I'm not going to write much here, but I do have a ton of photos to share. I am currently finishing up another Big D and will start on the first series of Little D's once this one is out the door. The model you see in these photos still has the stand-in Command Module, as will the following 3. Also, you'll see the entire model in these shots and it looks really unfinished. This is an illusion as literally all the parts are cast and standing by, but none of them are painted. This photo-series documents how the CM is painted and I'll get to the rest of the ship next. This ship will be finished by the end of next week.
Assembling the first batch of 10 Little D models will commence once this Big D is out of the shop. I'll update this process as it goes along, though we have started assembling the spines (a while back, in fact). I had to reconfigure the Propulsion Module to accomodate better castings and you'll be seeing those new parts very soon. I expect to deliver at least some of these 10 models during December. It really depends on how fast I can paint the Command Modules!
So, here is what goes on to paint a Big D Command Module, and its pretty much the same process for the Little D.
In the first 3 shots, the CM has been painted with a white primer and then a very dark gray is airbrushed into those places that will be the darkest. No masking is used here as this is just a jumping off point.
Photos 4-7. I'm roughing in some of the individual panels now. This will be done using alternating white and gray paint. I'm using only these two colors on this entire part. Both are diluted so they are transparent. This makes it easy to bring up a panel that is too dark, or darken a panel that is too light. Also, this limits the value of the gray to a single value, but allows for the density to be varied. This avoids the problem of blue or yellow (cold or warm) conflicts. I used to mix up 4 different shades of gray to paint these things, but this works out better.
Photo 7. In this closeup, you can see the different shades accomplished using only the two paints.
Photo 8. With the panelizing on the top done, the CM is flipped over to complete the paint on the other half.
Photo 9. Using the same process as before, the panelizing the CM is now finished.
Photo 10. Panelizing on the collar and neck has also been applied. It should be noted that all of the dark panels are still too dark, but that will be taken care of a few steps later.
Photo 11. This next series shows how the bands are painted. It all starts with applying small bits of tape to define little edge indents in the banding. To get an idea of scale, I'm using 1/4" wide tape here.
Photo 12. Once the small bits are applied, the tape is now applied to define the overall edge of the banding. This is still the 1/4" vinyl tape.
Photo 13. The crown is finished up using blue masking tape because the vinyl tape can't take the sharp curves. The blue tape is applied and a knife is used to define the banding. The vinyl tape is used to finish defining the rest of the banding edges.
Photo 14. Blue masking tape is used to complete the masking. The blue masking tape could have been used for all the masking, but the vinyl tape makes better contact, eliminating the possiblilty of paint creeping under the tape.
Photo 15. The base color, straight dark gray, is applied first.
Photo 16. Two colors of metallic paint are airbrushed into the bands in several layers. Various sizes of masking tape (which were removed before this shot) are used to create the layered effect.
Photo 17. All the masking has been removed and you can see the finished banding paint.
Photo 18. The final bit of paint has now been added. The bands have been dusted over with the transparent white. You can see the difference between the upper and lower bands, upper with the white added, the lower not dusted over yet.
Photo 19. Though its hard to see in these photos, the variations in the bands does show through. The black around the window area will be added once the entire model has been painted. There is a visual balance between the Command Module and the rest of the ship that will be achieved by further layers of the transparent white. Without paying attention to this, because the rest of the ship is basically white, it is possible for the Command Module to look too dark.
One reason the Command Module is not painted a plain white like the rest of the ship is the appearance of the rest of the ship is effected by the shadowing all the small details create. If the CM was simply white, it would look odd and it would not photograph very well! So, once the final 'blending' of the CM to the rest of the ship has been done, then the black around the flight deck windows will be added.
Assembling the first batch of 10 Little D models will commence once this Big D is out of the shop. I'll update this process as it goes along, though we have started assembling the spines (a while back, in fact). I had to reconfigure the Propulsion Module to accomodate better castings and you'll be seeing those new parts very soon. I expect to deliver at least some of these 10 models during December. It really depends on how fast I can paint the Command Modules!
So, here is what goes on to paint a Big D Command Module, and its pretty much the same process for the Little D.
In the first 3 shots, the CM has been painted with a white primer and then a very dark gray is airbrushed into those places that will be the darkest. No masking is used here as this is just a jumping off point.
Photos 4-7. I'm roughing in some of the individual panels now. This will be done using alternating white and gray paint. I'm using only these two colors on this entire part. Both are diluted so they are transparent. This makes it easy to bring up a panel that is too dark, or darken a panel that is too light. Also, this limits the value of the gray to a single value, but allows for the density to be varied. This avoids the problem of blue or yellow (cold or warm) conflicts. I used to mix up 4 different shades of gray to paint these things, but this works out better.
Photo 7. In this closeup, you can see the different shades accomplished using only the two paints.
Photo 8. With the panelizing on the top done, the CM is flipped over to complete the paint on the other half.
Photo 9. Using the same process as before, the panelizing the CM is now finished.
Photo 10. Panelizing on the collar and neck has also been applied. It should be noted that all of the dark panels are still too dark, but that will be taken care of a few steps later.
Photo 11. This next series shows how the bands are painted. It all starts with applying small bits of tape to define little edge indents in the banding. To get an idea of scale, I'm using 1/4" wide tape here.
Photo 12. Once the small bits are applied, the tape is now applied to define the overall edge of the banding. This is still the 1/4" vinyl tape.
Photo 13. The crown is finished up using blue masking tape because the vinyl tape can't take the sharp curves. The blue tape is applied and a knife is used to define the banding. The vinyl tape is used to finish defining the rest of the banding edges.
Photo 14. Blue masking tape is used to complete the masking. The blue masking tape could have been used for all the masking, but the vinyl tape makes better contact, eliminating the possiblilty of paint creeping under the tape.
Photo 15. The base color, straight dark gray, is applied first.
Photo 16. Two colors of metallic paint are airbrushed into the bands in several layers. Various sizes of masking tape (which were removed before this shot) are used to create the layered effect.
Photo 17. All the masking has been removed and you can see the finished banding paint.
Photo 18. The final bit of paint has now been added. The bands have been dusted over with the transparent white. You can see the difference between the upper and lower bands, upper with the white added, the lower not dusted over yet.
Photo 19. Though its hard to see in these photos, the variations in the bands does show through. The black around the window area will be added once the entire model has been painted. There is a visual balance between the Command Module and the rest of the ship that will be achieved by further layers of the transparent white. Without paying attention to this, because the rest of the ship is basically white, it is possible for the Command Module to look too dark.
One reason the Command Module is not painted a plain white like the rest of the ship is the appearance of the rest of the ship is effected by the shadowing all the small details create. If the CM was simply white, it would look odd and it would not photograph very well! So, once the final 'blending' of the CM to the rest of the ship has been done, then the black around the flight deck windows will be added.
