first aircraft..painting questions

Hi RBT413.

A decent quality large flat brush and maybe thinning the paint a little if it's thick but I would do some practice on a old model or something just to get the hang of it. If you ever decide to get a airbrush you would not regret it, the finish is so much nicer.

Maybe a spray can if it's just one or two colours?

Cheers from Mick.

What Snibs said.  I have a bunch of different brushes, but a a wide flat one will help with the bigger areas.

Good quality brushes are a must. On large surface areas like that, I prefer natural compared to synthetic bristles. Also you paint choice is important. Some paints (Tamiya being the prime example) do not hand brush well. Other acrylics are often translucent when hand brushed. Since you're sound a P-51D and those were most commonly in bare metal, I will suggest simple and reliable- Testors square bottle Flat Aluminum. It is easily found, hand brushes and covers well, and will get the job done. Grab some of their Olive Drab for the anti glare panel, Flat Black for the propellor blades and tires and you will be basically set.

For good brush painting you still need to thin the paints.  Put on very thin coats, and you will have to put on several to get adequate opacity.  Sometimes, just like with airbrush, but on coats in different brush directions, i.e, spanwise on one coat, chordwise on the next.

Add a little paint retarder as well. Use one from the same paint manufacturer. It will slow the drying time and allow the brush marks to settle more.

Phil

Enamels do not need a paint retarder. Only if you are usin acrylics do you have to use that stuff. Thinning may or may not apply to whichever paint brand and type that you use.