Thousand up!

A massive thanks to everyone who has stopped by over the past few months to look at my attempts to create models, I don't think I expected to reach a hundred views so a thousand is fantastic.  Once again thank you.

Some Progress At Last

Well it seems ages since I made any progress but I've finally found 5 minutes to pick up my brush, not that I actually did much by way of painting.  A second coat of matt to try and kill the shine, don't think I had mixed it enough the first time, hopefully.

Nearly done

A word of warning and a lesson learned, make sure you don't get varnish on your fingers and then handle another model with your finger on the decals. Where there used to be an 'F' there is now a couple of blobs of white!  Oh well I suppose it's a chance to use my white Uni Posca marker for the first time.

Ooops!

 

I even managed to spend a bit of time sticking some wings on to the dakota. Had to do some hacking to get them to fit even acceptably, never mind well. 

The tail looks a bit wonky from this angle, probably is then

Yeh, it's definitely skewiff

 

 There's going to have to be some serious filling going on before this is ready to be primed.

On the subject of priming I have to offer thanks to the folks over at TMP for their help choosing a descent primer spray at a sensible price.

Brush, Spray or Airbrush?

As I try to find an opportunity to actually finish the final touches (mainly varnish) my first models for many years and resume work on the Dakota I have been musing which approach will suit my needs best for future painting projects.  My brush work on these first two projects has been pretty poor if we're honest about it (but lessons were learnt) and with the prospect of the much larger surface areas of the dak awaiting me I wondered if getting an airbrush would/might be the solution. 

I haven't done a great deal of reading up on them so far, but what I have read makes me wonder if I would actually benefit or if the thinning down and cleaning would mean the novelty value would wear off pretty quickly and it would end up clogged up and abandoned in a drawer.  Then there is the cost... You can pick up the actual airbrushes quite reasonably, but are the cheaper ones actually any good, but then there is the compressor and other paraphernalia to consider.  I have got a birthday coming up which might cover all this though.

The other option which occurred was to use the hobby aimed aerosol cans from the likes of Humbrol and Tamiya and others.  Now these aren't hugely expensive individually, but I'm sure the cost would soon mount up when you need 2 or 3 colours plus primer and then varnish.  Coupled with the fact not all colours are available (well in Humbrol at least, I haven't investigated Tamiya in that much detail).

On the other hand I could just carry on as I am and stick with a good old fashioned brush job (perhaps with cans of primer and varnish).

So any experiences or advise you might have would be gratefully received, I've seen some amazing work from many of you so would value your opinions.

Cheers
Andy