Ending 2018 on a disaster

Well, it wouldn’t be the 72 Land construction queue if I didn’t have a major disaster to close out calendar 2018. The canopies/windows on the Aerovan were bad enough, but this rather eclipses that.

It concerns the Hasegawa Macchi Mc-202, which was actually proceeding rather smoothly. I had gotten all the paint on and was going through the laborious project of applying Printscale’s smoke ring decals to the upper wings and fuselage. These come with their own set of challenges (primarily keeping them flat to the surface while continuing to handle the model in order to apply more smoke rings). But that wasn’t the issue.

I noticed that the White fuselage band was a little crooked, so I decided to straighten it out a bit. A definite risk, considering that there were already decals on the model. And, of course, when I was touching up the paint, the brush slipped and touched another spot on the fuselage. So now I had to patch that as well. That required that I get out the MRP305 paint. I’ve been having real problems getting a good surface with this paint line, but that wouldn’t be an issue for just a tiny patch job, right?

Well. The second the paint touched the spot to be covered up, it bubbled up and turned the consistency of very thick putty. Not sure what the chemical process is here, but I tried to get the paint off to try again. It stripped everything off, leaving a big patch that was now categorically ruined. I’ve since decided that the only recourse is to attempt to isolate the area via masking and attempt to respray. Given my coverage issues with MRP paint, I doubt this will end well. Future information after the next paint session. How much do you want to bet that it ends up spraying a slightly different shade than what is currently on the model, even if I can get a decent amount of coverage? Children will not be admitted to that painting session due to language. 

I do believe this ends my experiment with MRP paints. Love their selection of colors, but I just can’t make them chemically work. I still have to get a decent upper surface coat on the Fiat Cr-25, but after that it is back to Xtracolor, with Colourcoat and ModelMaster as backups in some instances. At least I have had success with these paint lines and know how to use and thin them. I did take a photo of the disaster, and will post it when my data cable comes later this week.

On a more positive note – I guess – tomorrow will feature 72 Land’s production completion summary for 2018: 29 completed models.