left them off for sanding and filling. I think I might make some covers with aluminum foil. This will cover up some of the problems and might look neat on a static model anyway.
I put the nozzles together while I was waiting for things to dry. They are not bad looking but I don't believe they are correct for a Mig-29 on the ground. Oh well I'm not going to go nuts correcting that.
GB
After putting the two halves together I noticed a raised seam just behind the cockpit. At first I thought it was a panel line but it is in fact a mold line. It does sort of follow a panel line but it goes right across fuselage in places where no panel line should be. I checked the bottom and the same seem is there too. Fortunately it is not too difficult to get rid of. I just found it rather odd.Next comes the tedious work of filling gaps and seams. I've used Tamiya putty and a fair bit of sanding. Some panel lines had to be rescribed after.
As an added touch for the canopy I build some review mirrors. I cut short lengths of plastic stip, rounded off the corners and glued a short piece of plastic rod. To keep the little pieces in place I've used a loop of Tamiya tape on a popsicle stick - used this for painting too. I painted the mirrors black then silver where the mirror would be.Notice that the rod is a little long - this was just for ease of assembly. I trimmed them down before gluing them in place. I also painted the inside canopy frame. I brush painted rather than masking and airbrushing.
In this shot you can just see the mirrors. I think they add a nice touch. I also added what I believe is a hood for the pilot. On some Mig-29s this is blue but photos of the plane I'm doing show it to be grey. This was replicated with plastic strip.
Masked off and ready for painting.
I was thinking that with the wings and tail fins in place I was ready for painting but I forgot about the intakes! Italeri renders these as two parts. Unfortunately the two halves don't join together snuggly on their own which made test fitting a little tricky. However I could see that some filling and sanding would be inevitable.
What I ended up doing was to glue one half down and line it up with the engines then glue the other half down. I still had to play around to get the best join but as you can see the is still some clean-up work to do.
The worst part is the front of the intakes which didn't line up very well at all. On top of this I goofed and glued the intake doors. I should have left them off for sanding and filling. I think I might make some covers with aluminum foil. This will cover up some of the problems and might look neat on a static model anyway.I put the nozzles together while I was waiting for things to dry. They are not bad looking but I don't believe they are correct for a Mig-29 on the ground. Oh well I'm not going to go nuts correcting that.GB
Friday, January 4, 2008
The First of 2008 - Mig-29 UB
I ended 2007 with some Mig-madness and I don't seem to have shaken it yet. So here we go with my first build of 2008 - a Mig-29 UB. The model will represent a Slovakian Mig-29 UB in a special tiger stripe scheme. I saw pictures of this plane on Airliners.net since then I've had this project in mind. The model is by Italeri and looks pretty decent. This isn't going to be a huge super-detailing project. Rather this is something to start the year off. Having said that I did have to do some work in the cockpit.
Italeri's cockpit is not bad and the K-36 ejection seats are quite passable. However there is no side-wall detail and there are some gaps that are visible even with the canopy closed. First off I glued some thin plastic sheet to close off the rear walls of the front and rear cockpits.
I added some simple details to the left and right walls - again not super-detailing, just to imply the busy front office of a modern jet.
The tub sides were extended with wedges of platic sheet. Some fiddling was required to get the right fit there.
No modifications were made to the control panels. Everything was given a coat of dark grey and dry brushed with light grey. Bezels and other details were picked out with black and highlighted with black.
A bit of gun-metal was also applied to simulate wear.
As I mentioned the K-36 seats are actually pretty good but there's room for improvement. Using a Verlinden resin seat as reference I add some details such as arm rests with scrap platic and simulated rivets with drops of superglue applied with a toothpick. I left the molded on seatbelts and added belts made of Evergreen plastic strip with I bent and twisted with my fingers then glued in place. At first I thought of usinging flatened out solder wire with wire buckles but that would be over-doing it for this project. For the buckles I just used small rectangles cut from the platic strip. Finally I added release handles made by bending fine wire around a needle nose pliers finished off with a bend in the middle. Once they were painted up I thought they looked pretty good.
Once everything was glued in place I tested the fit of the hull halves and had to shave the bottom corners of the tub. There are still some gaps that have to be dealt with but they were there even with out the cockpit in place. Everywhere else the fit is right on.
Next up will be putting the halves together with some filling and sanding.
GB
Italeri's cockpit is not bad and the K-36 ejection seats are quite passable. However there is no side-wall detail and there are some gaps that are visible even with the canopy closed. First off I glued some thin plastic sheet to close off the rear walls of the front and rear cockpits.
I added some simple details to the left and right walls - again not super-detailing, just to imply the busy front office of a modern jet.
The tub sides were extended with wedges of platic sheet. Some fiddling was required to get the right fit there.
No modifications were made to the control panels. Everything was given a coat of dark grey and dry brushed with light grey. Bezels and other details were picked out with black and highlighted with black.
A bit of gun-metal was also applied to simulate wear.
As I mentioned the K-36 seats are actually pretty good but there's room for improvement. Using a Verlinden resin seat as reference I add some details such as arm rests with scrap platic and simulated rivets with drops of superglue applied with a toothpick. I left the molded on seatbelts and added belts made of Evergreen plastic strip with I bent and twisted with my fingers then glued in place. At first I thought of usinging flatened out solder wire with wire buckles but that would be over-doing it for this project. For the buckles I just used small rectangles cut from the platic strip. Finally I added release handles made by bending fine wire around a needle nose pliers finished off with a bend in the middle. Once they were painted up I thought they looked pretty good.
Once everything was glued in place I tested the fit of the hull halves and had to shave the bottom corners of the tub. There are still some gaps that have to be dealt with but they were there even with out the cockpit in place. Everywhere else the fit is right on.
Next up will be putting the halves together with some filling and sanding.
GB
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