Global Scale Modeller

Hi all.

I picked this up for a sweet price from Scalemates, and it came with the build magazine which is a nice touch, but not really necessary.

After building the 1/12 F1 car, and getting up to speed with some detailing skills, i wanted to another large model and detail it up a bit. Always loved a Typhoon, but couldnt find the bubble top version. It didnt exist in any of the places I was checking, only the car door one. So I was about to look at a 1/32 A6 Intruder when I found out that Scalemates is a great place to find kts.

Heres some pics of the cockpit getting underway. Used some aluminium wire and a few PE bits left over from other kits. It needs a lot more detailing painting and work, but its underway.






Aluminium Powder


... mixed with some clear paint.


After sanding. Rivets were drilled and aluminium wire used.




Gave the clear part a lot of sanding and polishing
Then put the decals on the back. Turned out really well.

Very well done.
You kind of left us hanging with the aluminum powder thing.So I'll be the uninformed and ask....what is it were did you get it and what paint did you mix it with at what proportions.
You very cleverly got a rough casting effect with it that is very authentic....bravo
It's a newer kit from airfix so I assume it's going together rather well so far. Would that be a fair assumption ?

Hi Digger. Thanks for your questions.

It is going together nicely. Ive read a lot about this kit and it gets praised and slammed in the one sentence.

The worst is the seams, especially on the long round bits, like the frame. But its not so bad and easily scraped or sanded away. Almost no flash, and the parts are so far going together nicely. I cant fault the kit. Any issues with building this will be limitations on the modeller. Its a very big plane, and the detail is well done with lots of moulded cables and wires, which I will replace some with aluminium and vinyl etc.


Aluminium Powder

I was thinking a lot about how to make the aluminium bits look realistic. I did a lot of foiling on the F1 car, but for the plane I wanted it to look rougher. I dont have a spray gun, so everything is brushed on. I dont know how I got the idea, but I thought why not use a metal powder as a pigment, and found the aluminium powder on ebay from a powder coating shop, and got 500g of it for about $25. Which is a lot of powder, but it was only $2 extra to go from 250g to 500 . . .

I then got a jar of Mr Color clear, tipped out some clear, and spooned in a lot of power to make a thin paste. It settles something drastic, goes very hard on the bottom of the jar, but after poking it with a toothpick and shaking the jar its ready to brush on.

Brush this on and when it dries it looks horrible - a dark matt grey. But after sanding it looks like aluminium. The pics show it very rough, but in real life it has a much smoother metallic look. The way if reflects light is exactly like metal, because it is metal. i will try sanding with some very fine paper to smooth it some more. Sanding it before its fully dry also seems to smooth it out. The final sanding has the biggest effect on how it will look, so Im still experimenting.

I will post some more photos of this technique as the build goes on (slowly) as I will use it in many areas of this plane as it has a nice metallic look, and is easy to apply. I dont think it will be very good for plastic that has surface detail, as the paste is too thick. Maybe a thinned application over a silver paint might work.

That's a very clear explanation thank you. I did some googling and all sorts of different metallic powders at different micron sizes can be obtained in a dull of polished state and even flakes too. Mostly have to buy in kg lots or larger.

100g copper powder $20
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/30336100082 ... ctupt=true

Ive seen brass and titanium and steel on ebay for small sizes. You dont need much, 30g would be heaps.

If you want any aluminium let me know. I can give you some of my huge stash.

Great looking aluminum effect there

Are you leaving the airframe as bare aluminum?

Kevthemodeller wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 8:30 am Great looking aluminum effect there

Are you leaving the airframe as bare aluminum?

Hi Kev. I thought about it, but no. Some of the exposed internals of the wings, such as the gun bays and maybe fuel tanks, will be bare aluminium. That powder / paste technique would clog up all the rivets and panel lines.

Looking forward to seeing this come together, like you said it's received slightly mixed reviews but overall I think it builds up well

Off to a great start in the cockpit - the instrument panel looks superb and as the other guys said already the aluminium work is stunning.

