Finally finished the second Crusader.

Struggled with painting the stars and bars. For some reason, some of the blue ran when the clear coat was applied. The blue had dried several days before applying the water based clear. In any event, it's just a slight run.

Control surfaces and white underside of fuselage coated with gloss clear. Remainder of fuselage coated with a blend of 80% matte and 20% semi gloss clear. This seems to result in a smoother matte surface than applying straight matte.

Excellent models! Very clean. Is everything painted except the lettering?

Excellent results.

Louis

Thanks Louis and Jordan for positive review.

To answer Jordan's question.Everything is painted with the exception of the smaller black lettering which are DIY decals. The large black lettering on the tails "NP" and "NF" were airbrushed using a stencil cut on my Silhouette cutter. The stars and bars were also painted using several stencils to mask and unmask specific colours.

Very nice! One day I might try making and painting my own markings. For now I'll keep admiring your work!

Thanks for the compliment Jordan.

Painting the markings can become a costly endeavour. It requires the use of an air brush, associated compressor and stencil cutter. I purchased a single stage air brush and compressor many years ago. If you are intending to be a long term modeller it's the cheapest and most versatile way to go vs the ongoing cost of rattle cans and sometimes limited colour selection. I subsequently purchased a used Silhouette craft cutter a few years ago to cut out the stencils.

But the most cost effective way is to simply create your own decals. I think you are already using decals for your larger markings. For small markings you can use a screen capture program and a graphics program to tidy up/resize the captured image if required. I use Inkscape, but there are many other programs available.

Your models are well carved and painted!! Adding smaller decal details can take the finished model to the next level with very little effort. I was amazed how the back end of the fuselage seemed to "pop" when I added the decals.But I also have to keep in mind, most of my models are 1/32 or 1/48 scale. The crusaders are 1/48 scale.

Thank you for your compliment! I do have an airbrush and small compressor from my plastic model days. I used it on my Thunderbolt. I just have a limited supply of paints for it at the moment. I have some of the old Model Master acrylic paints, which I have sadly learned are no longer made. I haven't looked into what to use as a replacement yet. I've been looking into airbrushing with craft paints and have gotten responses on here in that regard. I have purchased decal paper and plan on making the decals for my Skyraider. I appreciate everyone's willingness to share methods and ideas!

Sorry to hijack your build thread. Once again, the crusaders look awesome!

Both models are magnificent.

Gordon