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 Rank: Pro Groups: Joined: 24/08/2009 Posts: 48,827 Points: -13,348
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And finally, Thunderbird 2 is go! 
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 Rank: Super-Elite        Groups: Official Builds, Administrators, Moderator, Global Forum Support, Registered Joined: 04/06/2011 Posts: 4,504 Points: 13,672 Location: ipswich
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Thunderbird 2 weathering
From the outset it was decided to repaint and weather the model.
However, you CAN still detail and weather your model without repainting it if you choose.
This will save you having to replace the lettering and red/yellow parts.
A repaint would entail filling and sanding down all of the joint seams in the fuselage.
However, as the build progressed I concluded that permanently joining the body upper and lower parts together was not a good idea as any future maintenance that might be needed on the motorised leg mechanism would then be impossible.
Fortunately, the main body components fit together very closely and it proved to be quite easy to ‘lose’ the joints without resorting to glue and filler.
A sharp knife blade was dragged backwards over the joint seam at the front, levelling the upper and lower halves in the process.
This was followed by sanding down with 800 grit wet and dry, followed by 1200 grit.
The joint seams were virtually invisible.
Once painted, they wouldn’t show.
Yes, the paint would effectively ‘stick’ the parts together but if absolutely necessary, the body could still be taken apart without too much difficulty.
Similarly, I could no longer fill the screw holes in the underside of the craft.
However, as this part of TB2 is not easily seen, it was easy to cover each hole with a disc of self-adhesive vinyl which would ultimately be painted over.
The join gaps in the jet intakes at the front are a bigger problem but quite easy to overcome.
A template of the red area is made by sticking a piece of masking tape into it.
Once smoothed into place, the shape can be drawn onto the tape with a soft pencil.
Once the tape is removed it is stuck down onto a piece of red self-adhesive vinyl and the shape cut out.
Once stuck into the intake of TB2 it would be simple to paint in any missing areas and the vinyl obscured the prominent joint line.
To hide the long join lines inside the pod booms, a long strip of vinyl is stuck in place and trimmed at the edges with a sharp blade.
Again, once painted the joint would be hidden, yet the vinyl could be removed later if necessary.
The masking process takes a while but is quite straightforward. Care has to be taken to trim neatly around the cockpit windows and the observation ports.
Once masked, the whole body is painted with auto grey primer made for plastic car parts such as bumpers etc.
The actual green took a bit of searching but I found that Ford meadow green was a good match.
Humbrol satin 131 is also a very good match but this can only be bought in little tinlets and I wanted to use spray cans for a better finish.
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Rank: Super-Elite Groups: Official Builds, Administrators, Moderator, Global Forum Support, Registered Joined: 04/06/2011 Posts: 4,504 Points: 13,672 Location: ipswich
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Weathering Thunderbird 2
So - where to begin?
First, you will need to decide which shade of green you are going to paint TB2, and what extra details you will add.
This isn’t as odd as it sounds as the studio model went through numerous iterations over the span of the series plus the two films, and looked different almost from episode to episode.
I chose to go with TB2 from the movie ‘Thunderbirds are go’.
Even in this movie, TB2 seems to change shade from time to time, no doubt because they used different models in different scenes depending on the required scale. Also, the studio lighting varied a vast amount, based on what they were shooting. This also affected the colour of the models as a brighter light would effectively bleach out more of the colour.
So – whatever green you use, you are unlikely to be ‘wrong’ – just don’t go with British Racing Green...!
A popular choice for model makers is Humbrol satin grass green 131.
However, you can only get this in tiny tinlets so unless you want a huge airbrushing job, or want to brush paint, it isn’t very realistic. I also personally think it’s a bit too ‘green’.
After a lot of searching I chose Ford meadow green from Halfords.
It’s a bit lighter than the model plastic and also a tiny bit more blue.
To me, it looks a more authentic ‘faded’ green that TB2 looked in many episodes.
The choice of course is up to the modeller.
First, the parts need masking and then priming in light grey auto primer. Halfords primer is excellent.
