WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 P-51K Mustang Pt.3 – Painting & Finishing
Next I tackled the topside black areas on the wings and the nose. Thankfully this part of the painting process was trouble-free. I then went in and painted the exhausts by handpainting with Game Color Gunmetal. Prop planes are great in that there are relatively few fiddly bits to deal with although the invasion stripes …...
WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 P-51K Mustang Pt.2 – Painting & Finishing
For a bare metal finish, painting begins with a base color of black. Normally, they say it should be a gloss black base, but I’ve found that it doesn’t make that much of a difference. In this case I used Aqueous Black Surfacer which went thinned with IPA, dries to a satin finish. After the …...
WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 P-51K Mustang Pt.1 – Construction
Continuing my Top Gun builds, this will be made into Maverick’s own P-51K Mustang that appeared at the end of Top Gun: Maverick. This P-51K, registration N51EW, is actually Tom Cruise’s own aircraft in real life. This kit includes some of the parts for the K variant even though it’s only sold as a P-51D. …...
WIP : Hasegawa 1/48 Hurricane Mk. IIb Pt.3 – Painting & Finishing
Weathering begins over a satin coat with chipping using silver paint. My first attempt at chipping the high traffic area of the wingroot was done with both handpainting and sponge but I thought the result didn’t look right. After checking references and input from a modeler friend I repainted the area and tried it again …...
WIP : Hasegawa 1/48 Hurricane Mk. IIb Pt.2 – Painting & Finishing
This is the new decal sheet I managed to procure. I know it’s just the markings but I just didn’t want my kit to be ‘too wrong’. At this point, the most glaring mistake left on my build is the lack of the additional two machine gun ports on each wing of the IIb. But …...
WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 Jaguar Gr.1 Pt.2 – Painting & Finishing
Painting begins with the false canopy painted onto the bottom of the Operation Granby Jaguars. This is something most manufacturers miss out on. Based on the photos I’ve found, there also seems to be different patterns. I decided to just follow the easiest pattern I can find. For the main ‘desert pink’ color, different...
WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 Jaguar Gr.1 Pt.1 – Construction
Time for a Desert Storm build and what better subject than a sand colored RAF SEPECAT Jaguar? This build will combine the generally well regarded Hasegawa kit with weapons and decals from the Italeri offering. On a sidenote, I should refer to this as an Operation Granby build instead since that’s the name of the …...
WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 F-15E Strike Eagle Pt.3 – Painting & Finishing
Painting begins with black for the canopy frame. The nose is a deeper shade of gray so to help make it more visually distinct I used black as a marble coat instead of white. I did both preshading of panel lines and marble coating to help with making a single solid color scheme look less …...
WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 F-15E Strike Eagle Pt.2 – Construction
Work continues as I attach the nose to the fuselage. There’s a somewhat ugly seamline here which requires getting rid off. Good thing is there’s no rescribing needed as it’s not meant to be a panel line. The gun port is a simple upper and lower join which results in an ugly seamline in a …...
WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 F-16C Blk 30 Pt.2 – Painting & Finishing
Time to finish this build. And I lucked out by finding a photo of the exact F-16C that I’d be modeling. The subject of this build will be serial 85-1552, an F-16C Block 30 of the 23rd TFS ‘Fighting Hawks’, 52nd TFW. She deploted to Desert Storm wearing this eye-catching sharkmouth scheme. Interestingly she has …...
