Finally got some painting done. I started by taking the landing gear doors and tacking them into place using some white glue. The invasion stripes will eventually go over parts of the gear doors, so I figured I would put them in place now. I started painting by taking the appropriate Tamiya gray paint and adding about 25% white, then thinned with X20. After painting the underside, I sprayed the unlightened paint in a splotchy pattern over the underside. I then added about 20% black to the mix, and highlighted some panels and panel lines. I used a notecard as a moveable mask to get some sharp lines. I plan to let that dry overnight and then attack the camo on the top of the plane. Yeah!
I am somewhat perturbed by the instructions in the Eduard canopy masks that I got for this plane. The diagram of the various mask pieces has been pulled into wavy shapes. I know they do this to prevent someone from copying the diagrams and making their own masks, but it made the task of finding the appropriate piece of masking difficult. This plane has 5 or 6 different canopies, and they provide masks for all of them. In addition, the only masks for this plane that I could find were the ones that had both outside and inside masks, so there was a lot of chance for confusion.
I also did a little experimentation with the invasion stripes. I sprayed the invasion stripes on a sheet of scrap plastic, and then painted one adjacent area brown and the other green. For the first experiment, I tried adding a ragged edge suing a flat brush and some white Model Air. This shows some promise, but I want to try using a piece of sponge or foam to apply the paint. More tomorrow. Cheers.
7 attached images. Click to enlarge.
