Thunnus

Although you choose alclad silver for Paint the airframe, please checo this link:
 
https://www.ipmsstockholm.se/home/natural-metal-for-the-masses/
 
IMHO the silver humbrol Paint is perfect for natural bare metal

OK, how'd you paint the black without filling the rivets/lines ???  

When you have to polish a paint already applied on your model, what exactly do you use as a product? Sandpaper? Sandpaper pad? 2,000, 4,000, more?
Your wips are always interesting and informative to read, thank you.
 

Thanks guys!  The model is about 12 inches (30.5cm) long with an 18 inch (45.7cm) wingspan.
 
Just some additional views of the starboard side to show the modified surface texture that resulted from the removal of the oil-canning.





 

Thanks guys!
 
 
Thanks Mike!  Screws makes sense since I'm guessing these are access panels for the cowl guns?  And raised because one panel is used to cover two openings?  
 
I was able to secure a copy of this out-of-print book for a real good price ($20 shipped) from the Arawasi blog site so I'm taking my time on things until it gets here.

 

The wheels have been painted and weathered.

 
 
But only a sliver of them will be visible once they are mounted within the wheel spats.



 
 
When gluing the spats together, I left the wheels rotatable so that I can orient the flat spots on the tires later.  The prominent glue seam will get sanded and puttied.

 
 
In order to get a more positive fit onto the wing bottoms, I added some mounting posts for the landing gear legs.  This is taking a page from Alex's build but in a slightly different form.



 
 
I heeded Alex's warning about the thickness of the control surface parts and decided to thin them before gluing them together.  For this, I use a section of sanding paper taped onto a sheet of glass (from a photo frame).  For this type of work, I use a coarser grain of sandpaper than I normally work with such as #320 or #220 (3M)

 
 
The insides of the elevator pieces look flat to the naked eye.

 
 
But a few swipes on the sanding block show that they aren't perfectly flat.  The dark areas indicate surfaces that are lower than the surrounding areas.  The dark areas along the edge will result in gaps which are difficult to correct.



 
 
So I keep sanding until the all of the dark areas are gone.

 
 
The parts secured with just tape and finger pressure reveal the lack of gaps along the edge, which is the desired result.  The elevators can now be glued together.

 
 
At this point, I decided to rough fit the major components together by tape to check overall fit.  There may be some significant gaps that I'll need to pay attention to.  Particularly along the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer fillet and at the wing roots.  But overall, fit looks pretty good.





 
 
This is a LARGE aircraft with heckuva wingspan.  It will NOT fit into my Ikea Detolf display case.

This one is not dead but I keep jumping to other projects!
 
I decided to start the painting process by putting on the hinomarus on the wing bottom.  Normally, I put the markings on after the camo painting but in order to protect the natural metal finish here, I thought I'd do some reverse masking.  First, a rough base coat of Tamiya White. It is purposefully uneven to serve as a pre-shade layer.

 
 
After the white, Mr Color C385 IJN Red is sprayed on.

 
 
Masks cut from decal scans are placed over the red.  Due to the raised feature on the aileron, the mask was snipped and replaced with a more form-fitting mask made from Tamiya tape.

 
 
Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 was used to remove the excess red.

 
 
The fabric colored ailerons were then given a mottle pre-shade and painted with a grayish green shade (Tamiya XF-76).



 
 
The ailerons will be masked off and I can start painting the NMF bottom.

Thanks guys!  The model is about 12 inches (30.5cm) long with an 18 inch (45.7cm) wingspan.
 
Just some additional views of the starboard side to show the modified surface texture that resulted from the removal of the oil-canning.





 

Thanks guys!
 
 
Thanks Mike!  Screws makes sense since I'm guessing these are access panels for the cowl guns?  And raised because one panel is used to cover two openings?  
 
I was able to secure a copy of this out-of-print book for a real good price ($20 shipped) from the Arawasi blog site so I'm taking my time on things until it gets here.