Count me in

cor wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:08 am Hi Kev. I thought about it, but no.

I was wondering as the original would have been painted.

I was wondering as the original would have been painted.
[/quote]

FYI Kev. From the instructions - this is what I thought about doing, the Silver Bullet:

Tomcat64 wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:44 am Looking forward to seeing this come together, like you said it's received slightly mixed reviews but overall I think it builds up well

Off to a great start in the cockpit - the instrument panel looks superb and as the other guys said already the aluminium work is stunning.

Count me in

Thanks, Im really happy with the instrument panel. It required a lot of work on the clear part, but was worth it.

A huge kit in your talented hands, well done!

cor wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 11:05 am I was wondering as the original would have been painted.

FYI Kev. From the instructions - this is what I thought about doing, the Silver Bullet:






[/quote]

I see how interesting

Cockpit mostly done... I pulled off the wires and tried again, and its a bit neater.
Its not perfect, its not accurate, but I think it adds to the general business of this complex machine.

I plan to have this side of the fuselage uncovered to see this detail.
Ive also upped my photography game to show off the model a bit better. ( Sat it on a sheet of white paper, very technical stuff )

fantastic build.

Very nice work.

When it comes to the engine, will you be showing it off? I built this kit a few years back and really like the look of it with all the engine covers removed.

Stokesy44 wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 8:34 am Very nice work.

When it comes to the engine, will you be showing it off? I built this kit a few years back and really like the look of it with all the engine covers removed.

Thanks. Yes, I will have engine and radiator and guns uncovered. Will detail these area up a bit. I normally like a plane wheels up and covered up, but with this one there is too much detail opportunity to hide it all.
Nice kit, isnt it.. quite a project.

Parker wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 5:22 am fantastic build.

Thanks. It's a great model.

Hi all.

Redid the wiring on the exposed cockpit side to make it a bit more realistic. Im enjoying this detailing work, its relaxing and I can take my time with it.
Bit of thick aluminium wire for the pipe coming from below the oil tank - far left center of photo - and a bit of heat shrink tubing with some thin wire wrapped around it as the join. I plan to replace most of the tubing on the engine with wire and mesh and whatever else I can find that looks good.

A heads up for you detailers - the old school cable camera releases - the mechanical ones with a button and needle setup - are a great source of tightly wound wire springs that can be used for cables and metal tubing parts in different scales. There are about 4 different size diameter springs (the length of the cable release), plus the woven cloth sheath that covers the assembly. You can see the smallest size spring as the cable running horizontally from the oil tank to the rear of the pit - center of photo.

Great work so far. I think its brilliant how you got an idea in your head, regarding the aluminium paste and made it work,something I would never have attempted.Looking forward to your progress with this.

great work !! really nice looking ! and the details at that scale are amazing ! As mentioned before, good idea about the "paste".. it kind made the same result with the dry brushing I did with AK's True Metal for my Pfalz engine.

Not sure how I missed this…head up my ???
Great start to a big beast

More great work detailing up the cockpit - the camera release for springs idea is great!

That's another lever of modeling, so realistic that you're so closed to a scale 1 aircraft! That's amazing and so funny to follow, great job!

Thanks for your comments everyone.

Heres a few pics of the bare bones engine block attached to the frame.
I'll add photos as the detail gets built up.

Wow, that looks awesome!

Even bare bones it's an impressive looking build!!

That engine block looks genuinely heavy - nicely done

Ive been going a bit crazy.

Tomcat64 wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 9:08 am More great work detailing up the cockpit - the camera release for springs idea is great!

Heres some pics of the springs and cloth sheath from an old cable release. They are all about 30cm long - a foot.
I think there was also another one, but not sure.

Bit more of the spark plug assembly. It's aluminium wire and super glue with some braided wire and foil.
The 48 plug leads will be some kind of thin braided wire if I can find something . . .

