Ironworker Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Well It's time to re-paint my Lockheed Vega for my "Blackfeather" Pulp serial game. The paintjob will be red and it will have a stylized black crow with outstreached wings on the top. Hopefully it will turn out as nice as my truck. This model isn't very accurate but I'll try to make it look as nice as I can. Here is a picture of the model stripped of it's paint. I used a citrius based stripper brushed on. The plastic wheels took a bit of damage but not much. I removed the plastic window and engine to strip the paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironworker Posted January 22, 2008 Author Share Posted January 22, 2008 Ok well a stripped plane isn't that interesting I know but it did take some time to strip it and prime it so that's about all I got done last night. No need to show the primed plane either since it was just primer grey. Here is the Vega painted red. I chose to hand paint the plane red using about 4 or so thin coats. I like the slight variation of the hand painted surface over a smoother spray painted surface. Vegas were made of plywood and the fact that this plane is diecast already makes it look a bit smoother and more uniform than it should. Also the pics I've seen of older planes make a lot of them look hand painted. The next task was to go ahead and tackle the main decorative feature of this plane. I wanted to have a stylized crow with it wings spread out over the top of the plane and wings. I made a basic half template to trace around. After tracing around the left side I flipped my template over and traced the right side. Then I drew in the beak and feather tuft on the head. then I painted it in with black. I still have some touch up to do here. I'm also going to add some highlights before I'm done to bring out the crow more but I'll wait to do that after I finish laying in some more detail and give the model a light wash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristof65 Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Nice! I have absolutely no reason to paint something like that up, but now I want to... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironworker Posted January 22, 2008 Author Share Posted January 22, 2008 Ok well most of the basic decoration is blocked in here in black. The black designs on the spats, tail, and nose will be outlined in yellow and I'm thinking about putting a stylized lightning bolt down both sides in yellow. Also the windows will be painted in as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabberwocky Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Great stuff, IW. You are the king of pulp! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ixminis Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Nice (said "niiicccceee") Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironworker Posted January 23, 2008 Author Share Posted January 23, 2008 Ok I finished the yellow outlines and painted in all the windows. Here are shots from two angles. I still have to put the identification numbers on the underside of the wing and add a few more details to the body of the plane then finish the engine and prop and the canopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurityThruFire Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Man that thing is coming out awesome! Too bad no one around here is interested in any kind of pulp gaming, I'll be clutching my Pulp Cthulhu book greedily when it comes out but nothing much to do with it. As always IW, you really do some great work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironworker Posted January 24, 2008 Author Share Posted January 24, 2008 Thanks for the kind words. Time for more updates. Started working on the engine. I drybrushed the engine then painted the propeller and nose cone. After that I only had one major detail left other than the wheels which I'm painting at the very end because of their tendency to get stuff on them. I did a bit of research on registration numbers then promptly forgot the information. I think it should read NC-2875 but for some reason or the other I forgot that when I got started and just used N-2875. It's not really enough of an error to go back and fix as far as I'm concerned. I basically did a carbon transfer from a print out of the numbers. I made my own transfer by using a stick of willow charcoal to cover the back of the printout with black carbon. You can use pencil but charcoal won't blead through the paint like graphite will. It's hard to see the transfer in these photos but it came out very clear. To make the transfer you just tape the paper down lightly and trace the image you want to transfer. After I made the transfer I just painted in the letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironworker Posted January 24, 2008 Author Share Posted January 24, 2008 Ok now I'm down to weathering and paint detailing. I'm not really sure how to go about it. A few months ago I did the truck pictured here using almost exactly the same methods that I have with this plane but the truck has a low more surface detail whereas the plane has large smooth surfaces. I went ahead and did a light wash which did help enhance the details but it also just looks a bit muddled in some places. Then again I want the plane to look in use but well maintained so a bit a gunk is ok. I'm at the point now where I need decide about highlighting and other weathering techniques but I'm not entirely sure where to start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironworker Posted January 24, 2008 Author Share Posted January 24, 2008 Here's a little scale refference for those who might be interested. I think my Vega is a little over 1/48th give my calculations based on 1/4 scale. Also it's taller than it should be because the undercarrage is too big. However it doesn't look too bad. This is a Pulp figure pilot for size comparrison. Looks pretty reasonable. Here's Amelia Earhart next to her Vega. Even accounting for her height you can see how tall my vega is compaired to the real thing. Also the windows and doors are somewhat larger on the model. Still I think it's a pretty nice match for game use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironworker Posted January 25, 2008 Author Share Posted January 25, 2008 Well I chickened out on doing much weathering. I mostly focused on the windows and the door. The propeller turned out pretty good. I'm thinking I'm stopping here for now so here are a couple finished shots. I'll do some better shots either tomorrow or this weekend and post them in the Show Off section. Not bad for a four day project I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gowestover Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 All of this stuff looks great, man!! Did you ever read H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness"? I don't know if he mentions the model of planes the explorers in the story used for their Antarctia expedition, but this type of plane is what I envisioned when I read the story. Sorry... I know I'm on a Lovecraftian kick here, but seeing all of this Pulp-Fantasy stuff just reminds me of his stories... Keep up the great work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironworker Posted January 25, 2008 Author Share Posted January 25, 2008 All of this stuff looks great, man!! Did you ever read H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness"? I don't know if he mentions the model of planes the explorers in the story used for their Antarctia expedition, but this type of plane is what I envisioned when I read the story. Sorry... I know I'm on a Lovecraftian kick here, but seeing all of this Pulp-Fantasy stuff just reminds me of his stories... Keep up the great work! Yeah I like that story. I always figured the planes where a bit larger in that story but I haven't read it in a while. I think he does mention somewhere what kind they are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gowestover Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 Heh, I just did a Google search and actually found a web site that has several of his stories on-line. Here's the passage which describes the planes: "Four large Dornier aëroplanes, designed especially for the tremendous altitude flying necessary on the antarctic plateau and with added fuel-warming and quick-starting devices worked out by Pabodie, could transport our entire expedition from a base at the edge of the great ice barrier to various suitable inland points, and from these points a sufficient quota of dogs would serve us." Although Lovecraft doesn't specify the model of aircraft they used beyond that, after searching around a bit more on the Internet it look like you are right with the idea that they were larger. I guess I envisoned a smaller-type plane since they had to transport them by boat to the antarctic, assemble them and set them up. Very cool story... Talk about "chasing a rabbit"!! Anyway, your plane looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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