Thanks for all the positive feedback. This one is finally finished. The various invasion stripes took some effort to mask but they certainly add to the model.

DIY waterslide decals applied. First time I have used them. The printing went well and I thought I had sprayed light coats of lacquer to seal, but they seemed a little stiff when I applied them.

Now on to the other two.

Very nice indeed Ken, regards Paul J.

Awesome workmanship Ken.

Lou

I really like the canopy colour.It looks almost transparent against the grey background! What "grey" is it?
Excellent looking model.
Fraser

Hi Fraser

Unfortunately there is no specific colour for the canopy. It's a mix of Tamiya white with just a drop of black which I airbrushed on follow up with a couple of coats of General Finishes water borne gloss varnish.

-ken

Is General Finish the brand name?

Lou

General Finishes is the manufacturer.

https://generalfinishes.com/wood-finishes-retail/water-based-topcoats-and-sanding-sealer/high-performance-polyurethane-water

I use the water based high performance gloss varnish and thin it down with approximately 20% of the following mixture which I read about on the intranet.
   - 5 mils Golden acrylic flow release agent
   - 30 mils acrylic airbrush medium (Liquitex or equal)
   - 30 mils water

I don't feel comfortable with rattle cans these days as I don't have the control to prevent runs, so I tend to stay with using an airbrush as the sprayer and applying the preceding as a top coat or separation coat. The air brush pressure is set to approximately 20 psi and the airbrush tip is set to provide a wide pattern

I purchased a large spray tip for my badger 350 airbrush as the smaller tips tend to plug up when spraying water based varnish. I don't know how this product compares to Future, but have found it to be the best gloss varnish so far. I've used a couple of the artists gloss varnishes (Golden & Liquitex) but they seem to have a greater tendency to run. I find the mat artist varnishes don't run like the gloss varnishes, so I use these over top of the gloss as a final coat whenever I am looking for a mat finish.

Thank you Ken.

Lou

On to painting the next plane - "Old Crow"

Had some trepidation about painting the checkers. Struggled to develop a stencil with the correct curvature and checker size. Came close. The yellow stencil components can be seen at the top of photo 39. Since they were off a little, I had to augment with small pieces of masking tape as the pattern progressed towards the underside.

Photo shows the finished pattern. The stencils at the top are much sharper than the masking tape, which seemed to bleed a little. I'll try utilizing the stencils on the third one and switch to a different masking tape if I need to augment the stencil pattern.

Looks fantastic Ken.

Lou

Ken ,

Brilliant ! Love your work .

Gordon

Thanks for the painting tips. Great looking models.
Fraser

Continued painting of the second P-51D. Stars and bars painted on fuselage & wings along with the call letters. On to the the next step of laying out the masking for the white background for the invasion stripes and tentative layout of the fuselage and front fuselage paint perimeter..

I found the 1/8" FBS red tape to be almost equivalent to the corresponding Tamiya masking tape, but definitely a better cost value. Laying out the perimeter with the narrow tape has proven to be a better approach than cutting wider tape into narrow strips. I'll attach wider tape when I overlay the masking paper.

FBS tape? Looking very good.
Fraser

Thanks - It's getting there slowly.

FBS is a company which manufacturers various masking products. I have several of their tapes which are vinyl and have found them to be very good at preventing paint bleed along the edges. The adhesive is not too strong and doesn't leave any residue even after being in place for extended periods of time (ie weeks). I've placed a link to a video which shows some of the FBS tapes. They are a little more expensive than the 3M painters tape I have previously used which occasionally did bleed along the edge even after careful burnishing.

I tried the FBS stencil paper on my Silhouette cutter, but found it wanted to curl after being removed from the cutting pad and was difficult to align in the correct location when the pieces were large. So I will stick with my Frisket for most paint stencils and use the FBS stencil paper for camouflage patters etc. and smaller stencils. The FBS stencil paper didn't bleed and was a little more forgiving on compound curve surfaces compared to the Frisket material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3zDOInIex4