Scale Aviation Modeller International 08.2018

includes the desert snake design,

it was my original intention

to model T6+AN featuring it

in all its writhing glory. But

without definitive evidence as

to its existence, I was unable

to convince myself that such

an aircraft ever existed.

I therefore decided to save the

masks in the hope of definitive

evidence materialising in the

future and chose instead to model

the second choice supplied by the

Montex mask set, which was S1+GK.

This aircraft was finished in the

attractive factory scheme of RLM79

over RLM 78, which I felt would

allow me to create some interesting

weathering effects – using pre-

shading and post-highlighting

• to enhance the limited pallet of
  colours. I had also found a good
  wartime photograph of the aircraft,
  which is always important to
  me when trying to decide upon a
  scheme and which will invariably
  influence my final choice.
  As is my favoured technique,
  the painting process began with
  an overall application of dark
  brown, which would be used to
  create shadows and add depth to

the finished model and hopefully

make it look less model-like. Once

dry, the dark enamel basecoat

was rubbed over using Albion

Alloys polishing pads to remove

all debris and to eradicate any

minor surface imperfections.

Enamels are a useful and

resilient filler and any and all

rub-throughs can be easily covered

with partial re-coats. If applying

enamel with a brush, it’s best to

build up an opaque finish using

several thinned coats of paint,

rubbing each successive coat back

until smooth. This process should

be repeated for the basecoat and all

successive colour and top coats.

In this instance, Colourcoats

enamels were used for the RLM

colours, though I mixed them

with Humbrol enamels to obtain

the heavily faded, weathered look

I required. (Although the paints

from these two ranges tend to

mix well, this is not always the

case with paints from different

manufacturers, so it’s always

advisable to check on some

scrap plastic or an old kit before

committing paint mixes to a model.)

Beginning with the

undersurface, the airframe colours

were built up panel by panel,

leaving hints of the darker basecoat

visible at panel edges and in areas

that would have suffered extreme

staining on the real machine,

32 • AUGUST 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

028-33-QB-Stuka-0818.indd 32 12/07/2018 11:46