1/48 FM Lockheed PV1 Ventura 

by Laurent “Angus” Beauvais

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Step 4: Painting and weathering

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Regarding the paint scheme and the history of the Ventura in the French Navy, please have a look to this very excellent page: http://frenchnavy.free.fr/aircraft/ventura/ventura_fr.htm

My choice is the 6F5, simply because I did not wanted to make the box decoration. It has got no black paint on the leading edges, no front guns, and no rocket racks.

First use maskol to mask all transparent parts. A bottle cap is used to fill the turret hole.

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First apply a layer of white paint (I used car paint). Small defaults have been corected using the "Blanco" technic, fine in this case.

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Pre-shading

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And several layers of white paint. French Venturas were ex US Navy aircrafts (thanks again by the way), so they were not all brand new, but they don't look very dirty, but if we don't weathered the model it will look like a toy.
Then Gray paint (Humbrol 140 is the correct tone)
Then a layer of Klir (see: http://www.master194.com/encyclo/klir/index.htm) before putting the transfer printings. There quality is not great, borders are not straight, there are red drops in the white of the roundels, and you will have to fix them using Klir again.
After all this, again a layer of Klir, and weathering with different technics: either pastel powder or using Tamiya Smoke paint that is great.

At the end, a last layer of Pebeo matt varnish, and her is the final result for this beautiful free French bird. You can note some problems of paint attachment, but when looking with my eyes it's not that bad. 

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So yes, it's a lot of work for a plastic model, but if you intend to built something original, if you are patient (it took me 6 months), with a minimum of skill and a lot of obstination, do not hesitate, build an artisanal plastic model, the result won't be as perfect as a good big manufacturer kit, but the satisfaction of succeeding it will be greater.

And then you will feel building standard models boring.

Laurent

  End : hope you enjoyed J

Photos and text © by Laurent “Angus” Beauvais