Warspite by kpnuts - FINISHED - Academy - 1/350 - PLASTIC - diorama

[kpnuts]

Hi all an update on the the planes

 

 

did a bit of work to try and make this look like a He 111

 

 

 

did some work on the FW 190

 

 

and here is a shot of all the attacking planes I will be using

 

[kpnuts]

hi all here is quite a big update, I have tried my first attempt at panel lines and weathering of a plane, also I have been experimenting with the explosion on the Fw 190 wing 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the explosion is a bit too orange so will have to either add some brown or blue to it then a bit more black to the smoke, still got to add the suspension strutt and the cover thingy that goes over the wheel will have to buckle that a bit and bend the suspension strutt but I think the explosion should work ok.

[Grimber]

nice.  yeah get some blue and black into the cotton, between the area lit up orange/red and the outer white.  Something like orange then black then a dark storm cloud blue around the edges of the white puffs.  Some storm cloud pictures may help.    maybe use a fabric dye or a watercolor, something that won't cause the cotton to clump and stiffen then you can still pull and tuck the cotton as need be to get the right look.

 

for aging, dirt, grime, smoke staining/soot, small flak/bullet holes  ....  mess around with different mixture ratios of matte black, matte grey a little steel ( not silver) thinner ( and matte brown if doing dirt) .  many of these get best results when dry brushing too.

 

for paint scrapes showing metal underneath use the curved hobby blade and scrape the paint to the plastic and dry brush in aluminum enamel.  have another brush with just clean thinner and paper towels to do fine clean up of the aluminum when you get more on then you want.  Dry brush the thinner get more precession.  Let dry and brush on a little clear gloss just on the aluminum to make it shine.

 

 

for bends careful use of a mini blowtorch ( they use butane ) to soften the plastic then bend it over something with a hard edge (but not sharp) like the back side of a butter knife .  practice on scrap first.  took me a while to get use to heating the plastic without melting or burning it.  alternative is to cut the part, bevel the edges and glue back together.  paint scraping and aluminum as above at the 'outside' of the bend point.

 

defiantly looks like your on your way with it.  can't wait to see how you do the ship damage and handle tracer rounds from the planes strafing.

 

( don't forget explosions and bullet strikes in the water around the ship too. )

Edited October 23, 2014 by Grimber

[cog]

Not to much fire (orange) compared to the quantity of smoke? Though, it does look very realistic.

[src]

defiantly looks like your on your way with it.  can't wait to see how you do the ship damage and handle tracer rounds from the planes strafing.

I have been wondering how you will do that also. 

Fiber optic? if you kink it around your butter knife some light will show through the sheath, however you will get progressively less light as you travel away from your source. Maybe that would work scale wise?

 

Instead of a torch, what about a hair dryer or heat gun on low to bend your plastic?

 

Your on the right track with your explosion, looks good.

Sam

Edited October 24, 2014 by src

[kpnuts]

Well its not my birthday till Sunday but I am busy most of the day tomorrow and we have the whole family round Sunday, so I've negotiated a start today on my Warspite model so here is the start.

I have placed a few planes and Warspite in different places which do you think looks best (obviously the planes will be in the air on the finished dio) I just want an idea of which you all think looks best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cog]

I prefer the placement of the warspite in the first three pictures, maybe a bit more towards the centre, though still off centre. However, the planes make it a bit 'crowded', and the number of planes on the those 'square miles' - to me - unrealistic

[Grimber]

actualy many sea battles with planes involved the skies would be so full of planes that it was not uncommon that they sometimes crash into each other.

 

A major organized attack on a navel ship  would be in waves of squadrons.  Timed so as one squadron had made its pass of dropping ordinance the next was just arriving and setting up to start it's attack run.

[kpnuts]

Hi all made a really stupid total nitwit mistake in my eagerness to start this kit. There are parts on the deck you are supposed to cut off before you attatch the wooden decking, which I didn't. That made the job of removing it now a real b@'!:er, still done it now I've bitten the bullet and done a tiny amount of PE (the gangway which goes across the bow there are 2 gussets underneath which measure 2.5mm x 1.5 mm after an hour of getting them in the right place and upright I have to wonder is it worth the effort, once it's on the dio no one will see it, even off the ship when turned upside down you can barely see it with the naked eye. Still we will see how long I keep the PE up as although they are small the gangway was a simple bend the sides up (oh by the way the Mk1 detail up set instructions are vague to say the least) they show a picture of the part in place and one pic of some of the folds you are left to guess the rest of the folds.

[kpnuts]

Hi all here is a bit of an update of where I am now.

 I am a bit peeved now, I realise I made the mistake with not removing the plastic before I laid the decking but now i've started putting the PE on I've discovered ther are other bit which should be removed which are not on the instructions and now i've laid the wooden decking and cut it to fit whats on the deck the PE is not covering all the plastic.

 

as you can see from the pic the only part outlined is the gangway which is to be removed but as i've now discovered the ramps should have been removed too.

as you can see the PE ramps are too short and I can't remove the plastic ramps as I've cut the decking to fit, so I'm hoping that when painted grey it wont notice. (yes I know the middle blast shield is crooked in the pic but that has been sorted now)

led in place ready for the only direct hit on the poor old lady.

