Painted the engine cowling a couple days ago. It is all one piece, the front half of the engine is molded directly in the cowling. I just did some masking and used my trusty Krylon rattle can flat black primer to paint the engine, then used craft acrylics applied with a brush to get some of the engine details. It was kinda hard to get the brush in there, so I just did the best I could. Far from a masterpiece, but I got it done in 30 minutes.
Then I tried to paint the cowling with yellow Folk Art craft acrylic. It didn't go well. I got what seemed to be a good thinned mixture, and applied many light coats with my airbrush. I wasn't completely happy with the finish, but I decided it was barely good enough. But when I applied some masking tape to do some panel line scribing, the tape lifted the acrylic right off. So I had to remove it all and redo it with Testors yellow enamel. That came out much bettter, so in the long run it was probably a good thing the tape messed up the acrylic. The craft acrylic has its uses, but I am also learning its limitations the hard way.
I painted the cockpit with craft acrylic and letting it dry. For some reasin the Folk Art olive green which I use for zinc chromate goes on way smoother than the yellow. It's my go to for this purpose. I also noticed that the fuselage has the tail gear doors molded in the wheels down position. I don't see any easy way to remove them and glue them for wheels up, so I guess this build will be wheels down. So I will be using more of the olive geen for the wheel wells.
So far the Hobby Boss kit seems good for the price. The parts trees are laid out pretty nicely, for example all the cockpit parts are located on their own little tree. On other models they are scattered on two or three different trees. And the sprues are nice to cut, with minimal filing and sanding to remove the residue.
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