This build is plodding slowly toward painting and completion. I masked and glued the canopy onto the fuselage. Previous dry-fitting had shown that there would be some large gaps and some ill-fitting areas to take care of. I really like Perfect Plastic Putty for filling and shaping areas around the canopy. If you haven't used it before, it is an thick acrylic putty with with a consistency similar to thick butter. Once you get it in place, you can shape it and clean up the surrounding areas with water. The only problem is that it is a brilliant white color, so you need to be careful when filling areas around a canopy that you don't get areas of white showing through the inside of the canopy. The easiest way I have found to fix this is to mix some dark acrylic paint with the putty, and then apply it around the canopy. If there is any putty showing through the canopy, it will blend with the dark of the cockpit.

I finished mounting the new tailwheel to the rear of the fuselage and added the lower brace. Everything fit well and should be fine after the glue dries.

The last thing I did was to cut the masks for the plane's markings. The die cut machine worked flawlessly and cut a set of masks for the markings I designed for the plane. I figure I will put a primer layer on the plane to make sure everything is read to go, then it will be time to paint. I plan to try some new painting techniques, so it should be fun.

Everyone stay safe. Cheers.

Great progress, George @gblair
You are making fast and beautiful progress on the Ford.
That cutting machine is awesome, another idea to put on my Christmas wishlist.

Started painting today. I started with some bright aluminum from a Vallejo spray can. After that dried, I added a color stripe around the passenger windows. This stripe is present in many of the photos I have found of early trimotor airliners. I wanted to depict this plane as one that the Forestry Department obtained second-hand from an airline. In several pictures, I have noticed that the sides of the rear fuselage are sometimes discolored, I think from removing the former airlines painted name, leaving the metal darker in this area. I plan to try to replicate this.

Next, I sprayed some very diluted Tamiya Panzer Grey along some panel lines. I used masking tape to establish the line, always painting the darkened panel line toward the rear of the plane.

Last, I sprayed some Vallejo Dark Aluminum from the airbrush into the area of the nose engine.

Before I move on to the rest of the painting, I wanted to give everything a chance to get really dry and solid. I am doing a lot of masking, and I don't want to start pulling up the early layers of paint.

Hopefully I will get to some more painting this afternoon. Cheers.

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Absolutely nice and shiny, George @gblair
Tone differences are great.

I just finished the most painful painting session I have had in a long time.

The first step was to add some depth to the existing NMF. I used 2 colors of Vallejo Metals sprayed in the center of panels: Dark Aluminum and Burnt Metal. After I got the look I wanted, which was pretty stark, I covered the top of the wing with Tamiya Clear Gloss. I planned to use some chipping fluid on the top of the wing, so I wanted to be sure that the various metal colors stayed where they were. Metals are notorious for pulling up with masking tape.

Once the gloss was dry, I masked off the area of the wing that would have the high vis panel. I then sprayed some AK Chipping Fluid on the forward area of the wing. Now it was time for the fun part: painting the high vis portion of the wing. At my last visit to the hobby store, I decided to try some AK 3rd Generation Paint for the panel, mainly because they had light, medium, dark, and burnt colors of orange. I had heard good things about this paint, so I didn't expect any problems. When I opened the paint, they had the consistency and feel of the original Vallejo paint. I was a little concerned because I have never successfully airbrushed the original Vallejo paint, but 3rd Gen was supposed to be different. I decided to thin the paint with AK High Compatibility Thinner, which seemed like a good plan, but as soon as the two of them hit my paint cup, they turned into thick mayonnaise. It took 20 minutes to clean the paint out of the cup, but on to attempt #2. This time I tried Tamiya X-20, which seemed to work. I started spraying the medium orange color on the plane, but only got a portion done before the airbrush stopped. I checked the paint cup and found mayo again, except this time it was also in my airbrush. So 40 minutes later, I had dismantled and cleaned my airbrush and the paint cup. Most people would have been smart enough to switch to a different paint, but I wanted to try one more time. This time I used Vallejo Airbrush Thinner, which seemed to work well. I mixed the paint 50/50 with the thinner and got three of the oranges colors sprayed. The only problem was that the airbrush tip would clog every couple of minutes. I tried various flow improving fluids to no avail. I had one more color I wanted to do, but I wasn't going to use 3rd Gen in my airbrush again. For the last color, I used Mig Orange Acrylic mixed with white, and thinned with AK High Compatibility Thinner, which worked great.




Finally done, I ran to my work bench to do the chipping, which works best when used right after applying the paint. I was worried since the painting session took almost two hours. I started by brushing water on the area to be chipped to activate the fluid, and then used a toothpick to guide the chipping a little. A stiff brush dipped in water completed the process.




I figured it would take 30 or 40 minutes to complete the painting and the chipping, but it took over two hours. Like I said, "Best laid plans...". Anyway, next step is to try the masks for the markings that I cut on my wife's die cut machine. Everyone stay safe. Cheers.

Thanks, Louis (@lgardner). I'm looking forward to trying the masks I made on this plane. It seems like the older I get the more I want to build kits that take me back to the "old days". I am trying to reduce the number of kits I am building, since I am still waiting for our new house to get done and I don't want to build a bunch more built kits. We have our fingers crossed that we will close on the house around Christmas, but the builder continues to have problems getting some items. Right now, there are shortages with plumbing items, some lighting items, and some other stuff. We had planned to leave the old fridge with the old house and get a new one, but it is hard to get new fridges right now, so we may have to move the old one.

I have been saving a couple of German planes to build for the group, but I don't know if I will get to them. Anyway, thanks for stopping by. Stay safe. Cheers.

Very challenging steps, George @gblair
The chipping looks awesome, so indeed, the hours spent on this step really paid off.

Great progress on this, George. I agree with your views on weathering. Like you, I do a little bit at a time so as not to overdo it. Fresh eyes give new perspective the next day.