When you mask, don’t miss little areas like the windows and observation ports.
You will need to cover the rear main jets as well as the intakes and the front and rear of the horizontal ‘wing’ jets at the back.
Turn TB2 upside-down and cover the red vertical jets at the front and rear as well as the legs and black leg surrounds.
You should only be painting parts that are already green.
Don’t worry about the yellow stripe around the hull, and remember to remove the red and blue wing tip lights.
I began with some easy parts – the sides and top panels from the pod.
With careful angle of spray painting, there was no need to mask the inner surfaces.
The underside of the pod meant the sides had to be covered, as well as putting strips of tape on the rollers. Otherwise, just let the rollers get painted in green, and then brush paint them matt black later on.
The front and rear of the pod will also need painting if you wish but remember to mask off the four silver parts at the front end.
TB2 is painted in the same way.
Once everything has been masked and you are satisfied with the smoothed finish, paint it all in grey primer, followed by a couple of light coats of green.
If you apply the green in several light passes, allowing each one to dry, you will end up with a nice satin finish. You do not want a gloss look!
Next, you can remove all the masking and put back the red intakes and yellow stripe.
As previously explained this can be done easily just using self-adhesive vinyl in all cases.
A4 sheets of umpteen colours can be bought for next to nothing from numerous suppliers on EBay.
Just search self-adhesive vinyl.
Now comes the actual weathering…
The studio models were really weathered with nothing more than 2B pencils and soot.
For a ‘rush job’, matt black spray cans were used from a distance, with pieces of card held near to the model to create panel edges.
Ideally, you need to Google half a dozen good pictures of TB2 to get an idea of what you want to replicate.
If you look closely at the pictures you can see how panels have been created by simply using a piece of masking tape on the body and rubbing pencil graphite up to it.
You must not get ‘scribble’ marks from the pencil but you can actually draw directly onto the painted body and smudge the result with your finger. Do NOT add too much shading.
Then pull the masking tape off.
ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL – Make sure that EVERY pencil mark goes from front to back.
NO diagonal scribbles, or up-and-down.
If you have shaded lightly, you should have a nice panel edge that isn’t too extreme.
Try to think ‘airflow’.
How would dust, dirt, rain etc travel back over the body in flight?
All of your shading should really be at the front edge of a panel or near the bottom of a panel, where dirt and water would run downwards.
Shading the rear of any panel, getting lighter toward the front will look wrong.
When you create your panels using masking tape, follow the shapes and curve of the body as if it were really being built.
1” and ¾” masking tape is just the right size to make panels horizontally.
The vertical ends of panels can be wider – say 1 ½” or even 2”.
Don’t just add random lines and patches higgledy-piggledy.
Look at some of your own model aircraft to see how panels are really created on ‘planes’ and try to do the same on TB2.
ALWAYS constantly refer to Google images of actual studio shots of TB2.
Also make sure that the images you find are actual studio shots. There are many models of TB2 on the web and most of them will be of little help.
There is one very famous picture of TB2 in flight, looking ¾ down from the front. For obvious copyright reasons I can’t post a link to it.
It’s a very early shot and is actually not too sharp but it shows the weathering superbly, as well as numerous small extra markings and decals all over the body.
There are also a good few shots of TB2 raised above a pod and the pod also has random markings on it.
These markings can easily be added using self-adhesive paper, coloured with pencil and stuck on in the relevant places. Don’t forget to dirty them down though as brilliant white patches dotted about would look strange.
When you start adding the small extra markings you will be very surprised at just how many there were on the studio models.
Next… TB2 now has an overall coat of grey primer followed by 2-3 light coats of green.
Now remove all the masking.
The next thing to do is add some black to the rear jets.
This is really simple.
Drape an old piece of (clean) cloth over the rear of the craft but still allowing the red rear jets to show.
From absolutely directly behind, give the jets a light dusting of matt black spray.
Then do the same for the upper rear ‘wing’ of jets.
