P-47D Paint issues...

Ben,

It's far easier to paint a dark colour over a light base than to paint a light colour over a dark base, so paint the grey first, then the OD.

It shouldn't be too difficult to get a clean edge freehand, but another option would be to "soft-mask" it. Cut a piece of thin cardboard (eg. an index card) to the pattern you want and hold it about a toothpick's thickness away from the surface and spray.

Phil_H wrote:

Ben, It's far easier to paint a dark colour over a light base than to paint a light colour over a dark base, so paint the grey first, then the OD. It shouldn't be too difficult to get a clean edge freehand, but another option would be to "soft-mask" it. Cut a piece of thin cardboard (eg. an index card) to the pattern you want and hold it about a toothpick's thickness away from the surface and spray.

I agree.  

Ben,

Hopefully, the guns aren't installed as of yet.  Paint the leading edges white.  Then use masking tape (after the paint has cured) and mask the area you want to remain white.  Then, paint the underside and tail section, grey.  Mask off the lower sides of the fuselage (but below the level of where the olive drab will be because it's not a hard edge) and most of the tail section, to prevent overspray.  Paint the topside olive drab.  When you get to the demarcation, use a soft mask as describe above to paint the olive drab over grey.

Hope that helps a bit.

-Fred

Gigatron wrote:

Ben, Hopefully, the guns aren't installed as of yet.  Paint the leading edges white.  Then use masking tape (after the paint has cured) and mask the area you want to remain white.  Then, paint the underside and tail section, grey.  Mask off the lower sides of the fuselage (but below the level of where the olive drab will be because it's not a hard edge) and most of the tail section, to prevent overspray.  Paint the topside olive drab.  When you get to the demarcation, use a soft mask as describe above to paint the olive drab over grey. Hope that helps a bit. -Fred

Thanks, that sounds like a good way to do it. I haven't even started the kit yet actually, I just wanted to know this stuff ahead of time. One last thing...The top overall is Tamiya XF-62 Flat OD. Unfortunately, squadron is out of stock on that and I can't wait for backorder. What's the next best acrylic OD green that Squadron has in stock right now? I was thinking Gunze but they have three Olive Drab colors listed, all called Olive Drab, but each picture shows a different color. Only one is in stock. Can someone explain?  

If you look at this item, http://www.squadron.com/NoStock.asp?item=MAH304 you will find in the description...

Description: Olive Drab. Semi-Gloss. FS34087. US. Acrylic.10ML

is there any way to view a Federal Standard color chart online to see exactly what it looks like?

Go to http://www.colorserver.net/ and enter the number of the color you require. It will display as closely as is possible on a computer screen.

EDIT: It appears that 34087 isn't avaiable on the color server.

The federal chart is 595a.  I can't get one to come up in a Mozilla search.  IPMS Stockholm color comparrison says you want H304.  Is that the one available?  Here is the comparrison chart.

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/stuff_eng_colorcharts_fs.htm

One more thing. For the neutral gray on the bottom and the tail, Tamiya refers to using their Aircraft Spray (AS) rattle cans. But I don't want to. I'm gonna get a Gunze gray, but what'd be the closest to Neutral Gray? Gunze makes a LOT of grays all called...well...gray.

EDIT: Tamiya makes a NG in the jar, it's XF-53. But doesn't it figure, they're out of stock at Squadron. Has anyone tried the Mega Hobby place before that FSM's always advertising at the top? Are they reliable? I'm thinking about getting all my Tamiya paints from there for the P-47 since they have it all in stock.

For neutral gray? According to colorserver.net that's not an FS number...I see U.S. Neutral Gray ANA603...