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Gloss Sea Blue


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I was wondering about overall glossy Sea Blue as applied to late and post war USN naval fighters. As I understand in general, gloss colours weather better than flat as they are a harder finish, fade somewhat less, and are easier to maintain. I see, for modern US warplanes, in flat finish, that they are nasty looking critters while in carrier service, but also, have longer service lives than the typical WWII aircraft. I add this proviso because I have been following the builds of a number of models, (Corsair, Bearcat, Hellcat, etc.) and for scale appearance, how much gloss is too much?

If too glossy, it appears to be too new and toylike in appearance, if too weathered, not in keeping with the original application.

I can buy into a duller topsides due to the effects of sun and surf, but the bottoms? How do you feel about glossy finishes and how the OUGHT to appear on a reasonably built and finished model?

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I've also had great luck getting "scale gloss" by using straight flat coat and then buffing with a t-shirt. The more you buff the more shine you get, so you can control the effect locally.

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Well my personnal opinion is the high gloss straight out of the bottle looks toyish. I clear coat with a 50/50 mix of Testors MM gloss and matt clear mix to get a satin finish. I think it looks more "scale like" but that's just me. I am sure others will disagree.

 

Gloss sea blue out of the bottle

P5020002.jpg

 

After a 50/50 mix of gloss/matt clear.

P5100007.jpg

 

Ron

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I just recently finished the old Hasegawa F6F-5N Hellcat and ended up doing

it in a semi-gloss/satin finish. Didn't like the glossy look.

 

Cheers,

 

Jerry B)

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I agree with the others that gloss doesn't look right on a model.

 

I use a semi-gloss to start with, then add streaks of flatter semi-gloss to areas around fuel fillers, walkways, exhausts and on random areas of the upper surfaces. Also, the fabric covered surfaces get a light shot of straight flat clear to set their surface texture apart from the metal covered surfaces.

 

This method in practice on my 21C F4U build:

post-30-1192240071.jpg

 

HTH,

D

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I think sheen is one of the things you can play with to make a model look "right". Tires, exhaust stains, markings, and paint outs all have a different sheen than he base paint. Some areas are prone to scuffs and other wear. Shinny does look toylike but so does coating everything with one level of sheen. I like future buffed with 0000 steel wool for paint work but use flat base and colors to create variations that avoid the look of a "dip job". Coating your plane and you canopy in future (or polishing the plastic) not only looks bad IMO, but I have seen planes where the paint work shined more than the canopy. When was the last time you SAW a giant glare line on a canopy?? A very soft sheen looks great on a modern jet and a crisp shine looks bad on a prop carrier plane. J

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