ChicagoTom

A big thank you to all who have replied with such detail, I am grateful to you. As I suspected, my Tamiya Spray can options won't cut it for the grey, so airbrushing at least that color is in the cards for my build. I'm thinking that I'll spray the Mr. Color C-331 Dk Sea Grey, then either airbrush C-330 or use Tamiya AS-30 from a spray can for the Dk. Green. I learned a lot here, thank you all kindly.

I’ve reached the painting stage of my build of the Matchbox BAC Jaguar kit, one I built as a boy over 45 years ago. I’ll be using some PrintScale decals which feature a wrap-around camo scheme of Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey. But I’m having trouble figuring out which of the paints I own that are accurate. I much prefer using spray cans over my airbrush since I hate cleaning them. Would either of these Dk Greens be correct? Tamiya AS-30 Dark Green 2 (RAF). I *think* this is the right Dark Green. I also have a can of Tamiya AS-9 Dark Green (RAF), but I’m guessing that is for WWII colors? For the grey, I have a can of Tamiya AS-11 Medium Sea Grey, but that seems too light and not blue enough. My can of Tamiya AS-31 Ocean Grey 2 (RAF) looks much closer to the colors on the PrintScale instructions – would that work? I also love Mr. Color spray cans, but can’t seem to find a grey that I’m confident would be the correct color. If push comes to shove and I need to airbrush, I have these options: XtraCrylix XC1005 BS638 Extra Dk Sea Grey XtraCrylix XC1004 BS637 Dark Sea Grey XtraCrylix XC1001 BS241 Dark Green OR – Mr Color C-330 Dark Green Mr Color C-331Dark Sea Gray Which of these options are accurate for the Jag? Or if I want to go old school and use a brush, I have: Humbrol 123 Dark Sea Grey (but my notes seem to suggest this is a WWII color…) Humbrol 27 Sea Grey Humbrol 30 Dark Green, very dark, is this for USAF Vietnam? German?? RAF??? Thanks very much for your suggestions!

More s-l-o-w progress. Any of you basketball fans? Then you know how the last 5 minutes of a college or pro game takes more like 30 minutes! Well, that is what this build feels like, and that is not uncommon for me. The last 10% of a build takes 30% of the overall times, it seems. I just completed one of my favorite parts of a build - removing the masking. I'm fairly pleased with how the canopy turned out, though of course it needs some touchup still. I think I can finish this by the end of the week.

Thank you, Graham! I really should ask: what is your entire process for painting props? You can't paint yellow over black. I've tried spraying the tips yellow first, then (trying) to mask off the tips and then paint the blades flat black (or should it be glossy?). never seems to work well. Corsairfoxfouruncle, do you paint the blades black up to where the yellow would go, then paint the yellow? That makes sense, but then it would be TWO separation lines one would need to steadily try to paint in a straight line. That sounds difficult. In any case, here is my result, it's going to need a lot of touchup:

Thanks for your advice, Corsairfoxfouruncle! Now the next question: yellow is notoriously see-through and takes several layers. Which paint do you use for yellow painted prop tips? And (I may regret asking this...), is the yellow used on British planes different that was Americans used? I just used very thin Tamiya tape at the dividing line, then painter's tape to cover up the rest of the blades and spinner, then sprayed Tamiya Chrome Yellow. I have Camel Yellow as well, but that seems to have a bit of an orange tint to it that didn't seem quite right.

A modest update. I've applied some exhaust staining using chalk. I'm not very experienced at this, but am fairly pleased with the result - even though the colors are not close to the pic so helpfully provided by Troy Smith. I did not have a brownish chalk to match the photo, sadly. Also, I think my gun blast stains are too much and toned them down a bit after I took this picture. I lightly sanded the rivets to make them pop a bit, as you can see if you compare the picture below to my last post. And I'm having more self-imposed trouble with the one-piece prop/spinner. I tried masking the spinner with liquid mask, but probably applied it too thinly. When I went to remove it, I gouged the red paint. I have since sanded it a bit, primed again, and repainted in another red spray paint that, luckily, seems to be a better match to the red decal flash at the front of the fuselage. Now I'll need to mask the prop tips again and paint them yellow, which never seems to work well for me. I always get bleed under the masking, even if I spray a flat coat first to try and seal it better. Does anyone have a better method for painting prop tips that won't cause me to pull what little is left of my hair from my head?

