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F14A Tomcat - PART TWO

6.
Following the washes, I flat coat the cockpit, again using my airbrush. For clear flat paint, I am hooked on PollyScale (used to be PollyS) Flat Finish. This paint gives the flattest finish I have found. Here is when the fruits of my labors start to come alive. With the cockpit now a uniform flat sheen, all the subtle variations in colors start to become really visible.
 

7.
After the clear flat coat, I start dry brushing. Good dry brushing is a lesson in patience. I dip the paint brush in the paint color of my choice, then wipe most all the paint off on a piece of facial tissue. After a quick test on a scrap piece of plastic to verify the brush is dry enough, I start working on the cockpit raised details. When the brush is dry enough, the first couple passes over the details almost show no difference. Repeated passes over the raised details start to bring out the details. Slowly building up the dry brushing provides the most control over the process. It is easy to get over-anxious and dry brush with too much paint in the brush. This is where the patience lessons start. You'll do much better if you can control your urges and keep the brush very dry.

On the Tomcat, I did most of my primary dry brushing in Light Ghost Gray (F.S.36375). The Light Ghost Gray is lighter than all the other colors I had thus far applied in the cockpits, so it showed up subtly on the Dark Gull Gray areas and more noticeably on the black and dark gray areas. By avoiding silver and white as primary dry brushing colors, the details do not scream at you when viewing them.