I have been plugging away at this thing. A little here...a little there. Lets begin with the paint. I poured over as many reference pictures of Salem that I could find and I've come to the conclusion it was originally NMF and it was painted OD or RAF Green on the upper wings, upper fuselage,and upper stabs in the field at some point. There was a picture that showed the wing ID strip(s) as black on the bottom, therefore, its more probable than not they were black on top too...not white (same with the tail stripe of course). I painted these stripes on accordingly. It was also reasonable to assume (to me anyway) that the green was sprayed right over the stripes. I then followed suit with Gunze Olive Drab where appropriate (I'm out of RAF Green). I only dusted the OD over the stripes as I wanted them to show through the OD slightly. I think this is about right. I added XF-57 Buff to the paint, then added some sun fading followed by condensation streaks. I then sprayed the 4th FG red nose and tail stripe. Once done, it was sprayed with a few coats of Alclad Gloss.
Kit's World decals are sort of a sore subject with me. The decals do go down nice, but I'm just not impressed by this company. For one, they charge 15 bucks for these and only offer the scheme specific decals. They tell you to use the kit's stars and bars and stencil for which everyone knows are lousy and unforgiving. Is it that hard to include these...really? Everyone else does? Lower the damn price then. Also, Kidd Hofer's plane had the word "Kidd" on the port landing door. They did not include this....poor research? To add insult to injury, I have since discovered Life Like Decals has a sheet with these markings and they even thoughtfully include decals for those snazzy white wall tires! Ugh!. Anyways, they went down nice and I used an old Aeromaster sheet for the rest of the decals. I had no issues. I added the rear opera windows which fit nice. I'm thinking Kits World won't be getting much more of my hard earned dinero...
It was then time for a Flory wash. I mixed Dark Dirt with Black and left it just a tad grimy. This is one of my favorite parts of modeling. I'm not sure why...Perhaps I'm just a fan of Flory which is fantastic stuff.
It was time to turn my attention to the little stuff. I Ultracast tires (and prop too) and I decided to replicate the white walls. I sprayed the wheel Alclad Aluminum and then hand painted the tires portion XF-24 cut with a tad of XF-1 Flat Black. Tires are one of the only things I still hand brush. If you thin it heavily with 91% Isoprophyl it will go down nice and thin without brush marks. Capillary action will take the paint around the rim too. Once done, and with the aid of a circle template, I cut out a mask for the hub. I then used the appropriate sized circle in the template, held it on top of the tire, then sprayed it Xf-2 Flat White. Decals? We don't need no stinkin' decals!.......
A Detailer wash to all of the parts and we are almost done....
Time to start putting this turkey together. A few more days I should be done...
Joe