SPA Modeler

niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I do like seeing invasion stripes! That's coming along really nicely.

BlackSheep214 wrote:Looking good, Keyda! When I do D-Day Invasion stripes, I don’t worry about straight lines since the stripes are hand painted on. I try to replicate the hand painted look by handbrushing them. Never airbrushed. However, getting the stripes in equal widths is a biatch and frustrating to do.

I would do that if this was the D-Day version of Whiskey 7. But it's the current day version, and her stripes are neat, lol. When I did the D-Day version I airbrushed a base coat of white on, since white covers so well.....not. Then I went in with a regular brush, and hand painted them on.

Thanks Paul!

Thanks Stuart!

Maybe at some point today I can get the flight control surfaces painted. The rudder, ailerons, and elevators are all OD. At this point I think faded OD would be a better match. Once that is done, and the invasion stripes are to my liking I will mask and paint Whiskey's signature hodge podge of colors. I use acrylic craft paint, various ones mixed until I get sick of mixing and come close enough to the color I want. Then it gets thinned with a 50/50 mix of water and Pledge floor shine. Which believe it or not holds up pretty well. It's not quite as resilient as model paint, but as long as you are careful you can mask over it. If all goes well all the markings will be painted on, no decals on this one what so ever.

Is that why you painted the invasion stripes first? Because your OD and Neutral Gray are done from craft paints that can be tricky with masking? It does look out of sequence to paint the stripes before the aircraft base colors.

Whiskey 7 in all her current day glory is not OD over neutral gray. The gray on her underside is actually a lot lighter. I used MM light gray for that, which is a good match. Then painted the invasion stripes, and the black de-icing areas. Next will be the top side of control surfaces which will be faded OD. I will mask everything off that I already painted, and work on her hodge podge. Which is mostly a chocolate shade of brown, with some burgundy/pinkish color on the roof of her fuselage, and a pinkish/gray shade on her wings outboard of the invasion stripes as seen in this pic.....



No one seems to know why her paint has faded the way it has.
This is what she looked like when she came to the museum in 2005.



She has not been repainted. Last time she was painted was in the early 2000's.

So the fuselage, and upper wings will be painted with acrylic craft paint, which I really prefer not to mask over if I can avoid it. I will have to mask over it for her markings, but will de-tack the mask first. So yes, I'm painting ass backwards, lol.

I worked on fixing the invasion stripes yesterday. I'm still not sure how I screwed them up. Oh well. Today I painted the flight control surfaces, flaps, and the underside of the tail cone. That is the last of the model paint, and now I must move on to the acrylic craft paint. In other words, the nerve racking part of the build.






I mixed up a test batch of paint, and sprayed my paint mule A-7. I want to make sure I have no issues with the gloss clear paint I intend to use. I'm not taking my chances. I did however notice something seemed a little off when I was spraying it. I swore I used a 50/50 mix of water and future to thin the paint. So I went back to the finescale forums, and read through my first build of Mini W7. Nope, it was a 25/75 mix. Glad I checked. I should really keep notes when I do stuff like this.

Anyway. I'm hoping to paint it tomorrow, and let it dry for a few days. I'll be at the museum on Saturday, and maybe putting up inside Halloween decor on Sunday, just to keep me away from the bench, and potentially screwing up the paint, cause I have no patience.

That's looking gorgeous!

Heh.... Finescale.
Wonder if they miss me there considering I’ve been banned 3 times “over there”.

Right nice.

Thanks guys!

Let me tell you, using acrylic craft paints is no easy feat, or at least one I haven't mastered yet. My technique works, but it has it's issues. I had the tops of the wings/horizontals and the top portion of the fuselage sprayed yesterday. Decided to go a head and spray the brown, and neither one of my airbrushes wanted to work. They are both the same Iwata HP-CS. So I figured something was telling me to quit for the night. I use acetone to clean out my airbrushes, and sometimes a bit gets in the valve and expands the seal. Leave it dry out, and its fine. So I took them all apart again, cleaned them, and let them sit out over night.
Next morning, both are functioning again. Although my go to doesn't seem to be blowing out as much pressure when the trigger is depressed. Oh well, give it a shot anyway. It's not spraying very well, so I switch to the other one, and it's spraying beautifully. Get the brown sprayed, perform some touch ups, and leave it to dry while I muck with airbrush #1, and clean them both again.





I discovered that the valve in the body of the airbrush had some how come lose, and dropped down, so I think that was my issues. I tightened back up, but haven't actually tested it other than running air through it. Seems better, but still not like #2. Which is a newer less used one. Might have to replace the valve, or the seal inside.
Anyway, pulled off my pound of masking tape, lol. Unveiling Whiskey's hodge podge paint job.





Waited for all that to dry, and threw a coat of gloss clear on it. I'll work on adding her markings and insignia maybe Sunday. Tomorrow I'll be with the real Whiskey 7.