AZUR Battle of France MS 406C1

[dennismcc]

OK I think it's about time that this was brought right up to date, so it's time for some markings, the national markings will be painted on using Miracle Paint Masks, I scraped together enough masks from previous builds to do this kit, luckily they are all within 1 mm of the kit decals, the rest of the markings will be decals from the Kagero Topcolors 17.

The paint masks are a bit fiddly but well worth it, I carefully placed them on the model using the transfer tape to hold them together, and then "just in case" I put extra masking on so that the odd slip with the airbrush would not damage the paintwork, here's the masks in place, the instructions that Mal sends out with his masks are idiot proof, even I can use them.

Then it is time to remove the centre sections of mask that cover the white and blue, it;s handy here to have a decent pair of tweezers and a new #11 blade, then I airbrushed the white, for this I am using Xtracolor X141.

Generally I leave the paint to dry for at least 3 days before continuing, the next bit is quite fiddly but it is important to get it right, replace the white section mask segment, I end up doing this a few times until I am satisfied, this is the reason that I leave the paint to fully dry/cure. Once I was happy with the placement of the white mask the blue (Humbrol H89) was airbrushed.

 

Whoops too many images I will have to continue in another post

 

 

Cheers

 

Den

Edited October 13, 2019 by dennismcc
Replaced blurred Photobucket photos

[dennismcc]

To continue, once the blue centres were painted they were allowed to dry for a day and then covered with out sized discs which are supplied with the masks, once these were in place the red outer section of the mask was removed.

And the red was airbrushed.

I then removed all of the masking (very carefully).

And here are the results, there are some ridgy bits so I will leave the paint to fully dry/cure before sanding them down a bit.

 

So we are now fully up to date and I'm letting the paint dry hard for a while

 

Cheers

 

Den

[SinuheH]

Hi Dennis

 

I see you had a bit of paint bleed with the red……. to prevent this I spray a base coat of future - to seal the mask boarder - and then spray the appropriate colour.

 

Great build so far - really enjoying your progress - tempted to build a Swiss version.

 

HTH, Sinuhe

[skiner]

Nice paint work....

[Azgaron]

Nice paint job with the roundels!

 

HÃ¥kan

[LSP_Kevin]

Good work Den! Coming together really nicely now.

 

Kev

[LSP_Ron]

Very nice

 

Ron

[dennismcc]

Hi Dennis

 

I see you had a bit of paint bleed with the red……. to prevent this I spray a base coat of future - to seal the mask boarder - and then spray the appropriate colour.

 

Yes that would cure it, but I'm very impatient when painting, will have to see on the next one.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[dennismcc]

Nice paint work....

 

 

Nice paint job with the roundels!

 

HÃ¥kan

 

 

Good work Den! Coming together really nicely now.

 

Kev

 

 

Very nice

 

Ron

Thanks for the kind words guys, I'm enjoying this one

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[dennismcc]

Now it's time for some decals, not my favourite job, I always seem to mess this part up, the Kagero decals are very thin and adhere nicely to the model's surface, however decal setting solution seems to be too strong for them as I once again found out the hard way. For the first few decals I used Micro set (blue) and things went well, however I was very careful with them and made sure that I positioned them exactly where I wanted them so there was very little messing about with them once they were on. These were the under wing codes and on my Azur Hawk 75 I really messed them up so I was extra careful this time and all was well, I had to attach the wheel well covers with Blu Tac so I could position the inner letters in the right spot, a new #11 blade and all done.

Then onto the big white "1" in the upper wing surface, it went on well but I kept fiddling with it and it broke, nothing that a dab of white paint will not cure but it reminded me to leave well alone once a decal was in position.

The rest of the decals went on like a dream, I will have to either use a dab of black paint for the bullet holes in the swastika's or drill a hole, I haven't made up my mind yet.On the real aircraft the bullet holes were the result of combat with a 109E on 31st March 1940. Here are the rest of the decals, I particularly like the unit badges "Fury" taken a fresco by Michelangelo, though I cannot pretend to know the relevance ! The eagle eyed among you will spot a mistake (among the many mistakes) in that the roundel (cockade?) on the port side is too far forward, messed up again.

 

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

Edited October 13, 2019 by dennismcc
Replaced blurred Photobucket photos

[Azgaron]

Very nice work with the decals! Never worked with that brand but decals can be very fiddly at times.

 

HÃ¥kan

[imatt88]

Sweet!!

[dennismcc]

Very nice work with the decals! Never worked with that brand but decals can be very fiddly at times.

 

HÃ¥kan

 

 

Sweet!!

Thanks chaps, on the last lap now, but I have been "volunteered" to do some decorating at the daughters so things have slowed down somewhat.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[DougN]

Looks great Den, decals hate me as well, but you've certainly managed to tame this lot!
 

Doug

[LSP_Kevin]

Lovely work Den. A shame to have to stall now, but that's life I guess!

 

Kev