I managed a fair bit of progress over the Friday and Saturday, largely because the missus was out shopping all day!!!! The MRP paints helped too, being so quick to dry compared to Vallejo....
For those of you who doubt the value of using primer the aircraft fuselage seams looked perfect under the light but the primer really brought out the need for more work on them...
So below you can see them treated with Mr Sufacer 500
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After sanding and a second treatment, this time with Mr Dissolved Putty and another sanding we had this.
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Another final coat of black primer...
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OK, I admit, when I was a child hand brushing paint (laid on rather thickly) I used it to try to cover up flaws in a build, seams and such like. You cannot get away with that with an airbrush using very thin high quality paints and, to be honest, you cannot get away with it anyway and I shudder thinking about all that thick paint hiding detail as well as flaws. One of the secrets to a good paint finish is surface preparation. Time spent on this is well spent and as you can see above, you can get a perfect canvas on which to lay down the base coats. I should add that before priming I wiped all over with ipa and after sanding and rescribing I wiped all over with a damp cloth. Make sure you check the model all over for any threads that may have got caught up when wiping with ipa or water.
On with the first base coat. Black basing is ideal for lighter camo coats to create a good modulated finish depicting the play of light over what would be a large suface along with some wear and grime.
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There is the Medium Sea Grey underside. As always with MRP paint I finished off with a mist coat of Mr Levelling Thinner (MLT). This treatment just helps to improve the already excellent finish further. I actually do this as part of my airbrush cleaning routine. A cup of ipa first to get most of the base colour out, I wipe around in the cup with a cotton bud. Then a full cup full of MLT to finish off the clean up but sprayed over the model instead of into the cleaning cup....
I actually had time as well, on the same day as doing the Medium Sea Grey to mask up and spray Dark Earth. Black basing helped bring in some dark points and I then used Light Earth to post shade to lighten some areas that would catch the light and the centre of panels.
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The overall appearance was more of a contrast than I wanted between the very dark areas with more of the black basing showing and the lighter areas where I sprayed Light Earth. This is easy enough to resolve and indeed is pretty much deliberate as from this I can 'blend' the finish to what I want. Instead of the Mr Levelling Thinner being sprayed 'neat' I used a 50:50 mix with Dark Earth. Spraying at a high pressure of about 30psi from a distance, I went all over the aircraft but applied more to areas when I wanted to reduce contrast. The MLT magic happens and you get this.
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Exactly the appearance I wanted with a subtle modulated appearance. It is ready not just for the Dark Green but also the finish is perfect for decals and washes with no need to gloss coat. I just love this MRP Paint..... none better.
