Kitty Hawk Texan

[ScottsGT]

Wings on! 

[ScottsGT]

This was a major pain.  Wings go together with obvious gaps.   All the pre-fitting in the world, I could not close these up.  I tried the old white glue trick.  After 10-15 applications of thinned glue I gave up. I wound up taping off and using putty. 
 

[Peterpools]

Scott, 

Nice progress on the Texan and she does look mighty good at this stage of the build. "This was a major pain.  Wings go together with obvious gaps" ... one of the reasons KH is no longer in the game.

 

[ScottsGT]

Such a shame since they at least put out kits no one else would do.  But if folks aren’t buying them, can’t fund the business.  Ernie did mention that the Chinese IM plant made changes from their original design and made things worse.  Maybe I’m too much of a conspiracy theorist, but it’s kind of odd how bad the changes made were and then bought out by another Chinese company.  Intentional destruction of a company?   Trumpeter still has not released them.  Maybe reworking the bugs that were put in intentionally?  
OK, tin foil hat off.  

[ScottsGT]

Another from the files of “What the hell were they thinking?”

SNJ gets an antenna in front of the cockpit. So yea, let’s punch this big hole here for everyone!  Again, a dimple on the backside so builder can drill it out.  Besides, my antenna was short shot and was in two pieces with 1/16” missing in the middle.

 

 

[ScottsGT]

Two or three days now fixing the surface of all the boogers and issues that would be ugly with paint. Each time I shoot primer the spots are getting better. 
 

 

This stage reminds me of when I was prepping my ’66 Fastback for paint. Wife kept walking by and asking when the hell was I going to paint it.  It looks just like it did three weeks ago.   Oh no it doesn’t! 

[Peterpools]

Scott

Right with you: What were they thinking or better yet why weren't they thinking things through. progress may seem slow but it takes a while to undo what KH did and then do it correctly.

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks really great Scott, nice job!  

I know what you mean on priming, filling, sanding, and repeating multiple times.  I'm in that cycle on my Special Hobby Buffalo at the moment.  On other builds I primed, and maybe fixed a place or two, and called it a day.  This is the first time I'm really trying to ensure perfection after the priming stage, but hopefully it's all worth it in the end.  

[ScottsGT]

I realized last night I haven’t been keeping up with this thread.  Got the surface 99% ready for paint so I sprayed on the flat black for the wing walks and glare shield. 

taped off those areas. 
 

[ScottsGT]

The missing 1% was redoing all the rivets I sanded off.  Rosie to the rescue! 
This tool is a lifesaver!

 

[ScottsGT]

A little gray primer to hide the black since it’s going yellow. 

All the flaps and details added and ready for paint  

Got to go put the old truck in the shop for possible transmission issues so spraying is put off until tomorrow. 

[ScottsGT]

Well it’s a great day to be inside painting. We’re having a heatwave and todays high hit a record 98.  Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be 77.  
I started out with my secrete weapon to combat this hairy monster….

Endust. This stuff is great for eliminating static on models before painting. 

[ScottsGT]

First coat.  Let the fun begin.

Hmmm…. Can’t hold it by the tail since it needs to be yaller too! 
Trusty old mic gooseneck to the rescue and all done!

 

[ScottsGT]

Oh, and only one cat hair in the whole paint job.  Thought it would be fine, but he had to come down and see what I was up to.  He’s like Pigpen off Charley Brown but with his hair and not dirt.  He kept wanting up in my lap all morning while I was trying to spray. 
 

I just realized this is day 20 on this project and I have the paint on it.  That’s a friggin’ record for me.  No where near John’s speed, but a record for me none the less. And that’s taking time out for boating, spending time with the wife, home projects, etc.  

[GusMac]

Looking really good. Yellow is always such a pain to get good results with but that's damn perfect.

[ScottsGT]

Yea, about that perfect yellow….

Let it dry about 3 hours and took a real close look.  Lots of light spots.  Just got finished re-spraying those areas and a good spray of Mr Hobby leveling thinner to blend things together. 

 

looks a bit better now. 

[harv]

Scott,  just saw this so late to the party. Looks really good considering the troubles you had. Another vote for Quinta....harv

[Peterpools]

8 hours ago, ScottsGT said:

Yea, about that perfect yellow….

Let it dry about 3 hours and took a real close look.  Lots of light spots.  Just got finished re-spraying those areas and a good spray of Mr Hobby leveling thinner to blend things together. 

 

looks a bit better now. 

