Official Rumpler G.III Painting Thread
Nice one Zoe, could you add a bit about the model, paint & decals when you get a chance.
Sapiens qui vigilat... "He is wise who watches"
Certainly!Originally Posted by flash
Some background as to my style: I mix my own paint colours, rather than relying on store bought. Very few colour pictures exist of these aircraft, paint fades due to weathering, so much of this is guesswork. I also have a mistrust for colour profiles. If the regulations specified a certain shade of green, and another of brown, and pictures in orthochrome exist which are consistent with those two colours, I'll ignore the profiles interpreting the pictures as showing dark/light blue, especially if the pictures show a radically different underside colour.
The model is from Shapeways, a Reduced Aircraft Factory design. It's a beauty.
https://www.shapeways.com/product/75...ionId=60636795
Paint - my first use of an airbrush. Start with a coat of slightly diluted PVA white glue brushed on. Then a full strength coat.
Take some Aldi noname red and black airbush paints, mixed 5:1 to get the Venetian Red (dark brown with a hint of red) specified by LKS documents. Spray lightly overall. Then do a few blotches of 6:1 yellow and blue to get the same green that's on the Ares Halberstadt D.III. This is all experimental, trying different effects, and will be covered by other layers of paint anyway.
Another coat of dilute PVA glue, again as part if the surface prep. Now you have a dark background and can see where the glue reaches, somethng not obvious on the bare Nylon.
Now 3 coats of Venetian brown, upper surfaces only, 5 mins between coats, airbrushed.
Use tube acryllics with a little flow medium, and brush underside with 8:1 white and warm blue. Looking at it, 10:1 might be better, Anyway, this is for the undersurface which has little detail, so whop it on thickly, as the PVA glue doesn't do as well underneath. By "thick" I mean relatively, more so than a translucent aurbrush coat, make it opaque.
Then mix blue and white about 6:1 of the Aldi airbrush paint, spray over the underside to give a nice finish, and also spray nacelles and struts. Yes, you'll need to touch up the rest, but the idea is to get a thin smooth layer on the struts.
Now mix the Aldi blue and yellow again, and this is the secret, brushing not spraying patches in an irregular pattern consistent with period photos, just a bit smaller. You want the centres to be saturated with colour. Then take out the trusty airbrush, fill it with the same mixture, and spray the patches, so they look solid in the middle but fuzzy on the edges of the wings. On the fuselage, they should be sharper according to the photos, but still slightly fuzzed.
Now do the same with Venetian Red, only a few sprays as touchups. Use a brush to make corrections, and paint crew in raw sienna, mgs and radiator in black, tyres in a 6:1 white and black grey. Then another dilute PVA brushover. Oh yes, some G.IIIs had grey front wheels, black main wheels.
Now for the decals - I had some I printed up for generic 2-seater use, large on wing upper surface, medium on lower, small on sides and tail.
First - coat the approximate decal area with, you guessed it, dilute PVA. This provides a really smooth surface for the decals to adhere to. Wait till the glue is no longer tacky before applying the decals, or you won't be able to easily slide them into position. When decal is ready, brush some water on the surface (to make it slippery but also slightly dissolve the PVA for extra adhesion) and slide on decal, repositioning with brush and pin. Then press down with finger to remove any trapped air.
Airbrushed paint dries much quicker than the brushed tube paint. It also gives a much thinner coating, you use a lot less , not what you want when dealing with WSF models, hence the need for extra PVA coats to smooth things out.
Although this pic is of an AEG G.IV, it shows the effect I was aiming for - one only really achievable by using an airbrush, unless you're a far better painter than I am!
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Nicely done Zoe
Sweet plane Zoe.
Rough Draft:
Mike
"Flying is learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss" Douglas Adams
"Wings of Glory won't skin your elbows and knees while practicing." OldGuy59
Nice one Zoe and nice one Mike .
I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
Coming down is the hardest thing
Zoe: I can tell that's an excellent paint job even though the lighting is a bit dark. The planes always look so much better with nice paint scheme!
Lovely card, Mike! I'm always amazed how fast you can come up with them. I think the tail arc should be somewhat more narrow since the gun is on a sliding rail rather than a rotating ring -- maybe 120-140 degrees wide?
I'll try to get better photos later - but the real credit should go to the model designer for making such a rattling good model to work with. Paint and decals can only do so much, and no doubt many on this site could make a better result than mine in that department.
Daryl,
I should have looked closer. The rear gunner is well between the props. No way to shoot through those. I used a template from the AEG C.IV as a start point, and one of your top-down drawings for the plane. That is the reason for the speed, if not the accuracy.
[Edit: Image Removed - Obsolete. See below]
Last edited by OldGuy59; 09-16-2016 at 11:14.
Mike
"Flying is learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss" Douglas Adams
"Wings of Glory won't skin your elbows and knees while practicing." OldGuy59
Hmmm.. looks like we have the wrong value in the stats sheet for the Rumpler G.III. It had structural issues, but weight comparable with a Gotha G.IV. So it should be 24 not 14! That will be in the error-corrected late Sept edition.
This turned out very nicely, Zoe! Great little model, and these last two pictures show your color scheme to much better effect - well done
I've been considering getting a few 'odd' larger two-engined planes myself lately, and this fuels that need...
All the best,
Matt
[Edit: Missing "Pilot Icon" added]
Last edited by OldGuy59; 09-17-2016 at 00:02.
Mike
"Flying is learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss" Douglas Adams
"Wings of Glory won't skin your elbows and knees while practicing." OldGuy59
Perfect.
Almost perfect, but better now.Perfect.
Mike
"Flying is learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss" Douglas Adams
"Wings of Glory won't skin your elbows and knees while practicing." OldGuy59
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