DocRob

Muchas gracias Señhores, this build is more an experiment as to figure out, if a wet transfer camo is usable. The result is usable and some of the faulty areas are resolved with the last spare dots. The bad news is ,that there is no logical pattern, where the lifts occur. Some are in curved or angled areas, some flat in the middle, without any panel lines, so i have no idea, what I possibly could do better. The surface was gloss and absolutely fine, with no scratches, damages or other imperfections. One positive aspect of the wet transfers is, you can apply them onto normal decals, which was necessary here on the wings with the no walk lines. In the end, the camo will be usable, but if you are after a new unworn look, I'd say, thin your camo color and train your airbrush skills . I will do this later with a Vietnamese Mig-21, which sports a similar pattern. Until now, I have no idea, if or how I could repair the damaged dots. It would be a hard task to mix a matching color, given the slight metallic appearance. I fear, more could be ruined than saved. I have another camo set from HGW, which I will possibly use, dumb as I am . It's for a Me-BF 109 G2 from Heinrich Bär and I will not paint it by hand for sure. Bf109G-2 - Camouflage 1/48 - 248053 (hgwmodels.cz) Cheers Rob

After carefully removing the carrier film I got this. From far, it looks good enough, but as always with HGW's wet transfers, I pulled some of camo with the carrier film. In detail it looks like this: The right wing root received some spare squiggles, but here is, how it initially looked: As you can see there is a lot of little defects, but I guess, I can get away with it, with some repairs. This is how the removed carrier film looked and I was really careful. My opinion stands, HGW wet transfers are not to be trusted completely, even if you follow the manual exactly and prepare the surface perfectly. On the other hand, I like how the aluminum color gies the green dots a nice shine, as they are a bit translucent, blends great into the surface. Cheers Rob

Thank you Amigos, it's not done yet, still some sweat to pour . Cheers Rob

Today, I applied the camo wet transfers from HGW, not an easy task and I made some mistakes. The camo is separated in six parts, wings, upper and lower fuselage sides. I started with the upper fuselage half, to guarantee, that the camo reaches the camo reaches the spine and lays correctly under the canopy and cowling. I then added the lower part, which proved more difficult, because it also covered the wingroot and needs some cutting to fit well. On the other side, I cut the lower part in three pieces, which made the alignment easier. When I added the wings, I recognized, that I forgot to glue on the guns and gun covers and as I did hastily, a bit of glue went under the transfer, which has to be corrected later. On the second wing, while applying the transfer, some of the camo squiggles adhered rapidly to the wing, while positioning and had to be removed, before I finally positioned the wing transfer. The missing squiggles will be added later. Generally the wet transfers behaved well. I let them soak in warm water for twenty seconds and applied them to the surface onto brushed on Micro Set. They were strong, good to position (except the wing root accident) and seemed to adhere well. Lets hope, the kit decals, like stripes and Hinomarus will look good when added later. Positioning is not that easy with these camo transfers and needed a lot of pre thinking. In my case not enough sadly. In some hours there will be the time of truth, when I remove the carrier film, which is the part, where disaster is lurking, given my experiences with HGW' wet transfers. Cheers Rob

Like Gaz said, nice detailing, the shading of the tanks adds a lot of life. Cheers Rob

You'll love the Infini template, I have two different ones and use them often for masking jobs. No need to buy expensive Kabuki strips for lets say masking of WWI props. Very handy these templates, even better than the PE ones I used before. They cut smoother and are more blade friendly. Cheers Rob

Nice camo painting Martin and yes, judging the pic the pattern seems to be sharp edged. Cheers Rob

Like the others say, great job on the build and modification. Can't wait to see your smooth paint finish on the Ventura. Cheers Rob

Nice progress with the interior. Happy holidays Cheers Rob

Great thinking and realization with the scratch cowlings. You seem not to be distracted easy, even on such a huge project. At least, beer drinking helps with modelling, I knew it . Cheers Rob

Stunning paintjob, clean and smooth, great job Peter. Can't wait to see some metal magic from you, with the nozzles and tail parts. Cheers Rob

The Ki-61 is starting to look like a parrot. I added the yellow markings on the wings and wheel well covers, using AK Real Color maize yellow. First, I wanted to use the decals for that, but the gun cowling is painted red in between, and I didn't want to slice the decals over a curved wing. To add to the funky paintjob there will be blue stripes on the fuselage with white borders, but therefore, I use decals. Don't ask me, why they painted some camo onto this vivid airframe, which could be well hidden in a candy store. Cheers Rob

Thank you Phil, I'm looking forward to the wet transfer camo as well, with fearful expectation. It's wet transfers, it's HGW, it failed to me in the past, what can possibly happen . Cheers Rob

After a light buffing of the clear coat with a cotton cloth, I masked the anti glare panel and tail. The complicated shapes of the tail masking where cut on the more or less 1/48 scale paint plan, using detacked Kabuki and a sharp scalpel. The tail was sprayed with Tamiya's Italian red lacquer, which is glossy and a good base for the decals. The same color was used on the to add gun covers. The anti glare panel was sprayed, using AK's Japanese blue black acrylic, which is indeed a bluish shade of black and should look better than pure black. Some yellow markings on the wings will be next, followed by some decals, which will be half hidden under the camo. I intend to do as much masking and painting before applying the camo wet transfers, because I don't dare to mask on these, even with a clear coat on top. Cheers Rob

