This is a subject I would probably never build on my own. I'm just not into French aircraft I suppose nor do I know much bout their Air Force during the war. From what I read, the D.520 was somewhat capable against the Bf109, but it was never made in sufficient numbers to be effective. I've been tasked with building it none-the-less. The good news is the kit is Tamiya and it sports a pretty sweet looking paint scheme. Anyways, I figured I'd share it.
Again, I don't know much about French aircraft, so I used Tamiya's paint recommendations throughout. I used Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey for the pit. I threw in a set of PE belts from the stash.
I used the kit IP decal and with some supporting detail painting, I was happy with it.
I got here pretty quick. What an ugly plane.
I'll be doing the middle subject, the black panther #4. I will unfortunately have to use these decals which are 25 years old.
I started by preshading the panel lines then sprayed the rudder the tri-color of red white and blue. I taped that off then sprayed the Tamiya recommended XF-25 Light Sea Grey and XF-2 White for the lower. With all the colors, I used the light/dark reverse basing technique. I find it effective for weathering.
I used Blue Tac for the demarcation lines then sprayed the first of three colors, 2 parts XF-23 Light Blue and one part XF-25 Light Sea Grey.
I used more blue Tac as masking then fired down the green by using XF-5 Green and a few drops of XF-49 Khaki.
I use cheap painters tape for fill in. Tamiya tape is too expensive.
Next I added the brown, about half XF-52 Flat Earth and XF-64 Red Brown.
It's fairly neat scheme but I was happy when it was over. The rudder painting turned out ok I think. Much better than trying to use the decal.
I did some postshade weathering, added some exhaust staining, then glossed it with X-22/MLT for decals. The decals were quite thick and required a half a bottle of Micro Sol to get them to behave. I chalked it up to their age as I normal don't have issues with Aeromaster. I gave the panelines a Mig wash and that's where I left off.
