Paul, jump right in! Thanks for listing your Works in Progress!
Thanks Keith! As for my pace, I'm waaaaaay under my production level of last year! I'll be lucky to have completed fifty models this year!
Thanks Gil! Yeah, sometimes I do feel a bit stretched. That's when I pull out something simple like the biplane and Hurricane and just 'throw them together'. I do have sort of a system which, while I do build what I like and let the chips fall where they may, does include building as many subassemblies as I can until I get to a level where I need glue to dry or paint to be laid down. Then I'll move on to the next model. I'll bring everything to the decal stage and then decal everything all at once. Then I finish everything off at leisure til it meets my satisfaction. And yes, I do have fun!
James, yes, these two are brush painted. I did thin the paint a little to try and get it to lay down better, but was marginally successful. I didn't airbrush these because , well.... I was lazy. These were simply a 'shake the cobwebs, burnout reducer' builds so I didn't utilize all the 'advanced' techniques. These were just models I 'threw together' for fun to push through the modelers block.
I agree, I never mask my wheels either. The technique you described is what i do as well. It didn't work too well with the biplane, so I'm going to try the same thing in reverse using the silver on the hubs. Although, the paint callout does show them painted with alternate red/yellow stripes, but I'm not sure I want to mess around with that.
You're right. Even though I did clearcoat with Future, the base paint coat is the culprit. When I airbrushed it on, it went on very 'powdery' for want of better word. Therefore the coat is a bit more rough than it should be. I didn't want to pile on too much Future because I didn't want runs or anything else, so I just went ahead and decaled it. I've already pinpricked them and applied a Micr-Sol solution to try to reduce the silvering as much as possible.
And like you, I also airbrush Future over all my models before decaling. That's the best clearcoat ever! Do you mix Tamiya Flat Base in with your Future for flat and semi-gloss coats? I do. All my armor is finished with a Future/Flat Base mixture of 60/40 Future to Flat Base ratio.
That reminds me; I gotta go pick up some more Future....
As for using decal solutions, I'll use -Set for difficult ones that refuse to lay down right. I'll use -Sol for ones that need to be laid down over surface detail, or ones that silver despite my efforts to eliminate silvering. I'll use Solvaset (the 'nuclear option') for those difficult ones that need to be brought down over deep detail or compound curves or both; or whenever the other two solutions don't work.
Thanks for the advice on the photography. I have two lamps on my desk that give these the look of flash. I always turn it off because these two lights give plenty. Then there's my window with sunlight coming through too! Once I get my hobby room a bit more cleared of stash, I'll set up a better photo setup. I've copied your sggestions for use when that happens in the future. Thanks!
Not at all! I thank you very much for the suggestions and tips and I do very much appreciate your posting them. Please, if any of my answers imply otherwise, don't read them that way because I do want to see suggestions like these; particularly when a) I ask for them, and B) they keep me motivated to try and improve. Every now and then, however, I'll do a 'quickie' which is meant to be fun and will dispense with the 'advanced' techniques just to clear the modeler's block. Essentially I'll build it like I did as a kid. The Hurricane and the Demon are two models that I did just that on, which is why they are hand brushed.
Furthermore, asking questions like this help you to know where I am skill- and technique-wise so that you know more what questions and suggestions to offer. I appreciate that.
As for your final question, the League of Extraordinary Modelers is an invitation only Forums that started up about four/five years ago. Our 'mascot' so to speak is a ring tailed Lemur, and we call ourselves LEMurs. We are a close-knit group of guys that have loads of fun, and specific rules for 'LEMur meets'. As for the 'extraordinary' part, that doesn't just apply to the model building aspects of each LEMur, it also describes us personally as persons as well, if that makes any sense to you.
There are several other members of IPMS on these boards that are LEMurs as well.
If you'd like to know more, our site is:
www.the-LEM.com
I've been a LEMur now for a good three years and I've thoroughly enjoyed the whole time!
Thanks again to everyone for all the great comments!