I'm wondering how well, in general, vintage Airfix molds have held up after decades of use. I collect vinyl records, and the earliest issues tend to sound the best - since later reissues have to deal with inevitable mold wear. I think the same holds true for plastic models, so I seek out the earliest issues I can find, even though it means I'll have to find aftermarket decals (no problem!). But, the issue of mold wear can be counter-balanced by a other considerations. For example, old plastic can become brittle - I'm dealing with this on my Monogram Hurricane build, where a prop just disintegrated. Does anyone have an opinion of the quality of plastic being used in these new Vintage Classic kits, compared to the original plastic from the 60's-70's (mostly)?

I'd forgotten about the spit technique - I used to do that as a boy. Thanks for the reminder. I tried something that looks just like Elmer's, but is specifically for clear plastic parts. It helped, I'll have to take another look tomorrow after it dries. But it sure looks like my leading edge there is either going to need touch up with paint or decal, or I'll have to live with a black leading edge there. Turns out the "white box" issue was a fiction of my imagination. I do have a nice collection of Monogram kits with that style boxing, it was what I bought for 99 cents as a boy in the 70s - just not the Hurricane. I may see if my Hasegawa or Aifix kits offer more than one spinner option and see if they fit. I'll try to putty that crack and repaint, but I am skeptical. I painted the exhausts a metallic black, then dry brushed them with Model Master Acrylic Rust.

And then this happened: I picked up my prop/spinner to do more painting, and the tip of one prop just... disintegrated. I glued it back but clearly some plastic just crumbled - I'll have to putty it and hope it won't break again. If push comes to shove, well I do have another boxing of this kit in my collection, a newer issue, so I could always cannibalize that part.

Slight progress... and problems. First, these Aeromaster decals are very thick and stiff. The upside is that they are very opaque - the black does not show through at all, which is nice. But the stiffness is a problem with the tail decals. It's hard to see in this photo, but at the leading edge of the tail, the decal does not conform and stands proud of the surface, despite Mr. Mark Strong. What are my options? 1) make tiny cuts to the leading edge of the decal and add more Mr. Mark? 2) try to PAINT the exposed are, and hope to match the colors of the decal? 3) try using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement to get the decal to conform? 4) flood the gap with Future and hope that makes it stick to the curved leading edge better? Also, more decal gripes. You see the glitch in the roundel in the top photo. These are hard to move on the surface and it folded under itself there. I might be able to touch it up using another extra roundel on the sheet. But then there is the fact that Aeromaster requires THREE layers of decals to make this roundel! I *think* they will conform well enough to the fabric surface details underneath - three layer would not work so well had there been raised rivets there. (Take a deep breath Tom, perfection is not your goal...)

I’ve masked off the canopy using very thing Tamiya tape and masking agent, then painted just the vertical frames first. I find doing greenhouse canopies in two steps is far easier. Then I removed the masking, reapplied it again for the horizontal frames, attached to the fuselage and painted it all NATO Black from a Tamiya spray can. The Tamiya is a semi-gloss, and I’m not sure if that is good enough to avoid silvering. So I tried a few stencils in the lower tailplane, out of sight when sitting on my shelf. For the single stencil on the right, I brush some Future first, and then on top. For the other two, I used Mr. Mark decal softener only. I think the latter approach will work, but I won’t really know for sure until my final flat coat. I was worried that these decals for the red area on the nose might be a challenge... But Mr. Mark has helped a great deal, still some touchup will be needed.

