¹⁄32

Caudron C.714C1

Painting and decals

The model got the usual Gunze Mr. Surfacer treatment, and a pre-shade with black paint. The color scheme for this particular aircraft is visible only partially on one picture, so the paint recommendations from the instruction and available books differ a lot. I decided to go with the instruction.

I used the recommended Gunze-Sangyo acrylics which worked excellently for me. The delicate paint scheme had was applied free hand, and I used the very fine Iwata HP-B with a 0,2mm nozzle for the job. The surfaces are considerable, and with the required number of passes, my fingers were really cramped after the process.

On top came a coat of Future, then the decals. These are from "dead design" and as the name says, either designed for or by dead, because as usual, they caused problems. While very thin, they are resistant to all softeners known to me (except nitro solvent), and they stick not very well. The result was a stripped part of the Polish checkerboard insignia, which I had to repair with leftover bits. I decided to paint the rudder straightaway, rather than to try my luck with the decals.

Next came the weathering with artist oil in turpentine. In the end everything was sealed by a mix of Future with Tamiya flat base, same like the Hellcat.

Nasty surprise came just the next day: the surface was all badly cracked, and the weathering ran into it!

Short of despair, I re-orderd X-tra colors XDFF flat varnish, re-sanded the surfaces carefully, over-painted some with the original color, and sealed everything with XDFF. This luckily saved the day, and made the surface look good again.

Finishing touches

I added paint chipping using a small knife, and partially the cracks which occurred during the painting. The wheels got mudded by MiG Pigments and artists chalks, and a trace of dirt spray was applied in the plane of rotation of the wheels.

Antennas, cross hair, and the tail light finished the model. And yes, there are no wing tip lights.