Federation Commander

[Nerroth]

I will try to take more pics once I have some actual daylight to work with; but here's a look at my WIP 2500-series FastHawk, the RIS Aestus Estus.







I named the ship after the sword used by a character in an RPG on the PlayStation Portable; this pic shows the blade beside its new namesake:




The red looks a little different in person than in the pics; I'm not quite sure how to better capture the true colour of the hull. Oh well.
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[Nerroth]

It's not all that bright outside, but it technically counts as daylight, so...

(The below are all works in progress; I'm not comfirtable enough to decalre any of them to be done and dusted, and that's not counting the decals I'm somewhat nervous about putting onto some of them.)


Here are a few more pics of the Aestus Estus:







This one shows it alongside a Fed NCF. (The Fed ship is blurry, but I wanted to post it anyway since the Rom came out well in it.)



The NCF has soem decals waiting to go onto it once (if) I get it into some sort of decent shape. The decals I got are for the NCC-1382 Simon Bolivar, which historically was a new (fast) light cruiser instead; I wanted to have a set in case Mongoose ever do a proper NLF mini, and I suppose I could consider this ship to be what the Bolivar might have looked like had it been upgraded to an NCF.



Outside of the Alpha Octant, the four other ships I've been working on are ear-marked for service in the Federal Republic of Aurora:



The CL, which has decals waiting to turn it into the CL-05 RSS Andoria, seems to photograph a little better than the other white WIP ships. (Not that this is saying much, I suppose.)



Here it is alongside the CR Throne of Ozymondas.



The Throne might need a do-over; I'm not sure I'm on the right track with the colour scheme, plus it doesn't take well to photographs as it stands.





And these ships are set to become the FF-08 RSS Bremen and the FFE-01 RSS Hessen.




Apologies if they aren't the cleanest of paint jobs so far; I've been away from my paintbrush for quite a while b the ime I started work on these, not that I was much of an expert at my best in any case.
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[Nerroth]

Apologies for taking so many pictures of the same ship; but I've been experimenting as much with ways to take images of it as with the actual painting itself.

(These ones were with a plain white sheet of printer paper laid out on the top of my notebook as background.)















Do these images come out any better than the others?
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[Bill Stec]

What kind of paint are you using? It appears to me that you may be using some sort of enamel paint. I find enamels to be too thick, they obscure too much detail, and they have a "shiny cheap" look to them.

You might consider trying some good acrylic paints, like Reaper, Citadel, Vallejo, or even Tamaiya makes some for models. Cleanup is easier, drying is generally faster, and you will probably get even nicer results.

[djdood]

Enamel paints are fine, properly applied. They are all I use for basecoats (so I can use acrylics for detailing with no thinner/solvent interaction). However, I spray my basecoats, which involves thinning the paint down and applying it in multiple light coats.

Gloss (shiny) paints are a good thing, if the mini is to eventually receive water-slide decals. That, or a good coat of gloss clear.

Regardless of decals or not, for any mini that is going to be handled, a final coat of matt or dull clear is a very good idea. This is to both to dull down the shiny "toy like" look of the paints and also to give more protection to the mini's finish. It's imperative to clear coat if there are decals applied, as they need to be sealed-on to really stay put during handling.
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[Nerroth]

The paints I use are from Tamiya; I used their white surface primer to base coat the Fed/FRA ships, a set of their acrylics for the paint work, and a grey Gundam Marker for some of the panel lines. I had originally got the paints to work on model kits like this, but I don't have any other paints on hand right now to work on the 2500s. (Unfortunately, the downtown location for the hobby store I bought the paints from has been re-purposed away from modelling kits; they keep that side of their business further out in the depths of suburbia. So, I might have to make do with what I have on hand for the time being.)

Not all of the colours I have on hand have lasted all that well since the last time I used them, however. Some, like the reds and greens, still mix and apply well, whereas others like purple and brown do not. And white, at his point, is the worst of all, though I've never had a lot of luck with that colour anyway.


It's probably an indictment of my lackluster painting skills that my work with acrylics looks like it was done with enamels instead...


The clear paint I have is Tamiya X-22; when I looked it up on their site, it was listed under their gloss acrylics; would that make it a no-no for pre-decal work?
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[Bill Stec]

[marcus_aurelius]

I use spray cans for priming and the base coat.
I do not have the ability to hand paint primer or the base coat properly.

Sometimes I use Testors enamel sprays and sometimes I use Tamiya acryllic sprays, it just really depends upon the exact color I want. The Tamiya acryllics seem to spray more smoothly for me in general.

I also prefer gloss colors or a gloss coat for decals.

I always finish by doing a few layers of dullcoat spray to protect and get rid of most of the glossy look so it really doesn't seem to matter whether I sprayed an acryllic or enamel base coat.

[djdood]

Any gloss paint is acceptable for decals. A sprayed gloss clear-coat over the paint is even better. What is not ideal is a matte or dull finish; the "grain" in those causes "silvering" of the decals (micro air pockets and lack of adhesion). They might stick, but not well and will look poor.

Unfortunately, the uneven surface of a brushed-on paint makes applying decals harder than it needs to be, but it can certainly be done. I would highly advise having setting solution handy for those and plan to be spending some time smoothing the decals over the brush strokes.

My own personal ideal finish for an SFU mini -
Primer: Tamiya Fine White spray primer (rattlecan) [dark hull colors use Krylon black or gray primer]
Base (hull color) coat: Testors or Humbrol gloss enamels, airbrushed
Gloss Clear Coat: Airbrushed Future acrylic floor polish or Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic spray [only if-needed; usually not]
Details painting: Tamiya acrylics, brush-painted
Decals: Tenneshington Decals [of course ], applied using MicroSol and MicroSet solutions, as-needed.
Final Protective Clear Coat: [varies, but usually] Krylon Matte Finish varnish spray.

Don't be intimidated by airbrushes. The dual-action pro models are indeed a bit finicky, spendy, and take some real practice to learn. However, Aztec and Testors both sell really cheap plastic, single-action, airbrushes that are as easy to use as a rattlecan. I still use the cheap Aztec airbrush for most basecoating, as it does the job fine and is vastly easier to clean than my expensive Badger dual-action.
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[trynda1701]

Do you have a link to the airbrush you use then, Will?

Mark
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