Dornier Do 17 Z-2 #3 / Camouflage & Crew /

Putting plastic model together is not that difficult, turns out a bit more effort is required when painting it. Actually it all comes down to painting & weathering techniques that allow for reproduction of rust, dirt, corrosion or worn down metal. As beginner with plastic stuff I keep all that in mind, for now my main focus is how to use airbrush properly or to get right consistency of paint. I found out, spraying/painting takes less time than cleaning the airbrush, even if the one I have is low maintenance. I think it's great for beginners, easy and user friendly (single action, external mix). I start seeing new possibilities for more advanced equipment, which is not cheap at all. At some point I imagine, may become necessary.   

I stayed with simple camouflage  suggested by assembly instructions. Over white undercoat I sprayed coat of Knarloc Green, as seen in previous post. Then, I masked off top/mid fuselage areas for bottom camouflage, Ice Blue (base color for "belly" of the aircraft) was lightened up with Space Wolves Grey on second coat. I should have painted camouflage patterns right after green color was applied & dried out, before spraying bottom. Instead, I had to mask blue color off to paint darker spots of camouflage so masking off had to be done twice. I know now, for proper airbrushing & no accidental overspray I need wider masking tape - got Tamiya Masking Tape 6mm, which is good for long & straight edges (may have to cut it in half to mask canopy off), but of little use for larger areas as too many strips are required, masking off took more than half time of all airbrushing, including cleaning. Some areas were unfortunately oversparyed, a bit of yellow escaped my attention and settled in the middle of one wing - my own doing, should have directed paint stream right down, instead under small angle - needs fixing and covering when landing gear flaps are sprayed. 

Pilot's summer flying suit*

Navigator's uniform*

The crew has been picked out from Luftwaffe Pilots & Ground Grew kit, also from Revell. Four pilots provided within Do-17 kit were all the same, thought about little more variety. For painting such small objects (around half inch size) I used fine detail paintbrush. When painting the crew I took some references from "Battle of Britain"* (very interesting book by the way, not only exploring RAF but Luftwaffe as well). Because of size of the models (they are tiny! comparing to other figures/miniatures I've painted previously) color scheme is rather simple (like the rest of this model have to admit). White undercoat (spray), Kommando Khaki for first layer of uniforms, followed by coat of Devlan Mud wash, two front crew members got leather jackets painted with Charadon Granite. Bestial Brown was used for straps & seat belts. Faces painted with Elf Flesh and very thin coat of Gryphone Sephia wash, that was mostly removed, left only in very recessed areas.

*Source: "Battle of Britain" by R.T. Bickers, ISBN 0 86101 477 4