¹⁄35

Storm Warning

Painting

I used White Ensign Models Colourcoats enamel paints for the main camouflage painting, of Medium Sea Grey undersurfaces with Ocean Grey and Dark Green on the uppersurfaces.

Before painting I washed the model with Isopropynol, then primed with Halfords (car excessory store, in the UK) white plastic primer. The primer coat was then smoothed out using 0000 grade wire wool. This gives a nice smooth surface, the wire wool will not remove any detail, like emery paper might.

Next up was the pre-shading (see my article HERE for an explanation of how and why I do this). After the pre-shading and before the main camouflage colours, comes the quick identification elements of, Sky fuselage band (spinner and back plate are painted at the same time), and yellow on the wing leading edges. These elements are masked, then the white for the D-Day stripes is painted next. I originally used Tamiya acrylics for this, but in my haste I got something wrong and the paint came out like pebble dashing (rough finish). When I tried to sand it smooth some of the paint came away. I went over it with Revell gloss white.

These areas were then masked in preparation of spraying the main camouflage colours. D-day stripes on this aircraft are 18” wide, that’s 9.35mm in 1/48 scale. I planned on using the kit black stripes but these are 9.5mm, (0.15mm is nothing) so I used the width of the decal stripes to determine the width of the white areas. I determined the start point and set the width on a pair of dividers then measured five legs. I did this in several places, along the wings and fuselage, making a slight mark in the paint with the point of the dividers. I then began to lay down thin strips of Tamiya masking tape, checking with the dividers regularly. I checked and checked again, until I was satisfied that the extremities of the D-Day stripes had been masked accurately. The next job was to position the areas that are left unpainted around the codes. These had to be spot on, so that the rest of the markings would be in the correct place; again I used the dividers. Judge for yourself how accurate I was. The white areas were filled in using Tamiya masking tape.

The undersurfaces were then painted with Colourcoats Medium Sea Grey. When dry this was masked, again using Tamiya tape. The uppersurface colours, Ocean Grey and Dark Green, again by Colourcoats were sprayed next. The demarcation, between each colour was done freehand.