Next the cowl, it’s painted yellow and black so I start by blocking up the front of the engine with paper towel.

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Then back and underneath.

See photos 07, 08, 09 and 10

Spray the yellow. I removed the masking a few minutes after spraying and left the kit overnight. Next day I masked off the area of the cowl requiring the black (I only have one masking picture because I forgot to take more), and sprayed the black. I did this in two parts. The second part was masked off so I could paint the cowl flaps black all the way around. I just found it easier to do it that way than it was to do all the masking at once. Just as an aside, the nice thing about foil underneath paint is that you can take your art knife and make some nice chipped paint effects.

The next step is to get some interior colour on top of the fuselage where the cockpit canopy will sit. I start by placing the canopy over some masking tape (sticky side up), then cutting out the shape.

See photos 11, 12, 13 and 14

I stick the tape on the table and cut off a very thing strip all around it. I just need the tape to be slightly smaller than the outline of the cockpit canopy. Now place that on top of another piece of tape and cut out the shape again. I want to mention here that when I’m using regular masking tape on a kit I always place the tape on my jeans 2 maybe 3 times, to cut down on the amount of stickiness the tape has. Now you might say use the less sticky stuff right off the bat (like green painter’s tape), I don’t because I can’t make the green tape sticker if I need it, but I can lessen the stickiness of the regular stuff, get it? 

See photos 15, 16, 17 and 18

Place the cut out piece of tape over the cockpit and eye it into position using the canopy. After you’ve covered up the part you don’t want to paint, spray away, remove the mask and you’re almost finished. I added a little wash then brushed on some black powder to get it a bit of the used look.

See photos 19 thru 23

Now, there are other ways to accomplish what we are ultimately trying to accomplish here but this is the way I have photos for. Next I threw together the gun sight.

See photo 24

With that done, let’s move on to one of the bigger mistakes I made while building this kit, the cockpit glass. I should have prepared and installed the front screen before I did the foiling and painting. Now it’s going to be a little extra work but hey, that’s the way it goes.

See photos 25, 26, 27 and 28

There are many ways to mask canopies too; Liquid mask, canopy masks from Edwards and the like, masking, Tamiya and Scotch tape. I’m going to use Tamiya tape for this demo. Now the thing is you have to mask both inside and outside of the canopy. Ok, you don’t have to… but I’m going to. If you want to avoid masking the inside of the canopy, then spray the interior colour on the outside of the masked glass before spraying the exterior colour. This way from the inside you will see the interior colour.

See photos 29, 30, 31 and 32

Just place the tape on the glass, I use a wood stick to press it down and into the grooves (a cuticle stick I believe), with a sharp knife trim the excess away. This is not as hard as you may think. If you can, hold the glass against a light source and just cut away don’t press to hard, just try to cut the tape but don’t worry too much about cutting into the glass.

See photos 33, 34, 35 and 36

Spray on the colours and remove the masking as soon as you can, preferably after about 15 minutes. Though I don’t have pictures of it, the canopy didn’t exactly fit (side-to-side), so this is another one of those “have patience” times. Using Tamiya Thin, I glue just one side of the glass in place and left it overnight. The next day, since one side is in place and dry, I can spread the glass out so it fits the other side of the cockpit and hold it in place with a little pressure from a plastic clamp. I applied Tamiya Thin and let it dry overnight again. A bit of light sanding and touch up painting and that part is done!

See photos 37 and 38

Next, there is a black & white stripe on the tail. The kit provides a decal for this however; I always like to paint instead if I can. Using calipers to measure the size of the decal, I transfer that measurement to the tail. Using ‘Post It’ notes and tape I masked off the area. I didn’t fret that much about the position of the strip. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t want it to be correct but you can pretty much eye it into the position it needs to go.

See photos 39, 40 and 41

After that has dried for an hour, I masked off the black portion for painting. Spray, remove mask, done. This is one of those times you want to use some flat clear brushed on along the edge of the tape to prevent the black from bleeding through to the white. I should mention that I also masked off the stripes on the stabilizer at the same time so I could paint them. They are just black without white trim.

See photos 42 and 43

Larry Shred

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