Trey: Super work there! I've never thought of pre-shading under the NM like that. Love the results! Going to have to give it a run myself!

Mike: Nice, recently tried the Flory brand wash myself, have to agree I've had much better results with it than my own mixed sludge washes.

Looks awesome. Its a shame about the seam  along the back of the wing. Not much help for it though.

looks sharp!

Trey -- wonderful job, that's not an easy scheme to paint, and Lightnings are notoriously difficult kits for getting everything lined up accurately. You've done a first rate job!

The forums were down for a while over the weekend, so I didn't get to post progress pics Saturday night (our time). I accented the recessed detail using Promodeller "Dark Dirt" wash:

It's magic the way it makes the detail pop!

I have since recoated with Micro Satin, and the decals are well under way. The Aztecs unfortunately don't settle into the detail as well as I had hoped, after multiple applications of Micro Sol some have drawn in, some have not. I'll apply the last hinomaru today and keep at them with the solvent. I don't think you can get stronger stuff over here, though I'd need to check.

I'm hoping to spray the wheelwells and interior of the bay doors today, possibly also the tires...

Mike/TB379

Excellent!  I like what you did with the superchargers.

NICE!!!

Mike thanks and the Raiden is looking sharp.looks like an excellent finish in the works!

I've varied the sheen in the dullcote and streaked the finish,also used some pastel for the exhaust staining then dullcoted over it.

Trey -- fantastic! I wish I could get a finish like that, but not so far...

The raiden has moved along, I applied the IJN green (XF-11), tidied up the yellow and grey, and topcoated with Microscale Satin. Here she is right now:

I love the way the clear coat creates depth in the paint!

Okay, next will be the panel wash on the underside and over the yellow areas, then more clear (hopefully tomorrow) and she's ready for the decals, my chance to see the Aztec product in action.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

ooooh, shiny!

Canopy masked and some final tweaks and its ready for some preshading

For the preshade a thinned blue followed by a really thinned red. This is really more of a tint job than preshading

Next I decided to experiment with a blue powdered pearl added over the blue/red 'preshade'. I'm hoping after a thinned application of black it will give some background deviation and prevent a monochromatic finish.

Thinned black

After wet sanding with 1500

I then went with a Urethane automotive clear thinned 20% with reducer and a few drops of black

one contest is over, next on the 13OCT and after that in FEB2013 so i plan to have some new stuff for next year. i did my saturation and had a 50% win ratio. surprise was a first in post ww2 armor by my old tamiya CHALLENGER I i started in 1986, was built and brush painted but not finished. i know you aren't suppose to judge the base but it was on generic golan front gravelly terrain.

started my SHO'T KAL for this one. started with the turret and ordered a pair of afv club vinyl gun mantlets instead of trying to make my own. no side skirts and some interesting ideas on a possible dio. now i'm working on the hull. going real slow and learning from my judging on sat ( head dio judge and helped with airplanes). will post picks when i get to a pic point.

Thanks Owl!

The seams have all been filled and sanded. The fit was pretty good for the most part,certainly have had worse to deal with in other kits. Also added some lead shot in the nose so hopefully it wo'nt be a tail sitter.

pyrman64

OWL, it's 28mm or roughly 1/68ish?

Im not used to wargame stuff, so this will be interesting to see!

OWL, it's 28mm or roughly 1/68ish?

pyrman64

Is it too late to join in on this GB?  If not, I'll be building a Warhammer 40k Whirlwind.

There is still plenty of time! Ill get your build on the front page. What scale is that?

TREYZX10R

Thanks Owl.just went back thru and reviewed the builds on this thread and there are some heavy hitters in here ,nice work everyone! Mike the preshade looks tight!

The office is ready to instal,not a very detailed affair but much wo'nt be seen once its entombed in the fuse anyway

The booms are ready to mate up to the pod, the gear bay design does'nt fit well and leaves a super thick wall. I've sanded it down some but its still way thick. Also took the time to open the air scoops up and thin down the leading edges

Lookin good  trey!

Is it too late to join in on this GB?  If not, I'll be building a Warhammer 40k Whirlwind.

Thanks Owl.just went back thru and reviewed the builds on this thread and there are some heavy hitters in here ,nice work everyone! Mike the preshade looks tight!

The office is ready to instal,not a very detailed affair but much wo'nt be seen once its entombed in the fuse anyway

The booms are ready to mate up to the pod, the gear bay design does'nt fit well and leaves a super thick wall. I've sanded it down some but its still way thick. Also took the time to open the air scoops up and thin down the leading edges

TREYZX10R

Hey Owl if its not too late would like to join in with a P-38M Night lightning ,1/48 Academy

absolutely! Ill get your name on the roster!

Looks good Mike 

Hey Owl if its not too late would like to join in with a P-38M Night lightning ,1/48 Academy

Here's the latest -- canopy interior and antiglare panel done:

And the AGP masked:

I'll lay on the IJN green tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the base colour and then a lightened fade shade over the top, rather than the other way round. They're all interesting experiments and I have plenty of Japanese subjects to come. I must say I'm enjoying the heck out of this old kit!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Pre-shading looks fine to me, you dont want to overdo it.

Usually the japanese aircraft its the weathering that makes them, not the preshading.

Thanks Owl and Gamera! I must say I'm really enjoying this old Arii kit -- it has its challenges, sure, but nothing that can't be overcome, and with the Aztec decals it should looks pretty competitive.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Nice work Mike, the underside colour looks pretty close to me.  The pre-shading looks really good too. 

the preshading looks good to me!

Today's progress: I masked the ID band and leading edgees:

Yellow on yellow, not the easiest to see... Then I sprayed the underside in a 50/50 mix of XF-19 Sky Grey and XF-2 White:

I'm not sure how well the preshading shows up in the image but in real life it looks subtle and surprisingly pleasing. The satincoat and panel wash should really make things pop.

The underside will get masked off tomorrow, and I'm thinking of going with a slightly faded IJN Green for the top, then postshading with the original colour... New approach, if it works I might do something similar with the antiglare panel at the end....

Cheers, Mike/TB379

This ones for OWL

Lol, ok nailing the jello is easy, keeping it from falling into a million pieces is the hard part!

Mike, I think the sky grey should look pretty good.