Then, the wings went on:
The seams around the lower wing and the fuselage joint just refused to go away without multiple applications of filler and sanding, with the attendant re-scribing to restore lost detail. However, once up to scratch, I got some paint on the underside:
It’s the white primer called Mr Base White 1000 and it went on incredibly smoothly. I left it as the final colour, as it’s an EDSG/White scheme I was doing.
I also scratchbuilt an incredibly fiddly periscope for the left side of the canopy centre section, which delayed me installing this bit. That was next on the agenda which meant I could then mask up the cockpit openings properly, and the EDSG could go on.
Next challenge was the metal sections around the jet pipes…
So, experiments with AK metallics were performed. They went on well, covered nicely and they have a lot of colours in the range. However, many of those colours look VERY similar to each other and they don’t half pong. They’re also not as fast to dry as Alclad2, as I found to my cost when I accidentally handled a segment I’d sprayed about half an hour ago and left fingerprints. I had to leave it to harden off overnight before I could sand it smooth and respray. Covered ok though. It also needs a while before it’ll take masking tape. I found out (again the hard way) that they’re a bit like Tamiya gloss acrylics, in that the masking tape tends to leave a pattern in the surface if they’re not given enough time to harden off.
So, pros and cons then. But the results seems ok in the end. It still needed a little shading here and there, and a wash to bring out the grilles and rivets, but I think I’m about there:
