Arma Hobby 1:72 FM-2 Wildcat
Discussion
I started this one last year but prior to painting it got packed up with the rest of our hobby room to dress the house for sale. Having got the hobby room in the new house up and running recently I thought I'd get it finished off.
It's my third aircraft build since getting back into the hobby, as I tend to have a long term ship project on the go at the same time. Each one I've done has felt like a huge step forward since the previous one, and on this model I finally managed to get the decals down without silvering! I really struggled with that on the previous two completed builds. I am trying to focus on improving on one particular thing which each build.
This time I sprayed a gloss clear coat before putting the decals down which helped enormously- albeit I never thought to thin the clearcoat before spraying so it went on rather thick in places. I corrected this for the final matt clear coat.
The only real issue I had with the decals this time was the residue of from the micro sol / set leaving dark marks where it had dried beyond the outline of the decal. The matt clear coat did mask this to a degree but it's something I'm going to try and avoid next time. I think I was so focussed on getting the decals to sit properly and not silver, that I didn't pay to much attention to the excess solution sitting on the rest of the model
Model was primed / painted with Tamiya acrylics.
Next up is Tamiya's 1:72 P-47 Razorback (just been primed), and the Airfix 1:72 Victor which is on about coat number 5 of white paint, trying to get a decent anti-flash white finish.
It's my third aircraft build since getting back into the hobby, as I tend to have a long term ship project on the go at the same time. Each one I've done has felt like a huge step forward since the previous one, and on this model I finally managed to get the decals down without silvering! I really struggled with that on the previous two completed builds. I am trying to focus on improving on one particular thing which each build.
This time I sprayed a gloss clear coat before putting the decals down which helped enormously- albeit I never thought to thin the clearcoat before spraying so it went on rather thick in places. I corrected this for the final matt clear coat.
The only real issue I had with the decals this time was the residue of from the micro sol / set leaving dark marks where it had dried beyond the outline of the decal. The matt clear coat did mask this to a degree but it's something I'm going to try and avoid next time. I think I was so focussed on getting the decals to sit properly and not silver, that I didn't pay to much attention to the excess solution sitting on the rest of the model
Model was primed / painted with Tamiya acrylics.
Next up is Tamiya's 1:72 P-47 Razorback (just been primed), and the Airfix 1:72 Victor which is on about coat number 5 of white paint, trying to get a decent anti-flash white finish.
Looks fine! I’m after their 1:72 Airacobra.
If you can get hold of some Klear, put a dab of it on the model before putting the decal in place - that will pretty much eliminate silvering.
Re. The white paint on the Victor - Use Tamiya’s White Fine Surface primer, it covers really well. Then you should only need a couple of top coats of the right shade of white. You can decant the primer into the airbrush to get a really thin coat if necessary.
If you can get hold of some Klear, put a dab of it on the model before putting the decal in place - that will pretty much eliminate silvering.
Re. The white paint on the Victor - Use Tamiya’s White Fine Surface primer, it covers really well. Then you should only need a couple of top coats of the right shade of white. You can decant the primer into the airbrush to get a really thin coat if necessary.
dr_gn said:
Looks fine! I’m after their 1:72 Airacobra.
If you can get hold of some Klear, put a dab of it on the model before putting the decal in place - that will pretty much eliminate silvering.
Re. The white paint on the Victor - Use Tamiya’s White Fine Surface primer, it covers really well. Then you should only need a couple of top coats of the right shade of white. You can decant the primer into the airbrush to get a really thin coat if necessary.
I've heard lots of people mention Klear- will have to see if I can find some, cheers. I did find the Tamiya gloss clear coat worked pretty well for this.If you can get hold of some Klear, put a dab of it on the model before putting the decal in place - that will pretty much eliminate silvering.
Re. The white paint on the Victor - Use Tamiya’s White Fine Surface primer, it covers really well. Then you should only need a couple of top coats of the right shade of white. You can decant the primer into the airbrush to get a really thin coat if necessary.
On the Victor i used Tamiya grey primer (airbrushed- i always decant it) then tried some subtle panel line pre-shading in Nato black. The white is thin anyway but even more so when thinned for spraying, so obviously its taking quite a few coats to overcome the darker base, and obviously a coat on the Victor isn't a 5 min job! I'll put a picture up in a bit. I will definitely take your advice though and use the white primer when i do the Valiant- lesson learned!
Squirrelofwoe said:
dr_gn said:
Looks fine! I’m after their 1:72 Airacobra.
If you can get hold of some Klear, put a dab of it on the model before putting the decal in place - that will pretty much eliminate silvering.
Re. The white paint on the Victor - Use Tamiya’s White Fine Surface primer, it covers really well. Then you should only need a couple of top coats of the right shade of white. You can decant the primer into the airbrush to get a really thin coat if necessary.
I've heard lots of people mention Klear- will have to see if I can find some, cheers. I did find the Tamiya gloss clear coat worked pretty well for this.If you can get hold of some Klear, put a dab of it on the model before putting the decal in place - that will pretty much eliminate silvering.
Re. The white paint on the Victor - Use Tamiya’s White Fine Surface primer, it covers really well. Then you should only need a couple of top coats of the right shade of white. You can decant the primer into the airbrush to get a really thin coat if necessary.
On the Victor i used Tamiya grey primer (airbrushed- i always decant it) then tried some subtle panel line pre-shading in Nato black. The white is thin anyway but even more so when thinned for spraying, so obviously its taking quite a few coats to overcome the darker base, and obviously a coat on the Victor isn't a 5 min job! I'll put a picture up in a bit. I will definitely take your advice though and use the white primer when i do the Valiant- lesson learned!
You might consider pre-shading the white with Tamiya Smoke. It won’t subsequently take another 1000 coats of thinned white to cover it. I think I used that on my wood grain Mosquito to pre-shade the white base coat.
dr_gn said:
I once built a Sunderland and must have got through five bottles of Vallejo Air white before it covered.
You might consider pre-shading the white with Tamiya Smoke. It won’t subsequently take another 1000 coats of thinned white to cover it. I think I used that on my wood grain Mosquito to pre-shade the white base coat.
I'll give that a try next time definitely, cheers.You might consider pre-shading the white with Tamiya Smoke. It won’t subsequently take another 1000 coats of thinned white to cover it. I think I used that on my wood grain Mosquito to pre-shade the white base coat.
Funnily enough i also have a Sunderland in the stash, along with a TU-160 Blackjack too... i'm a bit of a sucker for a white finish on aircraft. Looks like i need to stock up on white paint!
This is how the Victor is looking after 4-5 thin white coats:
dr_gn said:
It's looking good. Personal preference but I'd put a few more thin coats on it, but even as it is it looks weathered without being OTT - depending on the look you're going for.
Yep definitely going to put at least another couple of thin coats on, whilst I want to retain some tonal variation I think it still needs to be a bit whiter!Gassing Station | Scale Models | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff