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Billy Smith
19 articles

B-24J Liberator "Kentucky Belle" 1/48

December 18, 2012 · in Aviation · · 6 · 2.7K

This is one of my more recent planes and is my first airbrushed plane. I do not think this is the best plane I have done yet but It came out decent as compared to my first ever built plane.

The things I loved about this plane is the interior was highly detailed and the bomb bays had open doors inside of the plane which I thought was fairly interesting, this plane was also my first time using MicroSOL without MicroSet and I believe I had decent results with it but I learned quickly not to apply the Sol to the plane before setting the decal.

Please crituque! 😀

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2 additional images. Click to enlarge.


6 responses

  1. It's a good-lookin' kit, Billy...the only "crituque" I would suggest would be an appropriate background to make your build 'pop out'. I'm not one to talk, I don't always have a good background either, but I sometimes take mine out on the driveway - I get a plain-lookin' background AND sunlight for the shot. Another alternative would be to get some colored poster paper or even an old sheet to drape behind the model. Just some ideas to bring the viewers eye to your model without a lot of "clutter" in the shot.

  2. Billy,

    Taking a silver/natural metal plane for a first airbrushing project is a daring undertaking, you are a brave man!

    Seriously, a few pointers from me on request. Having started with an airbrush, you will probably have a journey to find consistent setting of pressure and paint thinning ratio that will suit you. My general advice for this journey is: try thinner paint mixtures, lower your pressure, get closer with an airbrush if necessary. I'm guessing that your silver may be a bit more flat in appearance than your paint will allow, this is because the paint particles dry out already on their way to the surface, creating a fine "sandpaper" surface. Again, I'd experiment with lower pressure, thinner mixture and closer to the model.

    Also, I can warmly recommend you to try using masking tape (Tamiya has a very good one to start with). You'll love it.

    Thanks so much for sharing and please bring us more.

  3. Having said that, the decal work is flawless!

  4. I wish my early models had looked this good!

    Following on to what The Editor said, I usually shoot a 50-50 mix of paint/thinner at around 15 psi (good thing to get a pressure regulator for your compressor).

  5. Recently when I tried using my airbrush it was like spitting droplets, what could be causing this? Is the paint over thinned and should it matter if I'm using lacquer thinner with enamels?

    Thanks for the compliments and I'll take all of the recommendations into consideration in my next plane!

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