White, you're a builderr after my own heart -- I like a scratchbuilder who moulds and casts! I've done a fair bit with resin and rubber over the years and it's great to see the techniques applied!
You were absolutely right, I started over again today and redid the while thing. I compared my paintjob to the photos of the real airframe and the mix suddenly looked like a light green to me, so I began from scratch with a fresh preshading, here she is at that stage:
I was more careful this time, a lighter hand and followed the lines a bit more closely. Next, the colourcoat. I did some experimental mixing and this time worked with XF-22 RLM Grey. I duplicated Bondo's ratio of 3:1 with Buff, but it seemed a shade dark. It's hard to tell as apparent colour changes with lighting angle and the reflectivity of the surface, but my best guess was that it would be too dark. I lightened it just a fraction by biasing the mixing ratio to favour the Buff -- 2.5:1. In other words, 60% RLM Grey, 40% Buff. I over-ran the thinning by about 10% also, taking into account the summer conditions and the need for it to flow on smoothly as yesterday's paint was a bit rough to the touch.
I laid on a careful coat, making sure not to apply it heavily enough to obscure the preshading, but ensuring that any thin spots were adequately covered on a second small mixing. It was dry in no time and I unmasked the tail. Here she is at that point:
I must say I'm very happy with the sharpness of the masking, and only one or two tiny touchups were needed. The next job was the propellor, I mixed XF-27 RLM 70 6:4 with XF 1 Flat Black to bring the Tamiya shade into line with the enamel equivalents and painted the one-piece prop with three or four misted-on coats.
Next: the satin clearcoat. I loaded up with Microscale Satin, thinned about 60% with plain water, and I can only say that I am very happy indeed with the application. This is my first ever topcoated model, and it looks good to me. The satin behaved superbly, no tip-drying whatever, but drying so quickly on the model that I could literally handle it as it was being coated. I laid on two coats, thoroughly, and set the model aside to harden. I also coated the prop components, landing gear bay doors, antenna and canopy struts (all of which were correctly painted by that point, and yes, its easy to forget the small bits in the drama of the big job...) Here she is as she stands right now:
It looks a lot like RLM Grey in these pictures but the 40% Buff has warmed it a lot in reality, and it looks, to my eye, a pretty close approximation to the paint used on the museum example.
Next jobs: assemble the prop, paint the exhausts and tail wheel assembly, refit that broken canon barrel, paint the canon barrels, and of course... get decaling underway! The part I usually enjoy the best!
Cheers, I hope to have her finished real soon,
Mike/TB379