Egilman

Yep FS 36270 USAF Medium Grey a shade darker than aircraft grey which is a half shade darker than Mr Paint Sky Grey FS 36473.... (a bit more bluish imho) The sad thing is I can only seem to find Aircraft Grey flat in rattle can....

Given the light grey of the plastic, your going to want to primer it with Grey if you want to brush paint it with Model Masters... You'll have an easier time covering that way....

Well then we agree Dan, most of us start out as kit builders, and grow into model makers.... The basic skills and tools are the the same, model building is where you decide to do it your own way instead of the way the kit manufacturer says it should be..... That is when the artistry comes out...... (and you realize you can model anything)

Well back then the AF brass had real big ones, they managed to get all air to ground delivery declared as their sole purveyance!!!! Yeah, the Air Force was declared the only service that could deliver air to ground ordnance!!! Both the Army rebelled especially about helicopters, (read about the Howze Board and it's determinations), and the Navy about aircraft carriers and missile carrying submarines. (look up the Revolt of the Admirals) The Repercussions of that is still being felt in our weapons systems acquisition and development process today, 60 years later..... The Airforce was going to win all wars with nuclear weapons...... Talk about some big brass ones.... and convinced McNamara that they would....

I agree Joe, and Gunship Grey is very close to brand new Panzer Grey maybe a quarter shade on the dark side.

AS a member of the family, you gotta show your brothers and sisters what your doin, we all want to brag on you also....... {chuckle}

With the quality of what is being built here, the modeling experience and talents being shown, you may very well have to... {chuckle} I've always said that applying the techniques of building wooden and multimedia ships are exactly applicable to the plastic modeling world, and I am not afraid to state the fact that many, (if not most) of the ship models in the US Navy museum are at least multi-media and a good portion of those have some form of plastic on them.... Plastic is nothing but a medium with it's advantages and disadvantages..... This is a good place to show off skills/techniques that don't often get shown... EG

All Right, I need to get on with this... first step is the Cockpit, the base color called out in the instructions is FS 36231 light grey.... Actually this is Model Masters Flat Dark Gull Grey.... but I have a problem.... It is clear that the cockpit is grey base color from this B&W shot.... But that don't look like dark Gull Grey to me more closer to light gull grey.... But then, look at this shot.... The Two color shots are of the same aircraft, the C model at the US Air Force Museum.... and under different light conditions the grey changes color... this is not gull grey at all. more like plain ol' US airforce aircraft grey.... it shows as dead light grey in medium yellow light and tinged blue in white light... (same issue as my Bandit trailer) So I think I"m going to have to decide between lightened ghost grey or plain old aircraft grey... More pics... So yeah that looks more like aircraft grey the more I look at it... What do you guys think...

One more note, early in the War, Tiger Tanks came off the assembly line painted yellow, yeah, the same yellow that became desert yellow in the Africa Corp. The Grey tanks used early in russia were painted in the field... later in the war, they painted some gray out of the manufacturer, but that wasn't many.... They switched from dark grey base color to yellow brown around september 1940 in contemplation of the coming areas they knew they would be used. (Africa & the Russian Steppes)

I think that was your best option my friend... The world hands you lemons, make lemonade.... I think that bird wants more than a pretty paint job, it wants to depict itself as the workhorse it actually was.... You have a special bird my friend....

It definitely looks the part, "HONEY, I shrunk the Railroad!"

Used to have it in the Model Masters line also, until the model shops stopped selling it, Dunklegrau, RAL 7021 is another one that works just as well. And your right, depending on where it was painted and how long it was out in the elements there are almost a dozen different variations of what is called "Panzer Grey"

Oh, I'm pulling up a chair also....

Mark, FS 36118, Gunship Grey, it's not Panzer Grey but it's close and does work well...

