More paint, more construction (XP-56, Tornado, Ju-287)

Another successful day in the garage doing some quick painting on a couple of ongoing projects. I've actually cleared out the paint queue for a change.

First of all, I loaded the brush with RAF Dark Green in order to get a surface coat onto the upper surfaces of the ragwing Hurricane. While I was at it, I also took the opportunity to put a first color coat on the Tornado GR1 with the same paint. I always try to group these things if at all possible.

Next, I was able to put a coat of Neutral Gray onto the lower surfaces of the XP-56 after masking off the wheel wells. One unfortunate note in relation to the XP-56 is that I seem to have misplaced the decals. The national insignias will be easy to replace, but I'm not sure if I have a sheet of yellow tail code letters of the correct size. It would be so much easier to find the intact decals so I wouldn't have to line them up individually. We'll see what happens.

I have been working on a BAe Hawk in markings for the 50th display season of the UK's airshow team the Red Arrows. Today's work was to paint the tail Roundel Blue. I'll be using the Xtradecal set of markings.

A fine session, and I was still sane at the end. Meanwhile, on the workbench, I was able to add the four engines to the Ju-287 from Huma. Next comes the wheel pods, and then it will be ready for its first coat of paint. The Lancaster is about ready to have its canopies masked - the main bits of the airframe are all together now - but I'll need to paint the area under the canopy before I attach them. I'm taking conventional wisdom that the area under the greenhouse is the same color as the surfaces around the canopy. And I have stuck the first few pieces together for the AModel Tsar Bomba. Most of the parts in the kit are for the loading trolley, though there are a huge number of tiny parts for some brace hardware that appears on the outside of the rear of the device. That's going to be an exciting evening's work.