Model Airplanes

[BravoHotel]

Does anyone here build model airplanes for leisure?

My question specifically is about an airbrush set up. I don't know anything about them, but to get that top notch paint application I feel I need to learn how to use one.

Any suggestions on brands to use, avoid etc? I have seem them vary greatly in price and style.

Thanks

 

[Skåning]

@NovemberEcho is a nerd enthusiast

 

[NovemberEcho]

I use an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS. Does everything I need it to do but I’m far from a master. I have a Paasche compressor that is quiet and works well. I also highly recommend using lacquer paints if you have a well ventilated area and/or spray booth. I use Mr. Color and MRP. Highly suggest you check out Will Pattinson on YouTube for tips and techniques. Dudes a goddamned magician. His videos are long and frankly he talks to much, but if you listen to him he has tons of good advice.

 

[NovemberEcho]

Out of all my models I think I’m most proud of the MiG-21’s ejection seat lol

 

[poser765]

Out of all my models I think I’m most proud of the MiG-21’s ejection seat lol

View attachment 66746

Damn that looks good.

so question about this. I’m not horrible at painting miniatures (war hammer, battletech) and I’ve been wondering about model airplanes and such. How similar are the techniques? Do you do things like edge highlighting, shades/washes, dry brushing? This seat LOOKS like all of the above with maybe some stippling.

 

[Boots2Wings]

Dang NE, who knew you had talent those look great.
As for the OP question, same recommendation I use it for 40k, but the eclipse is great. Its by IAWATA and well worth the price. If you need something a little less expensive, Patriot makes a descent one.
About 200$, will get you the eclipse, a cheap air compressor from amazon, and some thinner, assuming you plain to use acrylic paint. The airbrush its self is often on sale at Hobby Lobby.

 

[Boots2Wings]

My current WIP. Still needs a bit of work when I get back from this trip, but this is mainly airbrush with detail by brush. Still needs wash, weather, basing and technical stuff.

 

[ChasenSFO]

Awesome stuff. I've built a few, but then as some people super into the hobby started showing me more and more, I got to a weird spot where doing it the way I had the patience for felt "wrong" and unfulfilling, but airbrushing and sanding and doing it all correctly was beyond my attention span. So, here we are. I have a 75% finished United DC-8-73 with the reg of the PDX accident bird still sitting in my parent's garage with the fuselage complete awaiting the wings and engines to be finished lol. As it has been since 2010.

So I paint virtual planes instead.

 

[fholbert]

I'm based at Chino. We don't find the need to make models. NONE of the following were taken during the airshow, just a typical day at Chino Airport.

 

[fholbert]

 

[fholbert]

Name that plane

 

[NovemberEcho]

Damn that looks good.

so question about this. I’m not horrible at painting miniatures (war hammer, battletech) and I’ve been wondering about model airplanes and such. How similar are the techniques? Do you do things like edge highlighting, shades/washes, dry brushing? This seat LOOKS like all of the above with maybe some stippling.

shades using various techniques like pre-shading and mottling under the main color to break it up a bit, post shading with oils and/or a lightened form of the color (good for getting that sun fade look on panels), panel line washes, oil paints to make streaks etc, dry brushing etc. weathering is by far my weak spot.

I have a PE-2 on the bench (although I haven’t touched it in almost a year, just been too damn busy having a baby and work) but hope to pick it up again as cold weather settles in. I’m trying some new stuff with it going all out with the weathering. I am using weathering pigments to make it look like it was operating off a dirt strip during the spring thaw.
Here’s the gear so far:

Also added spark plug wires, distributor wires and some other tubing to the Klimov M105

 

[fholbert]

I should say I took all of these pic's with my phone.

 

[Skåning]

I grew up at CNO and got my PPL there, definitely a unique spot!

 

[fholbert]

WWII Movie shot at Chino.

Connie enroute to Chino

 

[Burrito]

Awesome stuff. I've built a few, but then as some people super into the hobby started showing me more and more, I got to a weird spot where doing it the way I had the patience for felt "wrong" and unfulfilling, but airbrushing and sanding and doing it all correctly was beyond my attention span. So, here we are. I have a 75% finished United DC-8-73 with the reg of the PDX accident bird still sitting in my parent's garage with the fuselage complete awaiting the wings and engines to be finished lol. As it has been since 2010.

So I paint virtual planes instead.

Between that, and educational expenses (both monetary and time away from home) I believe that's exactly why I backed away from model railroading. My father and I used to have some decent coffee table-sized HO scale layout, but the Model Railroader magazines and some rising internet forums just showed us some incredible attention to detail. Prices kept going up, "It" lost the fulfillment, so it got put away.

Interesting to see you do the virtual paint stuff: around the time I was backing away from model railroading, I was getting in to timetables and scheduling virtual airline builds for Flight Simulator 2004. That got me to coding, and, well, the rest is history.

 

[A300Capt]

Out of all my models I think I’m most proud of the MiG-21’s ejection seat lol

View attachment 66746

Ok….color me “impressed”! Very nice work!

 

[ChasenSFO]

Interesting to see you do the virtual paint stuff: around the time I was backing away from model railroading, I was getting in to timetables and scheduling virtual airline builds for Flight Simulator 2004. That got me to coding, and, well, the rest is history.

No way! I think at this point I've possibly made more historical flightplans for FS2002 thru P3D than anyone else lol. I'm finishing up a commercial project that will help install available plans and repaint so users don't have to spend years of their life hunting and manually installing stuff and can simply switch into whatever year they want to fly in with both traffic and a lot of scenery. It'll be nice when downloads are just putting money to my name in the near future.

It is crazy how some airports went from dead to bustling to even more dead than before in the 90s and early 2000s as cargo consolidated and commuters moved away from 19-seat flying. A great example is this KHUF scenery I'm working on as seen during the evening rush in 1998/99 with real traffic...hard to believe today there is rarely something larger than a Gulfstream to be found. Back then Zantop was operating on behalf of short-lived HUF-based "Daylight Air" also so in the daytime there were also Electras and DC-8s abound, and Roadway Global Air (RGA) prior to that was based in HUF with 727s and DC-9s until 97 when American International moved in and took over the facilities before relocating just 3 years later to FWA after absorbing Kittyhawk International and going bankrupt.

 

[n156499000]

Awesome stuff. I've built a few, but then as some people super into the hobby started showing me more and more, I got to a weird spot where doing it the way I had the patience for felt "wrong" and unfulfilling, but airbrushing and sanding and doing it all correctly was beyond my attention span. So, here we are. I have a 75% finished United DC-8-73 with the reg of the PDX accident bird still sitting in my parent's garage with the fuselage complete awaiting the wings and engines to be finished lol. As it has been since 2010.

So I paint virtual planes instead.

I keep wanting to get back into model building but then I talk myself out of it claiming I don't have the patience for it. Then I spend four or five days hand texturing things like this. Go figure.