**** DONE: GB-49 1:48 XP-51 - Favourite A/C of WWII

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I've been giving a lot of thought to the wing paint.
The fuselage will be the Floquil "Old Silver" I just painted with panels of Floquil "Bright Silver".
The P-51's wings were painted, not bare aluminum so I did a test spray of Testors "Flat Silver" on an empty 2 liter pop bottle and liked the color but the grain size of the silver flakes in the paint were way too large. Now I'm thinking of trying the Old Silver and adding a bit of black, or white to change the tone a bit. No time to mail order paint so I'm stuck with what I have on hand.
 
That's been the issue I've notice with several of the dull aluminum paints. The large grain size is probably what makes the finish flatter. Another thing to try is to simply use the same paint as on the fuselage but cover it with a coat or two of clear matte.
 
Or gloss. I've almost decided to finish up whatever paint I use with a cote of Future. The XP-51 at Oshkosh has been entirely painted with silver and it's definitely gloss.
With a gloss cote on the wings only it will look different even if the paint underneath is the same as one of the fuselage colors.
Did I ever say I love the the look of NMF but desire doing it?
 
Yes, it could be just because it's in the museum, but my thinking is if you go to the trouble to fill and sand the joints to make the wings more aerodynamic, why would you then paint them with flat paint? I don't think the idea of flat paint holding a thin boundary lair of air making it more aerodynamic came around until the '60s or '70s
 
A gloss coat could work, but it can sometimes magnify the "grain" in the metallic paint, especially on a "dull" silver colour.
I've found that adding a very small amount of gloss white to the silver, gives a good impression of "aluminium paint", and this can normally be gloss-coated, when dry, without magnifying the "grain".
Experiment first, to achieve the desired finish, as it doesn't take much white to "knock back" the silver.
 
Good idea Terry
I'll do some test shots starting first by adding I bit of white to the Old Silver.
With the Floquil metallic paints there won't be a problem with the grain size, they're so small a can't see them with my strongest reading glasses.
I really love thoes Floquil silver paints. It's a shame they were discontinued. When I heard that I stocked up and have 6 or 8 of each color stashed away. Wish I had done the same with the old formula Future.
 
Have you thought of adding some sort of base coat on the wings to make the silver look different? I've seen panels coloured in with blue, red, brown and black and it makes some difference. Though hard to see, I did the gun panels with gloss black and then sprayed the wings with dull aluminum



​
 
Thanks George
I've tried that but the Floquil paints are too opaque to for the base color to show thru at all. It tice that you never need an undercoat with paint but it does not allow pre-shading .

I done a good bit of the panel masking on the fuselage and will finish it tomorrow and spray on the Bright Silver.
The gun hatches will also be painted Bright Silver and masked off for the wing color which I will be experimenting with tomorrow also.

 
A lot of masking and painting done in the last couple of days.

First the prop completed




Added some more masking for the Bright Silver




The Bright Silver on




Masking for the black anti glare on the nose and anti skid on the wings




The painting is done except for the stainless steel panels around the exhaust. For the wings I used the Old Silver with quite a lot of white added. The service texture is a bit uneven so I'm thinking of dull coating them after the decals to even things out, so I've left the masks on the gun bays and ailerons. I've also done some paint chipping on the black.

 
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