SPA Modeler

...or maybe I can fix it. Maybe if I suck it up and realize that with the right attitude even a botched paintjob on a Mustang’s laminar flow wings can qualify as “small stuff” I can choose to not sweat it, strip it, sand it, buff it, and repaint it?

I tried that today.





Perfection? No. Some of my fills dissolved with the MLT I stripped the paint with. But I don’t care. This bird was salvage, and rebuilt from salvage. It was never supposed to be perfect. This, to my eye, is absolutely passable.

So Spare Parts will continue. And I’m glad for that. I’m happy that I’m doing this.

Looks good enough in my eyes.

My man! And you know, this model was the first one which I actually missed having on my bench. I’ve really grown to love this kit/aircraft/subject.

Cheers folks!



I wanted to take a moment here to share some more shots of Spare Parts and mention something which I’d made a mental note of talking about the other day, and forgot to.

Alclad’s “RAF High Speed Silver”... that’s what I sprayed on the wings as a stand-in for “Aluminum Lacquer.” Now, in the opinion of other modelers, this stuff ranges from being a “Eeh, it’s a pretty good stand-in” to “Nah, I prefer other stuff but it’s still a nice product” and everything in-between. Me personally? I like the way it looks on the wings, and hey- it technically is a lacquer which could be described as having a somewhat aluminum look to it.

But it’s a whole lot more...

It’s also a primer. Not joking, it says so in the fine print on the bottle. Forgive me for not sharing a photo of the label, but the label on my bottle got ruined when I ham-fistedly knocked the open bottle over and spilled about half its contents on my desk a few days ago. Anyway, you can use this stuff as a primer, if you’re the type of guy who likes to prime with a silver/aluminum color.

Now, here’s what I did, to correct the failed first attempt on these here wings:

1. Wet-sand off as much of the paint as possible with a 600 grit sanding stick.

^^that became the first option on account of I tried to remove it with Mr. Leveling Thinner and q-tips to no good effect- once that stuff’s been cured for a few days it becomes hard as nails, and super mule-headed. It stubbornly refused to submit to the MLT. So I had to sand it.

2. Clean up what remains with MLT on q-tips. Once I’d gotten things sanded well, the MLT could seep in there better and get the job done.

3. Wash thoroughly with warm water and Dawn dish soap.

4. Dry.

5. Wipe with a baby wipe soaked in isopropyl alcohol and wrung out.

6. Polish the entire surface with microfiber pads, 3,200, 3,600, 4,000, 6,000, 8,000, 12,000.

7. Repeat steps 3, 4, and 5

8. Dry again

9. Say a prayer

10. Ignore the maddening urge to re-prime with Mr. Surfacer 1500

11. Shoot the Alclad RAF High Speed Silver at the wings

And close-ups of the results:









In my opinion this works quite well, the results are great, and I will use this stuff for Donald Duck’s wings as well, omitting the steps where I screw the pooch on the first attempt at painting them and have to strip the paint, wash and polish the wings again, and so forth.

Also, I am no longer disappointed that my panel lines aren’t filled flush. They were pretty darn smooth looking under the Mr. Surfacer 1500 and the “gloss” black. And the MLT I brought in during cleanup must’ve eaten some of it... but honestly, the final product here is very reminiscent of what our friend Mr. John Kim mentioned earlier in the thread, paraphrasing: “I wouldn’t sweat it, as in real life that putty would have worn away a little bit.” The lines aren’t as deep as the ones you see in the gun/ammo panels, and they’re visible at some angles and barely visible at other angles. That’s hella cool and I dig it. I’m going to try to replicate that on Donald Duck.

Okay, I’m gonna spray the rudder and then install the horizontal stab, then get to work on masking the canopy.

Thanks for looking!

Well damn.... that looks good! It would be the perfect solution to do George Predy's Cripes A' Mighty P-51.
I usually would use Tamiya's A-12 bare silver in a rattle can but this might be another option for me.

I strongly encourage you to order some and give it a try!

That is fine looking. Well done.

Thank you Lyle, that’s much appreciate sir I am thrilled about this project.

I sprayed Duraluminum over the gun/ammo bay panels to break-up the “aluminum lacquer.” Those could’ve been replacement panels which were either new or used or heavily used, who knows. Also, I added the horizontal stab, and the resin exhausts are dry fit, and they look nice in there.

Okay, that’s enough work on the models for today.

KennyX wrote:
Okay, that’s enough work on the models for today.

WHAT????!!!!!
It's never "enough"!!!

Looks great from where I'm sittin!

Tip (maybe): I discovered, by accident, that if you pick out a couple panels, mask and paint them with a "primer"...when you spray over them with "metal", they will have a different "tone". That said...that was back when I used rattlecan MM Metalizer and would just spray bomb the entire model with "Aluminum Plate". I have since changed my methods for NMF, but the old way still holds up nicely on the shelf! I would imagine any "metal" would get the same result.
I liked that method, as all the masking was done before any metal...which we all know can be quite delicate and easily destroying with masking.