 

The wheels have been painted and weathered.

 
 
But only a sliver of them will be visible once they are mounted within the wheel spats.



 
 
When gluing the spats together, I left the wheels rotatable so that I can orient the flat spots on the tires later.  The prominent glue seam will get sanded and puttied.

 
 
In order to get a more positive fit onto the wing bottoms, I added some mounting posts for the landing gear legs.  This is taking a page from Alex's build but in a slightly different form.



 
 
I heeded Alex's warning about the thickness of the control surface parts and decided to thin them before gluing them together.  For this, I use a section of sanding paper taped onto a sheet of glass (from a photo frame).  For this type of work, I use a coarser grain of sandpaper than I normally work with such as #320 or #220 (3M)

 
 
The insides of the elevator pieces look flat to the naked eye.

 
 
But a few swipes on the sanding block show that they aren't perfectly flat.  The dark areas indicate surfaces that are lower than the surrounding areas.  The dark areas along the edge will result in gaps which are difficult to correct.



 
 
So I keep sanding until the all of the dark areas are gone.

 
 
The parts secured with just tape and finger pressure reveal the lack of gaps along the edge, which is the desired result.  The elevators can now be glued together.

 
 
At this point, I decided to rough fit the major components together by tape to check overall fit.  There may be some significant gaps that I'll need to pay attention to.  Particularly along the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer fillet and at the wing roots.  But overall, fit looks pretty good.





 
 
This is a LARGE aircraft with heckuva wingspan.  It will NOT fit into my Ikea Detolf display case.

Welcome back Bill!  Glad to see you make some progress on this one!  I could not recall exactly what I had done to the throttle but I do remember that it was one of the first things that I had worked on because I was so inspired by how Wolf Buddee had done his.

Thank you!  It's a preferential thing.  I had this mind as soon as I saw the test sprues from Infinity.  I didn't think it was going to be as tedious as it has been.  The sanding process degrades the existing rivets and panel lines so I've had to rescribe every panel line and use a needle to poke each and every rivet at least once.  But I'm pretty far along and it helps that I can space out the tedious fill/sand process with other stuff like the engine and cockpit.
 
 
Thank you Kevin!  It's a very interesting aircraft.  Very elegant looking with the elliptical wings.
 
 
O M G... what beautiful photos!  May I ask where these were from???  They look to be very early production or maybe a prototype.  Look at the reflection of the hinomaru on wing in that first photo!  And more evidence of the single hatch between the windscreen and engine!
 
 
Thank you!  I like it too.
 
 
 
Thank Matt!  It looks hand-crampingly good, doesn't it?    Canopy seems to fit well.  I want to have the pilot's canopy closed and bombardier's open.  Toyed with the idea of sawing the single piece closed canopy but I don't think that will be necessary as the separate clear parts seem to fit well.  If I don't glue the pilot's canopy into place, I can pose it open or closed.

Thanks guys!
 
 
Thanks Mike!  Screws makes sense since I'm guessing these are access panels for the cowl guns?  And raised because one panel is used to cover two openings?  
 
I was able to secure a copy of this out-of-print book for a real good price ($20 shipped) from the Arawasi blog site so I'm taking my time on things until it gets here.

 

The wheels have been painted and weathered.

 
 
But only a sliver of them will be visible once they are mounted within the wheel spats.



 
 
When gluing the spats together, I left the wheels rotatable so that I can orient the flat spots on the tires later.  The prominent glue seam will get sanded and puttied.

 
 
In order to get a more positive fit onto the wing bottoms, I added some mounting posts for the landing gear legs.  This is taking a page from Alex's build but in a slightly different form.



 
 
I heeded Alex's warning about the thickness of the control surface parts and decided to thin them before gluing them together.  For this, I use a section of sanding paper taped onto a sheet of glass (from a photo frame).  For this type of work, I use a coarser grain of sandpaper than I normally work with such as #320 or #220 (3M)

 
 
The insides of the elevator pieces look flat to the naked eye.

