I was hoping to try to get some painting in today, but the humidity was about 90% and my air compressor was not happy about that. So I got back to all the little things that always seem to pile up near the end of a build.

Main gear wheels were painted. Not weathered yet. The True Details wheels are a thousand times better than the kit items and will make a difference in the way the model looks. They were a little too flat, though, so I did a little filing to correct that. Nose gear assembly was started. That can go on after the airplane is painted, but it won't be fun.

Props were started. Lots of flash cleanup on those. The prop dome is going to be white with blue stripes. I have no idea yet how I'm going to do that but it will probably require nerves of steel, a steady hand and a beer or two. Or three...or maybe some of that stuff that Seamus drinks...

Cowlings, cockpit canopy and the turret glass were installed. Canopy was masked and attached with my favorite canopy glue, RC-56. Good stuff. I was happy to find that the dome is basically frameless on Martin electric turrets, so no painting needed there. The blue cowl stripes were masked off and the cowlings installed. I have some seam cleanup yet to do, and I'll try again next week to get her painted. Now I'm going to go have some grandpa time!

Neil, you can move this to the WIP section if you need to.

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

I was happy to see there are still a few of us left here in this group. Now I don't feel so bad!

Spent the afternoon masking all the glass and bits and pieces that aren't going to be airplane colored. Then I shot the neutral gray undersides. It started raining just as I was getting started, but I didn't get any water spitting out of the airbrush, so I was happy. Toward the end of the session, the gun started acting up, which turned out to be that it needed a full disassembly and cleaning. That worked out ok, because I ran out of laquer thinner doing that.

All the remaining bits have been assembled. I decided not to use the aftermarket nosewheel, as it and the kit part look the same. The difference is that the resin piece is too narrow for the nose strut forks.

Long road trip next weekend, so she'll have to wait until I get back for the OD...

Been a busy weekend. Just got back from a quick trip home to far west Texas. It's about 800 miles one way, so we saw just about the entire state. We were there two days and the high temps were 105F the first day and 107F the second. During a fuel stop in Ft. Stockton, it was a balmy 112!

The A-20 is now painted. I shot the OD early this afternoon, then spent three hours masking the model off again to paint the dark green patches on the leading and trailing edges of the wings and stabilizer. It was 95 here today, with humidity in the upper 70's. It is definitely affecting the paint, especially since I have a climate controlled (the climate outside controls the climate inside) garage. I use lacquer thinner to thin the paint, and as a result of that and the heat, the paint is almost dry when it comes out of the airbrush. I've been playing with air pressure and thinner ratios, but haven't hit on a solution yet. I ran out of daylight, so I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.

It just dawned on me that I spent four hours painting dark green mottles on the airplane and will be covering most of them up with invasion stripes...

Looks good Jaime. I like this scheme, which is going to look great with the stripes.

I didn't have as much time this weekend as I had hoped to do airplane stuff, but I did get the black invasion stripes masked and painted. Going to try to do a little more tonight after work.

Stripes!

Finally got the invasion stripes masked and painted. All of the photos I found of this group's airplanes showed ragged and hurriedly applied stripes, and I was also able to find a few pics of ground crews brushing the stripes on. For me, airbrushing them just didn't seem right, so I applied them using acrylic paint and a soft brush. It took a little experimentation to get the paint thinned so it would go on relatively smoothly. Freehanding them would have looked a little too rough, so I masked the edges with blue painters tape. This particular airplane for some reason didn't have upper fuselage stripes, which was ok with me! I think I got the look I was after.

These airplanes also seem to be pretty beat up, so I tried mixing the OD upper color with a lighter green and drybrushing it onto some of the more worn areas. That came out pretty good also, but it's hard to see in the photos.

Decals next...

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Thanks, Seamus! I'll get her done eventually...

Here is a bit of a mystery for all you aviation buffs out there. The inspiration for my stripes was this photo:

http://www.militaryfactory.com/imageviewer/ac/pic-detail.asp?aircraft_id=186&sCurrentPic=pic6

There are what appear to be either white stripes or white tape on the fin to fuselage and stabilizer to fuselage joint, and also on the fuselage just ahead of the windscreen. Photos of the 410th Group's airplanes show some to have these markings, while others do not. Does anyone have any idea what they are? The ones on the tail might have something to do with the rear gunner, though I think they would be hard to see from his vantage point. Any thoughts would be appreciated...

I think masking up a slightly ragged edge and brush painting those stripes is probably the best way to go, I found lots of pictures of the stripes being applied by brush and without much finesse ,they were never intended to be permanent.
Coming on nicely Jaime,N.