Paint (Gamma, Fi-156, Skyvan)

This surprises me as much as it probably does you, but I actually got down to the garage for a short painting session this afternoon. We’ve entered into a couple of days of upper 70s and I wanted to take advantage before vacation prep gets to be too hectic.

Only three models received paint, and only two colors. The first was a repair job on the Airfix Short Skyvan. The last coat didn’t cover terribly well, and some putty work on the nose door joint was showing through. Not anymore.

I then put a coat of aluminum on the Fi-156 Storch and the Northrop Gamma. The Gamma was a bit of a nail-biter. You may remember that it met with a disaster in early summer. A primer coat ended up screwing up the Alclad paint that I attempted to spray over it. After literally a month of paint stripping, sanding and buffing, I figured it was as smooth as it was going to get and held my breath while spraying the NMF.

It didn’t go badly at all; it’s hard to tell that the thing is only a few months removed from getting close to meeting a bad end via a short flight into a solid wall. I’m still having some issues with Alclad paint getting a smooth consistent coat, though. Some spots seem to be darker and heavier than others. That might be due to my airbrush needing a deep cleaning or the fact that my compressor was built when dinosaurs ruled the earth.

No clue if I will get decals on the Storch and Gamma before we leave, but I won’t promise anything in case I can’t deliver. But at least three projects advanced and are nearly all ready for decals. If the weather behaves in September we could have even more progress.