Things were really going well on this build, so I should have known that problems were about to show up. I got the plane ready to paint and headed down to the paint booth. I started by doing some shadowing with black paint, although I didn't think it would be visible after all the colors had been applied. While I had the black loaded in the airbrush, I also painted the canopy framing. I planned to have the canopy open, but I had temporarily tacked the canopy down as a perfectly-sized paint mask. (This proves to be a problem...more on this later).
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The decal instructions have a color diagram for the camouflage, along with the appropriate colors listed by FS number. I pulled the required colors out of the Hataka set I had purchased and started to apply the paints. I had never used Hataka before, and found them to be very easy to use. They are acrylic lacquers, and I used Hataka thinner to prepare them for spraying. They dry quickly and very smooth. Once dry, the surface is very robust and had no trouble handling layers of masking tape. As with many modern camouflages, the colors are very close in shade and sometimes it became difficult to see what had been painted and what hadn't.
When I got all of the colors applied, the darkest color didn't look quite right. I expected a slightly blue-gray color, but the Hataka color was just a darker gray. I thought perhaps the colors listed on the decal diagram were incorrect, but not only did they match the FS numbers in the Hataka set, but they matched the colors I found listed on several sites online. The Hataka color also matches the color chip for the appropriate FS number. I checked several photos of this camouflage online, and in some photos the color looks gray, and in others it has a blue tint. In the end, I decided to just stick to the color that is currently on the plane.
The next step was to spray some Tamiya clear gloss onto the plane in preparation for the decals. My hobby table and my spray booth are in different rooms, one floor and about 30 steps apart. When I arrived at the paint booth, I discovered that my temporarily tacked canopy had become untacked somewhere. I have spent the last couple of days in search of my MIA canopy, but no luck. I have called off the search parties. I figure my cat has probably added my canopy to her hidden stash of shiny stuff. I do have a 2nd Mirage F.1C kit which I had planned to sell in the consignment section of my local hobby shop, but I guess this kit just became the solution to my missing canopy.
After the clear had dried 24 hours, I applied the decals. I had used XtraDecals before and thought they were a bit thick. This sheet of decals was the exact opposite. They were very thin and had a propensity to fold back on themselves. I managed to get most of the decals on the model, but several of the don't walk stripes proved impossible to apply without folding. These stripes are not visible on several of the online photos I found, so I don't feel too bad about their demise.
That's it for now. After the decals dry for 24 hours, I will apply some semi-gloss to seal the decals, and then some light weathering. Everyone stay safe. Cheers.