Hi again.

The best purchase I've made in modelling nick naks is aluminium wire in different sizes from 1.5mm to 3mm.

Here its used for the various pipes running around the engine. Im still learning with this kind of detail, but I've found it to be very similar to working with plastic. The aluminium is soft and responds well to super glue (ca glue) and can be filed and sanded after the glue cures for a few hours.

Also used the fabulous heat shrink tubing and wrapped very thin wire around that for added detail, as well as a bit of braided wire. The pics dont show it so well, but the aluminium reflects the light in a proper metallic way.

Theres a few blobs of glue here and there, and it needs painting etc, but here are some pics

That's really cool! I may need to pickup some aluminum wire too, never really gave it much thought that it could be used to scratch build.

really good work, love it.

More great work detailing that block up

Definitely thinking about picking up some ally wire as well now.

Thanks again everyone.

Yes, the alu wire is great - I'm doing stuff with modelling that I had no confidence in doing when I started again less than 12 months ago

Here's the engine with more alu wire, and one row of spark plug leads done - they are thin wire from a usb cable.

Great work ! And you know, being that large a scale it helps you build your confidence for all that scratchbuilding. Keep up the good work ! the thread is fun to follow with you showing all the process.

Garion77 wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 11:44 am Great work ! And you know, being that large a scale it helps you build your confidence for all that scratchbuilding. Keep up the good work ! the thread is fun to follow with you showing all the process.

Thanks for checking it out Garion. Im glad you're enjoying it.

My last model was a 1/12 F1 car - Tamiya Tyrrel Ford F1 - and like you say, the large scale of that allowed me to try out new scratchbuilding techniques.
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=29868


This model is benefitting from that build, and is turning out beyond my expectations.

digger303 wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:26 am really good work, love it.

Thanks digger. Glad you're liking it. It's very nice model.

Some detailing on the top of the engine.

looking great!

Fantastic detailing work on the engine. All the wiring and tubes really brings it to life

More excellent detail work on the engine - really nicely done mate

Stokesy44 wrote: Tue Feb 01, 2022 7:29 am Fantastic detailing work on the engine. All the wiring and tubes really brings it to life

Parker wrote: Mon Jan 31, 2022 10:48 pm looking great!

Tomcat64 wrote: Tue Feb 01, 2022 4:39 pm More excellent detail work on the engine - really nicely done mate

Thanks guys. I have been putting off making the rest of the spark plug leads - 36 to go - so have been going over the cockpit and engine in the evenings, adding and modifying detail, enjoying the kit.

It's building up into a very busy model.

Added some thin brass tube



This is the opposite side which will be covered by the fuselage - If you look closely you can see the absolute bare minimum of effort . . . .





Remade the throttle out of aluminium wire - wrapped some very thin wire around the end for the hand grip.
Hard to see here, I'll use a proper macro lens to get better photos once this stage is complete.



Hard to see - but added some pe bolt heads on top - from Top Studio 1/12 moto gp detail pe set.
Lots of really useful bits in that set.

Hi all. Stage one complete - cockpit and engine. Next stage wings - guns, wheel bays.

Starting to pop nicely now it's really effective that last colour application over the Aluminum colour.

digger303 wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 4:48 am Starting to pop nicely now it's really effective that last colour application over the Aluminum colour.

Thanks digger. After looking at those tiny turnbuckles you've been making I'm thinking I'd better lift my game.

Really nice work ! You can be proud of what you've achieved on the details !

cor wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 10:09 am

digger303 wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 4:48 am Starting to pop nicely now it's really effective that last colour application over the Aluminum colour.

Thanks digger. After looking at those tiny turnbuckles you've been making I'm thinking I'd better lift my game.

I don't think you have anything to worry about

Garion77 wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 11:08 am Really nice work ! You can be proud of what you've achieved on the details !

Thanks man. Its really pushing my skill boundaries, but also setting up a benchmark for how I want to work.