The Ship Model Forum

Hi Marijn,

The Wildcats on the flight deck and elevator have the clear plastic canopy "reduced", not completely removed. Then filled up with clear. The ones not really visible (in the hangar deck) just have the PE over the clear part, glued with kristal klear (31 of them, I am still thinking why I did that...). The B-25's canopies are painted decal film, cut in very thin strips and placed with a lot of decal solvent over the clear parts (that were masked off before). The real B-25 canopies are a lot more complex than my implementation, but oh well...

On the next one, I will completely remove the canopy, and try your tip with the burr for the cockpit tubs. It looks great!

Have you decided on the water technique? I would like to know your opinion.

Can't wait to see all the figures on the Lexington!

Thanks for the info Hypno7!

Hollowing out with the burr proved quite effective for the planes with open canopies. It is not necessary to hollow it out all the way, just enough to get the feeling of a hollow cockpit, and to get thin fuselage edges. For the closed ones probably just cutting away the plastic canopies without hollowing the body would look pretty much the same, so probably I could have saved some effort there...
Hollowing with the burr didn't take a lot of time, but I did slip a couple of times with the burr, so I had to fill some gaps after gluing the canopies (I used Magic Sculp).

For the water, I am going with Jim Bauman's technique of watercolour paper, but with some more waves like Werner Dekeersmaeker does it, but with smaller and more regular waves. It is still the best I have seen! I did some tests with different ways of using acrylic gel, but couldn't get a satisfactory result.
Are you thinking of doing a waterline model next?

And I'm also looking forward to gluing all those figures on Lexington! I had hoped to be doing that by now, but the planes are taking much, much more time than I guessed. But no problem, since I am still enjoying my time with them!

Cheers,

Marijn

After a filter and lining the details:













And for anyone not too familiar with 1/700 scale: this is the actual size (I held it in front of the screen for sizing, but I have to admit they do look a bit larger in the flesh):


This will be the main weathering (well, still have to do 10 F4F's before this step is actually finished�). After that, only some retouches (tail decals), detail painting (propellers, F4F undercarriage, machineguns, wingfold area's, �), glazing, installing the folded wings on the TBD's, and installing the antennas, is left to be done. Mmm, I guess I better get back to work!

Cheers,

Marijn

Those are 1/700 planes???!!!

Hi Marijn, these planes are really breathtaking.
I never saw a work like this.....it's outstanding.

And I thought these 1/350 planes here and there of some people are the limit to impress me and more goes not. Wrong! These are 1/700 and I'm more as impressed ... I'm speakless of such a quality!
And then the Lexington itsellf ... awesome!

Many thanks guys! You are making me blush...

I do like to work in tiny detail, and I have years of experience with armour diorama's and figures, which does help, especially with the paintwork. And I did see some planes (WWI biplane seaplanes in 1/1000 scale) at Telford which motivated me to put in the necessary hours to get a result at least close to it (surely not as refined as those, but I have many more to to)!

They are not completely finished yet, but slowly getting there...

Cheers,

Marijn

I know anything is possible...


But detail should literally not be possible...

But since we're crossing that boundary, might as well have the pilots drink coffee or read the newspaper

That looks incredible! the darkening of the edges of the frames looks fantastic! The wash (is it a wash?) make the cockpit tubs look deeper. The way you manage the contrasts looks very nice.

That SBD missing half a wing... is that the one that will be floating up side down besides Lexington?

Hi Marijn,

I can not say anything else. It's a great job. I also work at 1/700 and I know the great difficulty that. Just a question, do you use Optivisors or magnifiers?
Greetings. Great job.

Many thanks guys!

JTninja wrote:But since we're crossing that boundary, might as well have the pilots drink coffee or read the newspaper

I'll give it a try!

hypno7 wrote:the darkening of the edges of the frames looks fantastic! The wash (is it a wash?) make the cockpit tubs look deeper. The way you manage the contrasts looks very nice.

Thanks! That was a very useful tip from Jim indeed! I did it with paint though instead of pencil (I have more control over a brush than a pencil, and this way it doesn't need a flatcoat anymore), but not a wash. I used Humbrol black with a bit of raw umber oil paint, thinned a bit with white spirit but still quite opaque. I put it on a fine brush, making sure that not too much paint is on the brush (it shouldn't flow from the brush), then put the tip of the brush in a window opening, and moved the brush gently against the sides of the frame to get dark paint on the edges, and repeated this for every single window opening. It sounds like a lot of work, but it went quite quickly.
I didn't apply a wash anymore to the cockpit tubs, they already appear deep enough to my eye, and a wash would make the green color much less visible. Since they are tiny area's, I want them to still be sufficiently visible amidst the entire diorama.

hypno7 wrote:That SBD missing half a wing... is that the one that will be floating up side down besides Lexington?

Yep! It is also missing most of it's topside, which I sanded away. Now I'm not sure if that was a very clever move though�

Kometa wrote:Just a question, do you use Optivisors or magnifiers?

Thanks! No, my eyesight is pretty good, at least for close-up. When my eye side goes down in the (hopefully far) future, I will start to use an optivisor, but at the moment I don't need it.

Cheers,

Marijn

The detail in 1/700 is amazing, and to do it without any magnification is astonishing, you must have eyes like a hawks.
Regards
Richard

Many thanks Richard!

I think I'm lucky with my eyesight indeed, at least for closeby as I'm quite nearsighted...

Meanwhile, I found the trick with the Kristal Clear Works! I simply applied it window by window with a fine tipped brush, and after drying cleaned up excessive gloss on the edges with a bit of matte varnish.
I have also attached the wings of the TBD's and painted some extra details: propelors, machineguns, F4F undercarriages, simulating detail on the wing split area's of the TBD's, and retouches where I couldn't make the tail stripes match up properly.
The Kristal Clear Windows may look a bit crude in these very much magnified photo's, but I'm happy with how they look in the flesh. If your not too familiar with 1/700, just take a match and hold it next to the match-head in the photo's.

SBD with closed canopy. I also added a White line on the tail.


And with open canopy:




Wildcat with closed canopy. The Starfighter decals are very nice, but I couldn't fit the red-and-white tail stripes to the bottom of the tail. Therefore, I cut the bottom from every decal for all the wildcats, and now painted those bottom 3 stripes. I also had to "join" the stripes from both sides with paint at the back and top of the tail on most aircraft.



I like a lot how the Flyhawk PE undercarriage mimics the wildcats actual style of undercarriage instead of just providing two simple separate wheels like most sets:



And with open canopy. This one is to be blown on its' nose by an explosion, hence the bent propellor blades and heavy weathering.


TBD with only one wing folded and open canopy:




And finally a TBD with both wings folded and closed canopy:



Cheers,

Marijn

Hello Marijin,

I remember that the old 1:72 Airfix-Devastator was my second aeroplane when I was 12 ...

... and the trouble I had because of all the tiny parts ...

...

... and now this

Amazing like the rest of the work you show here!

Cheers, Daniel

This is just fantastic!
One of the best detail work and painting I have ever seen.
I am mightily impressed!

Congrats,

George P�k

That is bloody incredible work mate!

Many thanks guys!

George, coming from you, that's a very big compliment!
I've been a fan of your work for some time.

Cheers,

Marijn

Holy balls!!!! I am again floored.

The glazing looks very good! all over, the planes are incredible, even the folding wing detail is there... incredible!