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Swiss Shark Nose Tiger, AFV Club 1/48


Robert Stuart

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Hopefully you don't muck up the paintjob, Robert. If those paints turn out to be ok to use, I might well be interested in the details for the supplier

 

James

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Thanks James.

14 minutes ago, 81-er said:

If those paints turn out to be ok to use, I might well be interested in the details for the supplier


If the paint works, I'll share the supplier's details, I'm sure a few people want RAL colours on occasion.
My concerns are more the masking I've let myself in for, and cleaning the Airbrush after each colour.

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Started painting the Tiger with the Tiefschwartz (black), then realised I'd left off some lights on the fuselage.
Added the lights, masked up, sprayed on primer, and then remembered Enzo 😳, so, quickly, whipped out the camera, and took these images:

Kit masked for priming lights (with primer)
F-5E_019.jpg

 

Stripping the outer wrap away gave us
F-5E_020.jpg

 

And the overall effect ....
F-5E_021.jpg

 



OK, initial thoughts about that car paint:

It is different.
I tried thinning with white spirit.  It didn't smell right; it sprayed, but the stuff just kept getting gloopier and gloopier.
Not impossible; I'd started on the starboard tail, and seen plenty of splattered paint, but that covered in the end, as you can see from the picture above.

I started thinking, I had used paint that looked like this before, like decades ago.  And that smell?
Maybe its dope?  Cellulose dope.  That takes me back to balsa gliders covered in tissue paper.

Alright, a trip to the local hardware store, see if he had some cellulose thinner?
He did!

Reassuringly, there was a picture of an airbrush on the bottle.
Alright, try mixing the new thinner with the car gloop.
Sort of runny, like no-fat milk.

Spraying, it looked OK.
Not really, more like a very fine sand paper. Well, I was desperate, by this time, I'd accept anything that sprayed.
I let it dry overnight.  At this stage, it looked OK, very OK.
Then I remembered the fuselage lights (see above).


Verdict?
The jury is still out on this stuff, but, the signs are hopeful.

Side note: I was worried about cleaning the airbrush after using this stuff.
Two cups of thinner later, and that *might* be the best and quickest airbrush clean up job I've ever done?
Far and away better than enamel (I hate cleaning up after enamel paints), but (hope) better than acrylics too.
 

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10 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

I hate cleaning up after enamel paints

 

Same here; I prefer the paints to acrylics but man, cleaning up after them is a ballache of the highest order.

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I use an H&S Evolution Silverline as well, and I've not had any seal issues yet. I've been spraying a mix of acrylics thinned with Tamiya thinner (and also Mr Color Levelling), Alclad cleaned up with cellulose (including some overnight soaks to get rid of crud), and lacquers thinned with Mr Color Levelling. Honestly my only problems have been down to either crud in the paint, or crud from not cleaning it thoroughly enough.

 

James

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Thought I'd spend a quiet few hours masking my F-5E.
Four days later, I'm calling it.

Mask design for the upper fuselage:
F-5E_023.jpg

The orange squares are 1cm scaling guides
Cutting that out by hand was unappealing, to say the least.

So, I tried a Cricut cutter for the first time.
OK, I can see possibilities with that (I wonder how rich Santa will be this year?)


F-5E_024.jpg

 

As I say, it took four days to get to this stage.
Some of those wing roots will need attention; maybe another few hours ...

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And there I was regretting the masking job I had to do! My hat is well and truly doff'd in your direction, Robert, and I'm fully in awe at your dedication to that

 

James

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Painting today yesterday, three colours, and I'm whacked.

This was the second colour, yellow.  The underside?  Well, a reveal of that should be later in this post.
F-5E_025.jpg

 

Lots of layers of yellow here.  In the paint's defence, it was over black paint, when the maker recommends grey primer.

And, after the third colour was applied, and masking removed.
F-5E_028.jpg

 

And, the underside

F-5E_029.jpg

 

 

A nit of retouching is needed, I'll worry about that later.

 

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Thanks guys, that's great feedback.
So good, that I went straight to the decal stage, without varnishing first.

This is what it looks like now:
F-5E_030.jpg

 

 

 

F-5E_031.jpg



There was one hiccup, the decal sheet has lots of serial numbers for Swiss airframes, but I couldn't see J-3003, the number carried by this Tiger.
There were plenty of options that could be adapted.  I chose J-3030.

Next, re-touching, final details, and (hope) varnishing.

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