Ah, this is a VERY helpful picture so I can do some exhaust staining, thank you Troy. I should say that I am not greatly concerned with accuracy. I realize the Monogram kit is a mish-mash of various marks and does not quite match the scheme I am planning. I'm okay with that. My model-building priorities are: 1) enjoying my build 2) avoiding my tendency for perfectionism so I might actually FINISH the kit, and 3) creating something that pleases myself, even knowing it could never win a contest.

Thanks for the advice! Well I always appreciate larger pictures myself. I was perhaps concerned about people who look at this site on a phone or tablet. I'll happily post at 1024px from now on.

I regret I never took a tour of the Morton Grove plant while it was still operational. I'm a Tigers fan myself though, I'm from the Detroit area originally. When I was a boy, I *much* preferred Monogram over Revell. I did not find out about Airfix, Frog, Otaki, Hasegawa, etc., until I was around 13. I begged my mom to take me to the original Squadron Shop in the Detroit suburbs, about an hour away, for my 13th birthday. I was in utter heaven when I stepped inside, I never wanted to leave. A few last pix for the day, a stencil set by Avieology from Canada. These red stencils were used on night fighters, which the Aeromaster sheet did not provide.

Using Medium (660px) size pix seems to be plenty large enough. I used Large (1024px) for the first few posts, they seemed obnoxiously large, so I'll switch. Everything fits quite well so far (for the era, that is). Here you can see how the wing walks are a little proud of the surface. Grrrr.

Here is my attempt at painting the pilot. Slightly less awful than my usual result, but I can live with it. I have used at least 3 different brands of paint so far on this guy. The kit's painting instructions are sorely lacking, so I'm making up as I go along. (I've done live improv on stage at Second City, so I'm used to this sort of thing).

Glad to see a fellow Chicagoan here! I actually do live in the city, about a mile north of Wrigley Field. The Airwaves piece here fits almost perfectly: But I can't get the wing walks to lie as flat as I had hoped. But they are superglued and won't be going anywhere. Well, the secret to *finishing* a kit is to give up all notions of perfection, so "mission accomplished!"

I’ve been a long time fan of this site, but this is my very first post here. I grew up in the 60s and 70s, and like most kids in that era, I built plastic models. My very first kit I ever built was the old box scale Monogram A-26 Invader. I think the Testor’s silver paint that I brushed on is STILL drying, lol! And of course, I got glue marks with my fingerprints all over it. I built over 100 kits as a boy, then stopped in high school when I discovered girls. After a long hiatus from the hobby, my brother got me a Monogram 1/48 P-40 “Tigershark” as the box termed it, a name I’m pretty sure was never actually used for the P-40. So in my mid-30s, I picked up the hobby once again. I am not a prolific builder by any means – maybe 6-8 on a really good year, some years I’ll only finish 1 or 2. But our only child is now off to college 2000 miles away, so I expect I’ll be able to complete more kits every year from then on. Monogram kits were my favorite as a boy. The “White Box” era of Monogram – pictures of built-up kits on a plain white background, rather than box art – was what I built most often. And one of my favorite kits I built as a boy was the Monogram Hurricane. I really loved the retractable landing gear, and my build had both the 4 x 20mm Hispano cannons AND the 40mm Bofors slung underneath. Heck, I may have added some bombs too! Don’t judge, I was 11 at the time… I am almost exclusively a vintage kit builder. I really love taking a crude old kit and improving it. I do a little bit of scratchbuilding, will use some aftermarket resin (I dislike working with photo-etch though), and aftermarket decals. This is an original PA-90 boxing of the Hurricane from 1964, so it’s only a year younger than I am. I’ll be building a night fighter version. I’m amazed to see the comparison of the very old decal for the instrument panel versus the Aeromaster aftermarket sheet’s attempt. The Monogram’s IP is sharper than Aeromaster’s! And despite the fact that I don't much enjoy working with PE, I will use a few pieces from this Airwaves set, meant for the old Airfix kit.