A long painting session

Things had really begun to back up in the paint queue due to hip pain and a general desire for downtime. But yesterday I was able to drag myself and a tray full of painting projects down to the garage for a fairly long and productive session.

First up was to put a matte top coat on the Tsar Bomba transport carriage. That was a long and complicated project that finally is going to make it across the finish line. Photos coming soon.

Then I was able to get a surface coat on the Eurofighter Red Arrows whif. Once the paint cures I’ll be able to strip the masking and see where repairs will be needed. And then comes the addition of landing gear.

Next came the coat of Intermediate Blue on the Yak-130 prototype. Looked pretty smooth when I was done, but I noticed a couple of thin spots, so it will require a polishing and a surface coat. That’s not an uncommon result, since Xtracolour blue paints have a tendency to dry a bit – for lack of a better word – sandy. But most of it doesn't look too bad. 

I gritted my teeth and started the repairs on the Beech Starship. These were made necessary by a clumsy botch while trying to mask and paint the leading edges Silver. Things seem to look ok at this point, so the next step will be to mask and paint the engines’ intake vent edges and then move to props and wheels. And replace the nose probes that were broken off during my first attempt at masking. At the same time I also did some repairs on the White areas of the Arctic Rose DC-3. Next up on that kit is to get the wheel wells painted.

Two small bits of airfield support equipment, the last two items in a Hasegawa set, got a coat of Olive Drab. I’ll soon be painting and attaching the tires. I don’t believe either of these items has any associated decals, so they will soon be moving to get their overall matte coat.

Just to top the day off, I painted the two DC-3 props silver (after having masked off the tips). They’ll go back in the box, waiting for the model to progress a bit further before they are needed.