Finemolds work in progress, part 1
I started the kit this weekend. I decided to try my hand at painting the raised instrument details instead of using decals.
The kit is engineered to support more than one variant. After a little study I clipped the major bits off and cleaned the sprue nibs. The bigger bits I glued together knowing that that I’d prime them later. The smaller bits remained on the sprues for easy handling.
Paints
I mixed up some Tamiya acrylics to make a Dark Gull Gray, the instructions call for FS 36231. Using Mr Color Lacquer Thinner in a ratio of 1:1 I sprayed all the parts this base color. Given that MCLT is a lacquer this is effectively my primer coat.
Once that had dried I got out my paint palette and Vallejo Black, White, and Red and a few drops of thinner — I mix my water based paint thinner by starting with distilled water and then adding 5% by volume of both Liquitex Slo-Dri and Flo-Aid. This works quite well with Vallejo, Pollyscale, and other various water based acrylics. Not so much for Tamiya though.
I first painted each of the panels black, where black was supposed to be. I used the instructions and the decals as my guide. Easy enough. I then mixed a gray that was close to the Tamiya Dark Gull Gray mix and thinned it a lot and used it as a wash (of sorts) to cover any mistakes between the individual instruments and switch panels on the main panels. A little trial and error here but eventually it worked. Then, I went back over the black areas with a drybrush to even that out.
Final paint step was to add the artificial horizon, which was just some white paint on half of the instrument face, then some red to the radar screens. I finished it up with Future floor wax in each instrument to mimic the glass as all the other paints were a nice flat sheen.
Summary
It came out quite well. An evening’s work and while most of it won’t be visible it’s at least as good as the decals. I may add a few nicks from the PrismaColor pencil once it’s in the fuselage but until then I’m ready to move onto the next steps.
Thanks for looking…