Welcome to the land of one step forward and one step back. I hoped to be almost done today, but problems have come up over the last couple of days that seem to move me farther away from completion. A couple of days ago I had painted the white area on the top of the nose, only to have a phantom seam pop up. I filled it with Tamiya filler and then resanded it. I had just finished reapplying the white today when I noticed the seam was still there. More Tamiya filler, probably 7 or 8 times the amount needed (just to be sure).
I have chosen a new paint scheme for this plane. It is an interim paint scheme used on the QF-86. The early paint scheme was mainly NMF with no colored panels, and the later paint scheme was NMF with red/orange on the nose, the tail, the wingtips, and the tips of the elevators. The interim scheme is mostly NMF, but it has orange/red on the nose and tail. The main thing is I found the decals I needed in my stash of decals. Yeah!
In the midst of the seam problem, I noticed in photos that the camera on the nose extends farther than mine. I drilled out the old plastic piece I had added, and then began prepping another piece of plastic. I wanted to drill out the center of the plastic rod so it would look better. I didn't have any trouble on the first plastic rod I used, but after several attempts today, I had failed to get the center of the plastic drilled out. I found some brass tube that was the right size and installed it in the model. Much easier when you don't have to drill the center out.
The next thing I noticed was a small panel directly under the front of the windscreen. I had pretty much sanded the entire area flat. It is fairly noticeable in photos, so I started looking for something that would be easy to use. Thin plastic is the obvious answer, but I found something else in my wife's hobby room. I was in there talking to her when I noticed she had two packs of something called Tamiya PLA Paper. I had never heard of it, but it is basically a form of plastic paper. She had a pack of .1mm and another of .2mm. This stuff is really cool because it is very thin and pliable like paper, but you can glue it using regular plastic cement. She had never used it and didn't want it anymore, so it quickly found its way onto my workbench. I cut a suitable piece of .1mm to size and replaced the missing piece on the model.
I fired up the airbrush and repainted the nose area with white. It was at this point that I decided to change my painting plan. I wanted to add the paint and markings just like the real airplane. The plane I have decided to do has some faded red/orange panels, so I decided to remove all of the white I had already painted, spray the natural metal finish overall, then add the red and white panels on top of the NMF. I know this is taking a chance, but the AK Xtreme seemed bulletproof on my last F86, so I plan to mask over it and see what happens.
That's it for today. Tomorrow I want to spray the NMF, followed by the red and white panels on Friday.
5 attached images. Click to enlarge.
