Progress and questions

I decided to make some time for the paint room a couple of evenings back. It appears that we’re getting some warmer weather in the next week and it can get uncomfortably hot in the garage while painting. This house seems to have been specially designed to get absolutely no breezes into the interior, even if there is a windstorm outside.

First up was the MSG upper coat on the Hawk T1. Didn’t look too bad, so that was a postive start. I also put the light blue on the F4U4 Corsair racer. The instructions specify a particular type of Model Master teal, but I had not been able to find a bottle at any of the usual places. Of course the day after I painted it I stumbled across the Model Master Acryl version in a local Hobbytown. So that's the quandary: paint over it or leave it as is? I know there are issues with combining acrylics (which I have never to date used) and enamels, but I can't remember whether the chemical reaction occurs when the enamel or the acrylic is the bottom coat. It's not like the Italeri F4U4 is a $200 Trumpeter monster, so if the paint bubbles I can always scrap the whole thing and start over. I'll have to give this some thought.

Then there was some dark metal exhaust work on the Sukhoi T-50. I used Alclad Exhaust, and even though it dries almost immediately, I’ll let it cure for a day since I have to mask over it. Last for this session was landing gear for the T-50 and J-10 in dark aluminum. I stumbled across this old bottle of Alclad, which does not seem to have the issues of some recent batches.

In terms of construction, I was able to do some work on the Italeri SM-82. One could wish for a conversion fuselage for the airliner variant, but I shouldn’t  be ungrateful. It’s an enjoyable kit so far; a little work in terms of fit, but manageable.

And indeed, I was sweating like the proverbial pig by the time I finished. That’s why you get pictures of models instead of me.