Now that I'm finally getting used to my new bench area I got back to work on this turkey. Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, airframe. Everything fit fairly nice up until I tried to blend in the engine nacelles at the leading edge wing roots. I had some gaps, big enough that I needed to fill some with plasticard. The inserts on the top of the engines at the wing root fit lousy too, particularly the outer port engine. It was nothing a little putty and sanding couldn't fix though. I shot a little XF-1 Flat Black to check my work (my silver Sharpie dried up).
I decided to get the canopy masking out of the way. Eduard pre-cut masks were utilized and made the job easy. It looks like the glass will fit nice so they can be painted separately.
Seamwork done and we are ready for paint...
I taped off all the openings then preshaded the panelines. Since I would be using Montex Masks, I started with the red then added the appropriate masks as needed. I was fortunate that they offered McCarthy's markings. If you hate using large unforgiving decals for markings, such as RAF roundels, you need to try these. They are worth every penny
I systematcally went through all the colors and masks until got here.
The side roundels require a bit more work with the white and yellow, but again they are worth it. The Tamiya tape is an insurance policy to ensure there is no paint seepage between mask seams.
I think I figured out how to do black convincingly, at least to my eye. I fired down XF-69 Nato Black, which is essentially a greyish black. I sort of reverse black based it in a mottling manner. To my eye it looks like a dirty faded black paint job. You can see the XF-1 black preshade peeking through.
I liked how it was looking and wanted to experiment further, so I went back and sprayed XF-1 black on the panel lines once again.
I then diluted the XF-69 and dusted it back on until I liked the look. I wanted the panel lines to be seen as later gloss and dull coatings will tone down the effect considerably.
I then added some XF-19 Sky Grey and threw down some streaking. I also lightened the control surfaces.
I taped off the black with Tamiya tape and used the cheap stuff as filler. I started on the Dark Earth by going half XF-52 Flat Earth and half XF-64 Red Brown. I got this far before I realized I didn't mix up enough paint....doh! I hope to continue soon.
So check out my new digs.....It won't be this clean for long.
