CDW

It's been quite a while since I last checked in, but wanted to say your models are coming along just beautifully, Mike. You are really getting the hang of this quickly! These will add a lot of color and flash to your model collection.

So, did you spray the clear coat with an airbrush? It looks to me the orange peel is in the clear coat, yes? Anyway, spraying with an airbrush can get the same orange peel issues if too far away from the target. Depending on whether you are using a single or double action airbrush, you may or may not have control of the flow. But too far away can cause issues, as well as too lose, just like a spray can. 

99% of your paint finish looks great, Nick. 
Generally speaking, orange peel happens when paint dries too quickly on the painted surface, not allowing it to level itself. Most often, this is caused by spraying with the can too far from the surface being painted. 
This can be a delicate balance as spray cans do not offer user control of the air pressure or paint volume. All you can really do is adjust your distance of the spray can in relation to the item being painted/sprayed. if it's too close, you will get runs in the paint. Too far away, orange peel. Practice, practice, practice. 🙂 

We all have a long way to go, Mike. The journey is the fun of it. 🙂
You are doing just great!

Thanks for the kind words!  I feel like I still have a long way to go up the learning curve, but have greatly benefited from folks like you and others here who have graciously posted your tips and experiences and have answered my many questions.  I couldn’t thank you all enough.

It's been quite a while since I last checked in, but wanted to say your models are coming along just beautifully, Mike. You are really getting the hang of this quickly! These will add a lot of color and flash to your model collection.

99% of your paint finish looks great, Nick. 
Generally speaking, orange peel happens when paint dries too quickly on the painted surface, not allowing it to level itself. Most often, this is caused by spraying with the can too far from the surface being painted. 
This can be a delicate balance as spray cans do not offer user control of the air pressure or paint volume. All you can really do is adjust your distance of the spray can in relation to the item being painted/sprayed. if it's too close, you will get runs in the paint. Too far away, orange peel. Practice, practice, practice. 🙂 

It's been quite a while since I last checked in, but wanted to say your models are coming along just beautifully, Mike. You are really getting the hang of this quickly! These will add a lot of color and flash to your model collection.

99% of your paint finish looks great, Nick. 
Generally speaking, orange peel happens when paint dries too quickly on the painted surface, not allowing it to level itself. Most often, this is caused by spraying with the can too far from the surface being painted. 
This can be a delicate balance as spray cans do not offer user control of the air pressure or paint volume. All you can really do is adjust your distance of the spray can in relation to the item being painted/sprayed. if it's too close, you will get runs in the paint. Too far away, orange peel. Practice, practice, practice. 🙂 

A long time ago, I was in the 307 Tac Fighter Squadron, flying Phantoms. In Homestead, Florida. Now, it's in Aviano AB, Italy, up north of Venice. That unit has a long and colorful history. Nice work, Javlin.👍

The next and maybe the last for a bit go back to work Thursday a MK V Spit in 1/24 Lima Challenger.
 
If of any interest for some the build log alot went into the pit and engine https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/1-24-mk-v-spitfire.28726/

Thks Mike ! I got the Mossie today and Hannah approves.I want to do her in the American  scheme methinks.
 
 The aircraft on display is a British-built B. Mk. 35 manufactured in 1946 (later converted for towing targets) and is similar to the P.R. Mk. XVIs used by the USAAF. It was flown to the museum in February 1985. This Mosquito, serial RS709, has been restored to a Mk. XVI configuration and painted as NS519, a weather reconnaissance aircraft of the 653rd Bombardment Squadron based in England in 1944-1945.
 

Thks for the likes and interest cooking up some sausage for a seafood gumbo for Momma and MIL this afternoon meds and nap finish the D-9 tonite.

It's already on the table 1/24 Fw-190 D-9

The Mc-205 is complete

This one will be finished today the Tauro kit 1/48 Mc-205 to which the 1/2 of the kit I discarded esp the copit so much flash and just rubbish.I started this kit some 4/5 years ago for a GB on another site fit issues and such it became a dust collector till now.She may actually be a nice kit when finished.I will have the appropriate finish pic later this afternoon.

Next up you guys are familiar with they were all close but lacking now done 1/32 B-25,1/48 F-16(with Capt Javlin Morgan on canopy ) and the 1/72 F-84.

Even though this is a pretty good sized model in length I think you will find that if it is to float at the proper level it will not weigh all that much. The real ship was one of the first US Navy's "Littoral" designs of shallow draft high speed vessels. The real ship only drew about five and a half feet of water.
 
