Cockpit interior
Now was time to move on to interior cockpit and firewall pieces. Again, I went with Mr. Paint Bronze Green. After a layer of primer the green was laid down, and I must say that this paint performs beautifully from the airbrush. Firewalls were sprayed and then I moved on to the interior fuselage sections and rear decking.
The base color is laid down and then I turned my attention to detail painting bits and pieces. I use a brush here.
I’m now ready to add a gloss coat to assist with washes, so I sprayed a couple of light coats of Alclad Auqua Gloss.
Step one to adding some depth to the cockpit is a wash of AMMO Panel Line Wash in Dark Grey Green. I pin-washed this around details like structural ribbing and other low areas. I allow this to dry in place for about half and hour and then a cotton swab is used to clean up the excess.
I really like the combination of a wash for shadows and dry brushing for highlights. I do not, however, like dry-brushing over a gloss surface. First, it doesn’t seem to stick as well, and also, the subsequent flat coat will kill the effect a bit. So, with this in mind, I like to add the flat coat at this point. My go-to flat is Testors Dullcoat lacquer (the bottled version for airbrushing).
I find that enamels are best for dry-brushing. Though I don’t airbrush with enamels anymore, I do have a stock for this purpose. However, I do usually need to mix up colors I need. I like to use a color that is lighter than the base color. For the interior I mixed up a light green using Model Master Dark Green and White.
I load up the brush with paint, and as the name implies, dry it by wiping on a paper towel until most of the paint is removed. This is brushed over raised details, and now you can really start to sense the depth of parts.