ridleusmc

Oh yeah!  It all looks great!  

The pilot is outstanding!

 

 

Thank you VERY much!  :D

Time for an update.

You wouldn't believe what I have used as a primer lol!

Light coats was the trick. I got a little heavy handed on the bottom, but a little light sanding got rid of it.

I'm going to try a preshading method I've never tried with a NMF finish before. Typically I just try to shoot aluminum over black and I haven't reached the results I'm looking for with that method. This time I'm going to give preshading a try. I've already sprayed the entire plane flat black and shot some Tamiya NATO Black over the anti glare panel on the nose so I won't have to go back and mask that off after I get the Vallejo Metal Series Chrome on it. I'll mask some selective panels later and spray them a dull aluminum and see what I get.

I'm hoping this gets me past my fear of doing NMF finishes, finally.

Yeah. I do have a small fear of NMF finishes. So far I've not found a shortcut that works the way I expect and my finishes end up dull and monotonous. 

I'm going a different route this time and I've got a plan that doesn't include any shortcuts. Hopefully I can iron out my issues with this kit.

I love NMF. Why don't you have some real fun and try using Bare Metal Foil instead of paint. I've used it on about a dozen aircraft, including a 1/48, B-29. Looks great.

Ooo... maybe another time. I haven't had a lot of luck with BMF staying put lol. I can't imagine trying to mask over it without it being peeled up. 

Perhaps some small applications on another project.

Geez, looks like I haven't done anything since January. 

I think I've conquered my fear of NMF schemes. I added a light sanding before and after and I didn't end up with the usual grainey finish. The part that took me the most time was the camo pattern over the top of it that coincidentally wiped out all of my preshading on the fuselage.

As you can see in the picture I've chosen to paint the entire tail red instead of just the horizontal and vertical stabilizer alone. I'm going to do my own thing here and modify the scheme a bit just to make this my own version. This won't be historically accurate anymore, but I want this one to stand out in my collection. Big red tail and all.

That pattern was made with my airbrush, minus the tip cap which allowed me to get some seriously small and crazy designs. I had intermittent issues with the brush spitting and the paint would thin out and start blowing little trickles of paint out of the camo shapes. Some of them I cleaned up but some I left as is. I thought a bit of ameture looking applied spray pattern would help the realism a bit. 

Oh wow that's beautiful Mike!

Somehow I missed this when you posted before, mores the pity- amazing work.

Fantastic work on the camo! I used to be able to paint stuff like that, not sure my hands would be steady enough these days though.

Thank you, Gam. I haven't been doing much lately, but I had the urge to dig this kit out and clean up the AB. Honestly it felt like I was a bit out of practice. 

I'm not sure how far I'll get, but we shall see. I'd love to finish this and my Airfix P-40 which has some decals on it now and I'm not sure why I'm not just finishing up the final bits. 

Wow, Mike. That camo is super sick. Very nice.

I just finished this in 1/72 and love the plane, I just need to locate one in a real scale like 1/48.

BK

Thanks, Brandon!

I just saw yours and it's beautiful. I can't tell it's 1/72 at all. The 1/48 is a spectacular kit and if you find one you'll love it.