Hey Tony, thanks. Yeah, I think I dodged a bullet on that Hasegawa kit. *phew* DO NOT want to shelve these projects again.
Anyway, I have a little progress to share. Let's get to it, shall we?
After getting the Monogram painted up yesterday, I was able to get it glossed today. I was also able to start on the decals today. I have an old Microscale sheet that I'm using to build Little Chief. The problem is the decals are super thin and translucent. I think I'm going to have to go back and paint the Indian's headdress to hide the underlying colors. (Insert sarcasm here.) Yay.
The good news is the decal responded well to Micro Set and Sol and laid down nicely on the cowling's curves. I'll have to scrounge some insignia markings from somewhere since the old sheet doesn't have national markings in it. Well, it has the old star-in-circle markings not the star-and-bar. For now, the decals on the Monogram kit will wait. While the Little Chief sits in the wings, I focused on the HB kit. I had a
I had a Superscale sheet with a couple of 78th FG checker-nosed Thunderbolts that needed to get used, so I decided to try 'em on the HB Jug. I started with the cowling. I figured I'd start there. If things went south with the nose, there'd be no use in continuing with the rest of the markings. I didn't want to finish with the fuselage only to find that I screwed the pooch on the final step; the nose.
After painting the cowling gloss white, I applied the decals. I had one minor issue with two square tearing, but I was able to fix the damage with some spare pieces of black decal. I was surprised at how well the decals laid down. Again, Micro Set and Sol and a little patience...
Oh, since I had some paint in the airbrush for the HB cowling, I figured I'd see how the "gun plugs" turned out. After some filling, careful sanding, and rescribing, I'd say they turned out pretty well.
I also decided to go ahead and spray the rest of the fuselage the RAF Dark Green over RAF Sky camo. (Sorry, no pix of that.) The nice thing about the Monogram and HB kits is that they'll both have a two-tone camo scheme. That will help hide a lot of my mistakes.
What won't hide mistakes if a NMF. That's what I'm doing with the two Hasegawa kits. I was able to spray some Alclad Aluminum over both builds today, although, I ran into something odd. I sprayed the cowlings with an old bottle of Alclad Aluminum. It laid down beautifully. Remember, one kit was primed in Alclad black and the other in Alclad white. I wanted to see how the primer would affect the top coat. It's a very sublte difference. Hardly noticeable; at least to me.
The cowling on the right has the white primer and the one on the right has the black. You might be able to see that the white is a bit brighter and the black is a little darker.
So, I pretty much finished the old bottle on the cowlings and cowl flaps then opened a new bottle for the rest of the airframe. The strange thing is the new bottle laid down a little rougher. Even after making sure the primer coats were butter smooth (I wet sand before spraying the NMF) it still laid down a little pebbly. I know that air pressure and airbrush distance can affect the way Alclad sprays, but it was the same painting session. Nothing changed in my set up. I even wet sanded after the first rough coat and it still was a little rough. I don't know if there is something going on with this bottle of Alclad, but I followed my usual process for spraying Alclad, yet I couldn't get it to lay as smoothly as that old bottle.
In these pictures, you can see the difference in the finish between the cowling and cowl flaps, and the rest of the fuselage.
Again, the only difference was that fuselages were sprayed with a new bottle of Aluminum. Oh well, I guess I'll have to live with it.
Oh, and here's a shot of how the two primers affect the top coats. Again, the wingtip on the left is the white primer and the fuselage on the right is the black.
And one of both airframes.
So, while decals dry and Alclad hardens, I think I'll crack an adult beverage and watch my LA Kings battle the Sharks. Tomorrow I hope to get some more painting done on the HB kit, some more decals onto the Monogram, and some different shades of metalizers sprayed onto the Hasegawa kits. That's it for now.
Thanks for looking! Feel free to drop you two cents into the bucket on your way out.
Cheers!
-O