Scott

Amazing build and your speed is lightyears ahead of mine. Yellow paint looks smooth as silk. I'm not quite sure what you meant by

"Just got finished re-spraying those areas and a good spray of Mr Hobby leveling thinner to blend things together. ". Are you shooting Mr Hobby Leveling Thinner straight on the model? If so, I've never done that. Any hints and tips?

  

[DocRob]

Beautiful paintjob on that Canary Scott. In fact the Canaries on my island only have yellow bellies. The color can be a pain, but you mastered it perfectly it seems.

Cheers Rob

[JohnB]

This one is coming along nicely Scott. Yellow and white are the two biggest PITA to paint and your paint job looks great! I look forward to seeing the finished bird!

[ScottsGT]

8 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Scott

Amazing build and your speed is lightyears ahead of mine. Yellow paint looks smooth as silk. I'm not quite sure what you meant by

"Just got finished re-spraying those areas and a good spray of Mr Hobby leveling thinner to blend things together. ". Are you shooting Mr Hobby Leveling Thinner straight on the model? If so, I've never done that. Any hints and tips?

  

Yep.  It’s what we did back in the autobody days when we would shoot lacquer paints.  We actually went a step further by spraying the blend area with straight thinner before paint to soften up the surrounding original paint.  After spot painting was done we would blend the edges again with straight thinner to “melt” the new into the old.  
Leveling thinner is a slower drying thinner that lets the paint sit on the surface longer while still wet.  Solids fall to the bottom and the clear carriers rise to the top for a deeper gloss. 
It will also melt in any dry edges like I had doing my touch ups 3 hours later.  Paint was still soft enough to not need the pre spray of thinner.  Think of it as Micro-Sol on decals. 
I have not tried it yet on something like a SEA camo job, but it will make the color transitions much smoother.  
Best tip I can give is to have great lighting and watch the spray pattern as it hits the model and make sure you don’t get too carried away because thinner runs very easy.  You’ve got to find that happy place between dry and too wet, oh crap it’s running. 
The tops of my wings were actually puddled up between all the rivet details until it started absorbing and then evaporating. 
Another tip is if you are using a paint booth that draws fresh air across the model is to leave the fan on a few minutes to evacuate the fumes, but then turn it off and let the rest of the solvents slowly evaporate from the surface.  Slower the better. 
 

I had to pile on a LOT of paint to get the full coverage of yellow.  In all honesty I should have broken this job up over two days to let the first 5 coats cure all the way before piling more on.  Back in the day we had issues with “solvent popping” which was something that happened a few weeks after the car left the shop.  You would get little blisters about 1/16” popping up and eventually coming off leaving a freckled appearance where you could see the primer below.  It’s a sign that the job was rushed by piling the paint on too fast. 
 

Remember hearing the old show car stories of “48 coats of hand rubbed lacquer”?  What was being done was 2 or 3 coats of lacquer was applied.  Car sat over night and was wet sanded very lightly the next morning and two or three more coats applied and sat over night for the same thing to happen the next day.  Plenty of time for solvents to escape and surface smoothed out again for more build up.  
 

I’m very curious to see if I have similar issues with all the paint I had to put on this Texan.  Probably not since it won’t be out in the hot sun and elements like a car is  

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Beautiful paint job, wow!  I've done a few yellow wings and had enough of a hard time.  Couldn't imagine trying to spray an entire plane in that color.  Great work!

[Peterpools]

44 minutes ago, ScottsGT said:

Yep.  It’s what we did back in the autobody days when we would shoot lacquer paints.  We actually went a step further by spraying the blend area with straight thinner before paint to soften up the surrounding original paint.  After spot painting was done we would blend the edges again with straight thinner to “melt” the new into the old.  
Leveling thinner is a slower drying thinner that lets the paint sit on the surface longer while still wet.  Solids fall to the bottom and the clear carriers rise to the top for a deeper gloss. 
It will also melt in any dry edges like I had doing my touch ups 3 hours later.  Paint was still soft enough to not need the pre spray of thinner.  Think of it as Micro-Sol on decals. 
I have not tried it yet on something like a SEA camo job, but it will make the color transitions much smoother.  
Best tip I can give is to have great lighting and watch the spray pattern as it hits the model and make sure you don’t get too carried away because thinner runs very easy.  You’ve got to find that happy place between dry and too wet, oh crap it’s running. 
The tops of my wings were actually puddled up between all the rivet details until it started absorbing and then evaporating. 
Another tip is if you are using a paint booth that draws fresh air across the model is to leave the fan on a few minutes to evacuate the fumes, but then turn it off and let the rest of the solvents slowly evaporate from the surface.  Slower the better. 
 

