Hi All,
Well I went and asked for an extension, and didn't even post updated pics! Ooops!
Last I updated this was with an airframe undergoing serious filling! So, just prior to asking for the extension, I had wrapped up the painting.
In order to give this a good realistic paint job, I needed to mask well, and there's a surprisingly large amount of glass on this thing. I gave the Eduard masks made for the B-17G, and would have to say "DON'T DO IT!!" They don't fit, and would be a waste of time and money, save it for the G variant.
To do the windows, I punched out some small circles, and placed them on the glass, this would then be followed using thin strips of tape, and finally filling in the rest with bigger parts. This actually went faster that doing a 1/48 Zero! It also allows for the rounded windows to be realistically masked.
I black based the paint job, using MS1500 black. It goes down nice and using an old clean tee shirt I gave it a rub down to smooth things out. This works fine, though, in my opinion if you're going for a NMF that is like a polished NMF, you may wish to use something like gloss black.
This is a big plane, and this also means that lots of paint will be used to get a good base coat down. In this case I used 19 ml! Granted, this will be the highest amount of a single paint used.
Next, I masked off the de-icing boot areas. Wings, stabilizers, and rudder, the most difficult being the curved portions of the rudder. This was done with Tamiya and Mr Tape. On my samples of Mr. Tape, I notice that it doesn't seem to adhere as well as Tamiya, though it could just be the tape from the LHS (sitting in a humid environment too long).
Next I painted the underside Neutral grey (Tamiya XF-53). This went down without a hitch.
Then I flipped her over, and proceeded to do the fabric covered control surfaces. This was a mix of lightened Olive Drab (Tamiya XF-62 + XF-2, about 2+1 ml, diluted 1:4 with MS thinner). I used the OD mix as the primary for the whole plane, though during the basing stage I did add other colors as noted. For the fabric I added some yellow-green (XF-4)
Satisfied with the color I masked these off and went for the tail. On the Belle, the tail was replaced and photo's show this to look very different from the OD on the plane. Most likely it was just new OD, though I chose to give it a coat of Khaki Drab, which looks pretty convincing I think.
This was also masked over, and finally I was able to do the rest of the lightened OD. The total volume of paint top and bottom was about 9 ml each! Lots of real estate here, which has me thinking that it may be more economical for me to start mixing my own lacquer paints! Ugh.
Next I went and did the splotches that were done in Medium green, my closest paint was Mr Color Field Green. After doing it I was appalled! The color was atrocious, and just didn't look right at all!
After much consulting with my beloved, mixing, and going out to the sunshine holding bottles of paint up to each other and making the neighbors really wonder how crazy I am, I decided on Tamiya Deep Green (XF-26). This looked much better, and all I did was lightly go over the existing field green. So I'm sure that there is some of the field green peaking through to tint the deep green.
With that I removed the masks, and was pleased. I proceeded to gloss the bird using my high humidity mix of 7 ml Future (Pledge Floor Care Finish) 3 ml of Isopropyl alcohol (70% w/v) and one drop of dish soap to help break any surface tension.
I'm now in the midst of decaling. I'm starting with the Kit's world B-17F stencil set. They are nice, but the walkways are murder! That's all for now, more to come!
Stay safe, and have fun!
John
