Here is the latest progress on the labor-intensive P-51D. I finished cutting the wave pattern in the frisket film and test fitted it to the fuselage still with paper backing.
I had to remove quite a bit of masking and fit the engine cover panels at this stage in painting. Then I finally laid the frisket down. It is so thin and clear that it is practically invisible unless the light catches it just right.
I made sure it was secure with bits of masking tape here and there. Final masking to do the upper fuselage OD was done with paper, tape and silly putty to cover any areas not masked by the frisket film.
I applied Gunze US Olive Drab No. 1 - my favorite shade of OD for WW II aircraft.
The results were pretty successful.
The only area where I lost metal coat was the starboard side of the vertical stabilizer. I made the mistake of using too much masking tape on that part. Sigh.
-
1. The only places that the metal color lifted were on the vertical stabilizer. It's a pain but fairly easily fixable on a limited surface area. Must avoid masking tape wherever possible.
I will have to strip those sections down to plastic and redo them. No big deal, just time consuming and fiddly. Next up will be the OD on the wings. I plan to mask the work I have done on the fuselage as necessary with paper and silly putty. I don't want any more damage to the metal areas. I will do post shading with Chris Wauchop's method, using dilute Tamiya Smoke and lightened shades of the OD here and there. Never done this before but it seems the best way to avoid all the handling that could come from clear coats and oil washes. Got to deal with this bare metal stuff very carefully. I stuck the unfinished prob assembly on with silly putty.
Silly maybe, but I find it is motivating to get an idea what this will look like in the end by adding the prop. Got to avoid losing energy on this project even with all the little jobs and setbacks to cope with.