I know I swore I would never use PE again but this is all fairly simple stick it on stuff at the moment so will stick with it for now.

 

first start at the explosion and I thought I would try an experiment with Optic Fibres will bee using those for the tracer rounds Warspie will be firing, I have discovered if you scratch the firbre every so often light escapes at the scratches over a length of about 12 inches (it does gradually get less as it goes along but I think 12 inches will be enough for me) anyway keeping it straight at anything more than that is almost impossible 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously there is no smoke yet nor any debris in the explosion , I am wondering whether to put an unfortunate sailor in the smoke of the exlposion sans a limb or 2 ( the 350 scale sailors I've got I'm not sure it would notice, but might be fun to see if anyone does).

[src]

Kp,

What's your plan for illuminating the fiber optics

Sam

[cog]

Awesome effect! Would never have thought about that.

[Grimber]

Nice impact explosion.  I wouldn't use too much smoke effect added on since it would mask the explosion, most smoke comes after the initial impact anyways.

[kpnuts]

Hi Sam I am planning on using leds to light the optics, my plan is to drill right through the barrel of the gun thread the opitcs through the barrel as far out the end as I can before the bend from its own weight makes it look unrealistic then light it from within the ship.Grimber I don't intend to put too much smoke on this explosion but just enough to give the indication that the ship is moving.

[kpnuts]

Hi all I think I've got too many balls in the air at once, at the moment so I am going to finish some of the planes before I get too involved with Warspite, so got on with the FW 190 and apart from painting the canopy and matt coating it I am calling the 190 done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've done the all the decals on one side of the JU 87 so I recon that will be ready for matt coating tomorrow.

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2014 by kpnuts

[Grimber]

the 190 and 87 look good.  think on the 190s explosion the colors are good just the cotton too puffy to the front.

 

here is a nice WWII camera footage of a B24 being shot down.  good reference for aircraft fire/explosion.

 

 

Edited October 30, 2014 by Grimber

[kpnuts]

Hi all here is an update, and a querey I have used humbrol matt varnish for the first time, But I have an unusual effect the varnish has white patches (which in this instance is great I was going to add something like this anyway, and think it works ok) but what if I didn't want it, whats gone wrong ( I stirred it thourgherly)

 

 

[Grimber]

it's an acrylic finish.  so either it was old/bad  but I'd also hazard that the plane had an oily or waxy residue on it.

Edited October 31, 2014 by Grimber

[Grimber]

sorry I know what it is now..

 

you recently added your decals.  Dripped some of the water on the aircraft and then you used a cloth to wipe it off.  There is your residue.

 

same technique is used but with watered down elmer's glue.

Edited October 31, 2014 by Grimber

[kpnuts]

Sorry grimber its Humbrol enamels and no water was involved.

Ps thanks for the ref pics cool.

Edited November 1, 2014 by kpnuts

[Grimber]

so the decals were self adhesive, and you used enamels for both on paints and clear coat?

  do the white streaks flake off with a hobby knife? because all I've ever seen of that effect was when the clear coat doesn't stick so eventually those white streak areas will flake off on their own unless hit with more clear coat to hold them in place.  intentionally its done with anything that repels water based coating/sealants or you take on the task of dry brushing the effect in.

[kpnuts]

doing some work on the base today

as you can see not a lot of room in my man cave for it 

drilled the holes for all the leds and put and wired the leds into the board

 

not wired the explosion in the stern of warspite cant do that till Warspite hull is permanently atattched same for the FW 190 

the 2 blue leds are for the water plumes for the near misses.

[cog]

You do rather well as an 'enlightened' cave dweller ... It has something cosy about it, nice workplace, which produces some very good results

[kpnuts]

Thanks Carl

been doing some experimenting with the base, my choice of using blue leds was a terrible mistake, now Ive gone and hot glued them all up to make the water plumes I am stuck with them (pun intended) hopefully loads of white paint will cure that problem, initially I was getting carried away and started making them too big, till it suddenly dawned on me an inch high plume of water at 1/350 scale would be 29 feet tall in real life so scaled them back a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cog]

Looking rather realistic but for your 'icecream shop lighting' alongside the Warspite as you already mentioned. Though, it does give a nice impression what it will be like

[src]

KP,

On your blue LED, are they an actual blue diode or is it a blue gel diffuser? If its a blue diode your stuck, if the cover is blue you might be able to gently ad VERY carefully take most of it off. that may shift your color back to white. Alternativly you might be able to wrap a golored gel filter around it and shift the bue a bit. try looking at a professional camera store or looking up Roscoe Filters. Its a pretty dark blue so you wont get a tremendious color change, but maybe something closer to what you can live with.

Good luck its starting to come together.

sam

[kpnuts]

Hi all here is tonights update, dulled the blue leds down (more glue and white paint )

and added a couple more planes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[src]

Nice save on the LED, I wouldn't have thought that would work. Do you plan on painting a wake and bow wave in?

Sam

[kpnuts]

Yes bow wave will be using clear bathroom sealant to create it.

[kpnuts]

hello all I am sure you are getting bored by now, unfortunately here is another visual onslaught for you nhahahahaha(insert evil laugh)