 
 
But a few swipes on the sanding block show that they aren't perfectly flat.  The dark areas indicate surfaces that are lower than the surrounding areas.  The dark areas along the edge will result in gaps which are difficult to correct.



 
 
So I keep sanding until the all of the dark areas are gone.

 
 
The parts secured with just tape and finger pressure reveal the lack of gaps along the edge, which is the desired result.  The elevators can now be glued together.

 
 
At this point, I decided to rough fit the major components together by tape to check overall fit.  There may be some significant gaps that I'll need to pay attention to.  Particularly along the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer fillet and at the wing roots.  But overall, fit looks pretty good.





 
 
This is a LARGE aircraft with heckuva wingspan.  It will NOT fit into my Ikea Detolf display case.

Thanks guys!
 
 
Thanks Mike!  Screws makes sense since I'm guessing these are access panels for the cowl guns?  And raised because one panel is used to cover two openings?  
 
I was able to secure a copy of this out-of-print book for a real good price ($20 shipped) from the Arawasi blog site so I'm taking my time on things until it gets here.

 

The wheels have been painted and weathered.

 
 
But only a sliver of them will be visible once they are mounted within the wheel spats.



 
 
When gluing the spats together, I left the wheels rotatable so that I can orient the flat spots on the tires later.  The prominent glue seam will get sanded and puttied.

 
 
In order to get a more positive fit onto the wing bottoms, I added some mounting posts for the landing gear legs.  This is taking a page from Alex's build but in a slightly different form.



 
 
I heeded Alex's warning about the thickness of the control surface parts and decided to thin them before gluing them together.  For this, I use a section of sanding paper taped onto a sheet of glass (from a photo frame).  For this type of work, I use a coarser grain of sandpaper than I normally work with such as #320 or #220 (3M)

 
 
The insides of the elevator pieces look flat to the naked eye.

 
 
But a few swipes on the sanding block show that they aren't perfectly flat.  The dark areas indicate surfaces that are lower than the surrounding areas.  The dark areas along the edge will result in gaps which are difficult to correct.



 
 
So I keep sanding until the all of the dark areas are gone.

 
 
The parts secured with just tape and finger pressure reveal the lack of gaps along the edge, which is the desired result.  The elevators can now be glued together.

 
 
At this point, I decided to rough fit the major components together by tape to check overall fit.  There may be some significant gaps that I'll need to pay attention to.  Particularly along the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer fillet and at the wing roots.  But overall, fit looks pretty good.





 
 
This is a LARGE aircraft with heckuva wingspan.  It will NOT fit into my Ikea Detolf display case.

Thanks Kevin and Matt! This one is obviously further along than the D3A1 so I'm hoping to push it over the finish line so that I'll have the opportunity to start a new build.  I've got the Border 1/35 Fw 190A-6 that I want to do in Nowotny's scheme.  I've got the Italeri 1/32 Macchi C.202 Folgore on pre-order but that probably won't get released until August.  And I've got the 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire XVIe but I'm waiting for the Laminar Flow Design XIVe conversion to be made available so I can make a 5-bladed Griffon Spitfire.
 
In preparation for the metal finish, the bottom was sprayed Tamiya Black.  I tried to get a glossy finish so I can use some of Alclad's higher shine shades, although it probably won't matter because I'm going to end up weathering it anyway.



 
 
There were some rough spots coincidentally (?) in the same place on both wings (between the outer gun position and the hinomaru).  To try and smooth it out, I sprayed straight Mr Leveling Thinner on the black.  It helped but there is still some texture that I'm going to have to buff out before I apply the Alclad.

 
 
The styrofoam block holding the horizontal stabilizers got knocked off the bench while they were still wet from the MLT treatment.  Hopefully, I can scrub the dust off without messing up the finish too much but I'm going to wait until this black fully cures before I do anything.

