Wonderful painting and weathering on that balloon.
Wonderful painting and weathering on that balloon.
Wonderful paint job! Very nice!
Fantastic work on that balloon Chris. Hope you uses bullet/incendiary proof paint, it's too pretty to burn up.
Purely inspiring Chris - lovely work
Great Job!!Please help me, I can't find the bases for the balloons.. I know they where in the store- I don't remember seeing them???
Thanks, all! And your rep has provided my first medal
I had to have one of these and got a good price, although the shipping from Italy was more than the balloon busters kit
For the curious, it's not onerous work, but requires some patience:
Filled gaps with Vallejo Plastic Putty (optional imo) and superglued the bottom seam that was loose. Let cure 24 hours.
Primed with can of Rust-oleum camouflage army green (cheap and a little bit sage color but works fine). Cure 24 hours.
Paint some detail panels as you like (Vallejo deck tan, German cam. dark green, etc.). Painted ropes deck tan (edge painted top ropes), and tweaked the basket (khaki and beige I think). Painted top strap with P3 galvanized steel (later washed with Secret Weapon engine grime but Nuln oil or any dark wash would do).
Sprayed a layer of clear coat, Krylon Crystal Clear. Cure 24 hours.
Wash with almost anything (I used Army Painter Military Shader diluted with a few drops of water but any dark wash would work). It's going to look bad, that's ok, you'll fix it in drybrush step. Cure 24 hours.
Mix up a decent close match to base color for drybrushing the "weathering." I used Vallejo green gray, german cam. dark green about 1:1, with a drop of yellow ochre and diluted with a few drops of water. You want a thin glaze consistency of paint but drybrush rather heavily in layers focusing on center of panels and any wash drops and "coffee staining" you wish to hide or mask. Do it in sections, returning after a layer dries to repeat as necessary.
Wash ropes. I used about 3 layers till I had the effect I wanted: Army Painter medium brown and strong tone. Cure 24 hours.
Spray with Testor's Dullcote or similar. I have some Mr Super Clear Flat Spray I've been using.
Shoot it down!
Regarding colors and markings I made a simplified chart using Flash's post of a Dan-San quote and adding a footnote from my own research.
Last edited by malachi; 06-01-2023 at 11:40. Reason: updated color chart
Ross, you might try the Litko bomber stands as an alternative if the AA store is out:
Litko bomber stands
Thank You Sir. I had one at one time but can't find it. "let me put it over here so I won't lose it"...… Yeah, right...…..
Ross,
I'll retract my suggestion of Litko Bomber stands since they are quite a bit smaller than the Nexus bases (could still use them, possibly reduce the "hit points"). Instead I ordered this 1/4" plexiglass and can cut it with a jigsaw to the proper dimensions: 195 x 90mm. Drill a center hole (countersunk) and use a telescoping magnet tool and machine screw to attach. You could attach a small washer to the balloon to hold it. Good luck
hi Ross.
If you still have no joy after contacting the Oberst, I have one of the original official stands from Nexus knocking about somewhere from the balloon I burnt down. If it helps, your are welcome to it at no charge to you.
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
That's a wonderfully kind offer Rob, top man.
Never Knowingly Undergunned !!
Well it's just cluttering up the Germans Hanger.
Rob
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
Awesome offer Rob!!!!! Sometimes you have to clean up to make more room for new planes!
Moment of silence for that fantastically burnt sausage.
Yeah I noticed the pic was posted upside down for so.e reason. Oops!
After these amusing remarks it seems a shame to tip it up the right way, so I am going to leave it as is.
It is still a very fine piece of work from any angle.
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
in keeping with the photos shouldn't it be "Biggles SortaSideways"...just seems appropriate somehow. Great balloons one and all !
Tasty looking sausages Chris.
Great job on the balloons Chris, very nice detail on the background scenery too.
Really nice job on those brats, Chris.
Do you do commissions?
These just get better, fantastic balloons, would make any game look brilliant.
Never Knowingly Undergunned !!
Thanks very much for the compliments and REP guys, much appreciated.
@John best $15 spent on amazon in awhile lol. I glued the photo backdrop to a strip of board and rigged some hooks to hang it. Too much time on my hands
@Pete, I'm flattered to be asked. I bet we can work out a deal
Have to chime in here and agree as well. Beautifully done. Almost makes me want to order another drachen from AIM. Would you mind sharing the paint colors you used?
Really great job there Chris!
Hector, I primed them with cheap Rust-o-leum: earth brown, matte citron, and flat gray. Looking back I would have done something lighter than the earth brown since the wash didn't show well in the recesses.
gray one:
left as primed
yellow one:
the bands are Vallejo MC yellow ochre, japanese uniform, and I think possibly tan yellow.
brown one:
fins and trim are Citadel XV-88, bands are Vallejo MC english uniform and the other I think P3 gun corps brown.
Washed the yellow and gray one with Army Painter strong tone. Washed the brown one with citadel nuln oil. I think I tried AP dark tone on the brown one too. Here's a pic of them at that stage:
Then I mix some thinned paint for the heavy weathering. Mostly on the top but all over to even out any tide marks or heavy wash stains.
Gray one: Vallejo light gray. Then another layer on top of 50/50 mix of vallejo deck tan and light gray.
Yellow one: I think the mix was vallejo tan yellow and Buff with a tad bit of gray to desaturate. I also pin-washed this one at this stage (should have done earlier) in the recesses with Secret Weapon flesh wash.
Brown one: I can't recall this one but possibly vallejo german camo brown and a bit of yellow ochre.
Hope that helps!
Last edited by malachi; 09-20-2020 at 07:57. Reason: remembered some things duh
Sweet! Very nice color choices. Balloon scenarios rank near the top for me. Both attack and defense have their challenges.
Looks GREAT nice work. I need to add some Balloons to my collection.
Last edited by Mike George; 09-19-2020 at 15:40.
Awesome looking taargets Chris. Someday soon we may ba able to shoot them down.
Amazing balloons!
REP gun jammed!
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
Nice color choices! Great Job!
And a smashing card Mike.
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
What a card Mike, outstanding...
Never Knowingly Undergunned !!
I've a spare balloon for repainting, and this card looks superb!
Thanks, Mike!
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
Just found this thread. Great job everyone. I had just finish a Red Eagle Miniatures Parseval-Siegsfeld Drachen along with their winch support truck and two AA machine-gun trucks (moved the right-hand driver over to the left-side for the German version). Photo attached (I hope) using simplistic rigging: fastened 3 eye loops on the bottom of the resin balloon and attached stiff wires from them to the basket and another down to the truck. The base is a Litco Observation Balloon base with a flight plug mounted on top of its stand for added height. The balloon is a nicely done resin model which Gary at Red Eagle worked on for many weeks to get it right without porous holes or bad seems. Painted up really well. Not nearly as fancy as the above models but it still makes a good target, unless the AA trucks do a number on the Nieuport 11 swooping in with its rockets.
Nice work Craig. The ballon is great, and the trucks are the icing on the cake!
Great work, Craig! Those look very nice. I have a caquot and those trucks on order from Gary and he said he's been working hard to figure out a new method of sealing the surface so it has far fewer voids. Yours looks terrific and love how you rigged it.
Lovely job on the balloon & trucks, Craig!
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
Can’t fault the enterprise, buy loads when they are aplenty sell em when they’re not...
You should be a city trader lol....
Never Knowingly Undergunned !!
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