Sparzanza

I actually managed to get a perfect match to Humbrol 29 simply by adding Tamiya yellow and white into the XF52. Very happy with the color now. However, some ugly spots appeared that I will need to fix before masking and shooting green. I will let the paint cure for 24 hours before doing any sanding.

Well the Humbrol 29 spraying adventure I had planned today backfired. The can hadn't been opened since I painted my last 1/24 Spit, and smelt funky and sprayed like trash even at 60 psi. After 20 mins of colorful language, this was all I had accomplished: I realised I had a jar of Tamiya's XF52 in my possession, so I shot some of that instead. A bit too dark, and a bit too red. How do I remedy this? White and yellow? Any and all tips welcome. For now this will serve as a basecoat. Bonus image. This piece of junk causes me nothing but trouble as of late, making my hands look like I had an accident of the brown kind. F*** you.

Closer inspection of the decals today; my Kiwibird does indeed have that white ruff. Should be easy enough to paint over! Also I've let the glosscoat over the Sky cure for 48 hours now, so today I will do some masking and shoot some Humbrol 29 dark earth!

I was after the camo pattern, mainly... and decal placement. Shame I only get one Kiwi decal as it seems to have been painted on both sides of Mr. Deere's kite?

Thank you Gerhard - I think that will be enough!

Thanks Peter! I'm going to need a little help please, fellas... I need to find a picture of the decal instruction sheet for Airfix A12001. the KL-B markings with a Kiwi bird on its side. I googled for them, obviously... but for some reason the results were extremely lacking. I even dug up the 1999 co jp website as they tend to have lots of pictures of instructions and whatnot, but even there I came out empty. Anyone have this kit in their stash and can scan/photograph the decal instructions for me please?

Less hot today, so I could actually get stuff done. All micro cracks filled. Sky corrected. Shot a nice coat. I'm thinking of sealing it in with varnish before starting with the topside.

Thanks Peter & Maru. Been too hot to work on it today... I've just been laying down contemplating my existence. Ugh. Summertime can f-word right off. Such a depressing season.

Things are not looking good... had to spray at 55(!) psi today to get an even flow through my Badger 150. I wonder if it will survive the topside coats as well...

Shot some Humbrol 90 today - fresh jar. It looked waaaaay too green to me. Like "almost hurting my eyes" kind of green. So I mixed in some 64 light grey. Should have put some 34 white in as well I reckon, as the color is looking rather funny at the moment. No matter. The paintjob revealed another couple of tiny spots in need of refilling. So the second coat will have some white in it as well.

Thanks Martin! Tomorrow I will mask off the wheel wells and whatnot and shoot some Humbrol 90... if I don't perish from this heatwave first.

Filling the gaps went without issues. I dabbed some more Humbrol 78 on top afterwards. Looks much better now. Found some micro gaps on the fuselage that I need to take care off before shooting the brown.

Masked off the canopy and painted the Humbrol 78 cockpit green with a sponge, because honestly anything airbrush related nowadays is a chore. It takes so much effort to get the airbrush working, and even more effort to get it cleaned up afterwards - so I'm dabbing the paint on with a sponge for many tasks I would normally spraypaint. The airbrush is definitely on its last legs. Anyway. The gaps are a bit more apparent now. These will be masked off and then filled with Tamiya White Putty.

Thank you Gerhard. Thanks Brian. Indeed - and the warping is noticable in a couple of spots. But at least the window bits seem to have lined up very well so far. Worst spots are a couple of panel lines not lining up perfectly where I had to... improvise slightly with the scribe tool. Still, could be a lot worse! I'm enjoying myself, mostly.

Pretty happy with my filler work now. Happy enough to glue the windscreen and rear window in place at least. The windscreen gave me more gaps to fill. I filled the gaps with Mikro Kristal Klear for the time being. I will fill more thoroughly with Tamiya White Putty after masking off the windows and shooting some Humbrol 78 cockpit green on top. Hopefully there'll be more updates soon.

No, I mean that I've done a major, major mistake. I was applying the decals. I was going to opt for the yellow outline on the B. I did not realise that the decals Richard had given me was one huge film, and that one had to trim around the letters to the best of ones ability. So the first ones turned to scrap when trying to remove excess film when the decal was already in place. Richard, bless him, had given me 4x B's - two yellows, for the outlines - and two sky colored. That meant I got another attempt. I trimmed the decals. Applied them. MicroSol'd them... when I was happy with the result, I noticed they weren't completely straight. They were destroyed when attempting to correct this. There is one more thing I can try to do to save this plane. But it won't be now, as my mojo is even worse than before. EDIT: Custom made masks seems like a viable option. I'll ask around.

There is absolutely no limit to my stupidity... good heavens. At this rate the kit will be finished in 2054. Sorry gentlemen.

Thank you Mike. This left me equally confused as before, but also more intrigued! I might opt for the plain Sky letter after all, as it would look extremely large otherwise compared to the other letters... but the harder I look, the more I am conviced the outline is there. Gah!

Thank you Brian! Thanks Peter! Now, next step would be to attach the replacement decal that Richard so kindly provided me with. However, I am a bit torn... the B appears to be of a single color on a photograph that I have of the plane, and not with a yellow outline like the rest of the letters. Luckily the decals that I was given does give me the option whether to include the yellow outline or not, simply by putting a yellow B before the Sky one. Thoughts?

Hmmm... I noticed some cracks in the Tamiya white putty after shooting my first yellow coat. I will need to adress those before proceeding. I remember one can mix Humbrol enamel paint into the putty. I will do just that. Should save me the hassle of spraying 3-4 extra coats.

Baby steps today... I masked off the windscreen. Gettin ready to shoot some yellow and hopefully hide all traces of my repair job.

You're in luck. The musician Franck Hueso, known by his stage name "Carpenter Brut", makes music heavily influenced by that era. Synth/pop/rock. Here's a couple of my favourites - Hope somebody will find these tunes to their liking. He normally does music without vocals, but he had Mat McNerney sing "Beware the Beast". I highly recommend checking out the rest of his music as well.

Amazing!

Thank you Mark! But alas, I have enormous difficulties finding motivation to cross the finishline. My mojo has hit rock bottom since the surgery. I don't know whether this is normal or not. Hoping to get it back soon as I would love to see her finished.

As you can all see, after masking off part of the windscreen with the Tamiya bendy tape and adding their white putty in layers, I have successfully created a narrow, protruding edge along the bottom. This should make masking and painting a simple matter. Very little smoothing out to do; happy with the results. Now all that is needed is some Humbrol 24 matt yellow. The letters that Richard sent me are slightly oversized, but no matter. No turning back now. Thanks again, Richard! The streaks that can be seen on the fuselage are from wetsanding, it will be cleaned up before the second satin coat.