MikeC

I've been working on this since the last update. Silver sprayed on the wings - Tamiya X-11 - and masked up for the metal. I mentioned my patent I-don't-use-metallisers natural metal. This is simply Tamiya XF16 and a splash of XF19 grey mixed 1:1 with X22 Gloss, then thinned to within an inch of its life and sprayed at low pressure. Varying the mix by adding more grey or a darker grey (again, just a splash) allows colours to be varied. It works for me. I allowed it to cure for a few days, and diverted myself with a 1:72 Airfix Spitfire Ia (I'd forgotten just how tiny a 1:72 Spit is!) and a couple of its large-scale Revell brethren - as if I hadn't got enough on the go already, my WIPs are nearly in double figures!! The next colour was to be black, and that involved a lot of masking for invasion stripes, ID stripes on the tail, and codes and serials. The masking was spread over three or four days, and was followed by about 15-20 minutes spraying. Once this masking comes off, I'll do the blue for the national insignia, then it's time for the nose art and chequered nose band.

[Excuse me, just sweeping the cobwebs away from this thread] Some progress: after cleaning up the emergent-work seams etc I re-did the grey undercoat, then sprayed white where the invasion stripes, nose band and national insignia will go. Having masked those out with the masks I cut and oodles of Tamiya tape ... ... I sprayed some X1 gloss black where the silver (wings) and NM will go. Since then I've sprayed and masked the O/D anti-glare panel, and done the lacquered areas of the wings with X11 silver. Next job, my patent I-don't-use-metallisers natural metal.

Well I thought I was going to make a start on painting "The Comet" this week, but the undercoat has thrown up a few seams that need a bit more work. So please bear with. I'm thinking that I'll lay down some white first for the invasion stripes, national insignia and nose band; then do the main metal finish over a gloss black undercoat; then take the rest of the markings from there.

I have a Portrait 3, it does all I need it to. And

Hi Piet, welcome aboard.

Hi Marvin, welcome aboard.

What Kevin said. Plus there's a fair chance that the markings under said masks - which of course will not benefit from the clear coat - will end up with a different sheen, and thus you'll negate one of the very reasons we paint markings in the first place.

Hi Jens,

Great job Max. 👍

Good recovery Max, hang in there.

I found the same thing, but I'm now finding that like most things it gets easier and better with practice and growing confidence.

My Portrait 3 can do 4" lettering in 1/32, so 0.13", which is also a 6" serial in 1:48. Have a look at a test spray towards the end of this post, in particularly the "Royal Navy" legend and see what you think. https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/90601-p-51d-5na/&do=findComment&comment=1300034

Hello and . It is certainly fun, and you have the satisfaction of creating a model that is probably unique.

Hi Oscar, . It's quiet here, but we are a friendly bunch.

Thank you Gene, glad you're enjoying it. I'll have a look at doing that, but I'm not sure how, so bear with me while I work that out.

The following may seem off-topic and a bit of a long story, but please bear with me. However, for the more sensitive mask-users among us please note that it contains several references to "the 'D' Word" More years ago than I care to remember, in the late 1960s, my local model shop where I grew up carried a small stock of aftermarket decals: most of them were aimed at the flying model fraternity, but there were a few sheets that suited 1/72 model aeroplanes. I soon discovered the joys of going off-piste and doing a subject not in the box - or more usually the Airfix bag. A bit later I discovered Modeldecals, sold by Modeltoys in Portsmouth. Much later I found myself moving to Portsmouth for work, and Modeltoys was my local hobby shop. Aftermarket decal heaven! Fast forward many years, and I was occasionally venturing into the box subjects if I fancied said subject, but generally I still liked to know that I had made a model that was a bit different. The drawback was, of course, that anyone else who had bought the same aftermarket sheet may have picked the same subject. So coming up to date, having got into making my own masks, it feels good to know that I can make what is likely to be a truly unique model. For me that is a small part of enjoying my hobby (although I dread to think what it says to a psychologist about my ego). Whilst I do not claim a fully comprehensive knowledge of every decal sheet ever released, I was pretty sure that "The Comet" had never been done in a decal sheet. So I designed and cut my masks, as seen above, and then, recently, I stumbled across THIS! https://www.eduard.com/out/media/D32013.pdf Yes, it has "The Comet" on it! This has given me a dilemma. To abandon this subject and find another truly unique one: perhaps "Duchess of Manhattan" from the 361st, my reserve subject. It does not tick the box of a lesser-known fighter group, but in all other respects is interesting, and I don't know of any decals for it. The other option is to carry on and not waste the work I've done so far. So that's where I am at the moment. It's interesting that Eduard's interpretation has the name and artwork on both sides of the nose. I don't have or know of any photos of the starboard side nose. Looking at the design of the wording and the artwork, it just looks wrong to me to have the art going "backwards" on the aeroplane. But the "THE" seems designed to accommodate the comet artwork, so putting it in front on the starboard side would also seem not quite right. So my interpretation was, and still is, to put the nose art on the port side only. But I think I'll stick with "The Comet". After all, the Eduard sheet also has a couple of 20th FG birds, a Blue-Nosed Bodney resident and "Lou IV", so I suspect "The Comet" will be the least popular. In any case, I will know I did it with masks. At the moment I'm still working on the cockpit interior, so another post here may be some time. But until I do, thanks for staying with me and reading my ramblings.

This is looking really good.

Nicely done, in particular a superb Pony.

That looks really good, well done.

What a contrast between the two incarnations. Great work.

A great idea, nicely executed.

I'm a bit late catching up, but hi Steve, good to see you here.

Here's the plain - no checks - nose band, cut into paper and tested against the model. It's not perfect, but good enough: I can make any minor adjustments at the painting stage. As that's OK, I'll call a halt on the masking work for now, and actually get on with building something to put them on. More in due course; thanks for the interest and encouragement.

The nose bands were started as a trace off the kit decals, and this quickly proved a non-starter for various reasons, so I bit the bullet and started from scratch. I taped a piece of paper around the nose, making sure that it conformed to the curves without creasing in the nose band area, drew the edges, and scanned it, noting the top edge to avoid confusion later. Then used the trace software to draw it out Then: - refined it; - cut it on paper; - tried it on the model; - repeat until satisfied - which is not yet, although I'm getting there. Yes, well spotted, it is only half a nose-band: once I've got one half right, I can just mirror it.

Yes, and I like something unusual, so I'm now in Eighth AF Enthusiast Heaven!