Hi Everyone,
I’ve been quite busy building away, and have not been good at updating, sorry. So, I looked at where I was on my P-47 and there’s a paint story here.
Upon completion of the gloss black, which was Mr. Color, I did Mr. Color 218 Aluminum. it was shortly after that I realized my error. If you’re gonna paint other colors, do them first. This is a tip I gleaned from several on-line modelers (Plasmo etc…). The NMF doesn’t hold up so well, even with a great NMF. The learning is do the colors like stripes, antiglare first, then mask them. You’ll be a much happier modeler!
I also ran into a lot of dust getting onto the finish. Turns out sanding with basically a paper towel does not work with this paint, though it should. I found this odd, and as a scientist I continued to experiment instead of dealing with the issue and moving forward.
The Mr. color 218 Aluminum is a great paint! It’s metallic, thus don’t rub so hard! The gloss black does provide a nice background for the patina of the silver to show through, but go gentle and all will be well… After painting the yellow stripes I gave in and called it a fail. Because we’re in a Hangar Queen build I came back…
I removed the NMF but left the yellow stripes. masked the other places and then painted a new gloss black, this time Tamiya gloss black because it was on hand and I think it’s a better primer for any NMF that one will do.
Once done, everything fell into place. I gave her a NMF and then a nice clear coat, still suffered a bit of dust, but moved on none the less.
I decided to do “Smaltzie” that flew out of Cypress in 1944. For a P-47, this meant an antennae wire and a 75 gallon drop tank. The drop tank came from a P-51 kit, and the wire from EZ-Line, The decals came from a book, “P-47 Thunderbolt with the USAAF in the MTO, Asia and Pacific”. It’s a good book, the decals that came with the book were initially suspect to me. I will admit these are some of the finest decals I’ve ever used. They include 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32 scale. If anyone in the community wishes to do one please contact me. They are that good!
I did use a hodge podge of insignia decals and messed up the upper wing by going too big, still my audience won’t notice and this bird won’t be going to a show. Overall, I’m very pleased with how this bird turned out given her start, many iterations, and ultimate completion! Hope you enjoy.
So, it’s on to the next Queen, and in keeping with the P-47 motif, I’m leaning towards a -5 started some time back to try riveting. Stay tuned!