Paint session (Aerovan, AS-3, Fw-200, Mc-202)

Another paint session was on the schedule today. Thankfully it has not been so cold for the last few days, but it has made up for it with almost constant rain. You can definitely assume you’ll be seeing a lot of this during the winter when you live in the Great Northwest. Actually, since I am a big fan of rain, it is no problem for me.

The painting, on the other hand, was a little problematic. I think I’ve discovered that the problem I encountered at the last session is, in fact, water in the airbrush line. You’ll remember that I had a couple of instances of strange bubbling on the surface of the paint. And given that this happened shortly after the water trap on my airbrush line splintered (and necessitated buying a new braided hose) I did suspect that might be the problem. Now, the new compressor has a built-in water trap, but I won’t have access to that for another week. The cooler weather seems to make the matter of condensation in the line worse. The issue did raise its head during today’s work.

The first color was Dullcote, as a topcoat for two completed vehicles. I’ll be doing their write-ups shortly.

Next came White, to repair a rough spot on the bottom of the Miles Aerovan. Since I had the airbrush full, I went ahead and used the color as the primer for the AS-3 Kangaroo missile. Both seemed to produce a nice smooth coat. The final color on the missile will be Alclad Dull Aluminum, with some burnt metal highlights on the exhaust end.

I also gave the AS-3’s transport cart (provided by AModel) a coat of Russian Dark Green. Next will come masking the wheel disks, painting the tires Tire Black, and then attaching them to the cart.

The next color was Black, for the stripes on the Fw-200 Lufthansa airliner. It was here that the water managed to interject itself into the proceeding. I’ll definitely have to buff down some of the surfaces and reshoot.

I probably should have stopped while I was only a bit behind but continued on with the final color of the day, MRP 305 for the upper surfaces of the Hasegawa Mc-202. Lots of splattering on this one. It seems that the MRP paints are especially susceptible to the problem with water in the lines. Not sure why. Perhaps because they are very thin paints, since they are mixed for airbrush use? I’ll be doing some buffing and repairing on this one as well. Not sure if you can spot the problems on the photo below, but they are there. 

I did decide to call it a day at this point, so I didn’t get the light grey-green onto the landing gear doors of the Mc-202 and the cockpit of the Hasegawa Dewoitine D-520. These are all part of the rush to get projects finished by yearend, though the airbrush issues may have to wait on the new compressor to be fully solved. It tentatively looks like my completed total for 2018 will be around 30. Short of 2017’s 35, but still pretty substantial.