Another Hasegawa T bolt Bubbletop, my first LSP. November 12, 2022, It is DONE at last!!!!!!!!

[Citadelgrad]

After the serious business of a Sunday cigar, i wanted to do the lower wing invasion stripes.  But then i thought i should do all of the stripes together, so since i was in stars and bars groove, maybe i should do the fuselage stars and bars, then the invasion stripes all together…but the fuselage stars and bars butt up against the fuselage bands….its like a serious game of tetris.  Should i do the bands, then the stars?  In the end, the taping i had done weeks ago made the call for me, because i taped over the fuselage stars to cover the lower fusealge, and i had to expose the masks by exposing the white lower fuselage area.   So i decided to paint the blue and then put the mask back on to protect the insignia while i shoot the black stripes.  
 

it went pretty well, one minor issue is a recurring one for me, i have trouble getting paint to stick to pe.  Ive tried a variety of primers, none thrills me in this department. On the right side, i lost a chunk of white that forms the interior of the front part, the part that is on the intercooler door, so there is a large silver patch where white should be.  Of course, i can mask the blue to protect it and shoot it, but the mask itself, low tack vinyl, not tape, lifted the white, so i am pretty sure this is going to result in the blue lifting when i mask that to protect it. 
 

advice on this technical issue is more than welcome.   I imagine the doors probably did lose paint, but this is a large area, a 1/32 man would need both hands to cover it.  
 

oh, well, it was going too smoothly.  
 

anyway, not the sexy reveal of finished insignia because i never uncovered it, but here is where we are at the end of another weekend.

 

and here is the problem child

 

 

more to come.  More tetris with invasion stripe spacing, but it should be easy on the wings, they are pretty flat.  I shot the aluminum of the supercharge exhaust while it was masked, now i need to protect that from the black stripes.  
 

after that the primary painting is finished.  I have some allclad aqua gloss, my experience with the gear doors tells me i need several coats and it needs to be pretty glossy for the panel line and other washes to behave.  How long between coats of that and how long after should i wait to apply washes?

 

thanks for looking!

 

Bill

[Citadelgrad]

Time to really bring this build to life. Tonight i was just going to mark out the invasion stripes and hit the rack, it is a work night. But then one thing led to another and i shot the black.  Then, after dutifully cleaning my airbrush, i unmasked the stripes.  Then i wanted to see the stars and bars with the stripes.  Then i wanted to see the long ago covered fuselage codes.  Then the red rudder called me.  I lost control.  
 

anyway, the stripes went on without incident.  There is a scratch on the upper right wing that i will need to cover, and that right side intercooler door remains a disaster.  Oh, and the allclad lifted off the supercharger exhaust.  Pity, it went down so smoothly.  I will sand and reshoot that in the future.  But other than these minor touch up type issues, i am pretty happy with how it looks with markings. 
 

photos. 
Here is all i intended to do tonight.  I got some pinstriping tape at some point, it is about 1 mm wide, amd it is the easiest way to mask, particularly when you need either a long, straight run or crazy curves.  It just doesnt leave a gap no matter what you do to it.  You can see it on the wing trailing edge next to the blue tape.     

overall shot of the stripes

 

Close ups of the lower wings

for some reason there is a bit of white where it shouldnt be on the right wing at the edge of the stars and bars

 

this angle looks a bit like the crash photo

 

a little overspray due to the limitations of the masks with the deep 3d intercooler door cutouts, this will be an easy fix

The troubled right side

Sorry a few of the photos arent the clearest, work night and garage lighting.  I will snap some daylight shots in a day or two.  I am very happy with the way the vinyl masks work and the results.  
 

thanks for looking!

 

Bill

Edited August 10, 2021 by Citadelgrad

[MikeMaben]

Looking pretty good Bill.  Fixing little booboos is good practice.

[Jeff T]

Looking good Bill!

 

Jeff.

[Alex]

One thing you can try when vinyl masks won't conform exactly to surface detail is filling the gaps with a tiny paintbrush and masking fluid.  I find it easier to fiddle with perfecting the masking up front than to go back and try to fix the paint afterwards.

[Citadelgrad]

I took a few shots tonight while planning my next progress. 
 

