This one's a little ho-hum for me as What-Ifs go. It's the venerable 1/72 Matchbox Boeing P-12E/F-4B I built for a GB over on Alpha-Romeo-Charlie painted up in a speculative Naval wargames camo scheme. The U.S. Army Air Corps' wargames camo of the 1920s & 1930s is legendary, but the Navy never did the same to their birds. What if?....
Brian da Basher
Here's another pic. The decals are from Eagle Strike (codes from goodness-knows-where) and the tailstripes are hand-painted. The tailhook is scratched from a paperclip and the rigging is courtesy of my sewing box. The entire model is brush painted.
Brian da Basher
The paints used for the camo are Testor's Dark Gull Gray and Light Gull Gray and White but for some reason they photographed with a bluish tint to them. Must be my sucky digicam or my sucky photography skills. Still, I hope you enjoy the pics!
Brian da Basher
Here's another pic. I enjoyed this simple little build, but the What-If bug has bitten me bad. I found I got bored not trying to turn this into something it isn't supposed to be. I'm sure the rest of you can relate.
Brian da Basher
Here's the next-to-last pic. I used Poly Scale Red and Blue for the tailstripes and man was I impressed! They're fantastic for brush painting and I think I'll be trying to restock my entire paint supply with them. They are a perfect consistency and cover beautifully! They have an opaqueness that belies how easily they brush on the model. I highly reccomend them!
Brian da Basher
Here's the final pic. This project was a test-run for the Naval wargames camo scheme I hope to use on my pending twin-engined Douglas D2T I'll be kitbashing from the 1/72 Williams' Bros. Douglas World Cruiser. My next couple of projects will be monoplanes though. I need to take a break from all that rigging!
Brian da Basher
You've got another winner there Basher!
Quote... for some reason they photographed with a bluish tint to them. Must be my sucky digicam or my sucky photography skills.
Might be the lighting in the room, but that's usually an orange tinge if incandescant or greenish if flourescant. If you have a simple program like MS Photoeditor you can adjust the colours. You might want to look at a free download called Irfanview (just Google that name). It's an excellent photo editing utility that allows you to do quite a bit, it's main value for me is its ability to reduce picture size without getting those annoying bubbly bits that other programs often conjure up. That's all I've used it for up to now, but it probably lets you adjust colours too. ;)
Cool cool and once more cool!
Brian
There were some Devastator profiles in SAMI a month or so back which showed some Navy Experimental camoflage schemes
Chris
Nice model by the way
Edited - May have ben Vindicator's - I'll try and find them
Thanks for the info Narses2! I'd love to see those profiles! I'm very keen on experimental/wargames camo schemes and am always looking for new information.
Brian da Basher
I'll check which issue they were in when I get home Brian
QuoteBrian
There were some Devastator profiles in SAMI a month or so back which showed some Navy Experimental camoflage schemes
Chris
Nice model by the way
Edited - May have ben Vindicator's - I'll try and find them
Try the US Navy History site...it has Devestators and those Buffalo barrel things.
Between the Norwegian Arctic schemes and this cool looking bi-plane Im thinking you guys have bought a"job" lot of these colours B) B) B)
NICE plane !!!! That looks really great in those colours ! By the way, Irfanview does have colour correction, under the "image" toggle...I use it all the time, unless I have to do serious tweaking with the Gimp or Photoshop.
Wasn't the F-4B I was expecting... <_<
Shoulda realised when I saw who started the thread! :dum:
Nice nice! I've always liked the lil Boeings! :)
As for the colour tint..you may have had it set to "indoor" or "incandescant" setting (Usually a stylised light bulb shape) but had the camera on flash. This biases the camera blueish to counteract the orangeish hue of regular bulbs, but since flashes are daylight balanced, it merely pooched the colour balance for those shots.
Don't ya LOVE modern contrivances..in MY day I'd have had to wait almost a week to find out I screwed up the pics!
Easiest way to fix em...convert to greyscale/black n white: it's the right time frame anyhow....:)
Alvis 3.1, f22, 1/15 sec, ISO 400
Brian
The experimental schemes are in SAMI Vol 11 issue 9 - September 2005.
The schemes were collectively known as the Barclay Design. There were several of them done with water-based paints and intended to confuse enemy gunners at long range. Very much a warship type camo
Hope the attached link helps
Barclay Design (http://www.history.navy.mil/ac/artist/b/barclay/barclay%201.html)
Chris
Thanks, Chris! I'll find a lot of inspiration in that link! I'm always on the hunt for interesting and obscure camo schemes...
Brian da Basher
I had an idea to do some in-service Barclay schemes as if they'd been adopted by the Navy, so you'd have Wildcats, Kingfishers & other stuff in splinter schemes...
there are some profiles in the Squadron Signal book on US Navy camo & markings
Ooo, that's lovely! :wub: :wub: :wub:
One of these days I'm going to do one in a mid-WW2 scheme - colors and markings. I'm going to claim it was from the last carrier-based bipe squadron (in the Atlantic, on Wasp or Ranger, I think), used to "fill in" before the new Hellcats and Corsairs came on line in significant numbers. That'll get the JMNs running for their references. :P
Of course, what I really love are the pre-WW2 bright colors, so I'd love to do some post-WW2 aircraft in throwback colors. Someday, someday... ^_^
Both of these ideas are inspired by others on this board, thank you all so much! :D B)
QuoteEasiest way to fix em...convert to greyscale/black n white: it's the right time frame anyhow....:)
I liked Alvis' idea enough to try it out and see what your plane would look like in B&W:
(https://www.whatifmodellers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv727%2Fjohnhowlingmouse%2FF4BCollage.jpg&hash=3d72f9144ff93001195c7fd74d32242a90d90632)
Thank you Mr Howling Mouse! They sure are in the right timeframe for a B&W pic. I played around with the software a little and did some minor tweaking on the pics. Attached pic is closest to reality...I think. ;)
Brian da Basher
QuoteOoo, that's lovely! :wub: :wub: :wub:
One of these days I'm going to do one in a mid-WW2 scheme - colors and markings. I'm going to claim it was from the last carrier-based bipe squadron (in the Atlantic, on Wasp or Ranger, I think), used to "fill in" before the new Hellcats and Corsairs came on line in significant numbers. That'll get the JMNs running for their references. :P
Of course, what I really love are the pre-WW2 bright colors, so I'd love to do some post-WW2 aircraft in throwback colors. Someday, someday... ^_^
Both of these ideas are inspired by others on this board, thank you all so much! :D B)
*Chuckle* I like the idea of a F-4B done up like this F4B-4 (or whatever dash no.).