 

This one is not dead but I keep jumping to other projects!
 
I decided to start the painting process by putting on the hinomarus on the wing bottom.  Normally, I put the markings on after the camo painting but in order to protect the natural metal finish here, I thought I'd do some reverse masking.  First, a rough base coat of Tamiya White. It is purposefully uneven to serve as a pre-shade layer.

 
 
After the white, Mr Color C385 IJN Red is sprayed on.

 
 
Masks cut from decal scans are placed over the red.  Due to the raised feature on the aileron, the mask was snipped and replaced with a more form-fitting mask made from Tamiya tape.

 
 
Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 was used to remove the excess red.

 
 
The fabric colored ailerons were then given a mottle pre-shade and painted with a grayish green shade (Tamiya XF-76).



 
 
The ailerons will be masked off and I can start painting the NMF bottom.

This one is not dead but I keep jumping to other projects!
 
I decided to start the painting process by putting on the hinomarus on the wing bottom.  Normally, I put the markings on after the camo painting but in order to protect the natural metal finish here, I thought I'd do some reverse masking.  First, a rough base coat of Tamiya White. It is purposefully uneven to serve as a pre-shade layer.

 
 
After the white, Mr Color C385 IJN Red is sprayed on.

 
 
Masks cut from decal scans are placed over the red.  Due to the raised feature on the aileron, the mask was snipped and replaced with a more form-fitting mask made from Tamiya tape.

 
 
Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 was used to remove the excess red.

 
 
The fabric colored ailerons were then given a mottle pre-shade and painted with a grayish green shade (Tamiya XF-76).



 
 
The ailerons will be masked off and I can start painting the NMF bottom.

Thanks Kevin and Matt! This one is obviously further along than the D3A1 so I'm hoping to push it over the finish line so that I'll have the opportunity to start a new build.  I've got the Border 1/35 Fw 190A-6 that I want to do in Nowotny's scheme.  I've got the Italeri 1/32 Macchi C.202 Folgore on pre-order but that probably won't get released until August.  And I've got the 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire XVIe but I'm waiting for the Laminar Flow Design XIVe conversion to be made available so I can make a 5-bladed Griffon Spitfire.
 
In preparation for the metal finish, the bottom was sprayed Tamiya Black.  I tried to get a glossy finish so I can use some of Alclad's higher shine shades, although it probably won't matter because I'm going to end up weathering it anyway.



 
 
There were some rough spots coincidentally (?) in the same place on both wings (between the outer gun position and the hinomaru).  To try and smooth it out, I sprayed straight Mr Leveling Thinner on the black.  It helped but there is still some texture that I'm going to have to buff out before I apply the Alclad.

 
 
The styrofoam block holding the horizontal stabilizers got knocked off the bench while they were still wet from the MLT treatment.  Hopefully, I can scrub the dust off without messing up the finish too much but I'm going to wait until this black fully cures before I do anything.

 

Thanks Kevin and Matt! This one is obviously further along than the D3A1 so I'm hoping to push it over the finish line so that I'll have the opportunity to start a new build.  I've got the Border 1/35 Fw 190A-6 that I want to do in Nowotny's scheme.  I've got the Italeri 1/32 Macchi C.202 Folgore on pre-order but that probably won't get released until August.  And I've got the 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire XVIe but I'm waiting for the Laminar Flow Design XIVe conversion to be made available so I can make a 5-bladed Griffon Spitfire.
 
In preparation for the metal finish, the bottom was sprayed Tamiya Black.  I tried to get a glossy finish so I can use some of Alclad's higher shine shades, although it probably won't matter because I'm going to end up weathering it anyway.



 
 
There were some rough spots coincidentally (?) in the same place on both wings (between the outer gun position and the hinomaru).  To try and smooth it out, I sprayed straight Mr Leveling Thinner on the black.  It helped but there is still some texture that I'm going to have to buff out before I apply the Alclad.

