Alex.B

My TBD-1 is finally finished! This has been a simple build, but with a challenging paint job, as almost everything has been sprayed on. Decal usage has been minimum because they were simply disintegrating.... Here you can follow the build and the paint job steps Weathering has been kept at a bare minimum because these birds, in 1937, were quite new and very well maintained. Thank you everyone for the journey!! 🍻

And here I am on the last day... at least I finished one of my two entries for this GB! Other pictures are now in the GB Gallery....

Yeah maybe... but you know... life is the the thing that happens in between your builds 🤣 In other words, another addiction to the next KUTA. At least it seems I managed to complete the Devastator... today I'm gonna upload pics to the GB gallery section

And this is it: Nowhere in my mind I would have imagined such a beautiful result! Especially considering the corrugations and the small 1/72 scale of this kit. Yes there are some minor imperfections, but I think they look superb. I was very scared about paint bleeding considering the surface, but in a nutshell the secret is to always spray perpendicular to the mask and at the lowest possible pressure.

After almost one month since the last update, here I am. I sprayed a nice layer of Tamiya X-22 Clear Gloss and applied the decals, but I encountered some problems. This Airfix box was relatively recent, having bought it about 10 years ago, so the decals looked perfectly fine.. but they actually were not. Basically, after I put them on the model they started to break up in several pieces at the lightest touch. You all can imagine that putting them into the right place has been a nightmare. Anyway, after some inevitable verbal abuse I was able to apply the few on the fuselage, reserving the roundels on the CORRUGATED wings for my final session of swearing. No way to apply them, they just would not conform to the surface and they came apart in pieces. Having no other pre-war roundels of the appropriate size in my spare decal box left me me with one option only. Paint them on. Yes. On that corrugated surface. So I designed and cut the masks with my Cameo plotter, as I did for fuselage numbers. Here we are, ready to shot a white base: White on, masked the stars and the red circle, ready to shot some coats of Insigna Blue: Insigna Blue is on: I masked the Blue and I removed the round portion in the centre of the star to spray the Insigna Red: There we go... holding the breath during the un-masking process 🥵

On the wings I’m expecting to see some little fu*k ups on the real one

Masked for the final black details: Black is on: And here we go: I went for painted identification numbers mostly because the font used in the box decals is somehow off, as the numbers are thicker compared to pictures of the real thing from the era

First of all.. yellow is very difficult to evaluate from a picture because most digital cameras tend to oversaturate it. And mine is genuinely oversaturated and brighter than in flesh. To clarify things, I used the old trusty Tamiya XF-3 that is a very intense yellow. I know that Gunze/Mr.Hobby H329 "Yellow Orange FS13538" should be a closer match as it's even more intense than XF-3, but that color is awful to spray. First of all is gloss but, more important, is NOT opaque at all. It just takes countless layers to cover decently and, if you have raised details, you will be in trouble as it tends to remain transparent on these small raised parts. And considering all the wing corrugations that wouldn't have been a good idea. So Tamiya XF-3 was 😉

Masking for the silver is now complete: ...and silver is on! This is Tamiya LP-11 diluted 1:1 with Leveling Thinner and, as usual, it never disappoints me. Here too I'm very happy about the demarcation line between the silver and yellow on the lower part of the wings, considering all the corrugations

Some masking before spraying the red. I opted to paint the red stripes and fuselage lettering instead of using the box decals.. let's see how it will go... And here after a quick airbrush session and the subsequent unmasking. I must say that I'm quite happy with the result, considering the very irregular nature of the surface with all the rivets and the corrugations over the wings. Just some very minor imperfections, nothing that some easy touch ups wouldn't fix

Today some yellow went on

You just verbalized my fears 😂

In my always over-optimistic GB mojo… having plenty of subjects to choose from.. I will be in

Plenty of cars in my stash to choose from! I’ll be in

Tamiya Surface Primer White, diluted 1:1 with Leveling Thinner, is now on! I went with white primer mostly because of the yellow wings.. and anyway this will not be a heavily weathered model, so no need for a dark primer to obtain strong shadows and contrasts.