On the Bench - Jack goes in the Booth

After disassembling, repairing, and reassembling my clamp on desk lamp, it was bright enough in my spray booth. Time for some preshading for Jack. 

If it works for Jack, it will work for Betty....

Meanwhile, I ordered a set of Eduard masks for the ME-410. What I don't know / can't tell is, does it mask the canopy interior as well? Like a number of German designs, the framing is primarily inside the canopy, so it needs to be painted there too. Will have to wait and see. I may be in for a bit of very steady- handed hand painting....

Here he is after a coat of Tamiya XF-76 on the underside. Now to get some deep panel line....lines.

Here goes

Ok. AAR on the underside painting. Despite giving the plastic a thorough detergent cleaning, the Tamiya acrylic still scratches off far too easily. I will not use it again unless shot over a primer coat. I used laboratory Parafilm to mask the underside and shot the upper surfaces with Modelmaster IJN Green:

It covers well, and goes on gloss. I should have thinned it even more, has some "orange peel". Even though I dialed the psi down and thinned extensively. Lessons learned before I shoot "Betty".

Next, decals and details.

The kit decals lived up to their reputation, as thick and difficult to get to conform to surface details. A liberal application of Solvaset was needed, and lots of gentle persuasion with large flat brushes and q-tips.

You can also begin to see why I should have primed white and sprayed the leading edge bands before the IJN Green. 

Getting a color to match the flashes on the fuselage by mixing some of my stash of paints was easier than I thought it would be; masking and hand painting over the dark green, not so much. I'll try to deemphasize the imperfections with weathering  ;-)

One coat of Vallejo matt varnish. Very humid tonight, and some beading, so going light and second application tomorrow. 

A few vanity shots before Jack gets scratched and dirty:

Next aluminum "chipping"....