Lots done today as the weather was rainy, cool and windy. Before getting to today's progress, I just wanted to show how the drop tank colour turned out, just to close the loop on that:
It's actually a little bluer in real life but I'm happy with it. Next on the agenda was masking for all the black areas. I did the non-skid pads in the wing roots first as these would be tough to paint once the masks for the anti-glare panel were on. Here's the mask for the latter:
The reason there's so much masking is that I applied hairspray to this area before painting the black (below) for which I actually used Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black.
I then removed the masks and started chipping way at the black. A little water was applied to a small area and then the black was chipped away with a toothpick. The hairspray makes for a weak bond that allows the paint to be removed easily , giving a realistic-looking effect.
Next it was on to the yellow ID panel on the wing leading edge and other areas. Tamiya actually provides decals for all these yellow areas but they would be more trouble than they are worth in my opinion so I elected to paint instead. I studied reference photos to confirm as best I could how the demarcation runs along the undercarriage cover and masked everything accordingly. The first coat was white:
I then I mixed up a cup of Tamiya XF-3 Flat Yellow and a single drop of XF-7 Red and shot that. The prop tips got the same colour. After removing the masks here's what we have:
One thing to watch if you want to do this model is that Tamiya's masks tend to peel away on their own. I noticed the one on the landing light had started and may have caught it too late but hopefully there's not much paint underneath.
With all that done and the airbrush clean, I realized that I forgot to paint the yellow on the corners of the inner gear doors. Rather than mix up a new cup of paint, I may just go ahead and use Tamiya's decals for those small areas.
All of the painted areas then got a coat of Tamiya's Semi-Gloss Clear to protect them from damage. I then noticed that the masking tape left a bit of glue residue on the silver and so I wet a towel with a bit of IPA to wipe it off. Damn - some of the yellow dissolved and bled into the silver after all that work:
This is disappointing but should be easily fixed. I'll let the yellow dry til Sunday, then mask it and try the IPA wipe again. If that doesn't remove the bled colour then I'll just shoot a bit more Alclad Aluminum over it. Oh, and I managed to squash the rad flap again so I pulled it off completely and will reinstall it once the landing gear is on.
Definitely time to call it a day! Talk soon.