Gnaturally I have no tricky title ....

[JamesPerrin]

The first coat of paint, Hu 174 Signal Red, is s.t.i.l.l..d.r.r.y.y.y.i.i.i.i.n.n.n.n.n.g.g.g.g.g.g..................

Stop watching it

[JohnRatzenberger]

The first coat of paint, Hu 174 Signal Red, is s.t.i.l.l..d.r.r.y.y.y.i.i.i.i.n.n.n.n.n.g.g.g.g.g.g..................

Stop watching it

I'm not. I run down every so often and check to see if the paint is till tacky.

If it would dry then I could put on another coat and cover over the slight fingerprints I have been leaving

[splash]

Is it dry yet?

[JohnRatzenberger]

No and it is now some 48 hours. We are now into periodic hair-dryer sessions, but I have to be careful I don't cause the masking to lift off ...

[JohnRatzenberger]

The 2nd coat is on and ... wait for the drum roll ... d r r y y y i i i i n n n n n g g g g g g ...
I thinned it a bit, hoping to decrease drying speed -- but it may mean I need a 3rd coat .... so I might have done nothing but run the decaling date somewhere into 2013 ...

[JohnRatzenberger]

Unfortunately, I will be a DNF on this one, for which I must apologize ....

Here is where we are at the moment. The paint scheme is on, the masking is off.





My first excuse is that paint simply took too long to dry -- I have spent some 10 days trying to get good coverage and drying. It's a reflection on my lack of experience with modern aircraft and Humbrol satins; I'm really a matt person ....
Secondly, I have hit a barrier on my calendar -- my club is doing a display at Fort Fisher in Wilmington this weekend and not only am I madly prepping displays for that but also SWMBO and I are going to stay a couple extra days and play tourist -- that takes me past the GB ending date.

I am not pleased with some of my finish, some bad brushing needs polishing out. There are a few places where I had bleed under the masking that must be fixed. And, while I'm almost estatic over the fuselage masking, I think the two white stripes on the wings need some tweaking. Anyway, I want to take some time to correct these things properly.

I hope you will see this in the Aviation Modelling forum very soon. I think it will look really sharp.

[JamesPerrin]

This stuff happens. Look forward to seeing it complete sometime soonish.

[Jagewa]

Enjoy the display and playing tourist, I hope you'll be posting photos of the display and touristy fun, to make up for the non finishing

I'll enjoy seeing this finished when you get back to it.

Cheers
Jim

[splash]

We look forward to seeing the finished item.

Have a good weekend.

Regards
Splash

[JohnRatzenberger]

I guess, to close out the books here, I should add my "evaluation" of the new kit.
- Well, I never built the old one, so I have no basis for comparison there.
- I do think a couple items were more difficult than they needed to be -- inlets, wing fit.
- I do wish Airfix would review their sprue attachments -- for a while it looked as if they would attach on the mating surface, now they attach on the external surface. FWIW, I prefer the mating surface, leaving less opportunity to mess up the exterior. I also think they are a bit thick.
- As many have noted, the panel lines are overdone, but as I noted, if you fill the minor ones then the major ones don't look that bad at all.
- Of the Swordfish, P-40B, and Gnat, the Gnat ranks third, but it's not as bad as my initial impression.

[Dirkpitt289]

Nice paint work,. Very impressive