Sino-Japanese - Japanese Planes Completed

Most likely these are just the first wave of Japanese....

Another previously started project checked off. I had much of the work already completed, but had to do a little paint touch up and then add decals before applying varnish. A fairly easy project, although painting 1/285 scale struts on the Aichis wasn't a pleasant time. And, once I started putting on the varnish, I found several spots to touch up with paint!

• Planes - Flight Deck Decals (1/285).
• Paints - Vallejo Model Air Aluminium (71.062), Army Painter Warpaint Pure Red mixed with Vallejo Model Color Carmine Red (70.908), Vallejo Model Air NATO Black (71.251), Foundry Bavarian Cornflower Blue (Shade 73C).
• Decals - Flight Deck Decals.

These planes are featured in my "Melee Over the Mausoleum" scenario, found HERE.

FINNished

After sitting about for several months and lately inspired by my friend Scott who is working on Finns, I completed six Model 75As today. I just needed to do some touchup, add decals, put a little decal set on same, and then hit them with a coat of gloss and a coat of matt varnish. While not perfect (my yellow is so thin that even after five coats there is some bleed and a few other little paint gaffs) they are pretty decent gaming pieces.

Ready to face those sneaky Soviets - looking much darker and shinier in the pic

I went with the early war scheme - as these had been planes the Germans had taken from the French and Norwegians they had been painted in RLM71 (Dunkelgrün) over RLM65 (Hellblau) by the Germans and left that way by the Finns (the more known black and olive green scheme came into use later in the war). I used Vallejo Model Air paints for nearly all the work (the aforementioned RLM71 and RLM65 along with natural metal, chrome yellow, and NATO black), the exception being Foundry Bavarian blue on the canopy. National insignia are decals from Beacon (from I-94) which are nicely done individual decals (although I split one somehow) and finished with numbers from Flight Deck Decals. Oh, the miniatures themselves are crackin' good 3D prints, also from Flight Deck.

The color is better in this snap - and now I see more touchup work needing to be done!

Korean War Planes Ready for the Table

A productive few days on the assembly line as I worked on finishing some planes I have had in various stages for a few months. These additions will allow me to game 24 out of 52 scenarios I have for the Korean War. 

F-80s - Vallejo Aluminium, Foundry Bavarian Cornflower Blue Shade 73C, Vallejo NATO Black, Army Painter Pure Red, Dom's Decals (national insignia), Flight Deck Decals (USAF). I will be adding some additional decals from Sieben Schwaben, such as plane numbers and some additional details.

Yak-9s - Vallejo UK Azure Blue, Foundry Bavarian Cornflower Blue Shade 73C, Army Painter Pure Red, Vallejo Natural Steel, Sieben Schwaben Spiele Decals.

F-82s - Vallejo NATO Black, Foundry Bavarian Cornflower Blue Shade 73C, Army Painter Pure Red, Vallejo Natural Steel, Dom's Decals (national insignia), Flight Deck Decals (USAF). While I used Vallejo Decal Softener there are still some cloudy parts on the decals. I've not had that issue before, and a second coat helped a bit, but did not solve the issue completely. I am thinking the black background is really bringing this defect to the fore.

Being colder outside, I cannot spray the planes with varnish (Army Painter Satin) on our balcony so I went with a brush coat of Vallejo Satin Acrylic Varnish. That provides a good protective layer while giving the planes just a hint of shine. For the F-82s, I went with a coat of Vallejo Gloss with a coat of satin as these night fighters had quite the sheen.

Plenty of more planes in the paint and decal queue, so more will be forthcoming.

Zekes Off the Production Line

 As I am hosting another Check Your 6! Pearl Harbor game this weekend, and as I need Zekes for my Darwin and Wake Island scenarios as well, I finally completed nine A6M2 Model 21 Zekes today. 

I like how they turned out, although I do not have the dexterity, whether through paint or decal, to add the blue fuselage stripe for aircraft based on the IJN Soryu. Oh, I do have a long stripe decal to be used, but trying to come up with the exact place to cut it for the correct length, and to have it actually be straight around the fuselage - well that ain't happening! Anyway, the IJN Ash Grey seems to be the perfect color for ame-iro. 

