[WWI] Added:Gotha G.IV

[Mark D. Smith]

Well, first, let me thank all of you for the kind words. There's a lot to
respond to here, so I'll take a whack at the easy questions first.

 

How long did it take? I pretty much milked this one for about two months. If
I had to guess, I spent most of that time screwing around trying to figure
out how much to scratch build.what would actually be visible and what
wouldn't. Once the painting was done, it went together in a week. I used
Wonder Wire for the rigging which went relatively quickly after the fuselage
control lines were in. They took a full evening and a half.the rest was done
in an evening.

 

Weathering. The short answer is I weathered it in scale. In other words, I
was as careful with the application of dirt and stains as I was with the
smallest details. From some of the comments here, it seems like many WWI
models are "over weathered", meaning weathering techniques are used too
heavily. Bottom line, airplanes are not tanks, and they have different
physical characteristics. Half of the weathering is due to abrasion from
moving air and the rest from dirty hands, leaks and muddy feet.

 

Aside from actual weathering, I think what gives this one a distinctive
appearance is shading the doped lined. I set out initially to give it a
gossamer translucent appearance with sunlight shining through the airframe
from above. Essentially this involved painting the undersurfaces a slightly
darker shadow color, then masking the airframe and lightening up the areas
between the ribs and spars. (Also, after the firs application of lighter
paint, the Eisernekreutzen were masked on the undersurfaces of the upper
wing) All that got softened by some very thin airbrushed coats shading the
airframe and then lightening the areas between freehand. The masking comes
off and the whole thing is them pulled together with a very translucent coat
of light blue.

 

The upper surfaces were sort of done in a similar fashion, except that the
first coat, which was very light, was masked and became the rib highlights.
Each masked rib got a pass with a slightly darker shade to exaggerate the
highlight and then the masking was taken off and the overall was blended
freehand with several very thinned coats. Ultimately, this sort of approach
leads to less accurate (at least historically) color rendition, but the
advantage is that the finished product looks more believable. I have always
marveled at how many modelers spend so much effort getting the correct PMS
number and then don't consider atmospheric effects. (The trickiest part of
the entire process is getting the tape strips cut thin enough and then put
on straight and evenly spaced.)

 

Photography. The heavy shadows were eliminated by using two tungsten lights
filtered through sheets of diffuser (matt mylar). My brother in law is the
head designer at Consumer Reports and had given me some great films and
backgrounds. The blue was a graduated plastic sheet that is specifically
meant for photo backgrounds. I also used a black background that I don't use
so much. The camera was just a Canon G3, 4 MP Powershot.

 

Thanks for all the warnings about the Dutch musicians.

 

Best, 

 

Mark

 

 

Mark DeLaney Smith, NCARB, AIA

DESIGN MANAGEMENT, ARCHITECTS, Inc.

 

641 WEST MARKET STREET

AKRON, OH  4 4 3 0 3

t. 330/ 762.1411

f. 330/762.1449

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web  desmanarc.com

 

 

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