Painting of the green

Activities this week include adding another model to the front of the production queue. This is something I do far too often, and always long before enough models have exited out the other end. Somewhat similar to my eating habits I suppose (though that is surely more information than you are really looking for today).

If you have been following this blog for a while you'll know that I periodically add to my P-47 collection. Mostly this is because I enjoy P-47s, there are a number of modern kits (including the best of the lot, the Tamiya kit), and the type has a propensity for nose art. But this time the inspiration came from running across a decal sheet of the famous captured TBolt called "Beetle". The Germans got ahold of it and added their own national markings, gave it a yellow underside, but decided on a whim to leave the nose art. So hopefully we'll see that model progress over this winter.

On a different subject entirely, I currently have 4 Hurricanes in queue. Two, both Hasegawa kits, have gotten their Medium Sea Grey undersides masked off, and I spent some time tonight spraying the Dark Green uppers. I'll have to let them cure for a while before I decide if the coat is sufficient, or if they need some buffing and a resprayed surface coat. Also getting some Dark Green was the top fuselage of the Bomber Command commemorative Hawk from the airshow circuit a summer or two back.

Lastly, I had a bit of a disaster with a top matte coat that I was adding to the Sea Vixen, which will be debuting shortly on the blog. I've used Xtracolours for years, including their satin clear for use as a final sealer coat. Tonight I was having some trouble getting the cap off the plastic bottle - I have painted so little this summer that it had dried solid - and managed to smash the thin and brittle plastic of the bottle itself. So all my remaining satin clear ended up all over my painting workbench, amid some very colorful and inventive expletives. Luckily matte/satin is something that is available locally, since my mailorder access to Xtracolours has been stopped by the maleficent Royal Mail.

Here are a photo of the paint work from tonight's session.