Sieben Schwaben Spiele do make decals for Zekes in 1/200, so eventually I will ask to have some scaled to 1/285 as they are curved to adjust for the fuselage and they should be in the correct length.

• Miniatures - Flight Deck Decals
• Paints - Vallejo IJN Ash Grey, NATO Black, Natural Steel, and Foundry Bavarian Cornflower Blue, Shade C.
• Decals - Scale Specialities
• Varnish - Vallejo Matt (brushed on)

More P-40s Off the Line

I have completed the very basic scheme I am using for a pair of scenarios (Darwin A Flight and B Flight - found on the downloads page) I am hosting at CincyCon in March. These represent the 33rd Pursuit Squadron over Darwin. The planes are a bit of a compromise as some illustrations show "U. S. Army" on the undersides, while others do not. Same is true with the type of roundel used but most sources indicate the red ball and white star was used, although the red ball had been reduced in size with white paint applied in the field - I was not about to try that in 1/285 scale decals!

Additionally there should be some small plane numbers added to the tail and in some cases the front portion of the fuselage, in either black or yellow. I've not been able to source two digit numbers small enough to use. Lastly, some of the pilots had individual markings on their P-40s, but again, decals for those in 1/285 are lacking.

Keeping the scheme simple however allows a variety of early war uses - along with Darwin they could be used over Pearl Harbor or the Philippines. They will also get use as the 9th Pursuit Squadron for another action near Darwin as the 9th's planes initially had the red ball/white star national insignia.

Paints:

Vallejo - Neutral Gray (71.051), NATO Black (71.251), N 41 Dark Olive Drab (71.316), Natural Steel (70.864)

Foundry - Bavarian Cornflower Blue Light (73C)

Decals:

Flight Deck Decals

Varnish:

Army Painter Satin

Heinkel He 100 - Part II

Some months ago I posted a bit about the Heinkel He 100, including some rough stats for Check Your 6! You can see that post HERE. Also, I have created a scenario, titled The Factory Defense Unit, which utilizes the He 100, that can be found on the Downloads page. 

A beautiful replica at the Planes of Fame Museum

I finally pulled out some planes that needed a coat of primer, including the Heinkels. The details on the Table Top Flights planes really pop once primer has been applied (in this case I used Tamiya Fine Surface Light Gray). 

With primer in place...

...and with a thin coat of Vallejo Air Schwarzgrün.

I need to do a bit of cleanup of a few nubs on the planes before adding more coats of paint. I have found that I like using the Vallejo Air series - while the Air line is intended for airbrushes, I have found that using this thinner paint with a brush works well and avoids some of the issues of a thicker acrylics, if one does not mind doing a few coats. 

Above we have a second coat of Schwarzgrün applied, and a couple of relatively sloppy coats of Hellblau applied to the undersurfaces. A third coat of Schwarzgrün will be added and at that time I will clean up the delineation between the upper and lower surfaces.

Now the third coat has been applied to the upper surfaces, and ready for the RLM71 Dunkelgrün splinter pattern after some touchup.

I am not enamored with the Vallejo Dunkelgrün from a color perspective - it is barely discernable and the color seems "off" a bit. My splinter pattern is fairly random and probably not very historical in appearance, but as one needs to look closely to even notice, I am not overly concerned. I have painted the exhaust pipes in natural steel, and have added a bit more touchup to the undersurfaces, while adding in my typical light blue canopy (Foundry Bavarian Cornflower Blue Shade 73C).

Next step is to order decals. I do want to obtain white numbers along with some sort of squadron insignia. I might go full on hypothetical by using some Sieben Schwaben Spiele Decals from their Dockfighters range. 

1950s Jet Age - Progress

Nothing overly mind blowing in this post, but just a quick picture of my painting progress for my 1950s jet project. Thus far I have the basic paint schemes applied to the planes. 