 

 

[Citadelgrad]

Spent the bulk of todays bench time touching up mistakes.  The peeled cowl door got resprayed, the other cowl door got some overspray fixed, there was a missing piece of the right side stars and bars that required two fixes, and a goober on one of the flaps got filled, sanded, and resprayed.  
 

i almost got to make a step forward, i was going to spray the invasion stripes on the flaps, when, sproing, ANOTHER eduard PE piece sprung away, and so its taped until the gator grip sets up.  Most of the stripes are blocked out, but the outermost one on one wing needed to wait.  
 

i also sanded the peeled allclad area of the supercharger exhaust, but i want to spray the flap edges and inlets at the same time. 
 

so maybe two hours of work, and i am happy with the positive results, but it didnt really feel like progress. 
 

right side inlet before corrections

See the peeled paint and the missing bottom stripe on the front bar, before the door inlet?  That won’t do.

first attempt

Looks better, but eagle eyed readers will note that the “fix” on the missing star is somehow almost black, i didnt see it until i got it in natural light.  That also wont do. 
take two 

 

looking at these photos, despite the utmost of care, the front edge of the black stripe closest the nose looks…wrong. I might have to figure out if its crooked?

i also cleaned up a touch of blue overspray on the left side intercooler door.  I learned a drawback of vinyl masks, they dont do irregular shapes. 
before 

After

there is still a whisper of blue overspray just ahead of star, not sure if i can live with that, i will likely fix it. 
 

thats all for now, its really hot and muggy, i might do more later this evening. 
 

thanks for looking, as always.  Any comments welcome. 
 

Bill

[Citadelgrad]

Its pretty quiet on here for a Saturday night.  I realize is late for many, but here on the west coast of north america, its just now bedtime. 
 

i got some more done.  I fixed that wonky black invasion stripe.  I made it wider and now it seems straight

 

I got the invasion stripes on the flaps

 

Then it was maskapolooza, i masked off the areas around the flap wells, the recessed parts of the flaps, and the supercharger exhaust, which had peeled badly when i removed the invasion stripes masking. 
 

for some color interest, i decided they probably shot the camo with the flaps up, and since this plane was delivered in NMF, as evidenced by the canopy mask effect, i wanted the areas aluminum.  
 

heres how it turned out so far

 

the flap wells close up

and the flaps themselves

The above flap had an errant piece of tape on it, i just removed it and its a crisp edge. 

so of course i lost one of the eduard PE edge pieces, i will look for it but my guess is with all the masking tape i threw away today its gone forever

 

at least they are on opposite sides so it likely wont be noticed.  
 

thats all for now.  Thanks for looking. 
 

Bill

Edited August 15, 2021 by Citadelgrad

[MikeMaben]

Movin' right along Bill 

[Alex]

The cumulative fixes are getting you closer for sure.  Perseverance pays off!  One suggestion, if it were me, I'd try to weather/tone down that red.  It's pretty bright on the cowl (unless that's just an artifact of cell phone color "correction").

[JayW]

Hi Bill - I can so relate to your recent activities - masking ad nauseum, little fixes galore.  Yup.  And also accidentally throwing away little pieces!  Sometimes within minutes of making said little piece.  A long while back we had some discussion on the intercooler exit doors - how to make them, how to position them, how to paint them.   To my eye you have nailed it!  Looks great!  

[Citadelgrad]

4 hours ago, Alex said:

The cumulative fixes are getting you closer for sure.  Perseverance pays off!  One suggestion, if it were me, I'd try to weather/tone down that red.  It's pretty bright on the cowl (unless that's just an artifact of cell phone color "correction").

Hi Alex.  No, its not color correction, the red is RED.   Any ideas how to tone it down?   On a tank, id just slop on a wash over the raw paint, but i dont think thats the way to go here.

3 hours ago, JayW said:

Hi Bill - I can so relate to your recent activities - masking ad nauseum, little fixes galore.  Yup.  And also accidentally throwing away little pieces!  Sometimes within minutes of making said little piece.  A long while back we had some discussion on the intercooler exit doors - how to make them, how to position them, how to paint them.   To my eye you have nailed it!  Looks great!  

Thank you, Jay, i really appreciate the kind words.  I am really happy with how this is coming together.  

[Citadelgrad]

Some daylight shots showing the contrasting red.  I am thinking about a very thin red with black sprayed over this to tone it down?  Will anything else work?

 

 

indirect sunlight

 

it looks a little pink in the photos, to the eye its all red but is a bit bright. 

 

ideas or suggestions as to how to tone this down?

 

thanks

 

Bill

[Alex]

2 hours ago, Citadelgrad said:

Hi Alex.  No, its not color correction, the red is RED.   Any ideas how to tone it down?   On a tank, id just slop on a wash over the raw paint, but i dont think thats the way to go here.

 

I often mix a little light or medium gray into bright colors to give than that worn and scale-faded look.  I also never use pure black for the same reason - always a very dark gray.  I would suggest trying a few mixes of grayed-out red on some scrap plastic to find one you like.  Should be pretty simple to re-tape and overpaint the existing red.

[Citadelgrad]

25 minutes ago, Alex said:

 

I often mix a little light or medium gray into bright colors to give than that worn and scale-faded look.  I also never use pure black for the same reason - always a very dark gray.  I would suggest trying a few mixes of grayed-out red on some scrap plastic to find one you like.  Should be pretty simple to re-tape and overpaint the existing red.

Ill give it a shot, thank you.