After that, a complete mist coat from 2-3 feet away over the whole craft, of matt black.
Take great care that it’s only a very light mist.
If you think ‘It’s not enough…’ – then it IS enough.
Now it’s time to add weathering to the body using 2B pencil and red/brown pencil.
As with the pod, work small all the time.
Don’t look at the whole body and try to weather it.
Take it small piece at a time.
I started with the rear upper horizontal jet ‘wing’.
Add pencil lines first to all of the panel edges.
Smudge them in with your finger – ALWAYS smudging from front to back – NEVER across, or diagonally.
Then, add ‘jet stream’ from front to back on each separate panel of the upper wing.
Smudge each part as you go and continually look at each part in GOOD daylight.
If you go too far, it can be wiped clean with a wet cloth.
Treat every separate panel as an individual piece but try to make them all different, but still tonally matching. You don’t want 4 panels that all look the same, or one that sticks out like a sore thumb.
Next, do the same to the panels on the inner faces of the upright rear wing panels.
ALWAYS make the pencil marks go from front to back.
Smudge as you go, and use masking tape at the leading edge of each panel.
Next is the outer surfaces of the upper rear ‘wings’.
Mask, pencil, smudge… ‘M-P-S’… As before.
Move on to the area between the rear upright fins.
As always, add shading from the front edge backwards, smudging in the same direction.
Don’t forget to add a touch of rusty brown here and there, but very lightly.
Now move on to the side booms. As before, use masking tape at the front edge of every panel.
You can even add an ‘extra’ panel just at the rear edge of the wings.
Keep all of your shading moving from front to back.
Don’t forget to line in all of the actual panel lines moulded on the model and occasionally, add some much darker shading to the odd panel here and there but don’t overdo it.
Also remember to shade the underside of the body parts…
Next – replace the yellow stripes and the red jet intakes.
The yellow lines are easily added with vinyl cut with a ruler. Don’t stretch the vinyl as you apply it as it will shrink over time leaving gaps.
The red jet intakes can be made by sticking masking tape into them and drawing over with a pencil.
The tape stencil can now be transferred to red vinyl, cut out and stuck in place.
Any missing red areas can be touched in with red paint.
Next comes the lettering.
If you chose not to completely repaint the model, but just weather it then this won’t matter.
The fonts are:
THUNDERBIRD – Basic sans heavy, 6mm high.
The ‘2’ after it is 7.5mm high
The large ‘2’ and ‘T2’ are Futura bold, 19mm high.
For obvious copyright reasons I cannot suggest decals myself but no doubt a bit of searching will find them.
The alternative which I have used is to have them cut in matt white vinyl using a plotter.
Any sign making company will do it for you for only a few pounds if you don’t have access to a plotter yourself.
Apply the lettering carefully and very gently rub them all over with a pencil-smudged fingertip just to take the brightness away.
Hopefully you enjoyed tour Thunderbird 2 build and if you have detailed and weathered it you will now hopefully have a lovely display piece.
roymattblack attached the following image(s):
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Rank: Super-Elite Groups: Official Builds, Administrators, Moderator, Global Forum Support, Registered Joined: 04/06/2011 Posts: 4,504 Points: 13,672 Location: ipswich
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Now - Prepare TB2...roymattblack attached the following image(s):
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Rank: Super-Elite Groups: Official Builds, Administrators, Moderator, Global Forum Support, Registered Joined: 04/06/2011 Posts: 4,504 Points: 13,672 Location: ipswich
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Painting and weathering TB2roymattblack attached the following image(s):
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Rank: Super-Elite Groups: Official Builds, Administrators, Moderator, Global Forum Support, Registered Joined: 04/06/2011 Posts: 4,504 Points: 13,672 Location: ipswich
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Final weathering...roymattblack attached the following image(s):
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Rank: Super-Elite Groups: Official Builds, Administrators, Moderator, Global Forum Support, Registered Joined: 04/06/2011 Posts: 4,504 Points: 13,672 Location: ipswich
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...And finished...roymattblack attached the following image(s):
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