Yep, there really wasn't much to bomb in North Korea and CAS was the rule of the day..... It took the AF a year to get around to giving it serious consideration... The whole ideal for the F-104 came from the pilots that were flying the early jets (F-80's & 86's) in Korea against the Mig-15. even with a 10 to 1 kill ratio, the pilots didn't like the fact that overall the Mig-15 was a superior aircraft....... Their WWII experience made up for the airplanes.... But they wanted more. Kelly Johnson learned this in several tours he made of the front line fighter units and conversation about what they wanted in the next fighter plane..... Almost to a man they said more power, altitude and rate of climb..... They did not like dogfighting with the Mig-15, they wanted to boom and zoom using ingrained air superiority tactics like they did over Germany... Kelly went back and on his own initiative started the design of the 104........ They got more boom and zoom than many pilots could handle.... The airforce was in it's SAC days, it was being run by the biggest Strategic Bombing acolyte WWII produced, Curtis Lemay would regularly tell people that we wouldn't have won WWII without the precision daylight bombing campaign, hell they even made movies about it.... Used Jimmy Stewart for all he was worth..... (when the war was over) It took the B-29 losses to convince him that his judgment was a little off..... But on the other hand, his push gave us the B-52... a lot of people do not know how many lives were lost getting us that airplane..... Or how one man was a huge factor in it... The total war concept is dead, it has to be if we are to survive as a specie...

Andy, this is live rolling stock correct? I mean we are going to get to see this live on the rails? It's absolutely gorgeous....

I was reading about this on another forum... it was a way someone dealt with a similar issue.. (his was excessive bubbling after a gloss coat) successive light wet coats to raise and smooth out the surface.... it's the only thing I've found after a lot of searching the net.... other than ripping it off again and redoing it...... it actually didn't come out too bad...

I would agree, the decal floated in the lacquer.... there was a suggested way to kinda fix it on an online belog, but I've never had to do such... Hide it by gradually building up the clearcoat until most of it disappears..... Never tried it but at this point the only resolution is to hide it, or remove it and do it over..... I know cost becomes a factor... And since it is already under the clear lacquer....

Well that "IS" kinda what you want right? :-)

That is a great representation of old faded OD green..... it shows as yellow cause if you ever saw color shots of the earth over say rambling hills trees and valleys the actual earth looks yellowish brown with green splotches... Especially in semi-arid places...

I don't think it was trapped air brother, that's what micro sol and a pin is for, and you would see it as soon as the decal is dry cause it wouldn't lay down, more like trapped water IMHO......

I agree the top coat is key, it was fine until that was laid... TBH, I have NEVER ever seen anything like that, all the other stuff wrinkles, popcorn ceiling effect, bubbles, orange peel I have all seen and fixed, this one has me stumped... that looks like hippopotamus/elephant skin...... Well let me know how the second application of Decal set/sol works.... I have a suspicion that it will not work through the overcoat...... This is one bird that doesn't want to be finished or likes the attention, it seems like it's taking on a personality..... We have all had them, your not alone...

Brother, did this happen to just this one side?

This is coming out nice brother, great job on the tracks.... anticipating the rest of the color scheme, so far looks great.... Israeli armor can be very difficult to get right, it's not like US armor which is one color to match and is easily made... you need multiple colors and layering techniques to get it right.. One of the reasons I don't do them... (I have an affinity to drabish greens with white target markers on them)

You see that image on the video , that is a sherman tank mounting a 90mm gun. and every time I see something like that is reminds me of the brainless ideals of Leslie McNair, who said that the Armored force could not have a sherman with a 90 cause it simply wouldn't fit.... (despite how many times the Armored Board and Tanks Corps said it would and they could do it) cost tens of thousands of lives that bonehead ideal... (after McNair was ordered by Marshall to sent the M-26 to Europe, he went over there to see if his orders to scatter them around in singles units were being followed, he was killed in action) and thankfully Eisenhower, as CoS after the war, disbanded Army Ground forces cause it did more to screw things up than it ever did to straighten things out... At some things, we were our own worst enemy....