I had to pile on a LOT of paint to get the full coverage of yellow.  In all honesty I should have broken this job up over two days to let the first 5 coats cure all the way before piling more on.  Back in the day we had issues with “solvent popping” which was something that happened a few weeks after the car left the shop.  You would get little blisters about 1/16” popping up and eventually coming off leaving a freckled appearance where you could see the primer below.  It’s a sign that the job was rushed by piling the paint on too fast. 
 

Remember hearing the old show car stories of “48 coats of hand rubbed lacquer”?  What was being done was 2 or 3 coats of lacquer was applied.  Car sat over night and was wet sanded very lightly the next morning and two or three more coats applied and sat over night for the same thing to happen the next day.  Plenty of time for solvents to escape and surface smoothed out again for more build up.  
 

I’m very curious to see if I have similar issues with all the paint I had to put on this Texan.  Probably not since it won’t be out in the hot sun and elements like a car is  

 

Thanks Scott for the explanation and info. With gloss paint and clears, I normally finish up with at least one or two wet coats and the surface is almost always super smooth. matt paints not as much. I'm going to try and shoot on a wet of only Self leveling Thinner as a test and see what happens.

 

[JohnB]

3 hours ago, ScottsGT said:

Yep.  It’s what we did back in the autobody days when we would shoot lacquer paints.  We actually went a step further by spraying the blend area with straight thinner before paint to soften up the surrounding original paint.  After spot painting was done we would blend the edges again with straight thinner to “melt” the new into the old.  
Leveling thinner is a slower drying thinner that lets the paint sit on the surface longer while still wet.  Solids fall to the bottom and the clear carriers rise to the top for a deeper gloss. 
It will also melt in any dry edges like I had doing my touch ups 3 hours later.  Paint was still soft enough to not need the pre spray of thinner.  Think of it as Micro-Sol on decals. 
I have not tried it yet on something like a SEA camo job, but it will make the color transitions much smoother.  
Best tip I can give is to have great lighting and watch the spray pattern as it hits the model and make sure you don’t get too carried away because thinner runs very easy.  You’ve got to find that happy place between dry and too wet, oh crap it’s running. 
The tops of my wings were actually puddled up between all the rivet details until it started absorbing and then evaporating. 
Another tip is if you are using a paint booth that draws fresh air across the model is to leave the fan on a few minutes to evacuate the fumes, but then turn it off and let the rest of the solvents slowly evaporate from the surface.  Slower the better. 
 

I had to pile on a LOT of paint to get the full coverage of yellow.  In all honesty I should have broken this job up over two days to let the first 5 coats cure all the way before piling more on.  Back in the day we had issues with “solvent popping” which was something that happened a few weeks after the car left the shop.  You would get little blisters about 1/16” popping up and eventually coming off leaving a freckled appearance where you could see the primer below.  It’s a sign that the job was rushed by piling the paint on too fast. 
 

Remember hearing the old show car stories of “48 coats of hand rubbed lacquer”?  What was being done was 2 or 3 coats of lacquer was applied.  Car sat over night and was wet sanded very lightly the next morning and two or three more coats applied and sat over night for the same thing to happen the next day.  Plenty of time for solvents to escape and surface smoothed out again for more build up.  
 

I’m very curious to see if I have similar issues with all the paint I had to put on this Texan.  Probably not since it won’t be out in the hot sun and elements like a car is  

 

Scott,

In my VAST model painting experience (LOL) I have found that applying a coat of flat white first (as a  "primer") helps a LOT toward getting better coverage of whatever color will be used for the final scheme, especially light colors like yellow and even red. Trying to get adequate coverage, even on gray plastic, can use a lot of paint and many coats.

Just my .2 cents.

John

[ScottsGT]

John, you’re absolutely correct.  I have experimented around with yellows in the past and had a surprising discovery.  I cannot take credit for it since it was on another modeling website.  I read it and had that “Idontbelieveit” reaction.  But a white base under yellow actually came out a shade darker than a light gray base.   I took a sheet of plastic and painted one half gray, other half white.  Using Tamiya yellow rattle cans, painted the panel.  There was an obvious difference and I even scratched off the yellow on one side to make sure I didn’t turn the test panel upside down during painting. 

I keep a few cans of Tamiya white primer just for those times I have to paint something white.  I need to use them up and just buy the bottle of white primer.  FWIW, I hate spraying white.  Hardest thing I ever painted was a white VW.  Can’t tell shadows from light areas.  You learn to trust your spray patterns quickly or live with removing runs in the finished product  

We use to match the primer under paint on cars too when I first got in the business since red oxide primer use to be a big thing on ‘60 and ‘70’s cars. 
But hey, that white VW turned out great.  This was around 1986. It’s a digital pic of an old Polaroid photo.