PACIFIC CARRIER AVIATION GROUP BUILD

Steve, Your issue is not with the paint. All you need to do is spray your paint on, regardless of the sheen, and when completely dry apply a gloss coat. Either Future floor  polish (water based) or say Testors Clear gloss, (lacquer based). The Testors can be sprayed on either with the spray can variety or with your airbrush. Although, some paints/colors will already be glossy and not necessarily require the extra coat.In any case, it is highly suggested that after you have applied the decals that you spray on a gloss coat in order to seal them and protect them. Then after that you can apply your wash, then spray on your desired finish coat. My paint job is an excellent example for you. Again, I am using MM enamels. The white is gloss, the intermediate blue is flat and the dark sea blue is gloss. This is not an issue as I will applying an overall gloss coat. This should expedite your efforts immensely. I sure hope this helps.

Hey Joe Thanks for the game plan. Very nicely laid out and logical. Expediency is the key word here. I can’t progress on the fuselage until I install the turret gun, I can’t install the turret gun until I paint the turret canopy, and I can’t paint the turret canopy until I get a consistent and uniform process for the exterior paint. Here is my concern about adding another paint layer, and you guys can educate me. My concern is primarily with the canopy parts. I plan to paint the first layer on the turret canopy interior green so that from the inside, this color shows through mirroring the areas that the exterior color covers. Then I will paint the Dark Sea Blue color coat over that. If I follow your plan, I will add an additional clear coat. What will happen when I pull the masking off? With thicker paint, isn’t it more likely the paint will chip or break off ruining the demarcation lines? I realize, I will probably have to cut around all the masking prior to de-masking. That should help keep the demarcation lines cleaner but will it be harder to cut though? Cutting through thick paint may actually cause fractures and chips. My other concern is that thicker paint could create a higher paint step. Am I over-thinking all this? Maybe the solution is to paint extremely minimal coverage. What are your thoughts on this? BTW— at this point, I don’t want to use Future as a final clear coat. I would stay with a clear paint. Or maybe I use Future on the canopy and the rest of the plane clear? Would there be a noticeable difference? All these questions. LOL.

Well my vacation has started so I thought I'd better get my ass in gear and start working on this plane.  I shot the Mr Color white 316 this morning.  The paint hasn't dried, so the photos may have a little shine to them.  I tried to evenly shoot the bottom so the panel lines still show through.  The booth works pretty good.  Not 100% fumeless in the room, but a whole lot better without the booth.  It's pretty cold in my house, so hopefully it will be fulled dried tomorrow morning so I can shoot the Inter. Blue.  Hopefully the lines will show through the IB.  I plan on taping it off.  Don't trust my freehanding of small lines at this time.  I'm also going to have to touch up my cockpit.  Some of the tape came off and a bit of overspray caught the headrest and back bulkhead.   Anyways...  Her's a few pics.  Any tips or comments would be appreciated. 

Craig

Not sure why the photos didn't appear in my last post.  Let's try it again.

Lookin' good from this angle!

Steve: To answer your question, yes, you are over thinking the process . You should not encounter much of a problem if you just lightly score around the frame and slowly remove the masks. Certainly one key is to not lay any paint or clear coat on too heavily.

flyerduke: Oh Man, That came out looking great. Indeed, you will find that Mr. Color paints have a very strong odor. My large paint booth is unable to fully vent the fumes. But, I haven't noticed any negative effects from getting a snoot full of the fumes. HEY! Whadaya know, I have seven fingers on one hand. When did that happen?

I got the intermediate blue on mine yesterday. I need to implement a little touch up and then I will get some pics up this evening of my silly putty process.

Thanks Joe and JR.  Lookin' forward to some photos JR.  Just finished shootin' the canopy IG.  Now I know why I quit building the Dinah for the Japanese GB.  I was at the canopy masking point.  I do not like applying that mask!  What a pain.  The IG is a little spotty, but looks good from inside the canopy.   Anyways...  Gonna keep plodding along.

Craig

Hey Joe--OK...10-4.  Over and out.

Flyerduke-- It looks awesome.  :)

flyerduke

Thanks Joe and JR.  Lookin' forward to some photos JR.  Just finished shootin' the canopy IG.  Now I know why I quit building the Dinah for the Japanese GB.  I was at the canopy masking point.  I do not like applying that mask!  What a pain.  The IG is a little spotty, but looks good from inside the canopy.   Anyways...  Gonna keep plodding along.

Craig

Hey Craig are these masks you made or pre-cut masks?

JOE RIX

LOL LOL LOL!!!! You are indeed a righteous member of the flock Brother Bakster. He Who Knows only Styrene will be anointing you greatly for your faith.

                                 Rev. Joe

But... But what about resin and PE? Reverend Joe please tell me, does that mean our venerable Lord does not love me, who has a desire to enhance the styrene, equally? 

She's looking really great, Craig! I love how the pre-shading shows through!

Joe-The mask is pre-cut that came with the kit.  Gotta like the ProfiPACK kits.

Thanks Clemens.  It will be interesting to see if the lines show through when I shoot the IB.

Nice work, flyerduke!  Really smooth paint job, and the panel lines are extremely well-done.

As promised, I have some progress and pics. Certainly long overdo. I've masked and applied the intermediate blue thus far. Here is the process I used.

This is the initial mask using Tamiya tape for general coverage and Silly Putty for the demarcation between the white and inter. blue.

Then the MM intermed. blue is sprayed on.

