I'm going to be posting photos here of the painting as it gets painted. For the time being, this will be very much like a blog, with the most recent posts at the top.

More obvious progress today. Finally worked out what the guy in the nose would be doing and painted that in. Also, added the turkey-bird/eagle.

The problem I was having with the guy in the nose was that my original idea was to have him leaning over adjusting the Norden Bomb sight. The problem was that due to a possible scale problem I was never able to work out, was that in that position the chin gun sight hanging from the top of the fuselage intersected his back.

I never did figure out what the issue was. In the end I elected to have him sitting up and using the chin turret controls so he'd be looking through the gun sight. Not that you can make out much of that the way I painted it in. I still have to clean this area up a bit, and add some more glare to the plexi.

I'm not sure whether his goggles should be up or down, or whether he should be wearing a flak jacket and helmet.

The bird.

I've got to go back and darken in some areas after this dries. The lighter areas came out much warmer than they were in my CG rendering, but since the only 2 reference photos I have of this art are in black & white, I figured I could leave it as is.

Painted most of the day today. Worked on wings, stabilizer, adding red paint and painting in the blue hazy shape that is the background for the eagle/turkey-thing that is the nose “art”.

Also went out and bought a $5 curtain rod which is making painting a lot easier now.

Haven't been painting for the past few days due to robot gigs on Thurs. and Fri. in Raleigh, and keeping Emma on Saturday. I did paint today though, a few hours in the morning, then went back in the evening to do a few more hours.

I worked on the other tire, the cheek gun blister and chin turret in the morning. In the evening I worked on the lower fuselage, painting over a lot of what I'd already done on the nose. It looks like I'm doing negative work, but hopefully it'll work out after I cut some lines back in. Also added “Winged Warrior” to fuselage.

The right side tire got cleaned up some by painting in more of the lower nacelle which covered part of the tire that had been painted in wrong. The tread pattern is too dark on the right tire, I'll be fixing that later.

The illegible stenciled in data block had to be repainted. On Friday morning I glazed in some black on top of the olive drab from the nacelle being reflected in the fuselage to make it darker, and that ate the original stenciling right off. The only other thing I did Friday was to mix up more of the 2 base colors I'm using for the metal. The paint I'd mixed up weeks ago was starting to dry out too much to use.

If you've been wondering what the weird shape that's outlined in white in the center of the nose plexi is, it's one of the supercharger intakes from the left wing. I was trying out some new white graphite paper and the .03mm pencil a few weeks ago to see how well it worked. I needed a dark area to try it on, and used the nose, knowing that it'll be painted out later.

Progress! I finished up in Fayetteville Tuesday morning, and am now back home in Greensboro. Today I got to put in more than 2 hours on the painting for the first time in weeks.

Worked on the tail markings, some of the nose stencils, top turret, chin turret, one of the main tires, roughed in lines on the rear fuselage and added the pitot tube.

No, the data block stencil is not legible...

Painted in the other 3 engines tonight. I still have to clean them up a bit, as well as finish off the cowlings. Also going to revisit the #1 engine, it's ignition ring isn't as round as it should be.

No painting on the 17^th.

Today, at the theatre, I spent 8+ hours painting some very intricate signs with a ¼ brush. My cramped hand was in no mood for painting tonight either, so all I managed to get done was to get the other 3 engines sketched in.

Went to Hobby Lobby tonight and got a .3mm mechanical pencil, better tracing paper, different sort of transfer paper and some brushes. Having the mechanical pencil is making transferring lines a lot neater now.

Worked on the tail, painting out the “B” in the process. Did some basic shading on the tires to get them ready to cut the tread in later. Also starting working on an engine.

Worked on cockpit windows tonight.

If it seems I am avoiding adding gun barrels or antennas, it's because I am. At this point I know that I'm going to have to do some serious work on the background/sky to even it out. So, I'm not doing any small delicate parts that protrude over the background till after the background is cleaned up. This also means the blurred propeller blades will be one of the last things to be added.

Got back into painting tonight after recovering from working at the Winston-Salem Air Show all weekend, and then dropping a 2x4 on my toe yesterday.

Didn't do that much tonight, mainly working on the ball turret and darkening up the reflection from the #2 nacelle on the fuselage.

Reference Photos

The CG Model (Overall)

The CG Model (Engine)

The CG Model (Nose)

Markings

The CG Model (Misc Parts)

Composing the Painting

Home