Magic Mustang

[giemme]

Neat job, Cookie!

Progressing very fast!

 

Ciao

[Courageous]

Great start there Cookie.

 

Stuart

[Procopius]

I can't tell you how good it is to see you back at the bench, JD. Your work always inspires me to try new things.

[Ratch]

Which airframes had these panel lines puttied?

[Troy Smith]

35 minutes ago, Ratch said:

Which airframes had these panel lines puttied?

AFAIK, all US built ones.  It was a standard finishing procedure.

 

  IIRC some Australian built  ones didn't.

 

 

[Rabbit Leader]

2 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

IIRC some Australian built  ones didn't.

Off the top of my head it was A68-123 to A68-200. The were many other small differences between these CA-18 Mustangs to your typical US built P-51D, however this discussion is irrelevant here.

 

Cheers.. Dave 

[RidgeRunner]

14 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

AFAIK, all US built ones.  It was a standard finishing procedure.

 

  IIRC some Australian built  ones didn't.

 

 

I see you've invested in the ArmyCast sheet

[Cookenbacher]

OK, a little progress today:

 

I brushed a little metalizer on the inside of the main gear doors and the front portion of the flaps; two spots that always seem extra shiny in reference pics. I masked them off and will prepare the rest for an NMF done with Vallejo Metal Colors.

 

 

Primer is on, it's Stynylrez. I used the single action Paasche for the first time, and it was touch and go there for a minute as it was my first time with a single action, but got it dialed in at the end. Just give me 30 years and I might get proficient!

[Stew Dapple]

Looking niiiiiice Cookie  

 

Don't think you'll be needing those 30 years.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[CedB]

Smoooooth! Nice work Cookie  

[giemme]

Yes, smooth is the word!  

 

Ciao

[Bedders]

You're motoring ahead nicely Cookie. Looks good even in the primer, and Iove those smooth wings. 

 

Justin

[gingerbob]

If you're used to a dual-action, why go to single?  I bought a dual-action airbrush some years ago, but haven't even gotten sorted out to be able to spray since.  But recently I got to try one out at a friend's, and it wasn't anywhere near as intimidating as I expected!  Still not sure I want to deal with "before it leaves the brush drying" acrylics, but I guess once you figure out how to live with it, it isn't that big a deal.

[Hockeyboy76]

Nice to see you back in a GB Cookie.  Nice work so far and glad you enjoyed it over here in rainy UK. 

[Cookenbacher]

Thanks H, Giorgio, Ced, Justin and Stew!

 

9 hours ago, gingerbob said:

If you're used to a dual-action, why go to single? 

It's all due to the influence of @Navy Bird, who has used a single action Paasche for the last 30 years, and I love an experiment.

It takes a little getting used to, but it has advantages over a dual action: the 'needle' is more like a 'spike' (think EE Lightning intake) and seems much more robust. You adjust the spike position by hand before spraying, so in a way it's like one of those fancy dual action airbrushes with the limit stop built into the trigger.

 

Dial the cone that's angled off the bottom there to adjust the flow area (akin to pulling back the trigger on a dual action). The button on top activates air as always (I've got a MAC valve/quick connect between the brush an the hose to help dial things in).

 

 

Dark blue base applied. You can see a bit practice on the cardboard as I got used to the single action.

 

I chose the dark blue for two reasons:

First, @mirageiv used a blue base on one of the best metal finishes I've ever seen (be careful, if you read all the way to the end of the linked post, you might cry).

 

Second, I think I'll mask the USAAF insignias, and I've had trouble with the 'outside' portion of the mask distorting just a little when the circle has bars attached. So I'm hoping to simply use the 'inside' portion of the mask and attaching it a this point, before applying the Vallejo Metal Color.

 

And added a little yellow, which sprayed terrible - not due to the brush, but to the watery Vallejo consistency - this is about 50 coats.

 

[giemme]

Looking very nice, Cookie

 

Yellow it's always a nightmare to spray, IMHO - even more so with vynil based acrylics. I always spray some off-white as a base first (tipically Tamiya Flat White mixed with a few drops of Tamiya Sky), and on top of that I add a tiny little bit of red, to give some sort of warm hue, if you know what I mean. This usually means that I only need to airbrush a couple of coats.

 

HTH

 

Ciao

[CedB]

Dark blue eh? Sneaky...

