Kansas City Kiddie

[jankees]

kansas (0005) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

kansas (0004) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

kansas (0006) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

kansas (0008) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

[Charl]

Tidy.
That last shot is pure FLYIN'

[Splitpin]

Great stuff JK.
Some questions if I may Sir.....if you have time.

How do you decide what you're going to paint next?
What is your main reference source?
Roughly how long does it take to complete a paint? ...like this post for example.
Is there a particular type you prefer painting, GA, Warbirds, ..... ?
Your bare metal work is amazing, is that a favorite style ?
So far, what has been the most challenging paint you've done ?

Sorry, that turned into a mini-interview....love your work.

[jankees]

that's a whole series of questions indeed!

OK, here we go:
- next paint: don't know really, I always have a mental list of things I want to do, a series of requests and promises I made, and then some new brilliant new model pops up...I just do what feels like fun to do at that moment, I quite often work on different things at the same time.

- reference source: I have about 5 meters of books on aviation, a similar amount in digital form and then there is the internet

- time to complete: anywhere between one hour and two weeks. This one took about two-three hours, I tend to aim for things like that are not too complicated. It's meant to be fun, not work, and I only have limited time available for my paintwork next to a busy job and a wife and kids. Fastest I ever did was this Airbus A320: 45 minutes for start to first flight, that surprised even me.
airone730 by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

- bare metal: it is fun when you get it right I think. My very first paint, a P-51, was supposed to be bare metal, it took me quite a bit of time to work out how that was done, with alpha channels. Now with the PBR textures in MSFS, so much more is possible.
hattie (0005) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr
But I like a nice paintjob just as well!

- type: warbirds, definitely! Especially WW2 aircraft (I must have done over 500 P-51's...), but the 50's and '60's are fun too. Modern jets don't do much for me. I like GA every once in a while, and tubeliners don't interest me that much, although if someone were to bring us a decent 727... But really, warbirds is my thing.

- Challenging: what can be a lot of work sometimes is complex camouflage patterns. This kiwi took me two weeks to get right:
jk8136 by JanKees Blom, on Flickr
Lining up all those curves over all the different bits of the textures took forever. One challenge that I face, especially with camo, is that I am colorblind, so I often make the pattern in colors that I can see, and then change them to the colors they should be. The difference between some browns and greens for me is elusive for instance...

Another challenge can be in the wear and tear of an aircraft, that often takes longer than the actual paint, like in this case:
2020-5-10_10-7-0-67 by JanKees Blom, on Flickr
A based this on a photo of the real aircraft, a lot of work, peeling off paint, but I think it came out well

[Splitpin]

Great reply JK , Thanks very much for taking time.
You really are amazing.

[jankees]

och, amazing...

colorblindness just struck again:
HU (0002) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

it seems the splotches on the wings are brown, they should be green...now I need to figure out which green...makes you feel a bit stupid sometimes.
I once painted something with one green and one brown wings, never noticed anything...

[Charl]

You really are amazing.