You are doing a great job. This model is easy to end up with a twisted hull as it is so long and narrow. Also it has so much balsa, (Not my favorite hull material). I also always wished that Dumas had chosen a more common scale than 5/16th. It would have made some items like guns so much easier to obtain.

I think my faculties are still good enough that I wouldn't do that...not so sure 10 years from now!

Nope, not unless you eat it😁 Although, I would recommend wearing rubber gloves when applying it. I have heard of folks developing allergic reactions after working with epoxy, but that is after working with it for years.  

Your bravery test as with all of these models is cutting out the slot(s) for the stuffing tubes. It's really hard to cut into that perfectly smooth hull that you spent hours fiber glassing, puttying, sanding, sanding, sanding only to take a hobby knife to it to cut out the slots, hoping that they are in alignment with the motor and the struts. But no worries mate, you will have to fill the voids around the stuffing tubes with resin and bondo and then a layer of fiber glass cloth, then sand, sand and more sanding. You really do have to love doing this stuff.    

I cut out the slots for the running hardware stuffing tubes and drive shafts, epoxied the drive shaft struts to the outside bottom of the hull and preparing the area between frames 8-9 for the motor mounting deck, which is a 1/4" piece of plywood. The running hardware kit comes with written as well as diagrammed instruction for the running gear installation, but like my wife points out frequently, I'm not much at following directions hahahaha.

Well it's been a month, but I've slowly made some progress on the F3Fs.  On one of the models, I dropped the model maybe 3" to the table, and one of the landing gears became disengaged and with one of the support breaking.  The kit has you insert a piece and then flip it 90 degrees and then 180 degrees which helps put pressure to keep the landing gear and supports at the right angle.  However, there's enough tension that dropping it can be problematic as it was in my case.  The landing gear also only has a slight depression at the top where it's supposed connect to the fuselage body - it is very hard to keep that in place while glue sets given all the tension with the lower pieces.  Eventually I got things fixed - required some epoxy and cutting out and replacing a couple of the supports so all is good until I drop it again. 🙄
 
I also had to work through some issues with the belly bands - first time I painted them, they were a touch too narrow.  I tried to repaint, but I sprayed too heavy and lost detail. 😡  So, I had to strip a bunch of the paint off and try again.  Time consuming on the red because I realized that if you paint red, the underlying color will affect how the red turns out (at least using Vallejo Model Air).  So, because I wanted a brighter red color, I used Tamiya's white primer straight from the rattle can as the base coat, and then painted the band on top.
 
Tip to pass along - Tamiya's Lacquer Thinner is great at removing Vallejo acrylic paints!  Dip a Q-tip in, rub a little, and it comes off fairly well.  
 
To redo the bands, I made them wider the second time around, given that I would eventually be using gloss black primer as the undercoat for the aluminum body.  Stupid me, why didn't I do that sooner?  Would have saved me days of time (I've been trying to wait at least 24 hours for the paints to cure before masking).  Speaking of masking, I found using Tamiya's white curve masking tape to mark the edges worked very well.  Then I used the Tamiya yellow tape to mask the remaining items.  Then I used Vallejo Gloss Black followed by Vallejo Metal Color Aluminum - am very happy with how things are looking thus far!  Need to do a few touch ups on the red and a bit on the aluminum, but the colors are beautiful.  The Vallejo Metal Color series really puts on a gorgeous metallic color.
 

 

 
 
For next steps, I need to figure out if I want to paint the identifying numbers along the belly band using the Montex stencils.  For the F3F-2, there is also a small US insignia above the landing gear that I can paint using the Montex stencils.  I could instead use decals, but I've already tried out the stencils to add the US insignia to the wings and and am fairly satisfied with the results.  It's a pain though, as you first paint the white disk, then add a stencil for the star in the middle while adding the blue background, and then add a third stencil to add the red center dot.  The Montex stencils worked fairly well, but did get some color bleeding under the second two stencils.  I used a toothpick to scrape off a bunch of the blue and red errant paint - worked fairly well, but I still need to touch stuff up.  Makes me think I might have just been better using decals from the beginning, but thought it would be a good learning experience.  
 
Otherwise, I've got pretty much everything but the canopies painted at this point, so I'm on the home stretch.  Thanks for looking in!

These car bodies are natural plastic, no paint. Just buffed, polished, and waxed. But in a way you are right. Sometimes the plastic just is not suitable because of inherent flaws. Other times it is fine, depending on the particular model.
 

Just goes to show how quickly civil society could dissolve if there was a real emergency. People are acting so stupid and cowardly.