For those of you unfamiliar with using silly putty, the key to removing it without it leaving sticky pieces on the model is to put it in the refrigerator for a few minutes and then the putty will pop right off. Upon unmasking I found that my line was uneven and inconsistent. This is the direct result of being in a hurry and not checking my mask prior to painting. So, I remasked with slightly larger putty "sausages" and touched up the edges.

I'm now quite pleased with the outcome. Now on to the MM dark sea blue. By the way, I LOVE SILLY PUTTY!!!

JR - Is that actually the real Silly Putty?  Do they sell it at Walmart?  I'm a step behind you.  I like the way it looks.  I'd rather use that stuff then mask it with tape.

Craig

It's actually some off brand but still the same stuff. I would imagine that you should be able to find it at Wally World. Luckily, I'm able to buy the stuff in the toy section of our local drug store. I strongly suggest getting some. You can really do some cool stuff with it once you get the hang of some of it's nuances.

Stuff works fairly well. I've got a couple of "eggs" of it.

Joe I can't tell you how pleased I am that youre around posting pics again. I love the paint job and want to marry it............uh ....flashback here. Sorry. For those that have been around a while, you'll get it. Really though man, top notch paint from a top notch fella.

Nice and helpful tip about using the refrigerator with the putty, Joe.  Thanks.  I have some; tried it and went back to poster tack.  But I'll be trying out your method.

Great painting, by the way!

And, yup, my wife brought me some home from Walmart.  One of the eggs was pink, and the other blue--gender equality, I suppose.

Hey Joe... It looks like great work and great progress.

Steve

I went on my Silly Putty search yesterday.  I finally found some Mega Putty (a Knock off) at the seventh store I tried.   I will try it later on when I start masking off the plane.  I painted the tires Testors Rubber.  It looks really brown in the photo, but looks pretty good to the naked eye.  Should look pretty cool with the white wheels.  Does anyone think it might look realistic if I dry brush some dark gray on the tread?  I plan on hitting the raised Firestone lettering with some white.

Craig

Glad to hear you found yourself some form of silly putty. Hey Craig, A word of wisdom concerning silly putty, I suggest NOT putting on flat paint. It will stick to the point that it will leave small bits on the paint and can discolor the area it was stuck to. I recommend that you make sure that your paint is either gloss or that you apply a gloss coat first. It will save you a degree of misery. Trust me, I know this all too well, (I absent mindedly just did this to my Hellcat and have spent this morning repairing the damage the putty did)..  The tires look good. Yup, drybrushing gray on will probably look nice. Some  other ways to weather tires is to use pastels or a Tamiya weathering set. Also just tinting some thinner with gray and giving a quick spray will give you a nice dull/used effect. Then there is using a wash to bring out the tread.

Thanks JR.  I was wondering if the SP would leave a residue or something on the model.  The white I used on the bottom is Mr. Color 316 which is a gloss.  Am I safe using the SP on the 316?

Craig

Yeah, you should be just fine. My white is also gloss so, I had no issues with putty on that. But, my intermed. blue is flat and when I was doing my touch ups I laid a piece of putty on to size up but, walked away for awhile and when i got back to it it had adhered itself mightily to the intermed. blue. It left a nasty blemish and I had to actually sand it out a bit in order to get a new coat to cover it. If your using Mr. Color it shouldn't be too much of an issue because that is all gloss to my knowledge. I used Mr. Color paints on the FW 190 I just finished for the Butcher Bird GB and it worked out great. Here's some pics of what I did with putty on the complex scheme:

And the finished product:

Nice!  Is the putty still usable after its been painted?

Yup. sho nuff.

What an incredible sight!  It's a vision of loveliness, Joe--with the putty removed, that is.

This is something I'm going to have to try.  I have a USS Atlanta waiting, with some squiggly camouflage job, and this just might be my answer.  

Thanks!  

Well, I shot the IB this morning.  To be honest, I'm not real thrilled with my results.  It's no where as clean and smooths as JR's Hellcat.  I could probably repaint, but I don't want to run the risk of screwing it up  anymore.  This is my first attempt at an exterior paint job in 20 years.  Hopefully I can get better.  Looks like the panel lines didn't really show through the IB.  Oh well.  Someday I'll get it down like you guys.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Craig

Craig: I think the camo on your Hellcat looks really nice so far! One thig you could try if you're not satisfied with it is to respray the edge of the camo with some IB to blend it in a bit more. That would require you to freehand the demarcation line though...
Regarding the tires: I usually don't weather my aircraft wheels a whole lot. My go-to procedure is to spray them with Gunze's tire black (any rubber color of your choice works). Then I hit them with a flat vernish (Alclad's "Matte" clear coat in my case) and let it dry completely.
The weathering itself only consists of pigments. I simply mix them with a bit of water and apply that mix with an old paintbrush. After everything is dry I take a slightly dampened piece of cloth and wipe the tires clean again, leaving the pigments in all the recesses. The rough surface caused by the flat varnish is stained by the pigments in the process and adds a slghtly dusty look to the raised areas.

Here's a picture of the landing gear on my German-captured P-47. The wheel hubs are weathered like the rest of the aircraft:

Joe: Your Hellcat is coming along nicely! as well, mate! The touched-up demarcation line looks really good from here!

And then there's that 190! What a beauty she is! Not to mention your patience in fixing the paint job after your decal issues.

Looks good so far Craig. Don't worry about the painting skills. Most of us are still learning so don't sweat it. I used to have hard demarcation lines between colors but learned my hard and fast rule (at least it works for me , that is) of 30psi, paint generously thinned, the needle barely open and get in really close when spraying the color borders. I try to make it like a little 1/48 scale man was spraying the paint border with the same scale paint gun. lol