Greif8 Posted May 15, 2022 Author Share Posted May 15, 2022 Made some progress yesterday. The scheme my daughter chose needs to have a red/yellow checkered section around the forward part of the fuselage. The spinner is red and yellow. Test fitting the decals showed they were not going to be a good fit; so I decided to make my own masks and airbrush the checkered pattern. I also buffed out the base coat of the paint job with an eye towards setting up a bit of a highlight and shadow effect that I'll enhance later. That turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag, but I think it will be a good base for later weathering. Ernest Step 1: Masking off, always a challenge with curved surfaces. I used some elastic tape for the job. Step 2: Spray the base color. As we all know yellow and red are notorious for their poor coverage. I laid down a coat of Alclad II polished aluminium to help get better coverage, and to add a little "pop" to the tone. The yellow is MRP RLM 04 - Maybe 8th Fighter Command got their hands on some Luftwaffe stock. Step 3: Masking off for the second color. I cut 3mm (mostly) pieces of Tamiya tape and then placed them to form a checker pattern. The curvature of the nose made this something of a challenge, and to be honest I should have cut several pieces somewhat asymmetrical to allow for the curvature, but the end result turned out to be decent. And the final result. Not perfect, and I'll have to touch up a couple of spots, but it turned out better than I expected. I was concerned about getting the lower forward area to look decent as the curvature here is surprisingly complex, curving in two directions. I did not get it perfect, but it looks good enough - except under the macro lenses of course! The nose in two colors. This and the following shots show the base coat after buffing. Dpgsbody55, LSP_Kevin, coogrfan and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayovan Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 Very nice Ernest. Great job on the red and yellow checkerboard. Andy Greif8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 Great job on the yellow and red markings. The real ones were far from perfect in reality, so any irregularity is more authentic! Alain Greif8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 Superb job, Ernest! I'm stalled on the red/yellow sections of my own Mustang build. Yours turned out brilliantly! Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted May 16, 2022 Author Share Posted May 16, 2022 17 hours ago, Ayovan said: Very nice Ernest. Great job on the red and yellow checkerboard. Andy Thank you Andy, the mask and paint turned out better than I expected. Ernest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted May 16, 2022 Author Share Posted May 16, 2022 16 hours ago, Alain Gadbois said: Great job on the yellow and red markings. The real ones were far from perfect in reality, so any irregularity is more authentic! Alain Thank you Alain. Making my own masks, even simple ones like the checkerboard ones, is not one of my better skills. So it is good to know that the real ones were not absolute perfection so mine fit right in. Ernest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted May 16, 2022 Author Share Posted May 16, 2022 15 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said: Superb job, Ernest! I'm stalled on the red/yellow sections of my own Mustang build. Yours turned out brilliantly! Kev Thank you Kev! I thought about how to get an acceptable look and had a couple of false starts before producing the final result. It is certainly not perfect, but I think it gets the job done. Ernest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc65 Posted May 16, 2022 Share Posted May 16, 2022 wow, the nose job is absolutely believable, congratulations! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom2 Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 Stunning nose job! Stefan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted May 26, 2022 Author Share Posted May 26, 2022 On 5/17/2022 at 12:05 AM, mc65 said: wow, the nose job is absolutely believable, congratulations! Thank you Paolo! Ernest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted May 26, 2022 Author Share Posted May 26, 2022 On 5/18/2022 at 3:40 PM, Phantom2 said: Stunning nose job! Stefan Thank you Stefan! Ernest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted May 26, 2022 Author Share Posted May 26, 2022 After another week long business trip I got back to the bench last night. I ended up using masks for the U.S. insignia as the three different sets of decals I tried all turned out to be slightly translucent. Masking the insignia was a concentration intensive process with a lot of adjustments. Airbrushing was pretty straight forward and the end product turned out acceptable. I mixed my own insignia blue in an attempt to give it a slightly faded shade. After the paint cured I decided to use 4000 - 8000 grade buffing pads to give the paint a worn and faded appearence; I did this for the entire model in fact. The end result turned out ok, though I now have to do a few minor touch up where I got a bit aggressive while rubbing the surface. The sharp eyed amongest you will notice the tail wheel is now askew. I managed to knock it loose while handling the plane and now have what looks like a "fiddle fest" in front of me to get it positioned and secured again. (sigh) I'll do that after decaling though. Ernest Landrotten Highlander, LSP_Kevin, Phantom2 and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted May 26, 2022 Share Posted May 26, 2022 Nice work, Ernest! I'm about to embark on my own wrestling match with paint masks. Kev Greif8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc65 Posted May 26, 2022 Share Posted May 26, 2022 the rendering of the painted and then sanded signs is wonderful, I regret not having painted mine! but on the other hand, if one is lazy ... Greif8 and Ayovan 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted May 27, 2022 Author Share Posted May 27, 2022 23 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said: Nice work, Ernest! I'm about to embark on my own wrestling match with paint masks. Kev Thank you Kev! I finished decaling the build last night and will try to take and post some photos later today. Ernest LSP_Kevin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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