Written by 9:47 am On the Bench

WIP : Tamiya 1/48 Wildcat Pt. 2 – Painting

Tamiya lives up to its reputation of having kits that require minimal seamline fixing and I’m onto the painting stage quicker than usual.

First up, I did a base coat of Tamiya XF-1 Black thinned with lacquer thinner. This is now I preferred primer since I haven’t been able to figure out acrylic-based primers yet. I find them too finicky and scratch off too easily.

Then I did the marble coat with Model Air Light Grey. I decided to do this more carefully this time by thinning the paint and adding Airbrush Flow Improver. The end result is less splotchy but you can still see areas where the acrylic paint acted up and spattered all over the surface. These were buffed with a 3M sponge to even out the surface.

I begin with painting the bottom with Vallejo Model Air Light Gull Grey.

I made sure to thin the paint a fair bit and sprayed in thin coats so the marbling still shows through.

After a day of curing, I started masking off the demarcation lines.

The top color is Lifecolor Non Specular Blue Gray. This was also thinned quite a bit and sprayed in thin coats so the marble coat shows through.

I’ve forgotten how easy it is to use Lifecolor, which mixes very quickly, thins very easily and spatters were minimized. I’ll buff these spatters out after the paint has cured.

Ancillary parts are minimal and while the main body is curing, I went ahead and finished them using botht eh airbrush and handpainting. I decided not to add the external tanks. I read somewhere that the Wildcat only started carrying external tanks in 1943. My Wildcat will be modeled as it appeared in 1942.

Glossing is next and then it’s time for decals and weathering.

(Visited 1,271 times, 1 visits today)
Tags: , , , , , , Last modified: 13 December, 2021
Close