 
 
The styrofoam block holding the horizontal stabilizers got knocked off the bench while they were still wet from the MLT treatment.  Hopefully, I can scrub the dust off without messing up the finish too much but I'm going to wait until this black fully cures before I do anything.

 

Thanks Kevin and Matt! This one is obviously further along than the D3A1 so I'm hoping to push it over the finish line so that I'll have the opportunity to start a new build.  I've got the Border 1/35 Fw 190A-6 that I want to do in Nowotny's scheme.  I've got the Italeri 1/32 Macchi C.202 Folgore on pre-order but that probably won't get released until August.  And I've got the 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire XVIe but I'm waiting for the Laminar Flow Design XIVe conversion to be made available so I can make a 5-bladed Griffon Spitfire.
 
In preparation for the metal finish, the bottom was sprayed Tamiya Black.  I tried to get a glossy finish so I can use some of Alclad's higher shine shades, although it probably won't matter because I'm going to end up weathering it anyway.



 
 
There were some rough spots coincidentally (?) in the same place on both wings (between the outer gun position and the hinomaru).  To try and smooth it out, I sprayed straight Mr Leveling Thinner on the black.  It helped but there is still some texture that I'm going to have to buff out before I apply the Alclad.

 
 
The styrofoam block holding the horizontal stabilizers got knocked off the bench while they were still wet from the MLT treatment.  Hopefully, I can scrub the dust off without messing up the finish too much but I'm going to wait until this black fully cures before I do anything.

 

This one is not dead but I keep jumping to other projects!
 
I decided to start the painting process by putting on the hinomarus on the wing bottom.  Normally, I put the markings on after the camo painting but in order to protect the natural metal finish here, I thought I'd do some reverse masking.  First, a rough base coat of Tamiya White. It is purposefully uneven to serve as a pre-shade layer.

 
 
After the white, Mr Color C385 IJN Red is sprayed on.

 
 
Masks cut from decal scans are placed over the red.  Due to the raised feature on the aileron, the mask was snipped and replaced with a more form-fitting mask made from Tamiya tape.

 
 
Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 was used to remove the excess red.

 
 
The fabric colored ailerons were then given a mottle pre-shade and painted with a grayish green shade (Tamiya XF-76).



 
 
The ailerons will be masked off and I can start painting the NMF bottom.

Thanks guys!  The model is about 12 inches (30.5cm) long with an 18 inch (45.7cm) wingspan.
 
Just some additional views of the starboard side to show the modified surface texture that resulted from the removal of the oil-canning.





 

Thanks Kevin and Matt! This one is obviously further along than the D3A1 so I'm hoping to push it over the finish line so that I'll have the opportunity to start a new build.  I've got the Border 1/35 Fw 190A-6 that I want to do in Nowotny's scheme.  I've got the Italeri 1/32 Macchi C.202 Folgore on pre-order but that probably won't get released until August.  And I've got the 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire XVIe but I'm waiting for the Laminar Flow Design XIVe conversion to be made available so I can make a 5-bladed Griffon Spitfire.
 
In preparation for the metal finish, the bottom was sprayed Tamiya Black.  I tried to get a glossy finish so I can use some of Alclad's higher shine shades, although it probably won't matter because I'm going to end up weathering it anyway.



 
 
There were some rough spots coincidentally (?) in the same place on both wings (between the outer gun position and the hinomaru).  To try and smooth it out, I sprayed straight Mr Leveling Thinner on the black.  It helped but there is still some texture that I'm going to have to buff out before I apply the Alclad.

 
 
The styrofoam block holding the horizontal stabilizers got knocked off the bench while they were still wet from the MLT treatment.  Hopefully, I can scrub the dust off without messing up the finish too much but I'm going to wait until this black fully cures before I do anything.

