Italeri F-35A splinter scheme

[ScottsGT]

Mr. Primer and leveling thinner is the stuff!!

edit: Mr. Finishing surface 1500 gray. 

[ScottsGT]

First color on!

Charcoal N95 mask really helped too! 

[ScottsGT]

Second color….

[Peterpools]

Scott

Nice progress on the paint work - looking mighty good. 

[ScottsGT]

And we’re off and running this morning!  What a great way to spend a rainy day.  Especially since we haven’t seen rain in 2 months here.  
 

[ScottsGT]

Well that took half the day. 
 

[BlrwestSiR]

Nice! Who made the masks again? I've got ones by Galaxy Models for the Tamiya 1/48 kit. 

[ScottsGT]

12 minutes ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Nice! Who made the masks again? I've got ones by Galaxy Models for the Tamiya 1/48 kit. 

Aero Masks.  

[ScottsGT]

This FS36170 from MRP looks brown.  😱

I sure hope it color changes as it builds up and dries.  
 

[BlrwestSiR]

I'm colour blind and I can definitely see the brown in that. 

[ScottsGT]

Lots more paint and dry time.  What do you think about the color now?  
I did screw up and went light on the outside of the vertical stabs.  Not untaping those yet.  Going to let it dry overnight and mask off everything and repaint those.  
 

 

I also have a few edges that need some cleaning up.  The vinyl masks didn’t stay down in a few spots like Tamiya tape would.  

[BlrwestSiR]

That looks good. Less brown too. 

[ScottsGT]

Fuzzy edges and leaks of dark gray in panel lines cleaned up.  I actually think it’s time for decals and then a flat coat on the upper surfaces. 
Decals are Alps printed type.  I need to email the company and see if a lacquer top coat is safe on them.  
 

[BlrwestSiR]

This one is coming along nicely. Nice to see all the earlier prep work is paying off.

[ScottsGT]

Started looking closely at the Alps decals this morning.  It seems as if the supplied markings for the inflight refueling doors are completely off.  Kit decals are accurate shape, but gray and black, not white and black as per this plane. 
 

So wild idea kicks in, I’ll just paint them. 
 

After many layers of white, I got in a stupid hurry and didn’t pull the tape correctly.  The part that really sucks is I knew better to take my time untaping.  

So time to man up and correct my stupidity. 

I’m sitting here watching paint dry and calling myself really bad names right now.  

[ScottsGT]

Well this is just going to dry for the next 24+ hours and I’ll clean up the edges before adding the black markers.  I’m tempted to just cut the black portion out of the kit decals and use those.  If I had planned ahead, white would have gone down first, masked it off and then the base arctic gray and dark gray.  
 

[BlrwestSiR]

Nice fix and I think we've all done something similar especially when we know better.

[Peterpools]

Scott

Nice work on the cammo as the color scheme looks so different. 

Plan ahead - you know the forum rules about such things : never plan ahead when we can avoid it. 

[ScottsGT]

YOU DONE MESSED UP A A RON!  
Came down this afternoon to do the touch ups and found out I forgot to dump out the white paint in my airbrush yesterday.   Ugh..  

It cleaned up easy though.  Another reason I like lacquers!  
Also found a few thin spots too.  
 

Respray in this area. 

[ScottsGT]

[ScottsGT]

Well crap.  At another standstill.  Started applying decals and noticed Jim didn’t supply the top left wing insignia decal in the darker gray to match the tail codes.  Kit decals are way too light to go over the lighter Arctic Gray.  I’ve reached out to him to see if he can print me one to match.  
 

I also noted the doors on the top of the fuselage back behind the refueling doors are also supposed to be the dark gray. Ugh…back to more detail touch ups. 

[ScottsGT]

Just an update on the decal situation.  Jim responded back in less than an hour and asked for the dimensions of the kits stars and bars decals so he could match them up.  Has a couple going in the mail for me tomorrow!  Now that’s service. 

[KevinM]

Scott I was watching Tedford(?) 2023 pics on YT last night and let me tell some of those digital splinter schemes had my eyes going wonkey really effective camo.

[ScottsGT]

I’m going wonky working on this thing!  🤪

[Martinnfb]

This is shaping out really nicely Scott.