Gary has already done a great deal of work on his "Limited Edition" boxing of Eduard's F-8E Crusader in 48th scale - This part sees Painting the kit in the rough and irregular greys in many shades that we see on war-weary US Navy aircraft in Vietnam. See the amazing finishing work in this kit in the second part of the build guide...
Today -Build Guide Pt III: Gary lays paint on his Eduard 48th scale Vought F-8E Crusader 'Limited Edition'
I began painting with an overall coat of Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black, thinned with Tamiya's own Lacquer thinner. I've used this method a lot in recent builds and I prefer it to the more popular pre-shading technique which focuses on only the panel lines. As I entered the painting phase I wanted to challenge myself to try out a few new techniques that I had seen used to great effect by other modellers. One such modeller is fellow Aussie, Ralph Reise from Garage Session Modelling. I really like the way that Ralph uses colour to give a real depth to the models surface finish. This starts with the base coat and so I picked a couple of colours that seemed appropriate to randomly shade assorted panels.
I did not want to overdo the pre-shading work so intentionally kept it to a minimum. As I planned to use the Mr Paint acrylic lacquer paints for the final colours I knew that I could slowly build up the cover coats.
The lower surfaces of US Crusaders are pretty much universally white. I decided to not start with a stark white but instead chose a 'dirty' white onto which I could later apply full white to show some variation. This photo shows the result after a single light coat of Mr Paint 135 Insignia White. At this point, you can clearly still see the pre-shading colours, perhaps a little too much.
The horizontal stabilizers on the F-8 are painted white top and bottom. I used the same pre-shading technique here as well. The best advice I can give is to use thin paint (Mr Paint is already heavily thinned out of the bottle which is one reason I like it so much).
At this point, I have gone back over the entire wing again with the dirty white and then followed up with some pure white to highlight random panels and areas of the wing surface. I like the variation that we are seeing here already. If you look closely you can see some of the yellow and blue pre-shading as well.
Speaking with Ralph about how to start to give some depth to the white he suggested I begin by using a tan or buff colour along some of the panel and rivet lines. This started to give the impression of grime as well. Note how the centre section of the movable wing has also been left much cleaner than the outer sections. The intention in all of this is to remove any uniformity. No aircraft paint finish should be one colour or shade of colour (well maybe show planes like the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels but these are not really workhorse aircraft).
The lower fuselage has received a similar treatment as the wings. I knew that much more grot was destined for this area later down the track so did not too get carried away.
The paint demarcation on the Crusader looks to be a hard edge. To simulate this I used Tamiya tape and for the tricky curve at the very rear near the exhaust I tried out some of the new Tamiya Tape for Curves. This is a vinyl tape (as opposed to the normal paper-based yellow tape) and certainly does bend around curves a lot better than even the thinnest strips of traditional tape.
I applied the MRP-098 US Navy Light Gull Gray FS36440 to the upper surfaces, again building up slowly and then used assorted greys and buff/tan to give the surface a lot of variation. I have found that it's ok to push this process to the point where it looks overdone because when you apply decals, washes and other weathering later on it all gets toned down.
A good shot of the extra riveting work I did to the upper wing surface. Adding extra detail like this helps to bring the model to life and when you paint it accordingly the results can be quite rewarding.
There are no less than 5 colours and shades of paint applied here.
From photos, it seems that most of the USMC Crusaders had the area around the gun muzzles painted in black (presumably to protect the aircraft skin). I once again reached for the vinyl Tamiya Tape for Curves which easily handled the curves here.
That is it for this part - we have the fifth & final part for you when Gary weathers and finishes the Crusader to a level that will amaze you were are sure. Stay tuned for that part here next week.
Gary Wickham
This kit is still available on the Eduard website if you are interested. Thanks to them for sending this kit to Gary for him to build and review.
If you like Gary's models then please do go to his website www.Scalespot.com for a whole lot more of that...
