SPA Modeler

Suweeet!!! I may have to do just that. Really impressive work on the landing gear!!

Thanks for the heads up John.

Back to work on the G-14! In preparation for painting, I've treated the wing root fairing in a sandy color as they were commonly made of wood. I've sprayed the wing root area with hairspray to do some chipping after the base camo colors are established. I've had some difficulty using this technique on AK Real Colors paints so we'll just have to see how it goes. If I don't get any chipping at this stage, that's fine as the white will cover much of this anyway.


While the hairspray dries, I'm going to preshade the other external components.



All of the preshading is black. First, the panel lines.



Next is the mottle to establish some tonal variation. I've decided not to mottle the upper surfaces as the white wash is going to cover it anyway. There are other ways I can establish some tonal variation in post painting.



The first color to applied is RLM 76 Light Blue. I am using the AK Real Color Version 2 of this shade, thinned with Tamiya Acrylic Thinner thinned with 2 parts thinner for 1 part paint. Thin mixes are key using this preshading technique.




The color is built up slowly, layer by layer, dialing in the amount of preshading that is desired.



The light blue is extended up onto the fuselage sides.



After the light blue is finished, the upper camo is painted. Again, I'm using AK Real Colors versions of RLM 74 and RLM 75 for the upper camo. Like the RLM 76, the RLM 75 is thinned 2:1. For whatever reason, the RLM 74 worked better with an even thinner 3:1 mix.




During painting, I've discovered that some of the wing joints and vertical tail joint have cracked. So I've re-glued them and will perform some clean-up before proceeding. Next will be mottling on the fuselage.

Thank you for the painting lesson here. It looks like you go panel by panel so each one gets your full attention. Something I would like to try on the next build myself but the mosquito doesn't have many panels on her.

Here is the mottling applied to the fuselage sides.



I did get a little bit of hairspray chipping on the wing roots to materialize.


The underwing markings were sprayed using custom-cut masks.






In order to increase the contrast between the underlying camo and the white overspray, I decided to increase the mottling. Now I need to figure out which markings would go over the white overspray and which ones were retained from the original scheme.

Some of the upper surface markings have been painted. The double chevrons and the black tulip are definitely after the white but I'm not sure about the tail swastika.

Really nice. I assume the mottled camo was one shot, but how many coats do you apply otherwise? Are you using a thin mix!

Thanks Lyle. It's hard to say because it is a continual process and not discrete layers. I'm sweeping the airbrush back and forth and building the color up slowly. Before I'm done with the first panel, I'll be putting paint on the next panel and that way, I'm working across the model. With these thin mixes, I find that that the thinner will cut into the underlying mottle pattern as the paint dries and the preshade may get slightly more intense after I've moved on so it is important to keep checking the areas that you think are complete and doing touch-ups where necessary.

I'm still a bit stumped on how to do the white overspray. I've done a few tests on my paint mule and haven't been completely satisfied. This is where having multiple builds comes in handy. I can shelve the G-14 temporarily while I work on the N1K2 and wait until I get some divine (or otherwise) inspiration to do the white.

Have you tried switching paint types on your tests? I was thinking about doing a winter white camouflage with acrylic over lacquer finishes using a very fine watery overspray. PS I know you switched projects but I like this one a lot. Good luck!

No but I've used different whites (Tamiya, Gunze and AK Real Color acrylics) with different combinations of thinner/retarder to get the spray pattern that would work for what I'm attempting to do. White just tends to give off a ton of overspray and I'm not liking what my paint mules are showing me. And my freehand white shapes are looking so ... unnatural to me. So... I'm just putting a temporary pause on this one for now.