Thank you Kai, your pics prove, how great NMF can look, awesome job with the Starfighter. I really like Future as a clear cote, but where Micro Sol comes into play, I'm a bit frightened. More than once Micro Sol left some cloudy areas, where it passed the borders of the decal. That's why I look for a more durable gloss coat for these occasions. Cheers Rob

Hi Peter, thanks for sharing your experiences. I was considering, applying the decals and wet transfer camo directly onto the polished aluminum, but decided against it. The loss of shine, you mentioned, was substantial with Alclads, when I tried. Xtreme Metals from AK seem to be a bit more lasting, concerning the shine. I clear coated, because chrome and polished aluminum are more fragile than other Xtreme Metal tones and I have some masking, decaling with setting fluids and embedding the thick Tamiya decals into gloss coat ahead and want to be freed of unwanted surprises. I know the consistency of Model Air with any decent thinner in the AB by own experience , but didn't expect it with GX100 and levelling / Lacquer thinner. Maybe I have to thin even more than 2/3 thinner and 1/3 GX100, because I read, that this combo is the go to clear coat solution for many modelers. I have to perform some further testing. I don't think, contamination is an issue, as I clean my AB very thoroughly and do not only blew some cleaner through it. Cheers Rob

Hi Phil, silvering was never an issue, when I used Future. The problems arose with Micro Sol decal softener, which seemed to react with Future and became a bit cloudy. It could be healed with another coat of Future on top, after the first coat was properly cured. There is a lot of testing necessary, with different clear coats and thinners. I wish, I could find my holy grail of gloss coating somehow. Cheers Rob

Today, I sprayed on the Extreme Metal polished aluminum, which worked great. On the pictures you see it directly after application. While curing, the shine seems to enhance. When dry, I buffed it a bit with a cotton cloth, which made the gloss very shiny. During gloss coating as a preparation for decaling, I lost a bit of luster, but it still looks great and metal like. As I had issues with Future as a gloss coat with the application of Micro Sol to soften the decals on other builds, I tried other coatings here. I test sprayed (luckily) Mr. Color GX100 gloss, mixed with Mr. Levelling thinner and later with Tamiya lacquer thinner and got frosted results and goo in the AB. After cursing and cleaning, I shot Tamiya lacquer clear with Tamiya lacquer thinner and this combo worked, but the mix is very hot. If you apply a wet coat first, the polished aluminum seems to dissolve to a certain grade of blackness. I reduced the effect with firstly spraying a light misted coat, blew it dry, followed with another coat, also dried it and gave it a third heavier coat. Man, this gloss coat thing gives me creeps, like decaling, the two things, I hate most in modelling. Has anyone of you experience, how to thin Mr. Color GX100 clear gloss? Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, given the slight tackiness of the black base, which didn't cure properly after one and a half day, I have to say, that I will use gloss black Tamiya lacquer color next time. As much as I like the Extreme Metal colors, I start to distrust their black base. It was the first time, I sanded and airplane after priming. I liked the result with an ultrasmooth surface, but you have to take care not to remove all the primer with too much abrasion. 4000 followed by 8000 grit was perfect for me with only slight pressure and water. Thanks Peter, yes the finish of the black base is good, but the lasting tackiness made me think about durability and compatibility. Next time, I use Tamiya's gloss black lacquer. Cheers Rob

Thanks Harv. Some more work got done. I added the engine cowling and radiators, which don't need a PE substitute, because, thanks again to clever engineering, the plastic part very thin, which is not shown very good on the pic, because of the angle. The canopy got masked, using HGW's kabuki set, which fitted better, but not perfect, than the vinyl sets, I used from them. Two panes needed additional masking, which to me is a mistery, as Tamiya supplied pre-printed, but not cut masks, with the correct size. No biggie, but hey, they should do their homework. After a final check, the spraying fun begun, first with the interior color over the outside of the canopy, the radiator inside was airbrushed in grey and after some masking, I primed the model with AK's Extreme Metal black base. I spare you another picture of the black bird after sanding with 4000 and then 8000 grit wet sandpaper. The surface is near polished now and should be good for a coat of polished aluminum. The black base still has a slight tackiness, after 24 hours of drying, so I will let the Kawasaki dry for some more time. Cheers Rob

Like Gaz said, very nice detailing, which will add to the beautiful paintjob. Cheers Rob

Sweet finish and only some tiny steps ahead. The Mirage looks fantastic Kai. You could easily switch to Pastéis de nata Hubert. Much more effective and tastes way better than Popcorn. I used to eat some, when I was surfing in Ericeira and other places near by. They are like a Duracell and I miss them here in Spain. There is not a lot of tempting bakery here, compared to Portugal. Maybe it's better for my health and weight . Cheers Rob

Thanks for the info, but I plan to use the Cartograph decals, if this doesn't work, I have the DN-masks in mind . The glitter blue would be hard to mix with an airbrush. Cheers Rob

Hehe, I like, what Tamiya is doing to us. They've developed an image, where they come away with flaws, because everybody thinks, they made the mistakes themselves . That's where quality pays. The message is, even Tamiya kits are not perfect, but the are up to a very high standard, as I could see with my KI-61 build and the recently finished Ford GT. Anyway, your painted finish looks ultra smooth and clean and will look perfect in the end. As you said, the burnt NMF parts will be fun, I look especially forward to this part with my soon to start Kai-Phantom build too. Cheers Rob

Why not airbrushing, more humidity means less dust mostly, guess how I know. Cheers Rob