Airfix C-47; Painting it (or attempting to)

Obviously it's going to be one of THOSE models. I sprayed the undersides without any issues, masked the model then applied the top colour. I was'nt happy with the mix of paint (Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab and XF-52 Flat Earth) plus the paint had gone grainy on the wing roots. I gave the model a quick rub down when dry and mixed up some XF-58 Olive Green and XF-52 with some X-22 Clear thrown in and I ended up with this;

Yep the paint is still grainy and it also highlighted the areas that had been rubbed down (badly by me) so it's going to be left alone while I think about it. Oddly enough after cleaning the airbrush of green paint I decided to matt varnish the Trumpeter E-25 with Mr Color and I had all sorts of issues in the past with frosting and grainy finishes however this time it sprayed perfectly. Weird!

Airfix C-47; Priming the thing

As I predicted in the earlier post the wing roots look a mess after priming the model so I'm going to have to think about how to rectify them without destroying the surface detail;

Fortunately the fuselage joints are better;

 The favourite solution (at the moment) is to mask off the wings and fuselage but leave the wing roots exposed and basically fill the areas in with paint, cheating I know but needs must and all that however that plan may change. More later folks!

Airfix C-47; Build complete!

A big update tonight as I was without any internet for two days (the horror) then back in work.
First of all I masked the fuselage and cabin windows and windscreen before I glued them into place then Tamiya masking tape was applied to the glazing;

Then using a sharpened cocktail stick the tape was worked into the frames;

The fun bit! Using a new scalpel blade the tape was scored along the frame;

With great skill (well a lot of luck really) you *should* get a neatly masked windscreen like this;

A word of warning using this method; I have totally buggered up a canopy and windscreen before now as sometimes the framing is that finely moulded the tape hides it so if you have any doubts use pre-cut masks such as Eduard or Montex ones.
Next we have the undercarriage which can be removed before painting fortunately. The gear legs were glued together but I also used cyano glue to give some added strength as I can foresee some problems with the model standing on it's own two feet (so to speak);

The windscreen and side windows were (surprisingly) a decent fit however there was a gap between the bottom of the screen and fuselage as demonstrated by the tip of the scalpel;

This was filled using black Milliput and while still wet it was smoothed out with an old paint brush moistened with water. Black Milliput was used as you have less chance of the filler showing on the inside;

The vent on the fuselage side was drilled out;

Finally the engines and cowling were glued on and I was concerned that after all the chopping and changing they received they would'nt fit properly, luckily I've got away with it and the Quickboost engines look FAR better than the kit ones;

And that's that! The final bits were glued on and it just requires a clean in warm soapy water before undercoating. Of course it could still all go horribly wrong as I'm still not sure about the wing roots and I can see them being problematic but we'll worry about that later.

Trumpeter E-25 update

I added a few decals just to jazz the thing up a bit;

The next time you'll see this is when it's finished so stay tuned people :o)

Airfix C-47; It's exhausting work!

Just a small update as the rudder now fits better and I took the opportunity to save myself some money on aftermarket exhausts by drilling out the kit supplied ones. Approximately 10 minutes work with a drill and dentists burrs and here you are;

The model is actually near completion as the undercarriage is next to be assembled and the glazing just needs to be put in.
It might seem unusual to add the glazing now but previous experience means it's an ideal time as no doubt the fit of parts, especially the landing lights, will need some filling, sanding and polishing to make them look like part of the wing rather than added extras and the windscreen will probably fit where it touches too.

Trumpeter E-25; Painting complete.

While I'm on a roll I added to the camo scheme by spraying dots of all three colours used;

It still looks fairly hideous but I'm hoping the weathering will turn it down from 11.
Tonight I'll add some decals from units that would have used Jagdpanzers and some numbers just to make it look half-decent.

Trumpeter E-25; Back on it

Well I've put all my toys back in the pram after a couple of days away from the bench and the last bout of modelling frustration and re-sprayed the E-25. As posted earlier I was having problems spraying the new Ammo paints by Mig which could have been down to my idea of using Tamiya acrylic thinner with them, although to be fair I DID experiment with this combination before I committed to painting the model and the thinner and paint seemed to mix well.
ANYWAY I'm sticking with Tamiya and Mr Hobby paint in future as they work fine for me.
So back to the model and I resprayed the base coat in places where needed then the camo was sprayed freehand, retouching with the base coat to remove any over spray. This time the colours are darker than originally planned as I used a 1:1 mix of Tamiya XF-65 Field Grey and XF-71 Cockpit Green for the...err...green bits and XF-79 Linoleum Deck Brown with a bit of the base colour thrown in for the red-brown.
I'm not sure whether to leave it like this or try again with the 'ambush camouflage' style of dots using the three colours alternatively placed over the model;

I shall have a think about that one.