Well as I mentioned, I kind of dreaded repeating the tigers face on the other side. So I decided to give the custome decals another try.
I took a very good photo of the painted face, mirrored it, and then printed it on the decal paper and sealed it with the decal film.
And then I applied the decal to the fuselage.
Worked out very nice. It is a bit more yellowish, due to the lighting,
but in the end the two fit together very well and saved me a good two hours of work :)
Then I added another decal :)
And with this the basic paint job was pretty much done. I added a quick wash of Grisiphone Sepia.
And then I started the paint chipping. For this I selected a grey-blue as the base color of the CHARON, so the chipped black paint would reveal that blue undercoat.
As the scene is happening towards the end of long battle campaign against the Dencarian Orks, the "Tiger Taxi" is quite worn and ridden.
After the applying the blue shapes, I started to add the highlights of these shapes - simulating the raised corners between the lower blue and the higher black paint.
Its rather tedious, but I think the result proves it worth.
And after the highlights, there need to be lowlights, simulating the shadow of these corners.
Then I removed the masking tape on the doors, to check for any mismatches and missing paint.
There were several spots I had to fix, but that was easy business :)
And then, to even things out, I applied a coat of varnish over the whole chopper.
The result was very pleasing...
...but a hidden desaster had stuck the CHARON!
When I realized it I was close to throwing the whole project into the trash can!
After the varnish coat had cured, I removed the masking tape from the windows...
GASP!
Since the doors were open, some of the drizzle went into the chopper and settled on the inside of the windows...
I couldn't believe how stupid I was!
This was soooo f*ked up!
I had no clue how to fix it, or what to do.
To calm myself back down, I decided to continue with the diorama base.
So I taped the envisioned markings off.
and applied the basic grey paintjob with some wear and tear as well as basic shading.
And with the CHARON it looks like this.
In the next step I taped off everything but the planned markings and sprayed these in yellow.
Then I applied red stripes with a brush.
And after de-masking it looks like this.
I applied the chipped paint patterns again
And besides the ATHENA bridge section, it shows that the two are just made for each other :-)
This result calmed me down enough to tackle the window issue.
So I started off with cutting the windows back out.
And then I carefully replaced the windows.
Also taking the chance and adding a little damage to the windshield.
Since I broke several pieces off, and I had to remove the pilots door, to access the side window, I took the opportunity to re-mount the door in the open position.
Even though it wasn't originally planned this way, I realized that the work on the cockpit and pilot were completely lost with the closed door.
I think this was the right decision.
And then it was showtime again, placing all the pieces together on the base.
Despite the setback with the windows,
it comes together quite nicely.
So, that's it for today - 44 images :)
Cheers
Klaus
