**** DONE: 1/32 Grumman Wildcat F4F-3 Early – Carrier Aircraft GB

[Wayne Little]

Looks the part so far! keep up the good work...

 

[Vaughan]

Been there, my friend.
I have a suggestion, mask the outer-most delineations, spray black, then mask inward and spray the element color. Not the only way of doing it, but the easiest, I have found.

Thanks for your encouragement Guys I've taken Paul's advice on this one. Firstly I masked with 10mm tape and then followed with 6mm either side and then removed the 10mm. Next I masked off the wings. Here's where I'm up to both upper and lower wings are up to this stage. Will allow it dry over night before I re-mask the centre with 8mm and spray the white. Fingers crossed this will work hopefully there will be no bleed.
Vaughan

 

[meatloaf109]

Fingers crossed on this side of the pond also!

 

[Crimea_River]

I usually pull the masks soon after painting. A couple of things you can do to prevent bleeding: burnish the edges of the tape with the round end of a paint brush and paint another thin coat of the base colour first, yellow in your case. This will seal any bleed openings and any paint that does bleed will be the original base colour and you won't see it.

 

[meatloaf109]

That is clever! I never thought of the base color first, makes sense.

 

[N4521U]

That is sooo nice.
It looks so smooth along what Was the seam. Just great work.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Looks okay from down here in this pond as well Vaughan and what little gems of info which I'm glad you demonstrated as I was a bit confused trying to follow what Paul was saying.

No fault of yours Paul, I'm just a bit slow on the uptake sometimes.

 

[Wayne Little]

Good stuff, looks good from here too!

 

[Vaughan]

Thanks for all the tips and advice Guys.
Well the white pin stripe has been added sorry no photos of the masked bands as I was keen to get on with the process. Anyway the masking is off and I'm very pleased with the result. There's a little tiding required on the leading edges but that's all that's needed.
Next will be a coat of semi-gloss varnish as I gather the paint work was gloss(full gloss would look OTT on this scale). I found this photo not of a Wildcat but it's a yellow wing of the era. Dangly bits like ariel masts, gun barrels, tail wheel, viewing windows on lower fuselage and gun sight yet to be added I'm nearly there!
Vaughan

 

[Wurger]

 

[N4521U]

Yep, the wings are a pretty rich golden yellow. When I sprayed the yellow over my silver it came out a nice lemon yellow. I have sprayed my yellow over white and it looks much like the planes in the picture. So The will be my go for the top of the top wing of my F3F-3.

Nice job Vaughn on them stripes.

 

[meatloaf109]

Beautiful!
Glad it came out so well! I have used that method several times in the past, better than decals anyday.

 

[Crimea_River]

Turned out great Vaughan.

 

[woody]

Stripes came out real nice Vaughan what a great build.

 

[Rogi]

mmm Solid Gold!

 

[Gnomey]

Nicely done so far!

 

[Wayne Little]

Did scrub up well didn't it, well done Vaughan!

 

[tigerdriver]

great work on those stripes

 

[Airframes]

Nicely done Vaughan. I don't think I've ever used decals fro stripes of any kind - by their very nature, they are prone to breaking, stretching twisting etc - so I always mask and paint.

 

[Wayne Little]

Prefer to paint also...but sometimes the decals work well too! but you got's to pick your battles....