Tonys FIAT br20 ‘Cicogna’ in 1/72

[yak face]

Its the first time Ive used them pete , they are a bit different arent they ? They did seem to take ages to cure but after looking it does say on the bottle ‘leave for 24 hours to dry ‘ . The other things are they dont seem very opaque - the sand colour took two coats over two days - and is it just me or do they smell like Jeyes fluid when youre using them!? ( even though it says on the bottle ‘no odour’ !)
They seem to have done the job though so they might get get a run out again the next Italian job I do , and theres 3 in the stash !

[stillp]

I had an RAF day fighter scheme set Tony, and it still felt tacky after a week between coats. I mentioned this to the guy who ran the Antics shop near me and he produced a figure he'd sprayed with MIG a month before - it was still tacky. That was a few years ago though, they must have improved since then.
Pete

[flyjoe180]

Fantastic paint work Tony, the mottle effect is looking A-1. I have used Ammo acrylics in recent years on various builds with no drying issues. They are all the slightly older bottles of the Vallejo-style. Do you use the Ammo thinner with their paint?

[yak face]

Fantastic paint work Tony, the mottle effect is looking A-1. I have used Ammo acrylics in recent years on various builds with no drying issues. They are all the slightly older bottles of the Vallejo-style. Do you use the Ammo thinner with their paint?

I just used vallejo thinner joe , it was ok apart from taking a bit longer to dry and the funny smell . I’ve used vallejo with other acrylics ( AK , Hataka , ) and it seems to work fine . I wouldnt use it with Tamiya though , thats very different stuff , always use their own thinners or IPA if I run out . I know Mr color laquer thinners works for Tamiya ,which is virtually cellulose thinners but I personally havent used this method .
I once tried cellulose with one of the acrylic paints ( cant remember which one) and it turned into a thick jelly , so best to be careful.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

You nailed it Tony. Top work.

[yak face]

Got the decals on today . Bit of a job though , the kit decals were different from the aircraft I wanted to portray ( the serial numbers and manufacturers serial ) . I had got some decals off ebay which gave me three quarters of the numbers but was still missing a red 3 in the right font. The spare decal stash didnt turn anything up so I had to resort to a cut n shut job with the top half of a seven and the bottom half of a three to get the right style . Bit of a faff but it worked ok . Even more fiddly was the manufacturers serial no. near the tail , obviously the kit one was wrong so i had to source ten tiny individual numbers and make up the right one (22267) , luckily I did manage to find these in the spares.
Feeling chuffed I had managed to do it all , I cocked up big style by picking it up and having some of the applied decal numbers stick to my fingers , ‘oh you silly sausage ‘ or something like that , I said . I had a spare number 4 but the damaged number 2 will have to be touched up with paint . .

[flyjoe180]

That's all worked out nicely Tony. Amazing how decals are more attracted to skin than plastic!

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Top work Tony.

[Airborne01]

That really is a lovely job Tony!
Steve

[yak face]

Back off holiday now so a bit more done today . The kit exhausts were nicely done but just a solid end so these were drilled out before painting . Theres aldo a small forward facing pipe that goes on the side of the main exhaust which also needed drilling out .
The upper turret on this particular aircraft was a Breda semi retractable one , the kit turret isnt brilliant , having a lot of opaque marks on the lower section which doesnt matter as I wanted to have it retracted anyway ( virtually all photos of aircraft on the ground show the turret in this position)
While looking at photos I realised there should be a recessed channel where the gun rests which the kit doesnt have . I had to carefully cut this out and glue a piece of plastic card under it . It looks fine now its painted and when the turret goes in the gun should sit nicely as it should.

[PaulTRose]

This is looking great

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Lovely work and attention to detail Tony.

[Geoffers]

Great work Tony, it looks awesome 🤩

Geoff.

[scottie3158]

That a great looking build love the paintwork.

[yak face]

Few little bits to be done before it gets a matt coat .
the aileron mass balances ( upper and lower) have been glued and painted and the kit features the horn linkages for the aileron cables but no depiction of the actual cable . To sort this I drilled holes in the wings and used metal guitar string ( the finest one ) to represent the control cables. The control surfaces have had a panel line wash and the engine cooling gills too.
The aforementioned turret has had the frames painted by hand as the complicated layout plus the very faint lines meant masking up would have been nigh on impossible. Here it is after its first coat , it needs a bit of neatening up and a coat of Klear to smarten it up a bit . The bottom section beneath the shoulder has only been roughly done as its not going to be visible after fixing.
The airframe now had two mist coats of matt and is drying .