 

Bill had be thinking about a Paasche too but I don’t need it now  

[mirageiv]

Superb work Cookie, I always enjoy a thread by yourself and great to see you back at it  ! I'm interested to see how the blue base works out here, I don't use Vallejo so I can't comment. The main reason I used it on my build (I should have used a lighter, dark blue (what?!) than I did tbh) was that the Alclad Polished Aluminium over it is semi-transparent, so a slight blue hue will come through, which did give some kind of allure that it is under a blue sky, slightly being reflected from the metal fuselage. I'm not sure how much this works however on the more opaque metallic paints of other manufacturers, surely it must come through as they always seem dependant on the base colour to some extent. On the non-transparent Aclads I used, the blue base did still come through a little but not quite the same effect as with the semi-transparent Alclad. I'm eager to see how this turns out! 

 

David 

Edited December 22, 2019 by mirageiv

[Cookenbacher]

On 12/21/2019 at 12:13 PM, giemme said:

Looking very nice, Cookie

 

Yellow it's always a nightmare to spray, IMHO - even more so with vynil based acrylics. I always spray some off-white as a base first (tipically Tamiya Flat White mixed with a few drops of Tamiya Sky), and on top of that I add a tiny little bit of red, to give some sort of warm hue, if you know what I mean. This usually means that I only need to airbrush a couple of coats.

Thanks Giorgio! Yeah, @Procopius convinced me a while back that Tamiya is the only yellow worth spraying, and I should have bought some more!

On 12/21/2019 at 2:33 PM, CedB said:

Dark blue eh? Sneaky...

It was successful for my second goal, but maybe not as important for the first.

 

13 hours ago, mirageiv said:

Superb work Cookie, I always enjoy a thread by yourself and great to see you back at it  ! I'm interested to see how the blue base works out here, I don't use Vallejo so I can't comment. The main reason I used it on my build (I should have used a lighter, dark blue (what?!) than I did tbh) was that the Alclad Polished Aluminium over it is semi-transparent, so a slight blue hue will come through, which did give some kind of allure that it is under a blue sky, slightly being reflected from the metal fuselage. I'm not sure how much this works however on the more opaque metallic paints of other manufacturers, surely it must come through as they always seem dependant on the base colour to some extent. On the non-transparent Aclads I used, the blue base did still come through a little but not quite the same effect as with the semi-transparent Alclad. I'm eager to see how this turns out!

Thanks David, and you were right about the transparency of the Vallejo versus other metallics, but I'm glad I used blue for the masking at least.

 

I added the masks straight onto the blue undercoat, and masked off the black stripes while I was at it.

 

 

I'm attempting a varied , non-pristine finish using Vallejo Metal Color Aluminum, Dull Aluminum, Dark Aluminum and White Aluminum. First light coat of Aluminum applied.

I forgot to mask the wheel wells, so will have to carefully reapply the YZC to the main spar again.

 

A coat Dull Aluminum applied to the wings.

 

I just kind of randomly applied all four aluminum shades, looking for a shiny, but varied finish - returned to a double action airbrush for this. Unfortunately, the wind was picking up and quite a bit of dust managed to attach itself the Mustang.

 

Ready for white paint.

 

All masked up for the white and Olive Drab for the anti-glare patch.

 

The big reveal.

 

 

 

Some clean up required on the black stripe and around the star.

 

Test fitting the flaps- the 'metalized' leading edges don't show up at all! I'll have to figure out something there.

 

 

Same with the main gear doors - may have to invest in some foil.

 

Lots of clean up to be done - there always is, but overall I'm happy even though I'm out of practice.

[Andwil]

Watching closely as aI plan to use Vallejo metal colours on my pair of Mustangs.

 

AW

[CedB]

Wow back at you Cookie - she looks amazing! 

 

I love the varied effect and the markings look spot on; good job matey  

[giemme]

8 hours ago, CedB said:

she looks amazing! 

I'll second that, and the markings came out perfect!  

 

8 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

the 'metalized' leading edges don't show up at all!

The only way I know to have an effective shine (doesn't mean there's no other way, it's own to my limited experience) is using Model Master Metallizers and the brush technique, Cookie - you should remember that, right?   

 

Ciao

[Valkyrie]

Man, this looks perfect 

[Bedders]

Great stuff! Those stars & bars are a revelation. Itt's coming along really nicely.

 

Justin

[Procopius]

W O W!

 

JD, I admit in my heart of hearts I was a little skeptical of how this would turn out, but it looks good. Really good!