Hi guys,
With a week to go I can show you some paint!
Here's the Mustang with the AG areas sprayed into Tamiya XF-1:
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And with the areas outlined in thin strips of low-tack tape:
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And finally with the black areas fully masked:
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I went on and finished masking the wheelwells (always so fiddly!) and made sure every hole and such had its blob of Maskol. The rudder trim tab was also blown into black and masked, and the lights under the starboard wingtip were masked with the items from the Eduard set.
I opted for an emamel spray job, and agonised for a long time over the mix. I looked at my references over and over and it definitely seems the Mustangs were weather-worn. Dozens were in Japan awaiting scrapping when the war broke out, and were hurreidly returened to duty. 150 were recovered from ANG units, mothballed and shipped out to Korea aboard USS Boxer, and all had seen heavy duty since they were built, not more than six years earlier.
Maybe it's the filmstocks of the time, or the generally appalling weather conditions, or the lighting on the day, but those planes looked drab compared to their appearance in WWII. Even new F-80s were taking a beating at the hands of the weather. I knew I didn't want a bright, shiny finish, so I mixed Humbrol Silver Fox 11 with Humbrol Flat Aluminum 56 at a ratio of 7:3, then thinned by 50%. The paint went on readily enough, here's the result:
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And:
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Okay, she's only a ghost compared to Dragonfly's incredible Sabre (I'm green with envy for that result, man!!!), but what do you all think? Is she too weather-beaten? Is the finish too dull?
My plans are to apply the decals, then Promodeller panel wash, and finish with graphite for panel variation. The use of the Flat Aluminum both pulled back the shine and toughened the surface to I'm expecting it to withstand Post-a-note masking for the graphite treatment. I found to my disgust that even Tamiya tape will lift Humbrol or Testor Chrome Silver in its pure state, or at least de-surface it.
Comments and impressions most welcome,
Cheers, Mike/TB379