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The SF-260 is a great trainer airplane produced by the Italian company Siai-Marchetti. Worldwide used for military training cover this natural role also in the Italian Air Force. Hundreds of Italian pilots earned their wings on this little plane.
An incredible work made by Stefano De Rensis shows the plane just before another training mission. A pilot, his instructor, and a specialist approaching the plane. The custom figures enlight the scene. Stefano made great work studying the flight suits and the procedures to achieve maximum fidelity in reproduction.
Have you made a model with our products? Do you want to see it published on our blog? Write to us at info@heroesmodels.it
We love unusual marking on famous planes, it’s our main weakness, we admit it.
This P-40E was the first received by FAB (Brazilian Air Force) as part of a Lend Lease Agreement. It was serial numbered FAB 01 (or just 01) and later FAB 4020. It is seen here in the RAF camouflage. They arrived in late 1942.
The kit is from the 1/144 P-40 series made by AFV Club. It has an excellent superficial finish but some lack of detail in the cockpit, air intake, and landing gears. The model was built straight from the box, with our decals.
Have you made a model with our products? Do you want to see it published on our blog? Write to us at info@heroesmodels.it
A new gallery entry today! This time an F4D-1 Skyray from Death Dealers VMF(AW)-114 in its last operational years in 1962.
The 1/144 model is a resin kit produced by Miniwing. The kit is simple but well detailed, the distinctive shape of the plane is well caught.
To represent it durin a low pass above the sea were used a pilot and a motion effect base. The pose is very dynamic and the illusion of movement works very well!
Have you made a model with our products? Do you want to see it published on our blog? Write to us at info@heroesmodels.it
We start our first Gallery post, a collection of our and your works made with Heroes Models products.
The first entry was an incredible work made by Stefano De Rensis. This detailed diorama in 1/144 scale represents the flight deck of the CV-67 J.F.Kennedy carrier during its Gulf War cruise.
An A-7E Corsair, in one of the last operational missions of this plane, is being prepared to start a bombing mission. All the elements in the diorama convey the feeling of the activity on the carrier deck, someone works, someone talks, someone is getting bored.
The aircraft kit was modified with wings folding and opened ladder, the tow bar is made from scratch. The tug tractor is a Brengun kit.
The great choice of composition and the accurate paintwork make this diorama really enjoyable.
Have you made a model with our products? Do you want to see it published on our blog? Write to us at info@heroesmodels.it
Sometimes there are painting masks very difficult to realize, especially when they have two or more colors and an intricate shape. To achieve this masks the best way is to split them into two or more layers.
For a perfect allignment we need to add some centering signs. It’s not a hard work to do but it isn’t easy to explain with words. For this reason we decided to make this tutorial to help our customers and all the modelers.
The example we show is part of a custom mask to realize a famous P-51 Mustang. This is what we want to achieve.
Just a quick precisation before starting to read. We used Harder & Steenbeck Evolution airbrush with 0.2 needle. All the colors were thinned (80% thinner 20% color) and pressure range was 0.5-0.8 bar.
We used laquer thinner with Tamiya colors because it improves the coverage of the colors. I always use tamiya colors from XF series (matt) because they are the best colors to use with masks.
Some colors, like Vallejo or other vynil based colors, easily attach to the borders of the mask and this could create problems when you remove the mask.
We attach the first layer of the mask on the model, in this case the red one. You must start to use first the layers from the color you see underneath and then proceed with the colors above in order.
First Layer
I usually use the “post it” to prevent overspray near the mask. “Post it” are easy to use, repositionable and with low adhesivity. We could be sure that they don’t move the mask or peel the base color. It’s very important with layered masks to maintain the position for the successive allignment. Now we can spray the first color.
Post It coverage
Red color
Before removing the first layer we must place the two centering signs. We put, with a tweezer, the two circles remained on the support in their own holes on the edge of the mask. Pay attention to these signs when you remove the first layer from support, don’t lose them.
Centering signs positioning
Now we can remove the first layer and see the result. In the photo the two centering signs in place are clearly visible. Pay attention not to move them.
Red layer completed
Before positioning the second layer it’s advisable to remove the unused parts of the mask. When we cut these very difficult shapes it’s easy that some parts could not remain on the support. After this operation we must take in place the unlinked parts of the mask before removing them from the support. I used two pieces of vynil because they have low adehesion and they don’t damage the mask.
Removing unused parts
Ensure unlinked parts
Now we must center the second layer. We just match the two signs remained on the model with the holes in the second layer. It’s not easy to do this at the first time but the mask could be repositioned a lot of times without any problem.
Matching layers
The last thing to do is to spray the black color.
Black color
The final result
This is the final result. It’s a long work that requires a little bit of care but the result repays all the time we spent.
Just a quick precisation before starting to read. We used Harder & Steenbeck Evolution airbrush with 0.2 needle. All the colors were used straight from the bottle. When we add thinner we specify the proportions in the round brackets. Pressure range was 0.5-0.8 bar.
The kit is very simple to build and the fitting is very nice. Only seatbelts were added on cockpit. It was colored with Interior Green with some particular colored with Valejo paints by brush.
I didn’t like the bomb included in the kits. For this reason, I filled his hollow with a piece of plastic. Some minor gaps near cannons were filled with epoxy putty. I used a little bit of CA glue to delete the fuselage lines, and polished it with sanding paper and nail files.
We painted all the planes with grey primer and we started to work on underside. A layer of Medium Sea Grey and some lights and shadow were added with thin white and dark grey (90% thinner+10% color) always from MRP colors.
We masked all the underside with tamiya tape and maskol. We used patafix (also known as Blue Tack) on the edges for a soft separation between colors.
We masked canopy with Heroes Models mask and freehand painted all the plane with Ocean Grey and Dark green.
We worked on base color to do a little bit of weathering. We used white on ocean grey and yellow on green (80% thinner+10%color) and some dark spots.
We made some very thin layers of the original colors (95%thinner+5%color) to make uniform, grey on grey, green on green. It’s very important to wait between the layers, it’s easy to cover all the work. You must wait for colors drying and evaluate if another layer is needed. Patience is needed to make a good work.
The next step was painting the insignia with masks. These were custom masks that I designed for this models, if you need the same masks contact us, if you need something different we can customize masks or decal. We started to position the masks needed for the white color, two 65 and the stars.
We masked the zones near the masks to prevent the overspray and we colored with Tamiya flat white (80%thinner+20%color). It was importat to use a very thin color, sprayed in several layers, to avoid to add too much thickness that could result visible. We used laquer thinner with Tamiya colors because it improves the coverage of the colors.
The red color of russian stars needed more attentions. We covered the white outlines of the stars with the masks. It was important to do a good centering work. To avoid surprises we masked the edge of the masks.
We sprayed the Tamiya red, always very thin (80%thinner+20% color). I used a gloss color but if you have the flat one it is better, it’s more easy to use when very thin.
And now, the moment of the truth!
We masked the exhausts and sprayed with flat black. When dried we made a dry-brush with some shades of browns. We used the same black on the resin wheels and used the masks included to color with aluminium.
We sprayed a layer of clear gloss on the entire model and made washisng with MIG products. On the aluminuim of the wheels we used watercolor black. When the wash dried, we sprayed several layer of flat clear on the entire model. Finally we added some dirt with the Tamiya weathering set and some chipping with silver pencil.
The finished model
I hope you like the model and find the step-by-step useful . Follow us on Facebook to know when we’ll post the next!
