Today we remember...

I thought it would be appropriate on this 70th anniversary of D-Day to post something I have never tried before... tiny planes!  This is an entirely different experience.

It requires a completely different mindset and approach.  As tiny as the Memoir 44 infantry is, this plane is even smaller!  Simply figuring out what all the little parts are can be a challenge in itself.

Some of you might also notice that I decided to sneak in some metallic paints!  Yes indeed.  I did that in a few ways... mixing in a blue/silver color with my bluish grays.  I also did a few transparent glazes of metallic in certain areas.

As you can see in these views, I attempted to make the silver facing the ground warmer, or more of an earth tone.  

It was a little bit difficult at first, I must admit, since I never work with metallic paints.  I have done so in this 'mixed' fashion.

A few more views... the next one will show you what I was trying to replicate.

And here we have it.  Now I can't wait for it to fly around and do some damage on the battlefield!!!

Why 2K?

Well folks, I had hoped for something more fancy for the 2000th post on the blog!  Yes, indeed folks.  In just 26 months of blogging, I have reached the two thousandth post!

However, in some ways, a work in progress style post, with a wee touch of 'how to' thrown in, is pretty appropriate.

All the while I was working on this, all I could think of was the Raging Reds video that I filmed for the kickstarter.  So many people have asked me how to lighten reds without them turning pink.

As you can see, this brighter red is being lightened with a touch of orange.  Had this been more of a burgundy, I probably would have selected a grayed down lighter green.

This is the big thing right here.  If you use too much yellow to lighten the red, it will simply become orange.  Use white, and it still will turn pink and chalky.

Therefore, I take this opportunity to use one of those bright flesh tone colors that is lousy for actually painting skin. :-)

This has a tiny bit of color to it... some red, in fact.  This helps to lighten the color further, but not become chalky.

This view of all the pieces shows you how that plays out on the figure itself.

I am still using the filbert brush and the #8 round craft brushes at this shaded basecoat stage.

I am also experimenting with some glow on this vehicle, so that it will look a little different than all the other versions you tend to see.  Obviously, I have one of the Vallejo fluorescent colors out on the palette!

I mixed in a sky blue to tone this down a bit.

As I started to mix in an off white, I had to be sure to toss in enough of the fluorescent green to keep the intensity going.  All I am trying to do at this point is jam all the bright colors down into the recesses.

Time to work on the cowlings again.  I mixed a tannish color with a blue gray so that the glow color would be replicated in a small way.  I will impart some more of the tan in other areas, so that it starts to look even more like brass or bronze.

I took the extra cowling piece and set it on top just to get a few ideas of what I would have to do on it.  Should I paint a lot of reflected glow on the underside?  Or would that be too visually confusing?  Wait and see.

And, many thanks for checking out the blog!  I will try to continue to have fun, informative variety coming your way as often as I can!!!!!!!