Thanks, John (@johnb) and Spiros (@fiveten). Tail should be green soon. For most of our gifts, my wife and I usually ask each other what we want for birthdays, etc. This may remove some of the personality of the gift, but it keeps us from spending money on gifts that we would rather not have. Works good for me, since I have never been all that creative selecting gifts for my wife. The B-26 took a while to get here, but pre-ordering saves a lot of money.

This is going to look great George (@gblair).

Nicely painted, George @gblair
Looking forward to the NMF.

I decided to pull the trigger on the NMF on this model. Although I really like NMF on a real plane, I have meticulously avoided them on models. The reason is that I am not very good at doing them. I have done a couple NMFs in the past with mixed results, but I decided it was time to try another. After masking the green tail and the anti-glare panel on the nose, I sprayed the NMF using AK Xtreme Metal Duraluminum. I have never used it before, but it appears to be very similar to Alclad. It is a lacquer and is quite thin, which I equate with being fragile. I haven't used a lacquer paint for about 20 years, so I was a little hesitant to use it in my airbrush.

Anyway, I added a few drops of Tamiya Lacquer Thinner to help it flow smoothly, and I found that increased air pressure (about 25 psi) gave me a smoother finish. The key for me was to mist the first two or three layers, and then I could go a little heavier. It looks pretty good, but I plan to let it dry at least 24 hours before I pull off the masking tape and attempt to handle the plane. I also figure I will be using nothing but rubber gloves from now on. I certainly don't want to touch the plane right after I finish some Cheetos.

While I am waiting for the metal to dry, I need to do a little research and see what kind of clear gloss to use over the metal. The tail and anti-glare panel were done using flat paint, so a gloss coat will be mandatory. Cheers everyone.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Excellent NMF, my friend @gblair!

Looking good so far George (@gblair). Natural metal finishes are definitely harder to accomplish, but very satisfying when done to a satisfactory level.I've been wanting to build a P-47N for quite a long time, but keep putting it off because I don't want to do another NMF paint job for awhile. I had mixed results with AK Extreme metal paints. I found them easily peeled off when masking and in one case the finish never really cured and had to be removed.But it does go down nice and most of the time, it looks great.

Hi George and Carl, I use A-STAND from Ammo Mig and some leftover Alclad for NMF finishes.

I always put a layer of Future on the NMF before I start masking. That’ll preserve the very thin layer of lacquer from coming off when the tape is removed.

Future does make the shine of the NMF a little bit less though. @gblair @clipper

I wanted to get some of the preliminary painting out of the way today, so that I could concentrate on some of the additional metallic colors tomorrow.

I had a bottle of Mig Acrylic zinc chromate, so I thinned it for spraying and painted the interior of the gear doors. It didn't work so well for me. Even in thin layers, it pooled into drops on the plastic and refused to cover completely. The dried with a gloss finish, which is interesting for a flat paint. I may strip the paint and use something else.

Work on the plane consisted of painting the fin cap, which is light gray, and the leading edge of the fin cap, which is black. I had already painted the cap with the NMF, but noticed in the decal instructions that the cap was gray. The gray in the instructions is depicted in a color very similar to that used for the NMF, so I almost missed it. I am trying to be very fastidious when working with the plane, which isn't really in my nature. I used rubber gloves to handle the plane, and tried carefully apply the masking tape so that it would be stuck too completely to the plane. So far, so good. I decided to wait until tomorrow to start masking and painting the other metallic colors on the plane. Better to get a fresh start. Cheers everyone.

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.