After the F-86 I'm back in the saddle here. Out came the sandpaper, super glue, silver Sharpie and of course Net Flix to keep my sanity. The worst fitting area is the gunbay seam clamshell. Lots of sanding and rescribing. In my opinion this is one of Hasegawa's worse fitting kits. Dare I say it's very Monogram-like. Anyways I muddled through it. The seams were checked with Alclad primer.
I intend to depict CC with full invasion stripes right around D-day. At this point I painted everything that needed to be white X-2 Gloss White as I was completely out of their flat. This being a nose ring, the stripes, then the white tail triangle.
Here I taped off everything that will stay white.
I painted the stripes black, taped the area off, them sprayed the engine fronts XF-3 Flat Yellow with a few drops of XF-7 Flat Red to brighten it up.
CC was an Olive Drab over Neutral Grey machine. Next came the XF-53. I thinned it with Tamiya lacquer thinner which makes their paint spray like silk. My research showed that the gearbays on the Lightning were Neutral Grey after 1942. Not having to mask these was welcome surprise!
Now the frame was streaked with lightened XF-53 and the control surfaces lightened as well. Then it got a postshade of diluted XF-1 Flat Black and XF-64 Red Brown cut with 91% Isoprohyl Alcohol. It will probably get more later.
Olive Drab time. I used Blue Tac to mask off the demarcation line. This stuff leaves a nice feathered edge.
Straight Gunze Aqueous Olive Drab. I have yet to find a better shade to my eye. I wish Gunze paints weren't so translucent. It takes alot of paint to get it to the right consistency.
I gave the uppers the same weathering treatment then removed all the tape. The Tamiya tape performed flawlessly as usual. I know that the real invasion stripes were slopped on with brushes, but I just can't bring myself around to doing that. On a side note, I read that the noses on the 20th FG P-38s were left in aluminum and the tips polished to fool the Germans into thinking they were unarmed recon Lightnings. I simulated this look with Alclad Duraluminum and the tip in Polished Aluminum...
I replicated the supercharger heat and exhaust with XF-57 Buff then some light XF-1 down the center. I'm pleased with how it turned out.
I hope to be decaling soon. Now on to those canopies.......ugh...