The Mr Paints used have a glossy finish that was further enhanced with a quick rub over with some Micromesh in the decal areas. I used a combination of the kit decals for the stencils and the Xtradecals for the main markings. Both performed very well, even the Tamiya ones weren’t that thick for a change.
The props and spinners are multi-piece assemblies. These fit together well and in my case make the painting easy as the red areas were separate parts.
One observation of these aircraft is when they were well used there was lots of exhaust staining around and aft of the superchargers caused by the engines being run lean for fuel conservation. This meant some serious staining in this area. The kit supercharges are Ok and in hindsight I would have stuck with these as the eduard resin replacements proved to be a poor fit (this is unusual for eduard Brassin Parts) and needed to be cut in half and sanded down to get them in place.
Rick says
That’s another awesome model Dave. I’m going to have to give the Maskol chipping a go, it’s a very realistic effect. Regards Rick
Bill Michaels says
Beautiful build! I love the maskol effect with the aluminum paint underneath- that is an idea I am definitely going to use!
One thing I noticed- using the decals for the red warnings near the cockpit afterwards makes them look like they were reapplied freshly on top of the weathered aircraft. (Did they do that? I have no idea.). If not, I wonder if there is a way to make them look equally weathered? Would dabbing little bits of aluminum on them work?
Bill Michaels says
Please understand that my above comment is not meant as a criticism of the build. I’m totally impressed with the results, and will use this article ( with the wonderfully explicit descriptions of the techniques used) on my own effort, and will be pleased with a result that is half as nice. I am asking the above question because I am unsure of what the usual practice was, and also wondering if my idea is a. Not historical; and b. Bound to fail…
davecoward says
Hi Bill,
No issues with your remarks. My thinking was the “NO STEP” on the sliding windows would have been less worn as the whole idea was not to step on them, the ones below would have been a lot more prone to “chipping” with boot toes as they were lower down.
That said in hindsight I would have applied the lower “NO STEP” decals and over wing fuel tank marking before removing the Maskol. This would have given them more consistent wear with the background as the decals over the Maskol would come off when the Maskol was removed giving a consistent wear pattern with the camouflage.
chipping.
Hope this explains my thinking Dave