adding heavily thinned Tamiya
Buff to the belly to represent the
dirt and mud thrown up by the
wheels. I also painted it around
the outside of the wheels. This
very thinned colour was also
sprayed in the direction of airflow
and vertically on the fuselage.
Some Mig Pigments to represent
mud were now added to the wheels,
landing gear doors, and wing roots
and secured with AK Thinner. To
represent exhaust staining some
highly thinned Tamiya Dark Earth
was sprayed on the sides and belly.
This was enhanced with some
AK Dark Mud and Black Smoke
pigments to add volume and
variation to the exhaust stains.
The key was not to go as far
as the new graffiti, which would
have been pristine. Had I been
smart enough I should have
done all of the weathering before
adding the graffiti decals. Oh well,
I should have thought through
my processes before starting, a
lesson learned for next time.FINAL STAGE
Adding the landing gear was not
too bad until it came to the wheels
and tail wheel. Not because of thekit but because the tail wheel fell off
the bench, never to be seen again.
No matter how much I looked I
couldn’t find it. Thank God I had
other wheels from the earlier FW
releases, so disaster was averted.
But wait, the Modelling Gods
were not pleased – as I was drilling
the holes for the Ultracast smooth
tread wheels I drilled right on
through the wheel. ARRGHH! This
model just didn’t want to be finished!
Luckily for me the hole was
right in the centre. I used the
old kit again and cut off the hub
centre section of a kit wheel with
a new knife blade, then I simply
superglued it in place. After a coat
of paint you can’t tell the difference
(unless you’re looking really close).
The canopy masks were pulled
off and proved their worth;
however, there was a blob of glue
on the glare shield that I justcouldn’t live with. So I tried to
remove the canopy and promptly
shattered it into three pieces.
Thank God it was the wrong one
to begin with and I still had the
correct one still in the box.
I cleaned up the affected area
and had to do the entire canopyagain. Fortunately the masks were
good for another pass and this
time things were looking better
and the end of all the hard work
was in sight. Or so I thought!
I had to replace the inboard
guns since I’d broken them off
in handling the kit. I used AlbionWWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • AUGUST 2018 • 25
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