George's French Sat.

[Timeslip]

Finished! Well, here is my finished 2001 French weapons satellite kit. I will be putting it on a different base later. Enjoy.
George

[lunadude]

Very nice.

Look forward to seeing what base you choose.

[Timeslip]

Here is the final paint job. I added a few more markings and a bit more weathering to further match the filming version. Hope you all like it.




George

[Model Man]

Hey George,
I'm kinda stuck on painting mine.

You (and Keith) seem to have a few pairs of black dots in a few places and I see there are a couple yellow squares.

While I've gone more varied in my grays for the paneling, I need little details like that to give it life. Any advice? Where did you get the notion for those little paint spots I mentioned? Are there some other references around?

Thanks!

[Timeslip]

Hi Tom, I saw in one of the b/w pictures some dashes. I copied those and elaborated a bit. I used some dry transfers that I picked up at my hobby shop. For the circles I used a small hole punch on some of the bigger dry transfers. Just let your imagination go wild.
George

[saturnapollo]

Tom

I must admit I used some artistic licence to "busy" up the markings like a real spacecraft would have. The dots you mentioned are from an old Letraset sheet of different sized dots. I use a lot of Letrsaet markings on my models just to add some detail.

Keith

[Model Man]

Thanks guys.
Artistic license is definitely in my vocab and methodology.

I mainly needed some inspiration and that helped out. I'm considering taking my 3mm mechanical pencil to the body and paneling in some lines, but we'll see. I'm more likely to end up with smudges than anything else. Rapidograph ink would never dry and make a worse mess.

[tagdot]

For enhancing panel lines, I make a solution of Isopropyl alcohol and india ink so that when applied it makes a grey tone. The alcohol is very fluid and when applied with a fine brush to the leading edge of the panel line, it will flow along the length...depending of course how long the recessed panel line is and how much solution is at the tip of the brush. When the alcohol dries it leaves behind the diluted film of india ink. You can then spray a sealant to fix the line to the craft.

This is a common practice and one that you may have already known about but I didn't see it mentioned so I thought I would put up the idea.

[Model Man]

Thanks, TD! I did not know that one.