A couple of Tamiya P-47s (Pin Up Campaign)
As I promised last weekend, lets get caught up on this build.
When we last left I had finished the decaling. After letting the decals sit for a few days, I sprayed a couple coats of Alclad Gloss over the entire model in preparation for a panel line wash. At this point I realized I had made a mistake. The area under the canopy on the top deck behind the seat, which I had left in Bronze Green was actually supposed to be OD green like the anti-glare panel. So, I added the antenna post, masked off the rear anti-glare panel using 3M sticky notes then sprayed the area behind the seat, and the antenna post in Tamiya OD green to match. Then I sprayed over that area with some Alclad Gloss.
My plan was to use the Ammo from MIG PLW Blue-Black specifically for Aluminum skinned aircraft. I tried it out first on the bottom, left wing. This is when the frustration started. I really couldn’t get the MIG wash to work. It didn’t flow in the panel lines as expected and it would wipe right out of the panels as I tried to clean it up. Using the AK Oder-less thinners didn’t seem to help either. I think in the end I wound up stripping some of the gloss coat off that wing, and it really ended up being a big mess. Interestingly enough, I used the Ammo from MIG PLW, brown for yellow, on the yellow areas, which were also coated with Alclad Gloss and it worked completely fine. No idea what the problem is. I have since found that the PLW seems to work best over Tamiya X-22 Clear. In fact it is amazing in this combination, I used this for some metallic bits later on. I haven’t tried over future yet though. So long story short, I spent a little time away from this build as my frustration level was high, and I was seriously considering finding out the terminal velocity of a Tamiya P-47! After I calmed down a bit, I decided to use the Florey Black Wash instead. Again this took a little trial and error to get figured out, again with the bottom left wing as the test grounds. I kind of made a mess of that area in the end. The weathering there is way heavier then the rest of the aircraft, good thing its on the bottom.
Once the wash had dried the whole thing received a couple coats of Alclad Flat. I really like the way I got a flat finish but its still metallic. After the flat coat I also added the antenna wire using EZ Line, which is just fantastic for these antenna wires. Responds well to CA glue and is flexible so it can actually be bumped, unlike fishing line on both counts.
Ok, here are some pictures.
I really can’t say I’m happy with the wash. Its inconsistent and grainy up close. But it looks ok from a few feet back.
I used the new Ammo of MIG crystal colors to paint the IFF lights. These paints are specifically formulated for making lights unlike the Tamiya clear colors. I think they turned out really well. I used Crystal Orange, Crystal Green and Crystal Red. They were painted over a base of MM Chrome Silver. On my Razorback build I used the Quickboost clear resin IFF lights instead of painting the lights and in the end, I like the crystal paints better. I’ve included a picture of the unfinished Razorback wing (on the right) for you to see the difference.
Once this was done, I pulled out the airbrush again and added some exhaust staining on the aircraft. I used Xtracolor Exhaust for the engine exhaust and the gun ejector ports and darkened the exhaust of the supercharger. Unfortunately I didn’t take any good pictures of this step. And the engine exhaust blended in with the steel band around the fuselage so it really isn’t visible anyway. Need to work on my color choice for my next build. I also decided to try my hand at heat staining the supercharger cover. This panel seems to darken as a result of the heat and is very evident on the NMF P-47s. After a pretty extensive search I finally got my hands on some Alclad Sepia heat staining. This is a brownish colored paint that is kind of like a transparent version of Alclad. It sprays wonderfully and you just build up the layers until you get the color density you want. I did find out, that if you think its dark enough, you probably went to far for the effect.
I made the mistake of making it too dark, and tried to dab a bit off with a cloth. Well that was a bad idea. Instead I left a rub mark where the paint came off. It actually looks horrible. In the end its on the bottom and basically invisible, so I am leaving it be.
At this point I really felt like I was sabotaging this build. Lesson learned. Don’t rush the end kids, don’t rush the end.
Next up were the wing pylons. These were assembled, cleaned up, primed and painted in Alclad Dark Aluminum for a little variety. This is where I learned how to use the Ammo PLW. I gloss coated with Tamiya X22 Clear then used the PLW Blue-Black for NMF. And it worked perfectly, flowed just like you would expect a wash to and I cleaned up all the little unwanted dabs with a brush and oder-less turpentine. Then flat coated with Alclad Flat.
To be Continued...