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Hey everyone. Not sure if you remember, but I'm the armor guy that "hates building airplanes" (mostly because I have no idea what I'm doing, but trying). Well, I built another one; This lovely and iconic kit from Tamiya, the P-47D Razorback in 1/48 scale. This is my fourth plane now in the past year and I'd love to say I've gotten better at it, but I'm still struggling to do all the normal "airplane stuff" you guys are so good at. I mean that sincerely. That being said, I do like how this came out and will share some simple things if you're interested. First a few more pics: The Build: I kept this one strictly OTB. I could have added much more as I know many of you do, but since airplanes are not my forte, I wanted to keep it simple. Honestly, all I really wanted to do was try a NMF again like I tried on my Mustang I built before this one. I loved working with metallics for the first time and wanted to try and improve my skills. Typical Tamiya, it went together relatively smoothly. Any errors were on my part. I did the best I could with sanding, filling and re-scribing, but I did not do a fantastic job, but better than before, so I'll take progress. Painting: First, I want to start that being a 40 year armor guy, that working with metallics is a totally foreign endeavor for me and many others. It's totally out of my wheelhouse or given strengths, so I knew I needed a simple, yet elegant format to execute to try to improve me metallic finish. I had done my Mustang MkIV with Mr Color Metallics and it came out ok, but I was not overly thrilled with the finish. It looked too dull for me and mostly because it's hard to not overpaint the metallics as many of you know. I had used stainless steel as my primary color and that was a bit of a mistake. Still looked good, but not overly brilliant in its metallic nature. I did not do pre-shading like I did on my corsair... ...this was a concern for me, because pre-shading and black basing are strengths for me. Obviously with a NMF I have learned from all you lovely people and others that one ideally wants to start with a gloss black base before applying the given metallics. I began with Ueno Black from Mr Color, one that I've used before and really like. It gives a very satin, oily like finish and in my opinion, a good option for undercoating metallics. Once this was done, I did my best to "buff" the black and make it glossy-er. I did this with Tamiya finishing compounds fine and finish. It worked relatively well and gave me some panel modulation in the black and the glossiness of each panel. Once I was happy with that, I began to apply the metallic finish. For this I had many test paints, and originally was going to use several to achieve a panel specific look I know many of you use. However, I have little confidence in myself with metallics and had been burned on the Mustang with applying many tapes and too much paint, even after chemical drying to my finish. So I decided on sticking with just ONE COLOR, and that was Mr Color Super Duraluminum, which I loved in the test patters. The secret I had learned in instead of using Mr Leveling thinner or 400, I used Mr Rapid Thinner, which I had read increases the drying of the paint as it lays down and offered a tighter metallic pattern that we all strive to achieve. After testing I had confirmed this and was happy with the results... NOTE: Even though I only used one color I was still able to achieve panel modulation as though I had used several by simply using less paint on one panel and more on another OR increasing the intensity of the stream with more pressure or closer contact. This worked great and much less fuss than using tape per panel. Granted, I did this all freehand and that may not be something everyone is comfortable with. I however love freehand. Then came the decals. I had already planned on doing a NMF, so I had researched razorbacks with such finish online and corresponding decals to use. I came across Thundercals and quickly and easily found the plane I wanted to try and paint, Dan'l Boone's P-47D based out of Saipan in 1944. I loved the contrast of the yellow and black on the NMF. Of course, I knew that really the decals were the easy part. The hard part would be the painting of the yellow, even though they did include the yellow stripes in the decals, I decided to play hard ball and paint them myself. So yah, I wound up having to mask and tape after all. No stress at all. NOT! The decals went on really well. Highly recommend Thundercals. The yellow painting? It went as good as could be expected. It's really hard to tape a straight line on a curved surface, but most of you already know that. But in the end I was happy with the turnout of the yellow and the black... The "chipping" was done with a toothpick and Testors chrome. I may have gone a little overboard with the chipping, but I digress. Weathering: OK, this where I am really weak when it comes to planes. Tanks, no problem at all! I can weather the heck out of tanks... Planes seem very nuanced in weathering and some of you seem to gravitate towards pristine, while others gravitate towards tattered and battle worn. I tried to keep mine in the "middle", mostly because I was petrified of messing up all my previous work. Do others of you feel like that with planes? Anyway, I did NOT use any washes on this. I had no confidence in my ability with washes on a metallic surface. Yes, I had put on a satin coat of clear, but my experience told me that if you're happy with the finish, don't try and mess it up with a wash. I've always used limited washes on my models unless necessary. So, I went to what I know and love best, the airbrush. Now as many of you know, this can be a blessing and a curse as with an airbrush, once you maneuver to begin spraying paint, it's very hard, if not impossible to go back. Usually I would come in and post shade with a mix of nato black and hull red as I do on my armor. BUT, that was aggressive and hard to make transparent enough to build the color without using tons of thinner and that was NOT what I wanted given the metallic surface. So, I went the other way, INKS! I used the Ammo Shaders I had lying around. I call them inks because that's really what they are. They are water based and can be spray painted. I had used them on a few tanks already as well as my diorama above with great success and since they were water based I was not concerned about poor interactions with the NMF and it allowed me the ability to keep them very thin, transparent and slowly build my effects. I used Dirt, Grime, and Starship Filth. The effects are subtle, but there... Display: I really wanted to try my hand at doing an "in flight"plane for the first time. I had seen many people do it and wanted to challenge myself. I had to of course make this decision during the build process. Nice eliminating the landing gear steps as I suck at them. Then came the hard part, drilling into my plane. I've had to do custom stuff before, but with a plane I was out of my league. But I pressed on. I used a clear acrylic rod to hold the plane and drilled the hole on a bias from center so I could manipulate the plane into a more interesting formation that just straight. I found that I had drilled the hole in such a way that I did not have to glue the plane into place and could in fact manipulate it into many positions, which was a happy accident. The wood block is simply a 3x3 inch block, stained and hole drilled at a bias again to give the plane a chance to showcase its many angles of flight. I of course included the figure in the cockpit and did the best I could with him. Well, that's pretty much it. As usual, I have rambled on enough. I hope you enjoy the pics and please feel free to comment, critique or ask questions. Cheers, Graeme