I have finished "Wanki"-ing

[VH-WAL]

This Nicaraguan C-46 is named after the river Wanki.
I have just finished the construction of this model, one of 4 in near finished state I want to complete by years end.
I have had this basket case Williams Bros kit for a while that had a few bits missing.. I had to construct a prop hub assembly amongst other things. I love the shape of the Commando so I did it wheels up in flight. Choosing which paint livery to model took a few night's research and I settled on "Wanki" and designed and printed the decals for it...based on photos with only one view of the aircraft, it is probably not fully authentic but it looks the part and I find the beast quite attractive. She sits on an Airfix stand for now I will have to construct a few more wood stands and put her atop one with a nice base.

Tomorrow she gets weathered and and matted down a bit. It was an absolute pig of a build and took me ages to finish but it was worth it.

[VH-WAL]

[Graeme H]

Another over the line for 2016, well done Wal, interesting scheme as well, love it
I used to have one of those Williams Bros kits, but offloaded it earlier this year to Modelnerds, I have got a Platz 1/144th one though

[hrtpaul]

That looks wicked mate. Nicely done

[F-27pax]

Looking excellent Wal. I made one of these Williams Brothers kits years ago and ended up painting it in USAAC drab olive and grey to hide all the problems. You are much more bold and this really looks good. Pity about the weathering. How did you achieve such a good looking metallic finish.

Leigh

[Adam the Akrodude]

Brilliant Wally! Love what you've done with the natural metal effect! Can you explain this technique. Is it various shades of Alclad?

[VH-WAL]

Metal Effect..used on this model

one is indebted to a far superior modeller who first described the effect when modelling a 1/32 F-80 a few years back.
I call it the "EricG (Gallier) technique"
1. Paint the silver using Tamiya Rattle can Silver Leaf
2. Run over the silver with a dremel using a soft polishing tool .. soft touch random directions is the key.

I do a lot of silver / NMF, I really do like the effect I think when it is done finely and superbly, it looks fantastic in the "flesh" but can be barely discernable in photography.
I use this technique when references show the aircraft was not highly polished or did not have prominent panel shade variations (actually trying to mimic the aircraft as photographed it may actually been highly polished or had panel variations but the photo did not reveal these)

So an easy effective technique that I take zero credit for

cheers
wal

[F-27pax]

Thanks for the tip Wal, I sounds too simple to be true but I will give it a go.

Leigh