You want Revell, I got Revell. There's a Natural Metal Finish Group Build going on and Alcald is the thing. Except I don't like lacquer paints and neither does my wife. So I thought I'd use one kit to try out as many acrylic metallics and "sort of" lacquers like Gunze Super Metalizer and see how things would go. I just happened to have an AT-6 Texan, and I figured just the kit for a labaoratory.
Painting wise it went very well. When properly prepared the Gunzes, Hawkeye Talon and Pollyscales all produced perfectly good finishes. (I'm really thinking of my Japanese Army planes that will have a lot of camo over the NMS regardless.) Anyway, there are bits and pieces of six different metallic colors on the plane one place or another.
This is the first Revell kit I've done. (Early in my return to modeling I tried a P-38 and that was a mistake.) It was a good kit for this aircraft. The interior was simple but it was a proper birdcage and the T-6 had a simple interior. And nobody looks at my interiors anyway. The fit was good: there were some uglies but they were simple enough to fix. The plastic was tough and one thing about a more basic approach is that you don't kill yourself trying to do something like "button up" an Eduard fighter that can be left open, which is Czech for it should be left open. Some seams needed filling but those are skills I need work on anyway. (I'm getting very fond of various acrylic pastes from companies like Golden and Liquitex which also make very good fillers and are much more forgiving that putty.) The canopy fit very well and while it's a bit thick, I think it looks pretty good. BTW: I used an EZ Mask. Interesting stuff. It's not cut as cleanly as Eduard, but it's made of a very different material that allows you to move it into place like a decal. There was zero underspray and the stuff came off with no residue. I like it.
If this hadn't been a NMS build I could have chosen from a zillion neat US and foreign color schemes. But what I was looking for was a well used T-6 being used to train a zillion birdmen in 1943-45. So that meant a well used USAAF bird like the two shown below. To get a grimy and mottled surface that suggested dirt and fluids more than scratches and damage. I used a Faber Castell Pitt artist pen to mark the lines, Swanny's sludge wash and a very interesting model railroading weathering set which is made up of Iwata/Meda Com-Art paints. They're odd stuff: kind of a cross between an acrylic and a heavily diluted pigment. They airbrush very well and you build them up slowly and - as I chose - irregularly. There's a grimy moistness that doesn't really show in the pictures but is an interesting technique. I used this stuff on the deck of a battleship I recently made and it has real promise. One thing that's very nice is that the stuff is very forgiving. You can wash the stuff off the next day. But it was strong enough to hold the finish so I didn't seal it.
Anyway, pics below. First one of Texan built and before weathering. Then a couple of real ones that showed what I was looking for. And the rest are my contribution to the Revell Air Force.
Eric
