Good morning gents,
Took me some time to update the topic, my work was a bit slow but here I am!!!
First, i had to decide how to deal with the landing gear legs! The fit of the small part covering them was not so good, at least on my case, also the way tamiya deals with it is great in order to keep the right angles (i think it is the case with all the kits).
So i decided to screw them in place, glue the cover on it and sand any imperfections. And of course mask them for painting. It was a little PITA as i had to take care not to break them!!
Also the fit of the guns covers was not perfect!!
After solving all those items i masked everything and started dealling with the rivets and panel lines. Painful work, you should check the putty work always after sanding to prevent any ghost sheams to come up. Ok i know, the panel lines were there and sometimes you could see them, anyway....
The best outcome took it with stretch sprue glued inside the panel line, leave it to cure some days and light sand it repeatedly!
I left everything to cure and dealt with the propeller....
I primed her with mrp, ready to spray, grey and black primers (i strongly recommend them, easy work, dry rock hard, sandable), grey where the silver paint will go and black for the bare metal. I lightly sanded them in order to slightly polish them. You see the very thin metal paints show everything every small paint particle, i wanted to avoid it as much as i could!!!
I had decide to paint my own insignia, as a matter of fact i wanted to paint all the markings except the ones i couldn't (names, kill marks, etx)
I found a real deal, here on Greece, on a lightly used Shillouette Portrait 3 machine (80 euros only) and i ''killed'' it on the move!!!!
I spent some time to do the basics on the software and i finally managed to design my own insignia masks with the recommented proportions!!
Here i must thank Jennings (fundekals) for his help with the fuselage and tail codes!!!
Now regarding the painting order. It was my second time trying to paint the insignia... also usually the metal colors, at least the one i chose for the bare metal, are very fragile. I did not want any surprises, so i decided to do a''reverse'' painting, paint all the insighnia, codes, bars etc, (except the fuselage and tail codes) mask them and paint the metals last!
So....
Antiglare....
.....