Model Aircraft – August 2019

of the model in Light Grey.
To complete the main
paintwork, the tail was painted
in a Medium Blue and the sky band
was painted Sky Blue. I then clear-
coated the entire model with Alclad
Aqua Gloss.
Next came the decals. Interesting.
I took a gamble with Novascale and
lost, so I decided to ind a way to paint as
many as I could. So, I rummaged through my
‘spares-box’ and found some unused Montex
masks with the exact roundels I needed in the
exact size. I decided to paint the roundels and
use decals for the serial numbers, codes and the
southern cross insignia. The painted roundels
turned out well but only served to make the
decals look poor! The serial numbers and codes
were small enough not to matter, but the CV-<>
codes just looked drab, so I masked around the
edge of each letter, section by section, carefully
scraping the decal away and painting until each
letter was complete. The result was much better

and whilst the process was a little painstaking,

the result was worthwhile. I then used Tamiya’s

decals for stencils and minor decals. Of course,

these decals were very thick as expected and I

used several clear coats around the individual

decals in an efort to disguise the thickness.

The next step was to manually apply all the

chips. Once again, I used Tamiya X-11 enamel

and odourless thinners to control and modify

the result. I varied the amount of

chipping according to location and

tried to keep it subtle since this

aircraft didn’t have a long working

life. Once this was complete, I applied

another coat of Aqua Gloss before an overall

highly diluted wash of oil paint was applied.

In this case, I opted for quite a dark mixture of

Black and Burnt Umber. This was wiped

away with absorbent kitchen towels

followed by an old cotton rag,

revealing the crisp panel lines

I was after. Once this was fully

...then illing in with

masking tape.....

...to get the

look I was after

Appling the

roundels using

Montex Masks

MODEL AIRCRAFT AUGUST 2019

MUSTANG FROM DOWN UNDER

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