Lee1

Thank you so much for the responses! That's good to know I'm not alone 😅 I try to be kind to myself and remember that it's supposed to be fun and it's okay to take breaks sometimes - I have plenty of other hobbies and interests! But it would be nice to finish more than a couple of models a year!

So I've made quite a bit of progress and didn't take enough photos! I have brush-painted most of the small pieces - although I'm at a point now where I'll paint the rest as I need them. I have airbrushed all of the different colours required, only thing left to airbrush is the clearcoats when I'm at that stage. The airbrushing went mostly well, although I'm not fully happy with all of the results. The masking wasn't the best, so I have some overspray and some soft lines. I have since bought Tamiya's masking tape for curves and have learned it creates a perfect edge, so I'll be using that in the future. Some examples with some of the panels here: The next step for me now is to start building the model into larger subassemblies. Painting any small parts and attaching decals where needed. I have already completed the subassembly made up of the engine and frame: Once all of the larger subassemblies are complete, I'll clear-coat them all and then attach them all to hopefully complete the model! A note here I'd like to make: I have noticed with this build and with previous builds that my enthusiasm starts very high and drops gradually the further I go with a model. I guess that's somewhat natural, but it does cause a few problems for me. Firstly I tend to start off making lots of progress, then I'll hit a slump halfway through and make very little progress for a long time, before eventually seeing the end in sight and making a lot of progress again quickly. But secondly, and mainly - the quality of modelling and the enthusiasm to make things perfect and fix errors and so forth, definitely lowers the further along the process I get. I still think I'm improving with every model and I still think I end up with decent results considering I'm still a beginner to all of this. But it would be nice if I could somehow maintain the level of quality and attention to detail that I often start with - I think it would result in a much higher standard overall. I'd be curious if anyone else experiences anything similar!

Thank you Spiny and Delayar for the great advice. Paints and airbrushing is definitely one of the areas I need the most advice and have the most to learn - it still feels like a dark art to me sometimes! I personally only use acrylic paints (when airbrushing) - mostly because, in my current situation, I can only airbrush inside a shared house with a window open and a small spray booth - not the best setup with the fumes of enamels and laquers (although again my knowledge with this stuff is very limited). So for now I have to work with the limitations of acrylics.

So far, this new approach that I'm trying is working wonders for me. The whole process feels so much more streamlined and approachable. I primed all of the large pieces that will be airbrushed. I made the effort this time to polish and sand the surfaces smoother after priming them, and cleaned up any obvious seam lines etc. This is the first time I've tried it and it's worked out well. On the white outer body parts, I managed to buff the primer parts up to a slight shine, which has set me up well for the final glossy finish. I got myself a small case to store all of the small parts in. I'm brush painting them while I wait for other things to dry. This uses up so much less room and is much easier to work with - than just having loose sprues lying about. I airbrushed the white and semi-gloss black parts. I'm very happy with the finish I've achieved - I definitely feel myself improving with each model. I was going to spray the aluminium parts too, but I had to stop as my airbrush became clogged up. I find this only happens when I spray with Revell paints - they are so thick and "plasticy" and even with a lot of thinner, they can jam things up. I think I'm definitely going to favour Tamiya paints for airbrushing from now on and I might try some other brands too. Any suggestions would be fantastic. I'm really happy with the gloss finish I'm achieving on the white parts. Polishing and sanding the primer helped, but I also tried applying multiple layers with the airbrush, applying a "wetter" coat each time. I'm hoping by the time I clear coat and then polish, I'm going to achieve the really glossy "show room" look I want to achieve

Spent the last two hours preparing all of the large pieces and subassemblies that will be airbrushed. I cleaned up edges, seam lines and such as best I could - I've often struggled with this - but I've made a strong effort this time. I glued together the parts that I could, to make larger subassemblies - but some parts I decided were best to be left loose - I'll attach them as soon as they receive their correct colours. Seeing them all here makes the overall project seem a lot less daunting, perhaps this will turn out to be the right approach for me. The next step is to prime all of this - masking where needed first. Some will be primed with black primer and some with white primer.

This may be either a terrible idea or a great idea! But I've decided to change my overall method. I realised my current method is very inefficient in several ways. Currently, I've been priming, airbrushing and clear-coating each step. So to change things up I've split the model into sections. Section off each large piece/subassembly that needs to be airbrushed - and then airbrush each paint/primer/clear coat for every part that requires it. So my new order of operations for the whole model will look something like this: Prepare subassemblies for airbrushing Prime subassemblies Airbrush subassemblies with respective colours Brush paint small details and attach small parts Decals Clear coats Polishing where necessary Attach subassemblies Final details, decals, clear coating, polishing I hope this new method works out, speeds things up and makes the whole process more efficient - with time/paint/effort and so forth. Please let me know what you think and offer any advice. This is one of the areas I'm weakest in with my modelling.

It's been a while, but I'm back, for now! I experimented with sanding and polishing compounds on the frame in an attempt to improve the desired metallic effects - the shiny and rough aluminium from the references above. I think overall I made the whole piece worse off - but it was useful knowledge and ultimately, for me, the part is okay and I'll continue to use it how it is. It still needs a coat of X-22, which is my next step. I have fully built the engine and painted it, although it also needs to be clear-coated. I primed it with Mig One Shot black primer and then coated it with Tamiya X-1 - I decided to go for a glossy black finish in the end, based on the references. I brush-painted the small parts using a mixture of Tamiya and Revell paints. I'm happy with how the engine has turned out. These photos are a result of my new Canon R7 camera - even with almost no preparation or attention paid to lighting and background - the improved quality is really noticeable. I certainly won't be using it for every photo, but I definitely will be using it for the finished build photos.

