The Little World

The Hobby Boss P-51D has proved to be the perfect build for my current project. It is inexpensive, precise, and perfect.

And I’m so glad I was able to make another mistake while painting it. I should have thought I was in an alternate universe if I’d gotten entirely through the build without one…that sort of perfection makes me nervous.

The smooth body needed only the finest injection of Valejo acrylic filler on the wing roots to seal up a slight gap. Then Mr. Surfacer 1200 to seal the thing. Then a shot of Mr. Color silver lacquer and a few hours to cure off in the warm box.

Then the mistake – though it didn’t look like I had made one. I decided to gloss it up in preparation for the dodgy decals from New Zealand. I selected the new Gauzy shine coat from AK to do this – and it shot through the .05 trigger gun like a boss. Very shiny and encouraging.

Then Oops. I had forgotten to put on the anti-glare panel over the nose of the Mustang. Ah, well, I’d mask it and spray it. But as soon as the Tamiya tape touched the shiny surface, the Gauzy layer stripped right off! It had nothing to key it to the smooth silver lacquer. So I grabbed more tape and dabbed it over the entire surface of the plane – removing the Gauzy layer entirely. Whew!

My bad. That floor-polish shine would be good at the end of the process but you cannot base anything on it. I’ll reserve it for the planes  – like the King’s Airplane – that need to exhibit a gloss finish. It might get a chance to do the gripping thing if it is sprayed over a matte surface, but I’m going to depend on thinned acrylic lacquer for any intermediate gloss surfacing.

All good in the end – the decals were not as bad as they might have been – trimmed to their bare bones and soaked in Micro Sol. And tomorrow I am going to try the particular experiment that this plane is reserved for. Wish me luck.