Matthew1974

Beautiful work of a beautiful aircraft in a striking scheme. Bravo!

Excellent work! 107! My stash would love you!

This website might be able to help: https://history.army.mil/museums/Arms-and-Ordnance/documents/Policy-Sop/Ordnance/US_Army-Aircraft-Paint-Color-Guides.pdf

I use this color as well.

Wow. Excellent example with incredibly realistic weathering!

I’m game, Colin! I have the 1/48 Kitty Hawk UH-1D Iroquois in the stash.

Happy New Year, Patrice. If it’s not too late to join in, I would be grateful to participate. I have a few Mustangs in the stash (Airfix F-51D, Academy P-51, & Accurate Miniatures A-36) that would be thankful for the opportunity to be built! Thank you!

Please count me in with some DPRK and ROK aircraft!

Please count me in! I’ve a number of types in the stash flown by the swaggering, ugly stepchildren of the US Navy - the Marines.😀 Thank you!

This document found here: https://history.army.mil/museums/Arms-and-Ordnance/documents/Policy-Sop/Ordnance/US_Army-Aircraft-Paint-Color-Guides.pdf discusses how olive drab changed through the years as used on US Army aircraft.

I use the polyurethane varnishes and really like them over the acrylic resin line they also produce. I thin it ~ 50% and spray in light coats separated by at least 4 hours at about 15psi with a 0.25 needle. I also keep a brush moistened with airbrush cleaner nearby to mitigate tip dry. Albornoz Pablo has a great tutorial on its use on Vallejo’s YouTube channel. You can find it here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zFS-jTba9vQ Hope it helps!

Vallejo primer is polyurethane based. It dries to touch quickly but takes a few days (or more) to cure where it can be GENTLY sanded but even then it’s not that durable because it does not bond with the plastic like a lacquer primer does. That said it provides a great base for applying Vallejo paint to and comes in a wide selection of useful colors. The company’s YouTube channel has a good tutorial on its use.

I use the polyurethane varnishes by Vallejo of which these are not. 26.518 looks to be packaged like the polyurethane stuff (26.651) though. Maybe Vallejo is reformulating the varnish as the polyurethane formula was a tad delicate for subsequent weather stages and ironically did not take well at all to their own decal softener (now called medium) which would eat right through the varnish. Just a note but the gloss polyurethane varnish dries quickly and is fully cured in about 48 hours.

I grew up using enamels, mainly Testors, to build with. After the mandatory break from modeling in high school through college for sports, girls, studying, work, girls, beer, and girls, I came back to the hobby and started using Gunze Aqueous and loved the paint. Sadly it stopped being imported to the US and I switched to Humbrol enamel and got on great with it for years. I then decided to give Vallejo Air a try, mainly for their range. My first couple of attempts were disasters-paint peeling, furiously bubbling over in the cup, orange peel... I gradually got used to the stuff by not thinking about it in the end. I had convinced myself there was some voodoo involved in getting this paint to work and I would never get it. The one thing I pay attention to is cure time, not dry time, for both the primer and paint. In the American southeast where I live this can take a few days. Once it does cure it’s pretty durable. I admit though I completely understand why some dislike it.

Excellent well used look!

Very convincing finish! 👍

Excellent finish on the vehicle! The Soldiers look very realistic as well!

Mottling is first rate!

Very attractive! Great finish!

Thanks for the reply... when I get back to an Italian M13/40 that I have so far utterly failed to lay down satisfactory mottling on, I’m going to give the IPA/ water mix a try. Cheers!

I use a wet palette when hand-brushing ModelColor, adding a drop or two of water if needed. The glaze medium is some interesting stuff - Youtube has some neat videos on effects people achieve with this product.

I always suspected Vallejo could be sprayed with isopropyl but never gave it a shot as I had read about the paint “gumming up” once mixed. Do you use this to thin ModelAir and ModelColor? Any issues with tip dry? Very interested because isopropyl is much cheaper than Vallejo’s proprietary thinner. By the way, I’ve followed you work. Phenomenal and first rate.

Already stocking up on new sanding sticks! Thank you for sharing!

The mistake with the wing root is not something that would particularly bother me about a kit, but I appreciate the opinions of others on the subject. It is nice to see Bronco using relatively recent PRC history to promote modeling and thus hopefully draw new folks into the hobby. I spent many years in both the Republic of Korea and Japan over a 25 year period and as the middle class grew, so too did the interest in our hobby. Given the PRC’s immense population and ever growing middle class one can hope that our hobby will grow accordingly!

The sun fading technique you used is first rate! I have this kit scheduled up for the interceptor group build and hope I can get to half the level you achieved. Well done!