Miniature B-17 nose art flat

Milosh

Milosh

New member
I have always been a big fan of WWII nose art, especially nose art with hot chicks on it. Yesterday while surfing around looking at collections of nose art, I saw a couple of sites where guys create miniature nose art. I thought they looked really cool so I wanted to do one. For mine I want it to be a modern version. I am using the pinup art style of Olivia for my inspiration of skin colors. This is the start I made last night and I'm kind of liking it even though I have loads still to do. I am using a plastic card that I plan on adding rivets and then heating it up to bend it like the side of a plane. Of course the background will be silver and aged once I get done with the girl and add the rivets. What do you think, would this be considered a miniature and suitable to show on this site? What type of base would one mount this on?

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edit: I forgot to mention that the inspiration for the model is a picture I found online. I do not know who the original artist is.
 
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10 ball

10 ball

New member
Great idea, and a very good start sir.
I'm a bit worried about the bending process being after you have finished the art. Won't it risk damaging the painting?
 
Milosh

Milosh

New member
Thank you 10. I don't think it will hurt it. It is only a slight curve and I have already curved it a few times and it didn't hurt it. The real harm could come in when I heat of the plastic to bend it. I already found another picture I want to do the same thing with so maybe we will see some more of these.
 
T

Taarnak

New member
I think this is an awesome idea and well worth showing here.

You mentioned rivets; will you be doing panel lines as well? If so, you might want to add them sooner rather than later.

Anytime anyone mentions nose art, I feel the need to give a mention to Andrew Bawidamann. He does awesome pinup and nose art style work.

Looking forward to seeing how your project progresses.

~Eric
 
Milosh

Milosh

New member
Taarnak; that is an excellent link. Some of his stuff reminds me of a cartoony Patrick Nagel. I was just going to paint the panel lines. On the next one I will put more thought into and actually use seperate pieces to make the little section of aircraft. I was just anxious to get on with it. Thank you for the input sir.
 
TrystanGST

TrystanGST

New member
+10,000,000 on Bawidamann. I've rendered his stuff in various formats before, and his work currently resides as the lock screen on my phone :)
 
Dragonsreach

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
Milosh; Mount it like a bust, brass rod behind panel.
I've seen 'something' like it at a show, but can't remember when or where.
 
Milosh

Milosh

New member
That's a perfect idea DR , thank you sir. I don't think I need to bend it now after looking at more B-17 pictures so one more obstacle down. Thanks all for the input. I'll get more pics of the progress up tomorrow.
 
KruleBear

KruleBear

Active member
Take DR's suggestion a step further and put some aircraft structure on the back side like you cut a section out of a plane. Then mount that.
 
Milosh

Milosh

New member
KruleBear said:
Take DR's suggestion a step further and put some aircraft structure on the back side like you cut a section out of a plane. Then mount that.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what we talked about today at the local hobby shop. That's awesome that you said it too. I'm not sure what to do with her yet but i want it to be cool. I'm not entirely sure my modeling skills can do the back of a plane.
 
PegaZus

PegaZus

Stealth Freak
Milosh said:
That's exactly what we talked about today at the local hobby shop. That's awesome that you said it too. I'm not sure what to do with her yet but i want it to be cool. I'm not entirely sure my modeling skills can do the back of a plane.
Click to expand...

Well, you could always build little ring beams pretty easily, at least I think. Cut a curved "U" like shape out of plasticard, matched to the shape of the "fuselage" you're painting on, then offset that uniformly, trimming it flat with the ends of the shape. Then drill holes along the centerline, maybe making two or three much larger. These would be "pass-thru" holes for hydraulics, wiring, rather than lightening holes meant to reduce weight. Then cap that all off with a thin strip of plasticard glued to the inside curve of the first. Paint the ring and the inside part of the fuselage in titanium dioxide (or was it just oxide?) green (Reaper's Luminous Green, for example). It's the primer color that aircraft are painted on the inside. Least the ones I've worked on. Put one ring at the front edge, and one at the back. Maybe one in the middle if it was a large piece.

Then, if you wanted to get really fancy, thin stainless steel tubes running along the inside, and through the large "pass-thru" holes, bending up and around. Maybe have three lines parallel, with one bending down and disappearing. Not sure if you've got any stencils small enough, but stenciling in some part numbers in black would add an extra level too. F100-001 "-", F110-001 "B", F120-001 "A" for the ring webs (fuselage stations are usually named by how many inches along the body they are, and normally do not start at zero; the nose tip was usually FS100 or some such number).
 
Milosh

Milosh

New member
That sure sounds like a lot of work PegaZus, I'm not sure I am ready for all of that yet.

Here is where the girl is at present. I was having much difficulty trying to make her hand look right and decided to sit her off to the side for a bit while I start another practice piece.

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Here is the new one I started on, she is a long way from finished I just thought I would show the steps involved. I added in some etched lines on this one to look more like panels, the rivet idea is easier said than done BTW. This is another picture I found online by an unnamed artist. I changed her to be rolling a TNT bomb to load on the plane. I am finding that doing these flats is really good practice for freehand on shields and cloaks. Let me know what you think.

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megazord_man

megazord_man

New member
Looking cool Milosh. right up your street too ;)

For the rivets try using some pva glue on a cocktail stick and just gently prodding it onto the panel.
 
PegaZus

PegaZus

Stealth Freak
Yeah, it might be. Get a little bit deep sometimes. Maybe just paint it that primer green color and call it good.
 
Dragonsreach

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
To be honest I like the sound of the interior detail, but it doesn't need to be much more than an "H" shape on the rear.

Milosh I see what's "wrong' with the original hand, its something I struggle with as well.
You've made the hand(back of the palm) too triangular it needs to be closer to a squarer shape (Rhombus?).
Sadly since I can't draw hands either I can't give you an example, unless you like looking a boxes with bananas hanging off them.
 
Milosh

Milosh

New member
Thanks for the responses guys. DR, I think you are right about that hand. I'll try making it a little more square. Thanks for the advice.

I went ahead and decided to do a little more on the first girl. I worked a little on transitions and tested the olive green color PegaZus suggested. I think it looks good, thanks for the advice. I also did a little more on the other girl but I am still not happy with her face. I'm starting to get bored with these things now but I want to do one more based off of Pamela Anderson and call it "Bombs Away" I also need some help naming the other two planes. Any name suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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