This is part 2 of Jorges magnificent Catalina. Pictures of the constructions can be found in Part 1. Here is his comment to the pictures:
At last, here are the pictures, as I promised! This first set still lacks the headphones, the life raft and some wiring connecting the radios. Later, I will add two lights in the R/O & navigator's office in order to minimize the loss of detail, and I will shot more pics.
I hope you like them; somewhat it seems that I missed something while trying to bring all that detail to life. In fact, the dry brushing process is much more perceptible without the light used to shot the pictures.
All interior was airbrushed with automotive paints (nitrocellulose paint), since they are much cheaper and have a much better finish than any modelling paints, acrylic or enamel. On the interior, some matting agent was added to the paint in order to achieve the matt finish shown. In the external areas of the kit, the paint can be sprayed in a glossy finish that is ideal for placing decals. Then a satin or matt varnish is airbrushed to achieve the desired finish.
Painting with nitrocellulose paints requires always an appropriate base to promote adhesion to the plastic; they must never be airbrushed directly to the bare plastic. When that base is automotive acrylic silver, then we have the ideal way to scratch the paint later in a very realistic fashion to depict scuffed paint. I always mix my own paints; I use just the basic colours: red, blue and yellow, plus white and black. As such, it is possible to change the hues slightly, and add a scale effect to the colours (I usually add 10% white in 1/48 scale).
The instrument faces are from the marvellous Mike Grant decal line. The small details were brush painted with Testors acrylic model paint. All details were highlighted by drybrushing, I used Humbrol enamels for this purpose. The base colour was mixed in a lighter version and the drybrushed.
Further pictures and comments are in Catalina Part 3
Text & Photos Jorge Roberto Wolf, Brazil (jrwolf000@yahoo.com.br )