Wow thanks for all the great scribing tips everyone ,much appreciated!!!

Hercmech thanks yes its the gun pod

Doogs the preshading looks spot on!

It's almost black! The pre-shading is still there, but it's very subtle (which I guess works for an England-based Mossie). 

I used a mix of 3:1 Vallejo Black Grey to Vallejo Black, thinned a bit past 50/50 with Future. Tip dry got frustrating, but IMO no paint goes down smoother than this concoction. 

Doggs,

Coming out great so far. I love the color and I appreciate the tip on the mixture as I have several kits that need a black coat and was wondering how I would get any shading out of it. The shading shows up really well on that left nacelle.  Great work, holding my breath for this one to be done.

Looking good doogs. Did you see the link I posted a page back on fading rd2ma?

It's starting to look like a Beau Fighter. I have no idea what I'm going to do about pre-shading. Masking the canopy and the observation bubble is going to be a barrel of laughs... onward

I was worried about seams between the wing assembly and fuselage but careful gluing worked out well.

Lots of little bits and filling, filing, and sanding then off to paint (if I can get around all the chores my girlfriend insists are necessary).

Jbrady,

Looking good so far.

jbrady

Looking good doogs. Did you see the link I posted a page back on fading rd2ma?

I did - that's a beautiful Beau for sure! 

As to paint, the Mossie NF.IIs actually started out using RD2Ma, but the paint was so rough that it dinged their performance. Top speed dropped by something like 23mph. It was quickly replaced with a smooth black (which I believe had a more satin/semi-gloss sheen), but this made it too easily seen by other aircraft, especially on clear nights when the moon was out. They soon moved to the grey/green upper camoflage, retaining the black undersides, and used that for the rest of the war. 

This particular Mossie is getting the "smooth black" treatment.

Doogs: She looks sharp! Looking forward to seeing how she looks with decals.

Jbrady: Looks good! Have to agree with you on the canopies. My least favorite part of a/c modeling.

Gamera

Doogs: She looks sharp! Looking forward to seeing how she looks with decals.

Thanks! Looking forward to it myself. I've got a strange mix of Tally Ho markings and Barracudacals stencils, so it'll be interesting to see how they play together. I'm also a bit worried about the red "no step" boxes on the leading edges of the wings to either side of the canopy. There's some raised detail there, and with all that clear decal film needed for those...eesh. I'll have to be sure to really bathe that section with Future.

Decals will probably not be going on until this weekend. Still have to Future the plane, paint the prop blades and so on. I guess I should also get off my duff and get some work done on the landing gear since I'll be needing it soon enough!

DoogsATX

 ....I guess I should also get off my duff ...

Yeah right because you are a slow builder. You build faster in slow mode than I could ever do in fast mode.

Doogs really like the effect you've gotten with that mix thanks for sharing!

Jbrady the canopies are my least favorite as well,looking great so far. I used liquid mask on the gun turrets on my He177 and it worked great

TREYZX10R

Jbrady the canopies are my least favorite as well,looking great so far. I used liquid mask on the gun turrets on my He177 and it worked great

Don't you have to mask before you can paint the liquid mask?... never quite understood that. If I was steady enough to do the liquid mask, I could just freehand the paint.

jbrady

TREYZX10R:

Jbrady the canopies are my least favorite as well,looking great so far. I used liquid mask on the gun turrets on my He177 and it worked great

 

Don't you have to mask before you can paint the liquid mask?... never quite understood that. If I was steady enough to do the liquid mask, I could just freehand the paint.

Yea you do have to mask around the base ,but you can cut the tape real thin so its easy to work with and just fill in the rest with the liquid mask.

I think I solved the masking problem (sort of) with Parafilm. I might have scratched the canopy though, I'll know when I unmask. It's on it's feet (sort of) and ready for paint.

The plan is to spray the entire model with semi gloss black enamel. After that it's flat black 70% plus a flat dark grey 30%. I'll cut that about 50/50 misting in places thicker in other spots. After that I'll add some dark earth and more thinner going over some panel centers. Other panel centers will get the flat cut with brown. Should be fun.

I hate masking canopies so hard.

If Eduard masks aren't available, I'll go with the "little strips of tape" method for regular-shaped panes. For weird curves and angles, I'll bust out bare metal foil, then trim it away from the canopy framing. Tried parafilm once and hated the dickens out of it!

Doogs: I'm not a fan of parafilm either but I think I figured it out. Use only your finger and a blunt finger nail to burnish from the center of the pane. Use a new blade every two panes and go slow when cutting. Of course I won't know if that advice is a load or crap or not until I unmask. No matter what method I use the best tip I ever heard was to use a light behind what you are masking. It makes it so much easier to see the frame lines.

