Daywalker

Yep, I do!

Couldn't agree with you more on that one. I do wish more companies which sell paint masks would offer the choice between kabuki tape and vinyl.

Thank you for the detailed explanation, sounds quite possible that the wash step did help eliminate that residue. I will try your suggestion, thank you for taking the time to write it down! It's also good to know that it is not just me who experiences this phenomenon.

Brilliant work, love the crisp, demarcations between the camo colors and especially the markings. I am amazed by the small "Whistling Britches" masks you made, I imagine cutting them out without damaging them was challenging. I do have a question for you... Have you ever encountered any troubles with those vinyl masks? I have used them a few times, and no matter what I do I get a very small amount of residue from the adhesives onto the surface of the model. I have repeatedly stuck the masks to my skin to remove almost all of the adhesive, so that they barely stick to the surface. After painting, I gently wash the surface to try and remove the residue but no matter what I try, when I spray clear coats after painting you can see exactly where the outline of the mask was. It appears as a "ghost" square around the area. Never had this happen with Tamiya tape masks. Have you ever encountered this phenomenon?

You'll want to order the Quickboost control stick, big improvement over the kit supplied one. Quickboost 32104

NICE! I was browsing the photos and thought to myself- "Hmmm... that looks like a jeweler's bench, Foredom flex shaft and all." Not too different from my bench at work!

I used to be, but my job requires me to work Saturdays. I do stop by The Last Square regularly though!

I live in Mount Horeb, about 13 miles SW of Madison. Small world!

Beautiful work, jaw dropping stuff really! I see you are a fellow Wisconsinite, can I ask where in Wisconsin?

Thank you again Geoff! I did try the 70.520 the other night, and thinned it with distilled water. It seemed to work OK, but not quite what I had hoped for. I ended up spraying the model with some Alclad Aqua Gloss clear, will let that sit for a couple of days before moving on. Hope to get the rest of the decals on soon! Thanks again for the advice, much appreciated!

Cheers Tony, thank you for looking in! Yes, I do believe I will use primers from now on. Perhaps smaller parts can be sprayed directly with the NMF, but it sure seems that an entire airframe needs an undercoat. Beautiful Jug BTW, looks spectacular in the photo!

Greetings Geoff, thanks for the input! I have the Vallejo matte varnish, part number 70.520. Is this a similar product? I remember picking it up at my LHS a few years back but didn't really do anything with it. What is best to thin these with, is distilled water OK?

Brilliant choice, love those long-nose Tomahawks!

Fantastic review fellas in all respects- easy to understand and gets down to all of the details. Thank you so much for doing such a thorough job on such an important kit. Sounds like a kit worth getting (especially at the street prices they sell for) for the extras such as canopies, wheels, and other bits alone!

Agreed! Love your weathering style, looks good and used. Did you use oils to get that subtle marbled look? I like it VERY much.

Perfect, thank you!

Thanks Doogs, any idea how long they typically take to cure? I understand that temperature and humidity play a large role in determining the drying time. Just trying to determine whether an average time would be hours, days, or weeks. Thanks!

I am at the decalling stage in my NMF P-51D build, and am looking for advice on sealing the decals over the metal paint before weathering. I have scoured the Internet looking for tips and advice, and there seems to be just as many opinions as total aluminum finished models ever built! On my test pieces, I have tried sealing them with thinned Future (my usual favorite), Alclad Aqua Gloss Clear, and craft-store cheap matte coat (another favorite). I have about the different clear coats affecting the "look" of the aluminum finish, and if possible would like to find a method which will be the least intrusive to the Alclad finish, yet protective enough to seal the decals and unify the sheen of the surface. I do realize that I may be opening a can of worms on this one, but I would love to hear any tips and advice from those who do these finishes and manage to make them look so real. Thanks in advance, I look forward to hearing from you!

Looking forward to this one Rick!

Thanks guys, I appreciate you looking in here! Have been playing around with the AM decals I plan to use, to make sure the methods I use to apply them will work on a NMF. So far, so good!

Sorry for the delay in progress reports, I have been spending more time building and less time on the boards. I was finally able to get my photo booth set up again, so I quick snapped some photos to show where I am with this one. I have manged to paint the airframe in it's aluminum paint using Alclad Aluminum. I used a spare Tamiya P-51D wing as a test piece, to see how it would work out spraying this paint directly onto the kit plastic. The test went well, so I proceeded to paint the model. It didn't go quite as well, leaving a fairly rough texture to the paint. I was able to knock this back using coffee filters to an acceptable surface. I then proceeded to begin masking some panels on the bottom of the wing to spray some different shades, but to my horror the Tamiya tape took a significant amount of paint clean off! I had tested the masking on my test piece, and had no issues. Not sure what went wrong, but I was able to take the Alclad and touch up the damaged areas fairly easily. I knew I needed to mask and spray AT LEAST the panels around the exhaust as well as the anti glare panel, and honestly I was scared to death to try it. I was able to use post it notes for the nose panels (also did the gun bay covers) and they worked well. I wish now looking back I had used a darker shade, as they do not stand out as much as I would like them to. I may go back and darken them, but will have to work up the courage as I do not want to damage anything up there now! The anti glare panel was longer than the post it notes, and I knew I would not be able to splice them together and get a seamless demarcation line. I ended up taking strips of Tamiya tape and removed nearly all of the adhesive, which kept it from lifting the paint but also made it difficult to get it to conform to the compound curve on the nose. In the end, I think it turned out OK. This is my very first NMF, and I am really seeing the realities of doing these schemes. I had read it everywhere, but was not quite prepared for the amount of surface prep needed. Next time, I will spend more time getting it right and will probably use a primer too! I really want to get this one (as well as the other two) finished so I can get back to that Tamiya Corsair. What an amazing kit that one is turning out to be!

VERY impressive work! I have never considered buying one of these, but after seeing yours I am quite tempted to give one a try. Thanks for sharing it!

Cheers Ralph! Didn't recognize your username right away, but as soon as I saw the AB work and photography- I knew it was you! Brilliant stuff as always, love to see your work. Thanks for the tip on the Miracle Masks, I have been wanting to build a Grey Nurse Spitfire ever since the Tamiya kit came out, and have been trying to get some masks from Ian at Ad Astra for one for over a year now. I am going to get in touch with Mal for a set of these, thanks again for the head's up!

Fantastic review! Believe it or not, this exact kit arrived on my doorstep this afternoon. Figured I would build this one then maybe sell the original edition I have. Curious to see how the black plastic behaves, but also excited as the black styrene should make pre-shading redundant. Really looking forward to diving into this kit!

A smashing success Dave, brilliantly executed! Flawless weathering, put that model on a display base with a photo backdrop and you couldn't tell the difference between it and the real deal.