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Rescue Wings UH-60J

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With all those lovely decals and stencils in place she got a clear gloss coat for the panel line wash. The clay wash is a 50/50 mix of dark dirt toned down with white. It's noticeable yet not too overpowering. It's applied evenly over the entire surface and let stand to fully dry. With many barely moist squares of paper towel and pointed cotton swabs the excess is slowly removed. You will have to go over the model several times to ensure that all the unwanted wash has been removed. This is another one of those time consuming tasks that make a visible improvement in the finished look. Now you have the answer to the question, "was all that riveting work worth it?"... well you tell me.

The final step in that finished look was a mist spray of dull coat before tacking the window clean up. The dome windows were well protected from all the layers and didn't need any help. The rest, however, had some pesky over-spray, the bane of all modelers! I've discovered that lacquer over-spray can removed from clear parts with Tamiya X-20A acrylic thinner. Then I dilute soapy airbrush cleaner with water to remove the thinner residue. Finally, a good go-over with polish really makes these parts sparkle. Sure, it's another hurdle to get to that chest ribbon, but against the dull coated paint looks mighty fine to my eyes. Here's a tip, if you find it hard to remove the trapped white polish from the raised paint edge just use a bit of Tamiya Panel line accent color and it will hide that.

Nearing home base, the last of the accessory parts went on for final assembly. The navigation lights were painted bright white then the appropriate colors in Tamiya clear. I find white works the best for a brighter look but if you want a rich look, say for the big red marker lights, try spraying chrome or using a chrome pen then add your clear color. Time to get this Dragonfly into the light box for some beauty shots!

Final Thoughts and Thanks

This in one of those kits that was a delight to build for many reasons. The fit is nice with some skill needed for fun, painting and masking are easy (thank the Lord!), There isn't a huge abundance of decals yet enough to make it look real and while being multi media complex it went together, step by step, fairly quick. Most important of all though is that I wasn't ever overwhelmed nor bored during the entire build... how often can you say that about a project. Definitely adding this one to the recommend list.

Obviously a huge thank you to PLATZ for sending this sample to be reviewed and built. I'd also like to thank Sunward Hobbies for the Tamiya lacquer paint and thinner.

As always, big thanks to YOU for taking the time to have a look! If you would like to support KitMaker Network please consider becoming a Patron. It helps keep the servers running and the content flowing, all the best everyone!