Four weeks de-stressing

Some people knit. Some meditate. Some gafiate. Some crochet.

I take 3D printed nylon models of WWI aircraft in 1/144 scale, white and somewhat rough textured blanks, and transform them into fairly accurate representations of the originals. I say "fairly accurate" because some compromises have to be made regarding thickness of struts and so on to allow these to be printed. 0.1mm instead of 0.05mm etc.

Similarly, the paint schemes are often informed guesswork. We have, if we're lucky, one or perhaps two photos in black and white of the originals, taken from one or two angles. We also have descriptions in letters and diaries of those that flew them, perhaps some swatches of the fabric, formal specifications from military authorities of colours and patterns to be used  - often these were ignored - and in general much ambiguous and contradictory data. We know the dope they were covered with discoloured over time too, the same aircraft in June 1915 could look quite different in November, even it it hadn't been repainted or reconstructed after a heavy landing. As almost all were, at least once.

There are many published profiles, colour paintings and drawings, of many of these aircraft. All guesses based upon different subsets of data, some more accurate than others.

Anyway, here is the result of 4 weeks destressing. Surface preparation, sanding, smoothing, undercoating, then putting on layer after layer of colour, designing and printing decals, then coating with a protective finish.