Humble Resting Place.

With Acedemy 1/48 F-4U Corsair

Background.

“Humble Resting Place” took shape because I had screwed up the original paint job on my 1/48 Acedemy Corsair. Instead of scraping the aircraft all together I decided to try my hand at building a crashed aircraft diorama at the same time trying out my technique to simulate water.

This diorama is purely based on a what if scenario. It is in no way based on a real event. “Humble resting place” consists of a Corsair from an unnamed unit/sqn which made a forced landing in the sea somewhere in the vicinity of Solomon Islands and has been resting there for a good few months.

Aircraft.

This kit used is the 1/48 offering from Acedemy models. After botching the original scheme, I decided to airbrush it a single color of Navy blue and prepare it for damage to simulate a crash. I drilled various holes on the fuselage, wings, windshield and tail to simulate bullet/flak damage. This was achieved by applying a lot of pressure on an Xtaco knife to cut out the plastic. This method was used to give the holes a jagged and rough edge. I also cut the wing and added some various bits to try and simulate the wing ribs and control cables. This was achieved using small plastic sheets and some copper wire. Finally the propeller was also bent and cut to simulate its impact with the water. The fuselage was also exposed to a heated metal rod to try and simulate metal rips and tears particular in the cowling area. Heat was also applied to bend the plastic to show dents and etc. Paints chips was achieved by the normal way by slapping minimal silver paint from a small brush. Finally the aircraft was applied with various oil and water based colors to simulate the exposure to various elements over the months of its lying there.

Figure.

There is nothing much to mention about the figure. It was taken from Monogram Black Widow kit. The only modification done to the figure was that it was cut at the knees as it was going to be in water. It was then sanded and painted flesh tones and olive drab for the pants.

Base.

The base was made on a hard cardboard piece. Firstly a plastic cut out taken from an old square Tupperware was used to simulate the ridge. Following that the entire base was filled with modeling clay and various imprints and wave prints were made on the base. Fine sand was then sprinkled on at various places on the earth part of the base. The next step was to air brush the earth shades. After this was completed the entire base was left to dry. Following that the earth sections were roughly masked off and the water shades were airbrushed on. This once again was left to dry for a good long time.

The next step was to position the aircraft and the figure in the water section. The aircraft and figure was super glued down in their positions and after the glue cured, the entire base was filled with normal transparent paper glue. The first layer of glue was left to dry for 2 days. Following the 2 days another layer of paper glue was added onto the base and this was left to dry for another 3 – 4 days. Following that little grass sprinkles were scattered around the earth portions of the base and this process completed the entire display.

Overall I am happy with the results obtained from the simulated water finish using this technique. The only drawback of using this technique is that it does take a lot of time in letting the glue set and it can get to be very messy and sticky.

Thank You.

S.B (Brian)