Attempt to finish an italeri 1/72 mangusta

Sorry no help, I use Bondo and Acrylics.

 I have one of those in the stash but haven't played with it yet. What do you think of the kit so far?

I am curious.

Was there a particular reason for you to undercoat the entire model with Mr Surfacer? Generally I only use these primer products to fill small gaps. seams. scratches and pin marks, but not as an overall primer.

Did you paint the OD straight from the bottle or did you thin it, and if you did thin it, what did you use as a thinner?

PS: What did you use to clean your brush after applying Mr Surfacer, and did you use the same paintbrush to apply the OD?

Aaronw wrote:

Sorry no help, I use Bondo and Acrylics.    I have one of those in the stash but haven't played with it yet. What do you think of the kit so far?

The overall kit is good , little problems on the cockpits panels, maded with decals, but hard to see when the kit si done, i've added some piece for gunner visor and seat belts, rotors commands etc. on outside the main problems on the canopy , too little on width for the fuselage, and some minor problem on the engines section.

Basically italeri use two source for decals one bad and one great, i hope these is from great!!

Phil_H wrote:

I am curious. Was there a particular reason for you to undercoat the entire model with Mr Surfacer? Generally I only use these primer products to fill small gaps. seams. scratches and pin marks, but not as an overall primer. Did you paint the OD straight from the bottle or did you thin it, and if you did thin it, what did you use as a thinner? PS: What did you use to clean your brush after applying Mr Surfacer, and did you use the same paintbrush to apply the OD?

Generally i don't use primers, but i use a grey color chosen (model master or humbrol) between the bests that i have, time ago i've bought mr surfacer as general primer, and for instructions.. only in japanese. i've tested on various surface but the brush used was ruined; all the thinners i have at the time not working.

Recently found a commercial thinner at hardware shop (2€) so i tested it as thinner/washer  and work good, so i decided to test on a kit.

Unfortunately with pure olive drab not worked as showed above. On the second  attempt heavy thinned holive drab (MM) worked, now the kit is on the dry brush stage and look good. Soon i'll take some new pics to show the final result.

not able to talk about mr surfacer but i think that work better with acrylics paints.. then not for my kits..

I have a perverted idea to do with the mangusta...

Personally I use Tamiya's white fine primer, when using acrylics, I don't know Mr.Surfacer.
Tamiya's primer comes in a rattle can and works great for me.
In my experience primers are best applied with an airbrush or a can, but never with a brush, since it's easy to leave brush streaks.
I don't prime the models when I use enamels, since enamels grip better then acrylics.

HTH

Avus wrote:

I don't prime the models when I use enamels, since enamels grip better then acrylics. HTH

generally i put some light enamel color as primer to cover putty parts, but not even.

Actually i've decided to not use acrylics for kits, i'll paint with it only figures or others things like props.. 

at least ,after washed the old olive drab, i used... again the same olive drab but with very more thinner,

After 4 or 5 layers of paint and drybrushed with the 116 green from humbrol and black 33 this is the result for now:

Not so bad , on the second pics the most error of this kit: the wrong width of canopy, the only way to avoid this is to scrath the canopy with clear parts...

but too work to do... 

Again in mind to do a perverted diorama with this chopper..

yes sir, this update:

decals on; after hands of olive drab the gloss clear from humbrol. i prefereto paint others colors and put littlest pieces after the matt layer:

fortunately the decals was from the good type, but i make some error, to resolve with black after the kit body finished

..  ...   ..no pics for now

The matt layer after decals was done.... .

.. now  left only the diorama planning..final assembly.. some light to paint....

and the scratchbuild of recentily lost tail rotor......

already finished the piece was lost..... ...  

...the helicopter is pratically finished: only the tail rotor ...... vanished..

the pics:

......

now start to scratch it ....................... 

Overall it looks good to me!
The panel lines look weird ... a good weird, though.

Good luck on building the tail rotor.

Thanx avus!

I believe that when i scratch it, paint and finish.. as ever when i lost some piece.. the original piece came out.

Looking good!

Let me explain something to everyone about primer.  The color behind the paint can change how the paint acts.  If its a white primer, the paint tends to come out bright, a darker primer, it doesnt come out as bright.  It also allows for a solid color base for painting, if the plastic under it changes, the tone of the color can change, someties its to subtle to see, sometimes not.

After six months finally decided to scratch the lost tail rotor.. heres the actual results:

Former by various plasticard rods and sheet for blabes, the result seems not so bad, the ready for the first layer of black:

That's all for now, this sunday hope to finally finish the mangusta

Uh!!... you placed to do an ambush smeagol

No time to finish the post !! 

After this i'll  planning the diorama

Finally the mangusta is done.

Take advantage of a sunny day taken some pics:

Close-up of scratched tail rotor:

that's all for now.

In future i'll put in a little diorama.. i hope so

Nice work!!!!! Funny story about missing parts. I lost a very tiny part for my UH-60 Blackhawk. I didn't vacuum for 2 weeks, in hopes I would find it. I searched and searched and searched the carpet. Honestly I spent a lot of time looking for it. So finally I decided it was lost forever. I vacuumed 2 times since then and then a week later there it was right in front of my work chair! Sticking up out of the carpet like a gopher poping his head up out of his gopher hole. I couldn't believe it :) Maybe my cats are playing games with me.

Anyway,,, very nice work, and also a nice job on the scratch tail rotor :)

thanxx Dust

regular problems lost pieces that blow up when decided to scratch it, but "fortunately" .. till now the rotor was definitely lost.

The mangusta missing again the diorama