P-51D Mustang

[Model Maker]

Sorry Biggles for not replying sooner. Yes, there are three P-51's on the "elf bench".

After priming the two (white and natural finishes in the picture above) with the water based alkyd primer, I finally had some time wet sanded both today. Am I impressed with this product!! It wet sands wonderfully and has a good build thickness as well. Maybe not quite as thick a build as the Zinser primer, but the finish is great. Just like the old slow dry alkyd primers. I can't comment on other brands, but this Dulux brand (made by AkzoNobel) is certainly great stuff. I'd highly recommend it to those folks looking for an alternate to the rattle can primers who would like to go with a water based cleanup. I see from the Web, that AkzoNobel paints go by different brands in various countries, so hopefully if you wish to try it, it's available. It's drying time between coats is approximately 2 hrs. I'd let it dry at least 24 hrs before wet sanding. But you can certainly paint two or three coats in a day.

Next step is to apply a couple of coats of grey to the two planes currently painted with white primer and a final grey coat on the one already painted grey with the Zinser primer. In reading how aluminum finishes highlight all imperfections, I'm a little paranoid about sanding out all blemishes in the primer before applying the finish coats.

Dare I say - I'm a Happy Camper - At least today

[Model Maker]

Struggling a little bit with the control surface lines. I scribed them on one model so we'll have to see how it goes. In searching the Internet, some plastic modellers tape the control surface lines and then apply paint to create a recessed line when the tape is removed. Thought I'd give that a try as well.

I've completed the primer build up to remove blemishes etc. so before I perform the final wet sanding, I'll brush on a couple more coats of primer and then perform the final sanding which should result in a slight recess after the tape is removed. I used Lou's trick of placing a lined piece of paper under a glass plate to cut the tape to a consistent width. It's a little wide at 1/32", but we'll see what we can do with the airbush after the aluminum paint is sprayed on.

[lastvautour]

Great looking Mustang Ken. You have captured the spirit of the aircraft.

Lou

[Biggles]

Very nice.
Biggles

[Model Maker]

Hard to believe these planes have been sitting in my basement for over 3 years, patiently waiting to be painted!

This is my first time spraying a model with metallic paint and all the stories which I read are correct. Metallics show up ALL the imperfections. Even though I thought I had sanded everything well, there were still some blemishes. Oh well, I'll have to change the addage of measure twice and cut once to sand 4 times and then sand 4 more times, next time I work on a model painted with a metallic finish.

I deviated from the normal model paints and used AutoAir silver and fine aluminum metal paints. The wings are painted silver and the fuselage and stabilizers are painted with the fine aluminum The paint sprayed well using the large air tip on my air brush. I think the medium tip would have plugged off quickly with the fine metallic particles in the paint. I was a little worried about how the control surface outlines would appear, but am pleasantly surprised with the results of laying down very narrow pieces of masking tape and building up the primer layers around the tape.

I've painted all three models with the same base coat metallic paints and over-sprayed with a coat of acrylic varnish to act as a separator for the next finishing steps. I've tentatively selected three different planes to model so we'll see how my masking  and airbrushing skills support my selections

[lastvautour]

Great metallic finish.

Lou

[Boomerang]

Looking Good.

Gordon

[Model Maker]

Finally have some time to work on this trio.

First one will be hopefully a reasonable facsimile of "Ferocious Frankie". Having laid down the aluminum base, I've added the green to the various fuselage and wing locations. Next is to start the masking process for the bars and stars, invasion stripes and other items. I have an old generation silhouette cutter which I picked up used on Kijiji a while ago which I use to create the paint masks.

First photo shows the mask cutouts printed on paper.

Second photo captures the method to align the stars and bars main mask. This was my second attempt as the first one was croocked. Had to sand off and respray the wing. Although the frisket is a great masking media, when it is removed from the backing sheet, it tends to wander and curl which makes placement difficult. After I had fixed the masking tape in place as a guide, the paper template was removed and the main frisket mask was put in place using the masking tape to locate the bars. Using the masking tape to guide the placement made fixing the frisket in place much easier.

Third photo shows the main outline mask in place. The infill section will be sprayed white.

Fourth photo shows the mask infill section sprayed white and the infill masks in place. The infill masks comprise of the star, two bars and the blue outline around the bars along with the material outside of the star. This was my 7th attempt to get the infill mask positioned correctly. During the first 6, I trying to keep all the infill pieces together with a couple of narrow strips of masking tape. But when the assembly was removed from the backing it was very difficult to keep the pieces in the correct location and the pieces became disconnected from each other. Remembering Einstein's definition of insanity, I finally opted to change the approach to obtain a better outcome. I borrowed the concept of placing masking tape as guides to align the assembly (this time using the outside edge of the bars) to assist in aligning the assembly inside the main mask. I also placed many small pieces of masking tape at each infill component joint. This combined approach made alignment much easier and kept the assembled infill assembly together during placement. Once the infill was in place, the masking tape pieces were removed and the portions of the infill which were to be sprayed blue were removed.

Fifth photo shows the completed stars and bars. It turned out better than I was hoping. Now that I have the technique down, only 3 more to go on this model and 8 on the other two models.

[Gearup]

Nice looking markings. I really like the process of designing and making the masks. Sometimes it is a challenge to figure out the masking and color sequence. 

I use removable Oracal 631 vinyl for my masks.  I also use transfer tape to apply the masks to the model. It is essentially low tack soft masking tape. Basically it peals the vinyl mask from the paper backing and holds the mask in shape. When you apply the mask, it then peals away from the vinyl without removing the mask.

Cricut and silhouette also sel oracal vinyls. Also a clear transfer tape is available if needed. It does help align the mask over a specific spot.

The vinyl also conforms well over small details ie: ribs and panel lines.

Regards Fraser

[Model Maker]

Painting on first model is complete. Have to spray with a gloss clear before adding the decals. Dare I say the masking was more than I am typically used to. Will have to come up with a slightly different approach for the next two.

I had some issues with the blue painters tape not providing the crispness along the edges so I tried some FBS vinyl masking tape which I had previously picked up. It worked perfect!! Lines were nice & crisp with no seepage underneath. The tape is a little more expensive than standard painters tape, but certainly cheaper than Tamiya. I used the orange tape which is a little stiffer than the other colours in the product range. A link to the red tape (which may be more appropriate for small scale models)is offered below. There are other colours with different pliability as well. For those of you in Canada, I've attached a link to Maple Airbrush Supplies who carry this brand of tape.

Link to FBS Video - There are other videos for the other colours of FBS tape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Hx77p8G0Q

Link to Maple Airbrush Supplies
https://www.mapleairbrushsupplies.com/search?type=product&q=masking%20tape*

[Gearup]

The paint on you Mustang really brings it alive. The yellow looks quite vibrant. Did you paint directly over the grey primer or did you use a transition color under the yellow? Very pretty model.
Thanks

[lastvautour]

Very nicely done. Thanks for the link to masking tapes.

Lou

[Model Maker]

The entire plane was painted aluminum over top of the grey primer. Then for the yellow areas I laid down a coat of white. I used a white primer for the propeller and painted the fuselage and propeller hub at the same time to ensure the yellow was applied in a consistent manner. I've been caught in the past with yellow not being sufficiently opaque to mask the effect of the colour below, so I always start with a white layer underneath any yellow paint.

[Gearup]

Thanks. Very helpful.
Fraser

[Boomerang]

Very nicely done ! Well Done !

Gordon