I removed the last of the masking tape and realised I'd left a tiny piece on the back and therefore it didn't get sprayed with aluminium when it was supposed to. So I fixed that by brush painting some aluminium. Then I brush painted the small parts - some with semi-gloss black and some with chrome silver. Here are the results: Still working on my brush painting skills. I am improving, but there is still a long way to go. The next step on this piece is to apply a tiny decal and spray it with a clear coat. I might leave the clear coating until I have some more finished sub-assemblies that also need clear coating. So once I apply the decal, I'll start working on the engine!

A bit more progress from the last couple of days Removed the masking tape. You can see the two different black undercoats here. The more glossy black and then the matt primer. Masked off the areas to be brush painted. I didn't worry about being too perfect here, as these are difficult areas to mask and some overspray shouldn't be an issue. Airbrushed the Aluminium Metallic. This is a Revell paint, I seem to have gotten a bit of a speckled appearance. However, it is more prominent in the photo than it is in person. Not sure what I can do about that if anything, as it doesn't match the reference photos. Also, at the moment at least, it still needs to dry fully, there isn't too much difference between the two undercoats. The glossy black undercoat didn't make the aluminium paint more shiny or glossy. Maybe slightly, but not as much as I was hoping. The next step now, which I might even achieve today, is to unmask again. Then brush paint the last two finishes. Semi-gloss black and chrome silver. Then once I get the chance to airbrush again, I'll cover it all in a layer of X-22 clear coat.

Looking ahead slightly, as I won't be working on the engine until the part above is complete. I wanted to get some advice on the painting of the engine. Here's some photos: The instructions call for a mix of XF-56 Metallic Grey and X-9 Brown without giving any indication of the ratio. I don't own either of these paints and although I could buy them, looking at the photos I wonder if that's going to give the best results. I have a range of blacks in my collection, including matt, semi-gloss and gloss. I also have a range of metallic paints in my collection too. I'm happy to share what I have if it helps. I'm also happy to buy more paint. So any advice on how to achieve this finish will be greatly appreciated! Here are the instructions for reference:

I masked off the areas that will be left with the primer as an undercoat so that I could spray the X-1 gloss black undercoat where it was needed. I got a bit carried away with the masking, aiming for perfection. Trying to mask off tiny and complicated areas. I realised halfway through that this wasn't going to be possible and ended up just doing the best I could. I then got the chance to spray today and laid down the X-1 gloss black undercoat. I'm happy with the finish and it's noticeably glossier and darker than the primer, so hopefully it makes a difference to the aluminium that goes on top. Once this is dry I will remove the masking and then re-mask as best I can the areas that will be brush painted later on. Some overspray shouldn't be an issue as it'll be covered by naturally thicker brush paint. Then I'll spray the metallic aluminium where it's needed over the two different undercoats. Even though the Tamiya bottle says to only leave the paint for an hour before applying another coat, I'm going to leave it until tomorrow.

I've edited the photo above to more clearly demonstrate the different finishes on this one part.

Time to get started on my next project. This will be my first time modelling a motorcycle. The Tamiya Honda VFR750R RC30. As well as hopefully getting a lovely final result, I want to use this model to practice specific techniques and to experiment with getting certain kinds of paint finishes. The first step is the aluminium frame between the panels in the photo above. A very simple piece to build. I've glued the main four parts together to get the whole frame. There is a fifth small piece (held in the crocodile clip, in the photo below) that I will paint separately and attach once everything is airbrushed, otherwise, it will make things a lot more complicated. But, for the finish I want, it's going to be complicated to paint. You can see some of my plans for this piece on the paper, although I've simplified a lot of that since. You might be able to see in the photos below, this piece has four separate finishes on it. Two are glossy and shiny and two are more matt/semi-gloss. We have glossy/shiny aluminium and matt/rough aluminium. We also have a shiny chrome silver and then a semi-gloss black. My plan to achieve this - spray everything with a matt black primer (completed and seen above). Cover the matt/semi-gloss areas with masking tape and then spray X-1 gloss black as a base coat for the shiny/reflective surfaces. I will then remove the mask and then mask off the small areas that will be brush painted with chrome silver and semi-gloss black later. Then spray metallic aluminium over both the gloss black and matt back primer - hopefully giving me something close to the result I'm after with the two different aluminium finishes. Then I'll unmask and paint the chrome silver and semi-gloss with a brush, as these parts are very small, and it would be complicated to mask these areas sufficiently. I'll apply the one decal and attach the small separate part and then give the whole thing a coat of X-22 clear gloss. Then, if I feel it's worth it, I'll use sanding and polishing to get the different surfaces close to where I want them. It all feels very complicated for such a small part of the overall model. But as this is partly practice and experimenting with paint finishes, I think it's worth it. As usual, any advice will be greatly appreciated. Edit: Found another good photo that shows off some of the different finishes on the aluminium frame:

That's definitely worth a try if I do decide to get rid of them. I was thinking of selling them over Facebook, but your idea sounds better to me! Some really good ideas and solutions here though. Plenty to consider, not only with these models but with future models too.

Thank you for the feedback. Some good ideas here! I'll have to look into these and see what's possible and suitable for my situation. It would be nice to be able to make some of the larger aircraft without sacrificing the detail by building tiny versions. But space is limited for me.