Today in the penultimate part of the guide on MiniArt's 35th scale Focke-Wulf Triebflügel Andy paints, weathers & prepares the kit for the final construction with some great skills on display. See how it's done in today's story.
Build Guide & Review: Focke-Wulf Triebeflügel Interceptor
From: MiniArt
1/35th scale
Kit No #40002
Six marking choice in the box
Previous parts of this story:
-Build Guide & Review: MiniArt's 35th scale Focke-Wulf Triebflügel Interceptor
-Build Guide Pt II: MiniArt's 35th scale Focke-Wulf Triebflügel Interceptor
Today - Build Guide Pt III: MiniArt's 35th scale Focke-Wulf Triebflügel Interceptor
Last time out we built up MiniArt's new Triebflügel Interceptor in what was a pretty fast and simple construction process. Today it's time to get it painted up, weathered, and ready for action. The first step, as usual, was to pull the model apart into its various sub-assemblies and get them cleaned up and prepped for paint. You'll notice in the photo below that the cockpit glazing is in place, and the weapons bays are already painted and weathered. The bays were sprayed RLM 02 from the Mr Color lacquer range, then given some light weathering with various enamel washes.
The canopy needed to be attached before the main painting commenced in case there were any areas that needed a little filling. As it turned out, the fit was perfect, and a little PVA was all that was needed to fix the clear parts in place. Before fitting, I'd elected to mask and spray the inner frames on the canopy since they will be very visible when I pose the centre section open. That masking was removed before the canopy was attached, and the centre section temporarily fitted in the closed position and held in place from beneath with masking tape. The outer frames then got a quick coat of dark grey to check the join and act as a base coat over the clear plastic.
Another area that I wanted to paint ahead of the main base coats were the casings for the ramjet engines. All the included paint schemes show these as being in the main fuselage colour, but I liked the idea of painting the rear half of the casing in a natural metal more like a traditional jet exhaust nozzle. For the main metal finish, I used Vallejo Metal Color Aluminium over a gloss black base. I'd recommend sealing the Vallejo Metal Paint with a light clear coat (I used Alclad Aqua Gloss) as the acrylic paint can be a little fragile and can sometimes lift if masking tape is applied over the finish.
The next step with the engines and to add some discolouration and heat staining. This was done with darker metallic shades from Alclad and Tamiya clear acrylics. The results look a little vibrant here, but I knew the effect would get toned down later on when the weathering was applied. For now, they were given another very light clear coat then masked off ready for the application of the main primer coats.
For priming, I used AMMO Black Surface Primer (A.MIG-2005) as this provides a nice smooth base layer for the subsequent paint coats to adhere to. The 'neck' sections that extend from both the cockpit and rear fuselage acted as very convenient handles during the painting stages as well as handy stands while the parts were drying.
The underside colour was the first to be applied, and for the scheme, I'd chosen this was RLM 76 Light Blue. Paints from the Mr colour range were again used, with the light blue built up slowly to allow some of the black to show through as a shade around the panel and rivet lines. A few drops of white were then mixed into the blue and clouded over the centre of the panels to provide some subtle tonal variation.
Next up was the main upper colour which was RLM 82 Green. The Mr Color RLM 82 is quite a vibrant shade (possibly to vibrant?), but I wasn't too concerned as I knew the finish would be darker and more subdued after the weathering. Again, a little panel highlighting was applied, but this time I lightened the green with a pale grey rather than white, as I didn't want to push the already bright green too far. The wavy demarcation line was free-handed to keep a soft edge between the green and blue.
The final colour for the fuselage was RLM 81 Brown Violet for the camo stripes. The camo is shown in the MiniArt paint guide for this scheme actually uses thin 'worms' of RLM 81 but I wasn't keen of the look, so I went for a splinter style camo which, as a side benefit, was much easier to mask. Having this kind of freedom to go your own way is something that always attracts me to “what if” subjects such as this. I did have to subsequently go back with the light blue to clean up the demarcation and, in hindsight, it would probably have been better to spray this colour after the upper camo was finished.
The rotors needed to be black, but I never use pure black on a model as it will look too stark. In this case, I used Tamiya NATO Black, which is actually a very dark grey. Fading was added to the rotors by mixing in a lighter grey to the NATO Black and adding some mottling over the wing surface. You'll also notice some paint chipping on the rotors – this was done with the hairspray technique, having laid down a coat of aluminium on the leading edges prior to the NATO Black.
The rotor hub was painted in the same manner as the rotors, including the initial aluminium base coat and hairspray chipping. To create more variation in the finish, a mid-grey acrylic was watered down and the paint lightly sponged over the NATO black. This helped to create a more random, faded and patchy look. The rotor mounting rings were picked out in a darker steel colour.
The final painting was now done, which consisted of the yellow and black rudders and the black fuselage band. With that completed, the model received a gloss coat to seal the paint finish and prep the surface for the decals. These went on very well and pulled down nicely into the rivet and panel line detail with help from a little Microsol. The only ones that caused a slight issue were the large wasp heads which had to conform around the compound curves of the nose cone. Doing so left a few tiny wrinkles that the setting solution was unable to completely remove, but they were so minor as to be almost invisible on the finished build.
With the painting and decaling ticked off, I could start on my favourite part of any build – the weathering. Since this is a “what if” subject, I had some freedom in that regard and I decided to represent this as a heavily used and poorly maintained aircraft flown by an increasingly desperate and overworked Luftwaffe at the end of the War. To begin with, I added a fair bit of paint chipping around the tail fins and rear tip of the fuselage where the paint would have worn from the dust and debris thrown up during takeoffs and landings. This was done with aluminium acrylic using both a sponge and fine brush.
More chipping was applied over the rest of the fuselage, especially around access panels and other areas where the ground crew would work. Some chipping was also added to the Brown Violet camo using the base green.
A dark brown enamel wash was then applied to the panel lines which, in addition to accentuating the panels, helped give the decals a 'painted on' look.
Next week we will show you the finishing stages of this kit - and how it all turned out in the wash in the fourth and final part of the story...
Andy Moore
If you like this kit you can pick one up from Miniart's distributors - See the closest to you on the MiniArt Website.