Interesting methods.  I don't mask my windows.  I usually paint them by hand.  If you want to do it that way, here are a few tips.  First lightly and carefully scribe along the windows paines.  Next, with a good, and I mean good, quality paint brush, paint the frame work.  I think you should thin the paint slightly so that is flows nicely and doesn't clump on your work.  The slight scribes will help keep the paint from running onto the window.  Don't worry if a little gets on the window.  Finally, using either a wooden match stick or wooded tooth pick, cut a chisle end and scratch the extra paint off.  Soft wood does not harm the window and you can create nice clean edges this way without all the hassle of creating masks for the windows.  If you use a tooth pick, blunt the sharp end and cut your chisle shape from around the thick middle part.  Hope that helps...  :)

NFN: No matter what I do when I try to paint without a mask, my work looks like that of a three-year-old trying really hard to stay in the lines.

Jbrady I hope the mask works for you

I did a little preshading and sprayed the underside with a mix of flat black and rlm71

It is going to be a paint hog... I should be able to start the shading later today.

Trey, and Jbrady, looking good!  You guys are already to the paint stage?  Dang.  I'm just barely getting there myself.

  I know this is an old method, but it is new to me.  I painted a silver (AS Tamiya spray) base, put some testor's metalizer sealer over it, then sponged on some liquid mask.  I did some black preshading, and then a main coat of dark gray, almost black.  You very subtley see the pre-shading.  My camera or more likely my photography skills aren't great, so the picture doesn't show that great.  Now I need to take the mask off for the chip effect, and when it has dried for a few days (it is enamel), I will clear coat, decal, weather etc.

Cheers,

Greg

That's it. I'm never using Future as a clear coat before decals again. This is the second time that I've had it go all dusty on me. Self-leveling my @**! Tried to blaze ahead anyway on the starboard side markings last night, and yeah...bad call Doogs. The Decals Carpena decals are pretty nice, but they did not want to settle over this random "rib" running along the fuselage on that side. And fighting them with Micro Set actually led to paint lift. WTF?

I decided to cut my losses for the night and ended up spilling solvent all over my Achilles.

Hopefully tonight goes better.

Doogs: Sorry for your troubles. I read an article somewhere about Future doing that and there is a solution. I don't use Future (for some reason I can't find it anywhere) so I didn't save the article. Let me do some digging and see if I can find it.

jbrady

Doogs: Sorry for your troubles. I read an article somewhere about Future doing that and there is a solution. I don't use Future (for some reason I can't find it anywhere) so I didn't save the article. Let me do some digging and see if I can find it.

I'd be curious, but don't kill yourself looking. 

I'm planning to strip the Decals Carpena decals off the fuselage (only a roundel and three letters...shouldn't be too bad), then wet sand the whole thing and repaint if necessary. My Model Air paints finally came today (along with RoG's SWEET new Arado Ar 196 - holy cow that thing's slick), so if I repaint it'll be with those. Going to use Tamiya's rattlecan gloss, then I'll just use Tamiya's decals for the 157th squadron craft, and a mix of DC and Barracudacals decals for the topside roundels, stencils and so on.

But yeah...I'm REALLY glad I stopped when I did!

Ive never had trouble with Future, doogs. That powdering issue sounds really weird!

CallSignOWL

Ive never had trouble with Future, doogs. That powdering issue sounds really weird!

It's very similar to the dusting phenomenon when you spray Tamiya paints from too far away. From what I've read, I may not have been laying the Future down thick enough, though I sure thought I did.

Weird, because I've never really had this problem before. 

This is the first attempt at bringing some contrast. It's far harder than I thought. The all blue Hellcat was a piece of cake compared to this.

I want it to stay black but as I lighten it up it's going to tend toward grey. Just got to be real careful with it. It doesn't help that my airbrush it acting weird. It is spitting paint... it doesn't spray any paint then spits a wet mass of paint... never done that before. Cleaned it three times... same thing. I'm done for the night. The brush is in pieces sitting in lacquer thinner maybe that will help.

Well, I managed to get the decals off without ruining the kit, so bonus! Tried soaking, tried running it under warm water. Tried copious amounts of Micro Set...finally had to bust out the 600 grit to just grind the decals off.

On the other hand, looks like I've got some repainting on my hands.

Darn Doogs, sorry you hit such a snag.  You were coming along great with the mossie.  I don't remember why, but I have always thought to keep decal solutions away from Future.  I think I read a review of a kit, and somebody had the Micro Sol or Set attack the Future?

I have my kids this weekend, so progress is slow.  I decided that I want to fade some selected panels on the top some.  I was thinking originally of just misting some of the base color lightened some.  Clear it, then add decals.  But then the decals would look like new, right?  So, if I mixed a tiny amount of gray into the final flat coat, on parts of the top, would it give it the sun faded, oxidized look? 

Cheers,

Greg

Have you tried using Mr. Mark Setter and Mr. Mark Softer? I had wonderful luck using them on my '109 with Future.