 

Thanks Kevin and Matt! This one is obviously further along than the D3A1 so I'm hoping to push it over the finish line so that I'll have the opportunity to start a new build.  I've got the Border 1/35 Fw 190A-6 that I want to do in Nowotny's scheme.  I've got the Italeri 1/32 Macchi C.202 Folgore on pre-order but that probably won't get released until August.  And I've got the 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire XVIe but I'm waiting for the Laminar Flow Design XIVe conversion to be made available so I can make a 5-bladed Griffon Spitfire.
 
In preparation for the metal finish, the bottom was sprayed Tamiya Black.  I tried to get a glossy finish so I can use some of Alclad's higher shine shades, although it probably won't matter because I'm going to end up weathering it anyway.



 
 
There were some rough spots coincidentally (?) in the same place on both wings (between the outer gun position and the hinomaru).  To try and smooth it out, I sprayed straight Mr Leveling Thinner on the black.  It helped but there is still some texture that I'm going to have to buff out before I apply the Alclad.

 
 
The styrofoam block holding the horizontal stabilizers got knocked off the bench while they were still wet from the MLT treatment.  Hopefully, I can scrub the dust off without messing up the finish too much but I'm going to wait until this black fully cures before I do anything.

 

Thanks Kevin and Matt! This one is obviously further along than the D3A1 so I'm hoping to push it over the finish line so that I'll have the opportunity to start a new build.  I've got the Border 1/35 Fw 190A-6 that I want to do in Nowotny's scheme.  I've got the Italeri 1/32 Macchi C.202 Folgore on pre-order but that probably won't get released until August.  And I've got the 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire XVIe but I'm waiting for the Laminar Flow Design XIVe conversion to be made available so I can make a 5-bladed Griffon Spitfire.
 
In preparation for the metal finish, the bottom was sprayed Tamiya Black.  I tried to get a glossy finish so I can use some of Alclad's higher shine shades, although it probably won't matter because I'm going to end up weathering it anyway.



 
 
There were some rough spots coincidentally (?) in the same place on both wings (between the outer gun position and the hinomaru).  To try and smooth it out, I sprayed straight Mr Leveling Thinner on the black.  It helped but there is still some texture that I'm going to have to buff out before I apply the Alclad.

 
 
The styrofoam block holding the horizontal stabilizers got knocked off the bench while they were still wet from the MLT treatment.  Hopefully, I can scrub the dust off without messing up the finish too much but I'm going to wait until this black fully cures before I do anything.

 

Thanks Kevin and Matt! This one is obviously further along than the D3A1 so I'm hoping to push it over the finish line so that I'll have the opportunity to start a new build.  I've got the Border 1/35 Fw 190A-6 that I want to do in Nowotny's scheme.  I've got the Italeri 1/32 Macchi C.202 Folgore on pre-order but that probably won't get released until August.  And I've got the 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire XVIe but I'm waiting for the Laminar Flow Design XIVe conversion to be made available so I can make a 5-bladed Griffon Spitfire.
 
In preparation for the metal finish, the bottom was sprayed Tamiya Black.  I tried to get a glossy finish so I can use some of Alclad's higher shine shades, although it probably won't matter because I'm going to end up weathering it anyway.



 
 
There were some rough spots coincidentally (?) in the same place on both wings (between the outer gun position and the hinomaru).  To try and smooth it out, I sprayed straight Mr Leveling Thinner on the black.  It helped but there is still some texture that I'm going to have to buff out before I apply the Alclad.

 
 
The styrofoam block holding the horizontal stabilizers got knocked off the bench while they were still wet from the MLT treatment.  Hopefully, I can scrub the dust off without messing up the finish too much but I'm going to wait until this black fully cures before I do anything.

 

Thanks guys!  The model is about 12 inches (30.5cm) long with an 18 inch (45.7cm) wingspan.
 
Just some additional views of the starboard side to show the modified surface texture that resulted from the removal of the oil-canning.