1/35 Miniart AEC Mk.II blog - update 2

Here's the next update, sorry for not making an update earlier but I'm really busy with school.

Last Saturday I attended a local modelling show and won 3 medals for my 1/48 P-51D, 1/72 A6M2b Zero and Su-100 ( one gold and two bronze medals). I'll have to edit some pictures and they should be in the next blog update, now back to the 1/35 Miniart AEC Mk.II;

   I decided to paint what Iv'e constructed so far, usually I would wait until I have assembled all of the interior parts but with the little time for modelling I decided to go this way. First I masked of the glue mating areas so I don't have to scrape off paint later in order to glue them. I cleaned the surfaces with some alcohol ( especially the photo etched parts) and started to apply Vallejo white with my airbrush ( I decided to use no primer, since the one I had was darker than the original plastic and there won't be a lot of touching the paint so I hope it will stay on). After 5 hours of drying I decided to add the gloss coat so I can start with the weathering. My gloss coat of choice is the Alclad aqua gloss which is perfect for this. I let it dry overnight and started with the weathering.

  I'm not sure If this is only my problem, but I had hard time finding inspiration how to weather white surfaces. I went online and just searched for some old white vans and trucks. The process was started with a home made filter and AK Interactive's interior streaking. It was applied as a filter and then removed with a brush dampened in white spirit until I was happy with how it turned out. I didn't want to weather it too much, just as a vehicle that has been used by the crew for some time. Next came washes, I used AK Interactive's dark brown and interior wash ( first I applied interior wash to all details and later dark brown was applied to the parts I wanted to make more noticeable). After everything dried for around 10 hours I started with detail painting as per instructions. I chose Lifecolor US tank brown for the cushions and Vallejo black for the shells and steering wheel. In the end I drybrushed everything with a lighter tone of the color.

Thanks to AK Interactive and Miniart for the samples.

Kind regards, Sven.

1/48 Tamiya P-51D Mustang in IAF service finished!

Hi Guys, I managed to finish this one today in preparation for next weekends Crna Kraljica show here in Zagreb. I first wanted to make the first Israeli Mustang with nickname "Zulu", but the decal for red & white stripes on the rudder broke in pieces while attempting to apply it. I ended up making this one from the 101st squadron. I used resin flaps, wheels, gear bay covers, seat and Eduard interior PE. I wasn't that satisfied with Sky's decals as I've mentioned some decals fell apart. This was my first try on NMF with Alclad and I'm not very happy with the end result, but hope my next try will be better. The model was a real charm to build and I would recommend it to everyone!

I will post more photos after the show, hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Kind regards, Sven.