Hi all,
Just wanted to introduce myself. I got on airplane modeling since I was a kid, been building models ever since with occasional very long hiatus every now and then. I got back to it few months ago and got overjoyed at how easy it is nowadays to do research on your subject. What would take a month back in my days is a matter of couple of hours now. Amazing! Anyway, I will probably need some help at some point when it comes to painting (I always used colours that looked right to me, but with this is not up to today's standards anymore). I'm a little bit on the colour-blind side so it is a bit challenging for me to differentiate between subtle tones.
On a personal side - I'm a Polish guy living in Ireland. I'am an aviation enthusiast with more flight hours than drive-hours. I've been building pretty much anything that flies, but World War II would be my favourite era. I've built a ZiS-5 truck recently, my first land vehicle model, as an experiment and it turned out I onjoyed it more than I thought I would, so I will probably try a tank someday.
Cheers everybody!

K.,
Welcome to the forums! Looking forward to seeing some of your work!

Gaz

Welcome to the forums, great to have you join us!

Don't hold back from asking for assistance or advice, the boards here are stacked with folks only too willing to help out, I know that from all of the questions I have asked over the years (and still do).

As Gazza said, looking forward to seeing some of your work.

Cheers, D

Hi, Thanks for the welcome. I am quite scared to show my work, it's pretty shabby. I'm learning with each one though, so there is still hope I will make something nice one day. The ones I've done recently are: Spitfire MkIa, Messerschmitt Bf 110 C, Polikarpov I-16 type 24 and ZiS-5V supply truck, all in 1:72 scale. At the moment I'm building Polikarpov I-153 biplane. I would appreciate if you could point out the most urgent areas for improvement in my technique. All my models are old-school paintbrushed, no air brush at all, unfortunately it shows. Dad tried to get me into airbrushing but although I loved the results, I detested the tool, so decided to stick to what I like most. I have only discovered techniques like dry-brushing, shading or wash on the internet few months ago, those models were a bit of a learning experiment.

K.,
Your models don't look shabby at all. And as for not having an airbrush, your painting skills with the brush are very good.

For me, aircraft look incomplete without an aerial. You can make them from stretched sprue or fishing line, or my favorite: EZ Line.

For that scale, perhaps your planes are a little glossy. And the only real technical flaw I see on your I-16 is the edge of a red star decal shows that closer trimming to the decal color would have been beneficial.

Otherwise, they are all nice to look at. The Spitfire is quite a gem. Many people like to weather aircraft heavily, but less is always better than too much.

Best Wishes,

Gaz

Thanks, I agree completely. I have always had trouble with aerials, always managed to mess them up somehow. On the other hand my dad was great with making them out of heated up sprues. I decided to left my aerials out until I visit home and ask him to show me exactly how he does it. Well, he passed away 6 weeks ago... I will definitely need some tips on that, especially that I'm building a bi-plane at the moment, strings are a must. What are those EZ lines, Gazza? I've never heard about that before.
The decals works needs serious improvement indeed, I see that clearly. I did not trim mine at all, assuming the clear outline will be invisible Well, I know better now. That I-16 painting is fictional. I mean I tried to get close to what the plane could have looked like on 22.06.1941 (I write a liitle bit as a hobby and I tried to recreate a plane from one of my stories).
The glossy finish is unintentional. I am still trying to find a good acrylic matt varnish. Would you recommend anything? The matt ones I have tried were either destroying the paintwork underneath by some unexplained chemical reaction (Pactra varnish over Pactra acrylics, no idea what could have gone wrong here - some random patches would immediately become milky an gooey and then peel off) or would be semi-gloss at best.
I'm glad you liked the Spitfire.
Cheers!

Hi K.,
Testors matte lacquer is very nice and seems to agree with most paints that I have used. I have never used an acrylic matte finish.
I have not used Pactra paints since the nineteen seventies. Hopefully it has improved since then.

EZ line is an elastic thread that is produced for hobbyists to simulate wires and rigging. Because it stretches, it will survive some accidental touching. it comes in various colors.
Here is a place that sells it.
EZ line vendor UK
You can also try Ebay.
Here is an image:


And here is some used on a warship on a 30 second video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QAwDuxlB0c

Best Wishes,

Gaz

Thank you for the suggestion! I have check out the EZ lines - it is really amazing! I will get them as soon as possible. Thanks!