Mick Drover

Stickers are on. Fingers crossed it'll be done by the end of the week. Cheers, Mick

G'day all. A Saturday afternoon session. Some masking, some painting, some more masking, some more painting, gloss....ding....ready for decals on the Corsair. Cheers, Mick

Heaps. Do a Goole search using "VAQ-132 CAG jet 166894" These are just a few results you'll get.

I though the heading said Fireplace! Nice job.

Tidy work there Rato. Nice to see a P-47 in different markings.

Nice work Bruce. That looks lovely.

Thanks Thanks Bruce.

Thanks Terry. They are a simple build for sure. I've got a Reaper and Predator done and now this one. I like the look of the Armahobby? UAV helicopters too. There's quite a selection of drone/UAV's in the modelling market to build now. You selection sounds interesting, I haven't heard of some of them! Cheers, Mick I agree. It's looks almost too polite to shoot down!

Thanks. You're correct with your guess regarding the fine grit sand paper and thinned paint at low pressure. I use a beaten up old 800 grind soft back sanding pad to wear the paint away. If it's more coarse than that you can leave scratch and swirl marks in the paint when doing it. The air pressure is more by feel, I make sure that it's not too low to prevent spattering and not too hight to prevent spidering. Lots of layers paint makes for an interesting finish. You're correct too regarding the lacquer as the chip to layer with the thin acrylic paint applied above it. I've used chipping fluid before but I find this is a quicker method to achieve a similar look. Plus I can do small areas rather than having to chip back the fluid in one session before it becomes difficult to remove. Once the decals is complete I'll move onto oils for some more patina and wear in the paint. Cheers, Mick

To dial the chipping and ding'd up paint as per the previous post, I've gone back and added the dark blue over select areas to hide some the abrasive looking finish. I think I'm happy with how it has turned out. I'll turn my attention to the rear half to give it a similar appearance. An of course there's all of the detail stuff to paint too - wheels, gear legs, prop, flaps...party on the bench...woohoo. Cheers, Mick

Nice.

G'dall all. I've picked this one up after a wee break from it. There's lots going on with paint on the Corsair. The original paint was wet sanded to reveal the chromate primer and metal in many areas. Now following up with lighter and darker shades of the three blues on it already. This one will tell a story. Paints so far have been Gunze acrylics. I've taken a look at the photos I have of this aircraft and it appears the split on the left side of the fuselage was one panel forward of where I have it. Neve just your decal instructions, right? Cheers, Mick

Gday all. I haven't had much output this year so opted for some low hanging fruit to get some enthusiasm going. This come from the two in one boxing of the Firebee kit from ICM, a mate built one of them and then gave me the other to build. That was three weeks ago and this is about a days worth of work. It's a really easy kit with maybe a dozen parts. The new ICM decals are fiddly to use so be patient and use lots of water when placing them. I wouldn't recommend using any setting solution when laying them down as they won't want to move if you do. This proved to be the case when my mate built his and wanted to do it up in this scheme. He tried using the mission markings only to have them to stick almost instantly in their position. Hence why I've only got half of the misison markings as Keith used them in his first attempt. All the paints are Tamiya lacquers and the panel wash was from AK??? The satin varnish is from VMS whose stuff I have come to love over the past 12 months. Their flat coat is DEAD flat. Here's the finished product, I need to make a more appropriate stand as this one was knocked up with a bit of brass rod and box square. Cheers, Mick

G'day Col. Yep, certainly am painting the masks. I could probably scrounge around for AM sheets but the Cameo lends itself well to this type of work. I've had the cutter about a year and it's perfect for this type of work as you can paint any scheme you can find. It also allows plenty of leeway with the brewing your own colours.

Thanks. Thanks Hewy. Not much has been happening here for the last week or so as the weather has been terrible. Biblical amounts of rain with biblical amounts of flooding isn't a good combo for painting. I went back to the images I had of 464 squadron aircraft and realised that my codes were oversized by ~1.5mm. So I've recut them and applied them with much faffing around with tape and dividers to get them in the correct location. I'm happy with how they look and their ratio of height to the depth of the fuselage looks a lot better. The black is for the serial number. Once they're done I can move onto the red, white, yellow and blue of the roundels and fin flash, after that I can start to do the colouring in!!! Cheers, Mick