Lexingtons last battle, 1//700

[blacman]

I would recommend this:

works perfectly in 1/700...

This build is one of my favourite one! I'm impressed on your painting skill
keep going !

[marijn van gils]

Thanks Goodwood! That's exactly the technique I would like to try.

And Thanks Blackman! I was thinking of Kristal Clear indeed. I have a bottle from another brand (small square bottle), but it seems a bit thick/viscous to get the effect of very thin glazing. I will surely hunt down a bottle from Microscale next weekend (Telford ) and try that first!

Cheers,

Marijn

[J. Soca]

Kristal Klear is the way to go




Jose

[MartinJQuinn]

I can't make airplanes in 1/48 scale look that good...

[LE BOSCO]

HI Marijn

apparently,from from what, that one got me postponed,your Lexington have impressed a lot of people in Telford,not even finish
cheers
Nicolas

[Guest]

Yes, I saw it there too. When you see the pictures you are really impressed, but when you see the real model, it is unbelievable! Photos really don't do justice. The Lexington along with the Morris with the figures were just incredible!

[dafi]

As always a true masterpiece!!!

"In the background you can see the liferaft I added to the funnel, and how a dirty "shadow" has been painted where others were hanging but have been removed."

These are the gems I am really fond to see! That is THE soul of a freat model.

Cheers, Daniel

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks guys!

Telford was very inspiring for me too. Seeing the wildcats on Hypno7's splendid Hornet convinced me that it is possible to make the glazing in that scale look great, so I got me a bottle of Mikro Kristal Clear.

Progress has been a bit slow, simply because the aircraft take a lot of work. I have gained great respect for people being brave enough to build entire airwings! I'm only doing 23 planes, and it seems to take forever.
Airbrushing basecoat, handpainting undersides, cockpits and propellors black, glosscoating (x2), decalling (Starfighter set), glosscoating again, and mattcoating are steps that don't take too much time on a single plane, but with multiplying the number of planes so do the number of hours... I'm really enjoying my time with them though! Since taking these photo's, I also painted the wheels. Now they are ready for the actual weathering, which I'm looking forward to.







The previous photographs are of course very much magnified. This one shows them in a more realistic perspective:


Cheers!

Marijn

[blacman]

[LE BOSCO]

incredible work marijn just sublim
cheers
Nicolas

[Goodwood]

There are just no words...

[hypno7]

Unbelievable work! A LOT better and exact than the ones I did! Did you hollow a bit the cockpit tubs? It does look like it...

After seeing your work, it wouldn't surprise me if you did the numbers and rudder stripes by hand!

[Stefano Salesi]

i'm speechless. thats a masterpiece! every single plane is a (f word) masterpiece!!!!!!!!!!

[Angeliccypher]

Just....Damn. I could not do that good in 1/350! What brand of planes are you using? The Trumpeter ones in 1/350 were challenging for me.

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks for the compliments guys!

Unbelievable work! A LOT better and exact than the ones I did!

Many thanks, but I would seriously contest that. Yours are really precise and clean too, and the paint is very thinly and finely applied. I tried to check them on the photo's in this form several times during the last weeks, and I really wish you could take some close-up detailshots of them. Your wildcats certainly gave me the push to try out the Kristal Clear for the cockpit glazing. It just looks perfect on yours!

Did you hollow a bit the cockpit tubs? It does look like it...

Yes. For the closed canopies it wouldn't be necessary, but for the open ones it looks better like this I believe. It wasn't too hard to do with a small round burr in the dremel, save some retouches with Magic Sculp where I slipped on a couple of planes. It is quite crudely done, only with the burr, and could be refined further with a scalpel. I could also try to install some rudimentary seats if it were just one or two planes, but for 23 this is just too much work for me.

After seeing your work, it wouldn't surprise me if you did the numbers and rudder stripes by hand!

They are of course all decals though. I will have to retouch some with paint though, as the rudder decals were indeed not easy to apply, and some of them were over- or undersized. But that's after weathering...

What brand of planes are you using? The Trumpeter ones in 1/350 were challenging for me.

They are the Trumpeter ones from the kit (with Flyhawk PE). As a shape I like them a lot, and they are well cast. I did find the transparent plastic quite challenging though, and clean-up was no fun. After airbrushing a basecoat, I did have to scrape away some additional seams which I had missed, and subsequently retouch the paint.
I also wish they would include less panel lines (only flaps would be enough), as I think I can paint them more subtly without them fysically being there as grooves.

Cheers!

Marijn

[JIM BAUMANN]

Ahoi Marjinn and Hypno...

If I were doing this...( and I don't normally do carriers... )


around the painted edges of the canopy framing-and especially the inside corners..-

the crispness of the edges is starting to go a bit #-soft-# due to the physical limitations of painted layers...

I would run a sand-paper sharpened medium soft propelling pencil ( blade profile) along the edges( looks like rubber seal)

but especially that way one can 'create' the hard inside corners of the framing

it also makes the framing appear thinner...

do this before Crystal Clear.

as an example of the pencil technique I can alas only cite small square windows on bridges etc--all of which sharpen up considerably that way...

along with external and interior hard angles on ships, making undercut deck edges appear thinner etc

but alas cannot illustrate with a plane .

here is a small 1/700 plane of mine--different kettle of fish as such..

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks Jim!!!

I'll certainly try that! The canopy frames look much finer and sharper in the flesh when not enlarged 5+ times like on the photo's (the wildcats are not much larger than your biplane), but still they do look a bit overscale which is compounded by them being painted in a single light colour. Darkening the edges will indeed make them look thinner and crisper, so many thanks for a good idea!

Cheers,

Marijn

[hypno7]

That's a great tip Jim, will have to try that. That Sopwith Camel is impressive!

really wish you could take some close-up detailshots of them

I took this ones today, your airplanes are better, hands down, here is proof!

Those are the best pictures I could take (with my limited equipment) and it is harsh to see the close-ups! Anyways, what I like about the glazing is that you get that small reflection and light distortion from them. More or less like in real life pictures:

http://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=11182

Of course, we are talking about 1/700, so to make 20+ airplanes look to scale is too much for me.

[boomstick68]

I'm in awe of what you've done here. The aircraft alone are just mind blowing.

[marijn van gils]

Thanks boomstick68! But the best has yet to come. Now they are still rather toylike in appearance, but that will still change.

Thanks for the pics Hypno7. With the next model, you prove me that yours are better, ok?
Yes, those small reflection were looking very realistic on your model in the flesh (again, the pics don't do it justice at all). I opened up as many canopies as the PE set allowed, so I would also like to have that contrast between open and closed parts of the canopies. By the way, did you glue the PE canopies over the kits' plastic canopies, or did you cut these away first?

I can meanwhile report that Jim's tip is working very well. I'm using dark paint instead of a pencil (just personal preference, because I feel comfortable with a brush and it gives me a lot of flexibility), but the idea is totally the same.

Cheers,

Marijn