An-26 1:72

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Aleks,
great work indeed.
Looking at the photos of the real An.26, we can see that some panel lines appear as 'steps', not recessed lines; other ones are filled with some sealer. It's not the same look that is often seen on models.
Regards
Massimo

[bbrought]

Alex, I always admired your work and I am so glad to see you on this forum. Great work so far on the An-26!

Bennie

[asekular]

Thanks all,
Massimo, I agree completely about the panel lines. Not all are the same and they should be more diverse on the model as well. This kit is actually very good in that respect and features many overlapping panels and 3D surface details. The trick is only how to preserve them while sanding all the rough edges...
But I'm almost done with that stage and now the painting will commence.
Cheers,
Aleks

[asekular]

Hello all,

After wrapping the whole of the airframe in Surfacer 1000 and dealing with all the blemishes that it revealed, I finally started painting the model. The ?Tan? was used for the radome and the tip of the vertical stabilizer. They will be painted light blue, but I wanted to provide some base for chipping paint. Few grain of salt wetted with water are applied in the most exposed places and then the blue coat is sprayed.



I used Bright Blue and added white to find the shade I was looking for. None of the readily available light blue shades really cut it for me.



Then came Alclad Duraluminum for the de-icing panels on the leading edges of all the flying surfaces and also some ?Burnt Metal? Metalizer for the inside of the APUs exhaust and Dark Aluminium for the outside with some soft blending of the two at the nozzle.







Next on the action list is masking of all these surfaces for the application of the main camouflage?

Till then,
Aleks

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Aleks,
impressive work as usual. It's interesting to see an application of the salt method.
Regards
Massimo

[asekular]

Good evening everybody,

Hope you are all still here after the summer hiatus. I bet you were thinking that this is another one of those build posts without resolution.

But fret not, rainy weekends started again, which means that my workbench is busy once more. To quote one popular TV epic ?winter is coming?, and before that happens I hope to have my Antonov in full regalia and under the glass doors of a curio cabinet.

So let?s start were we left it off the last time?





I prepared small subassemblies for the propellers and painted the front ends of the hubs blue. The propeller blades will be painted and weathered separately and then I will try to align them properly into the hubs.
I made small slot-doors for the main landing gear hatches out of strip of metal. This was much easier that cleaning and thinning the kit parts.



In the mean time all the masking of the bare-metal leading edges was finished so I could start with pre-shading. I don?t rely on this technique as much as I did in the past, but I still decided to do it here, as the camouflage is relatively light and quite weather-beaten.



M.M. ?Bright Blue? gets to be used a lot on this model, as I mixed it again with ?Fulcrum Gray?, to get my own shade for lower surfaces. Surprisingly, none of the dozen jars of different light blues I have didn?t come close to what I found in the pictures.





After the main coat, I sprayed thin layers of slightly modified mix to break-up the uniformity and also enhanced some of the panels with blackish-brown shadows.



The rectangular foot of the main cargo ramp is quite beaten-up, as it rests against the ground while loading the plane. I first painted this block with Alclad Aluminium, then black and finally the main undersurface color. By rubbing the edges with micromesh hidden layers of color are exposed, which gives a convincing end effect.

Till the next time,
Aleks

[learstang]

The undersides look great, Aleks!  I can't wait to see the topsides.

Regards,

Jason

[Massimo Tessitori]

Great work indeed.
However, we were not worried because we are accustomed to see your models made up to their completion. Am I wrong?
Regards
Massimo

[B_Realistic]

Very good underside weathering.

[asekular]

First of all thanks for the cheers guy! Sorry I didn?t get a chance to reply during the week, so I?m doing it now.

Massimo, you are right of course, I do finish all my builds - eventually, but some take quite a while (years) to gestate. Oh well?

The moment has come to lay the two main colors for the upper camouflage. But first to protect the lower part I used some more meters of Tamiya tape and Parafilm M.



The disruptive pattern got ?disrupted? over the years and the color changed in hue significantly. I relied on the photos of the period and chose my own mix of paints once again.



The demarcation of two colors is quite sharp on the real machine, so I decided to use ?crazy goo? or whatever you call that kneading material, to roll it into ropes and lay out the shapes on the surface of the model.



For the gray I used Dark Ghost Gray + Fulcrum Gray both by Model Master and the green was mixed from RAF Interior Green also by MM and WEM?s AMT 12. Don?t ask me about the actual ratios; I was adding droplets until the mix was ?right?.



The noticeably darker patches of new color applied over the old national insignia indicate no effort of blending with the existing camouflage. If anything a strong contrast is achieved. I mixed Xtracolor?s RLM 70 Schwarzgr?n with WEM?s AII Brown in more or less 50 - 50 ratio for these and sprayed it
through a paper mask.





The colors are not really matching on this images, but mind the different lighting conditions on my desk. In reality they are actually quite fine.

We are slowly getting there? Next, I will start with some decals, but first I need to clean the airbrush and let some fresh air in the hobby room?

Till then,
A.

[Massimo Tessitori]

Excellent  work again. 
Those repaintings under the national insignas are particularly nice, they look as black flags in the wind.
Regards
Massimo

[learstang]

Great work, Aleks!  And finally somebody found a use for WEM's fictional "AII Brown".

Regards,

Jason

[asekular]

Here?s another update from the west bank of the Rhein.

Work on the Antonov is now nearing the end of the painting phase.

I needed to accurately represent repainting done on the real aircraft. Big areas on both sides of the nose section received what seams to be a much darker version of the green color, here represented by mix of ex-enemies now working together: RLM 70 and AMT 11. I traced the shapes on the printed line drawings and then cut out the masks.





As the first decals I applied new Serbian cockades on the fuselage and port upper wing position. According to my references the fourth marking that should be at the bottom starboard wing was missing at this point in time. The markings came from the ?Lift Here? decal set, meant for another Serbian An-26.





Unit number on the tail is also completely missing from the port side of the vertical tail, but an earlier photo of the same machine from the starboard side shows the worn number just above the national flag. I decided to represent this dilapidated number by first applying the decal and then rubbing it with micro-mesh when dry. I had to assemble the number from separate digits, as there is no option for this exact unit number. I didn?t find appropriate numeral ?4? so I made it by cutting and pasting parts of another ?7? and ?1?.



On the last shot you can already see effect of some oil washes, de-masked cargo-bay windows and various antennae and lights being attached.



The back end of the engine nacelle is waiting to receive a heavy coat of soot from the engine exhaust.

Till the next time,

Aleks

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Alex,
amazing and impressive work indeed.
Regards
Massimo

[asekular]

Hello all,

well the deed is done. Sorry for the wait - it took me a while to shoot the images of the finished model. I had quite a bit of fun and very few problems with this fine kit. Not a first Amodel for me and certainly not the last (some BIG boxes calling me from the stash). Anyhow, here'S the An-26 in "transitional" Serbian markings.











Hope you like it.

Cheers,
Aleks