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Part 3: Conclusion... |
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As previously stated, the entire aircraft was painted with automotive
lacquers and Alclad II. In point of fact, 8 shades of Alclad II were
used…The basic airframe was painted using the excellent Black Magic
Masks from Meteor Productions as part of the decal package. If you
haven’t had the opportunity to use these, they are outstanding in both
quality and ease. The film of soapy water makes positioning a
cakewalk. I deviated from the suggestion to paint the blue sections
last, in that I wanted a dark under-base for the Alclad II airframe
aluminum. The other colors used were white aluminum, dark aluminum,
duralumin, magnesium, jet exhaust, stainless steel and pale burned
metal. This exercise entails what seems like hours of judicious masking
followed by just a few minutes of airbrushing – 90% preparation, 10%
application, with apologies to Thomas Edison. As most of you know, the
key to a natural metal finish is largely preparation of the surfaces
prior to application of the finish. The dark blue lacquer, polished to
a high gloss with Micromesh polishing pads, accomplishes the task
perfectly. After the final color of metal was applied, I opted to use
an acrylic water color wash of black, white and burnt umber in order to
enhance the details. (A medium brownish gray is not quite as stark in
appearance as black. Thunder Thuds were, for the most part, constantly
polished to a high shine.) The decals were then applied using the
MicroScale method, and were also found to be outstanding in quality,
ease of application, and register. I chose the late season scheme, utilizing the display of flags of countries where the Thunderbirds performed - they are far too well done to not be used. The only decals I elected to trim the clear edges from were the “USAF” on the top of the right wing, although I am not sure this was even necessary, since no film shows anywhere. Some of the items added were a scratch built smoke device, tow bar, a modified boarding ladder and of course, red, white and blue wheel chocks. The flaps, spoilers and leading edge slats were positioned in the slightly deployed position to give a little “life” to the machine. Extra detailing was added to the back side of the spoilers and the gear doors, primarily to eliminate so many of those damnable ejector pin marks that Trumpeter seems duty bound to include in their kits! Another technique that deviates from the norm was to paint and decal the clear parts first and then dip them in Future floor wax. The results were excellent as the images show. I must state that even with all the minor headaches involving the drawbacks of repairing the kits shortcomings, it was a most enjoyable build with results as seen here. Again, many thanks to Dave Klaus at Meteor Productions for the review sample. I found them to be excellent in quality and would not hesitate to highly recommend them to anyone. Also a very special thanks to Larry Davis who supplied more photos and reference material on the T-Birds 105’s than I have ever seen at one time. Without these, some of the scratch built items (particularly the smoke apparatus) could not have been accomplished. Next… Meteor Productions Hawk 75 conversion. |
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