HMS Queen Elizabeth - Aircraft Carrier - Part 4: aircraft
I want to capture something of the business of an aircraft carrier deck, crowded with aircraft and vehicles. As well as F35s, I wanted to have a variety of Merlins and a Chinook to represent the range of aircraft you would normally expect to see onboard.
After checking out the various options in metal and 3D prints, I decided to buy printed aircraft and helicopters from SNAFU on Shapeways. The detail on these is quite remarkable and, printed in Smooth Fine Detail Plastic, there wasn't too much cleaning up to do and the characteristic layered effects are only visible at quite high magnification. I already had some photo-etch propellors that would do for helicopter tail rotors and purchased main rotors from Mountford.
You can see a frame of Sea Harriers and Sea Kings in the picture too - fantastic little models - these are for other models I have in the pipeline.
I soon found out the downside of tiny models with thin details 3D-printed in Smooth Fine Detail Plastic - they are extremely fragile and my first attempts resulted in several broken undercarriage legs and one tailplane. Eventually I sort of got the hang of it but had three out of 15 F35s damaged.
After a bit of cleaning up by scraping the most obviously roughly layered areas with a sharp scalpel blade, I drilled a small hole in the underneath of each aircraft and glued them each onto a short (about an inch) length of fine wire to provide something to hold them by for painting. I attached the helicopter tail rotors at this stage but painted the main rotors separately. Everything got a coat of Halfords grey primer then I airbrushed the Merlins with Vallejo light grey and the Chinook with an olive green.
I had been thinking for a while what colour to use for the F35s. They are actually FS31670 Have Glass Camouflage Grey which seems to have a slight metallic sheen. I was concerned that they could easily blend with the medium grey deck colour to the point of disappearing so I decided to go for visual effect rather than strict accuracy. I painted the undersides black and the top surfaces gunmetal then gave the whole a light airbrush coat of Vallejo London Grey with a bit of black and Brown Violet added. I painted the canopies with a normal brush but the roundels are done with the end of a cocktail stick, cut off to give a roughly suitable diameter to apply a pale blue dot then again with a smaller circle of the grey mix to fill in the centre. For the first few I painted the undercarriage legs and wheel centres white but soon decided that was too fiddly even for me.
After checking out the various options in metal and 3D prints, I decided to buy printed aircraft and helicopters from SNAFU on Shapeways. The detail on these is quite remarkable and, printed in Smooth Fine Detail Plastic, there wasn't too much cleaning up to do and the characteristic layered effects are only visible at quite high magnification. I already had some photo-etch propellors that would do for helicopter tail rotors and purchased main rotors from Mountford.
You can see a frame of Sea Harriers and Sea Kings in the picture too - fantastic little models - these are for other models I have in the pipeline.
I soon found out the downside of tiny models with thin details 3D-printed in Smooth Fine Detail Plastic - they are extremely fragile and my first attempts resulted in several broken undercarriage legs and one tailplane. Eventually I sort of got the hang of it but had three out of 15 F35s damaged.
After a bit of cleaning up by scraping the most obviously roughly layered areas with a sharp scalpel blade, I drilled a small hole in the underneath of each aircraft and glued them each onto a short (about an inch) length of fine wire to provide something to hold them by for painting. I attached the helicopter tail rotors at this stage but painted the main rotors separately. Everything got a coat of Halfords grey primer then I airbrushed the Merlins with Vallejo light grey and the Chinook with an olive green.
I had been thinking for a while what colour to use for the F35s. They are actually FS31670 Have Glass Camouflage Grey which seems to have a slight metallic sheen. I was concerned that they could easily blend with the medium grey deck colour to the point of disappearing so I decided to go for visual effect rather than strict accuracy. I painted the undersides black and the top surfaces gunmetal then gave the whole a light airbrush coat of Vallejo London Grey with a bit of black and Brown Violet added. I painted the canopies with a normal brush but the roundels are done with the end of a cocktail stick, cut off to give a roughly suitable diameter to apply a pale blue dot then again with a smaller circle of the grey mix to fill in the centre. For the first few I painted the undercarriage legs and wheel centres white but soon decided that was too fiddly even for me.
I completed 4 Merlin HM2s; one with crows nest, one with folded rotors and two more unfolded. With the brass rotor arms all bent backwards, the folded one is tail heavy but it will eventually be glued to the deck so I don't have to worry about inserting tiny lead weights in the nose.
As a nod to the carrier's secondary role as LPH and for variety and a bit of colour I also completed a Chinook and a Merlin HC4. Photos of a Chinook on HMS Queen Elizabeth show a DPM type pattern on the rotor tips so I tried to depict that on my model, albeit grossly oversize. So there is no mistaking the HC4, as well as missing the radar of the HM2s, I chose a model with the rear ramp lowered.
Comments
Post a Comment