These models were made recently (2010-12). I made models in the 1960-80s when my eyesight was much better than now. So I now concentrate on finish and concealing construction gaps etc, rather than painting small details, which I can no longer see to do properly. I find it is better to leave off details , rather than attempt and mess the model up. My first attempt at airbrusing were quite successfull though, so future, models will be mainly sprayed. HUMBEROL paints seem to have a different composition than a few years ago, are thiner and have larger pigment grains. My modeling attempts, are attempts : light years away from the achievements of modelers who reach exhibition standards. I put the photographs on the web to show some unusual models, and what an average to poor modeler can achieve as an inspiration to anybody who wants to try to do the same. All the aircraft models below are injection moulded polystyrene. The photography was done very simply using natural light, sometimes a background drape. A NIKON P80 digital camera fitted on a tripod to reduce camera shake was used.

Hasegawa 1/72nd scale Northrop X29 Model . Gloss white enamel. Airbrushed. Since my eyesight is not as good as it was 30 years ago, I had to compromised on how much detailing I could do. Howerver, the kit transfers are VERY GOOD, and form in 3-d to the shapes of the aircraft very well. Trasnfers stick in place very well.

Dragon 1/48 Gotha Go229A Model. Airbrushed matt enamel. the mottling was doen with an airbrush, after thinning the enamel green paint to about 3 parts thinner to 1 part paint, an using a 2-way adjustable airbrush. SInce this was only mey second attempt at airbrusing, its not bad I think.

Minicraft Boeing B50D model. This was brush-painted, and would have benifited from airbrushing. Model was assembled using solvent glue and painted in HUMBROL METALCOAT enamel silvers, matt aluminium etc. Kit transfers used. Internal detail was left out except visible items in cockpit, which were pained matt black.

Airfix 1/48 Canberra PR9. Airbrushed HUMBROL Metaicoat aluminum. This was my first attempt at airbrushing with silver paints. THe siver was thinned with about 1 part thinner to 2 parts HUMBROL silver. AIRFIX model had heavily recessed panel lines which do not look right after finishing. In retrospect I would have filled many panel lines before painting.

Minicraft North American XB-70A 1/72 model kit.

Minicraft NA. XB-70A Model is injection moulded polystyrene. Model was extesnively filled with MILLIPUT filler, partially moulded when wet, and sanded to hide gaps. The gaps around the upper wing root/fuselage joins need a lot of filling to improve the model appearance. Model sprayed with enamel gloss spray paint. Photographed upsideown on table outside on the patio table on top of black photo-drapes. 2-stops under exposed at about 1/60sec. Tidied up some blemishes in GIMP. Photo looks quite realistic, because model was not too detailed. Sometimes models are 'overdetailed', but if you measure the actual size of details, and attempted to reproduce tham in 1/72 , they would be almost invisible in 1/72.
Looking at other modelers results, I am not convicned that pane lines should be enhanced in any way. Many modelers seem to create panel joins that would about 10 or 20mm thick in real life. Do they look at how the actual real aircraft looks? The XB70A model picture above, looks quite realsitic becasue there are no visable panel lines, Panel lines are not visible on any photograhs of the real thing, so why put them in? Real XB70A aircraft has a lot of staining on the underside where the engines are dropping hydrolic oils etc, Perhaps I should attempt to reproduce that. Panels can be shown by slightly different fininshes if really needed: gloss to matt clear etc.

PPhotographs were taken using a NIKON P80 digital camera using manual settings: 2-stops under exposed at F8 to give a good depth of field. Some were taken against a black felt background, which becomes invisible when under exposed.