What I love about this hobby? That every day is a school day. Or at least it can be if you are so inclined. This time it was post-shading using Tamiya Smoke that was on the TLL (To-Learn List. Yes, I am a lists guy). Not having had too much success with pre-shading NMF paint jobs, I wanted to see if I could pull off a subtle type of weathering without that “contest table”-look of which I am not a huge fan. What I did learn is to be very careful, thin the Smoke well and always adjust your light source so that you can actually see when the coat starts to get that wet, reflectant sheen – which will happen just before the paint start to run…
Apart from that it was a relaxing quick build, something I really needed as a distraction from my ongoing struggle with an Italeri chopper and Eduard’s P-38. NMF, as usual, was airbrushed using Tesors buffing Metalizers, Gunze Yellow and Olive Drab. The decals are for the most part Tamiya’s, nose art and aircraft IDs are from the lovely Kagero book “P-47 Thunderbolt with the USAAF – European Theatre of Operations”. Speaking of decals: Why on earth does Tamiya still produce their own decals? They produce wonderful kits, detailed, easy to build, accurate – but their decals still suck. Would it really be such a loss of face to them to stop their own production and go Cartograph instead?
Anyway, here it is. Oh, another thing I learnt: It is a good idea to always have some Tamiya kits in your stash – just in case you need a quick success to keep the mojo on track.
