My wife and daughter are gone today and tomorrow at a quilting and crafting convention, so I wanted to get as much done as I could while they are gone. I prepped everything for painting, and then created a mask for the dark grey. I am not very good at getting good transitions between camo colors, especially in 1/72. In addition, it was important that the white area behind the large fuselage national markings were in the correct place and the right size. Arma was nice enough to print the painting guides for the 5 possible planes in 1/72, so it was just a matter of copying the diagram and then cutting a mask with scissors. It quickly became obvious that I would only be able to mask and paint one side of the fuselage at a time. So I masked the left side and fired up my airbrush.
The mask worked, but it was difficult and cumbersome to actually use the mask. In addition, I would have to paint the sides in at least two sessions. I decided to try free-styling the dark camo. I thinned the Tamiya paint till it was fairly thin, changed the spray tip on my Passche H to the finest spray I had. I dialed down the pressure to about 12 PSI, and attacked the gray camo. I was fairly happy with the results, but I made the circular white area behind the fuselage national insignia too small. I cut a small mask for just the circular area using the photocopied diagrams I had previously made. These were smaller than the previous masks, so I was able to hold them by hand and create the circular white area I needed. I let the paint dry for several hours, and then sprayed the model with Tamiya Clear Gloss in preparation for decals. The gloss will dry overnight, and then we can see how well the kit decals work. Cheers.
6 attached images. Click to enlarge.
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1. 1/72 mask for the dark gray.
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1. Gray painted and masked in preparation for the white paint. The paper mask is taped in place.
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1. Paper mask worked OK, but the white circular area was too small, and the demarcation was a little fuzzy in places.
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1. In case you aren't familiar with antique single-action airbrushes, this is a Passche H that I have had for at least 40 years.
2. This engraved band tells you how big the nozzle is. One band is fine spray, while 5 bands would be a much larger pattern of spray.
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1. I made another pass at the demarcation with some very thin dark gray. Looks better now.
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1. Paper mask used to repaint the circular area in the correct size.
