Need some guidance for a trashed aircraft

[venom1]

Righto, here we go.

With the wealth of amazing talent and sheer inspiration on this site, I have decided to jump in at the deep end! I want to model crashed/abandoned aircraft, and am planning on starting off small in 1/72 to try out a few techniques before moving onto something in 1/48.

At this stage I am looking at a crashed 109E or G. I have a Hasegawa and Revell kit respectively, so I will probably break out one of those.

I have had a look around the site at a few of the crashed and abandoned aircraft here, but I am sure I have not seen them all. If any of you were able to give me a link or two to any threads on this site for WIP's or completed builds that would be much appreciated.

I would really like to do as much "study" as possible, as this is the first time I am trying this, so I want to make sure I am heading in the right direction to obtain something at least half realistic!

Secondly, all the builds I have seen thus far have been weathered to the extent of being pretty much devoid of markings. While the one I am planning on doing will be pretty hammered, I would still like to have the markings visible. I am not quite sure of the extent of the weathering, but plan on having a fair bit of the underlying metal showing through. My question is how would you recommend doing the markings? I imagine they would need to be masked and painted, as decals probably wouldn't work well in this situation.

I would appreciate any feedback or help you fellas would be willing to give. I am keen to get cracking with something, but don't wanna go in flying blind....

Cheers,

Sam (sorry for the novel!...)

[TRM]

Hey Sam!

Steve is correct on all parts here. Find what you want to kill...google the crap out of it in respects to "damaged, wrecked, s*** down, knocked out" and so forth. Then start playing.

You almost end up thinking and half building in reverse so to speak. Because any damage would be post construction in the real world, you need to approach it as the item was built. Study some key areas, not only on crashed warrior but also on either line drawings and or pictures showing any framing, wiring, piping.....This will give you insight on what and where to scratch build when you open any sections up...if you will.

Once you have a better idea of what you want to accomplish, either envision you build, think about your process for building and of course painting as there will inevitably be some post construction painting that need to be done. Also it can be handy to draw a couple of pictures if needed. Not always are we lucky to have an exact picture of what we want to model.

As for marking, don't worry about these till the end. Yes, masking is the easiest next to dry transfers, which you can chip away at after they are applied...however, some decs can be treated as such too. Masking is easy since you chip them the same as you would the normal paint work of the model.

Two builds, from here at least, come to mind for SBS type building one is of course, Steve's rendition of the downed 190 and my Zero...which I think you have see both already. There are a number of others online. Being that you plan on starting in 1/72, which is fairly small, I would say start "small" as to not overburden you 1st time out with a ton of scratch detail in this scale...that is unless you wish to...then by all means go there brotha'!! ;D

Find something you like to start with and open a thread up...there is plenty of help here along the way!! You biggest asset is that everyone on MSC is a "Master" of something....wingy-things, scratch building, rusting, weathering, construction....they are all willing to provide some assistance when needed!!

Go forth and wreck my son!!!

[venom1]

Steve and T, thanks heaps for your quick response!

Yeah, I sorta had floating in the back of my mind the things you have said, but it's good to hear from you both giving me some confirmation on my thoughts!

I am certainly no stranger to heaps of research before I start building, and have a ton of books on many things wingy, so working out their insides is no problemo! I guess the big scary monster for me is the painting stages, as I said this is all new stuff for me. Being in 1/72, I will probably keep it fairly simple at the mo, I am thinking starting with an undercoat of 50/50 aluminium/light grey (I think one of you guys started with that), and then hairspray followed by camo colours, then chip away!

As you said, I need to find a good photo or two to give me an idea of what I want to do and go from there.

Thanks heaps for a starting point guys, really value your input here! ;D

Cheers,

Sam

[venom1]

Hi Ray,

Some good suggestions there, will have to give them a go. Definitely need to have a think about how I am going to do this, that's for sure!!!

Would appreciate your time and effort in doing those scans for me if you are able. Very kind of you! I have started building up a bit of a library of trashed aircraft from pix off the net, but it seems hard to find detailed color photos. I know I am asking a bit much considering they are ww2 aircraft, so I will just have to try and scrape together what I can, start building and then scream out for help when I get stuck!!! ;D

Thanks again for your kind offer!

Cheers,

Sam