I used Vallejo Aluminium for the J 29 Tunnans and Vallejo Silver for the MiGs, although it is not that noticeable of a color difference between the two. I also used Vallejo on the FJ-4s, going with Light Gull Gray for the upper surfaces and Insignia White for the undersides. The Tunnans have a band of Foundry Bavarian Cornflower Blue (Shade 73A as the base and then coat of Shade 73C) around the intake.

Next will be to add a thin red band around the jet intake of the Furys, and then decals (which are on their way from Flight Deck) which are mostly national insignia, but also lettering (MARINES) for the American fighters and numbers for the MiGs.

I might try to source some sort of squadron markings for the Furys, even though it would not be the correct squadron, but as this project is hypothetical anyway, I guess that does not really matter much!

Adding More Nieuports

Shapeways on left, Table Top on right. Posts and props as well.

For some months I have had a couple of 1/144 Nieuport N.17s awaiting prep, paint, and decals. One model is a Shapeways with the improved print material, and the other is a Table Top Flights offering. With my recent efforts in adding life to three Ares miniatures, I thought it might be nice to add to my Lafayette Escadrille's stable of available Nieuports.

Preparation

Neither plane came with posts, so luckily I did order posts from Shapeways before they declared bankruptcy. A couple of cuts with the X-ACTO knife to remove the pegs from the sprue, some filing to the edge that gets glued to the plane, and then a little superglue, and the pegs are securely in place.

Comparing the two materials - Table Top is smoother and more detailed

Posts added, time for priming

After drying the next step was a coat of primer. Normally I use some AK Interactive gray that I brush on, but last time I used it it had become quite separated, and rigorous shaking yielded undesirable results. Fortunately I had a can of Testers Panzer Gray, which I have used as primer in the past, and I really love the smooth coverage Testors provides.

After priming it was on to painting.

Painting

I already have the "T" and three red bar Nieuports, plus a white band one that I converted from another three bar Ares. Another historical scheme was simply the Seminole Indian head with the national insignia. Okay, that is easy enough. But what about the second one?

My friend Dan (camelbeagle on the Wings of Glory Aerodrome) had a Soubiran version already, using decals from the Valom kit (although I am not certain if the decal's fuselage band color is correct - the decal is black, but the band might actually be red). I also know I cannot pull off letters like "ECP" as that becomes too fiddly and I do not have the ability to print my own decals. One also needs to keep in mind that many of the schemes found searching the world wide web are simply wrong. And the two books I have that include color plates cover the same aircraft I already have or cannot pull off.

And then I remembered - I had bought one of the Nieuports to do a Russian version! And I already have the Russian decals for the scheme I wanted to tackle, and it, too, is a silver doped plane. Sooo, the rest of this post will focus on the Lafayette version, which will simply be a plain plane, with national insignia and Seminole heads!

A close approximation for the silver-doped Ares Nieuport 17 is a mix suggested by Dom from Dom's Decals. Take six parts of Vallejo silver and blend with five parts Vallejo natural steel. I also thin this mix with a little water - metallic paints can be think and I would rather put on a couple of coats of thin paint than a thick one susceptible to clumping. Or, let's make it even simpler - just use Vallejo aluminium (yes, the British spelling). The Model Air range of Vallejo paints are a bit thinner in viscosity, and one does not have to mix paints, and the color is very close to the Ares Nieuports. Plus, we all know that paint widely varied during the war due to weather conditions, and different factories doped fabric differently.

One coat coverage -  the Shapeways version is so shite I am not going to even bother

After the primary color had been applied (and I only needed one coat with a few touchups after), I moved onto the rudder. I used Vallejo white and carmine red, along with Foundry Bavarian cornflower blue (shade 73A).  I was able to use masking tape for the red segment, and I tried lining up a business card to help keep the rest of the lines straight (an idea shared by CrashCraig), but it is still a bit sloppy. And it was the old "Let me fix the white. Damn, went over on the blue too much. Okay, fixed the blue, but got it in the white. Okay, fixed the white, but now I have to correct the red" sort of thing). After doing this several times, I said "feck it" and now it is what it is. From three feet away it looks decent.

While waiting on rudder colors to dry, I added Vallejo flat brown to the outer struts, propeller, pilot, and tail skid. I also painted the machinegun, motor cylinders, and propeller hub Vallejo natural steel. A touch of Vallejo medium sea gray was applied to the tires.

Decals

Now the fun part - the finishing touches that add color to the Lafayette Escadrille Nieuport 17. I used Beacon Publications decals (available from I-94 Enterprises) for the French roundels. Alas, the sizes available do not perfectly align with the Ares planes - for example the top wing roundel on the Ares plane is 7mm, while the closest size Beacon decals are either 8mm or 6mm. I went with the smaller of the two as I did not want the roundel to come across as cartoonish by being too large. Then I applied the Miscellaneous Miniatures Sioux heads to each side of the plane. In both cases I put a spot of Vallejo decal fix on the plane, and after some drying coated the decal with Vallejo decal softener, which allows the decal to conform to the miniature. After drying I then coated the plane with Vallejo gloss varnish to match the other Lafayette Nieuports.

Conclusion

This is the not first Table Top Flight plane I have painted for Wings of Glory (see HERE), and I will say that in every case the material used by Mike at Table Top really does take paint very well, unlike the Shapeways model with it obvious grainy texture. This particular Lafayette Escadrille Nieuport was a rather simple project to take on, and I completed it over the course of three days. The color is a tad off, and perhaps using the mix suggested by Dom might have resulted in a matched aircraft, but overall it works.

Mat - Deep Cut Studio

The Blue Devil

Completed! I'll let the pictures tell most of the story. Plane - Table Top Flights. Base and climb counter ring - Rival Sky Games. Colors - Foundry Bavarian Cornflower Blue (73B), Vallejo flat brown for propeller, pilot, outer struts, and wing and tail skids, Vallejo natural steel for machineguns and pistons, Vallejo white for rudder, and Vallejo black for tires. Decals - Aviation Wing crosses, Miscellaneous Miniatures skull and crossbones. Varnish - Vallejo gloss acrylic and matt acrylic. Gaming mat - GripMats. And I have the base upside down!

Mat - GripMats

Der Blaue Teufel

I have been wanting to create a hypothetical paint scheme for a Fokker Dr.1 for a spell. I decided to order a few aircraft from Table Top Flights, including a Fokker. Mike at TTF I believe has gone to a new printing device, because the quality, which was very good on my Ponnier and Ansaldo A.1s, has become even better. The material is a bit different - the previous planes felt like plastic in a way, and were easy to work with, but also left a few noticeable striations on the surfaces. The new material is more resin in feel, and perhaps then a tad more on the fragile side, but the prints are amazing. Extremely clean, with really very little prep work. The propellers do come on their own "sprue" but are easy to remove. There were just a couple of little nubs to clean off the plane, but beyond that, these are perfect prints! Unlike Shapeways that had a gritty texture, the TTF planes are smooth as a baby's bum.

So, back to the scheme - I have three pots of Foundry paints that I was going to use on some Franco-Prussian Bavarians - I am, after all, fond of my Bavarian ancestry - and so I am going to use one of them as the basis for a very basic all blue Fokker (code 73B Bavarian Cornflower Blue). And having seen a beautiful radio controlled blue and white Fokker (von Raben from Jasta 15) this past weekend at the Dawn Patrol Rendezvous, I decided it was time to start working on this project.

First up a picture of the plane in its basic form. I've clipped the propeller from the "sprue."

Then I applied two coats of the blue. It looks a tad darker in the picture than in person. The rudder will be painted white, and the external struts a brown color to simulate wood. Most likely I will go with balkenkreuz for the national insignia, and I have some Miscellaneous Miniatures Russian white skull and crossbones of various sizes I can add to the fuselage, and perhaps one on the top wing.

I think Der Blaue Teufel will shape up nicely!