Suggestions on best way to finish Airfix172 Mosquito NF?

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Agent
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Suggestions on best way to finish Airfix172 Mosquito NF?

Post by Agent »

I decided to build the Night Fighter MkII version.

I used regular Tamiya flat black here. This is my first go at a flat black NF color scheme and I'm less than happy with the results.

I plan to clear, decal, and try out wearhering for the first time. Figured anything I mess up may not be too noticable on the black. Then eventually go with a satin finish since I've read that the initial flat finish that was put on these slowed them down somewhat.

Any tips regarding NF finishes would be greatly appreciated. I've found this forum to be a wealth of info in the last few months as I got back in to the hobby. So many new techniques and products... most explained here.

Thank you!

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iggie
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Re: Suggestions on best way to finish Airfix172 Mosquito NF?

Post by iggie »

Welcome aboard the forum!
Nice looking mossie there, I would say you need to try using some thinned white in streaks from the exhausts to represent coolant leaks blown back over the wing
As for general weathering on such a black background, I wouldn't really know what to suggest
Best wishes

Jim
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Agent
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Re: Suggestions on best way to finish Airfix172 Mosquito NF?

Post by Agent »

Thank you for the coolant tip.
I'm looking at a bottle of tamiya grey panel line pin wash. Or would it be better to go with a dry brush? Grrrr. I spent a lot of time filling and sanding to get all the lines smooth, would hate to ruin this model trying to finish it.
I also have a bottle of Vallejo black wash that I think can be lightened up a bit(?)...
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iggie
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Re: Suggestions on best way to finish Airfix172 Mosquito NF?

Post by iggie »

I'd be tempted to try the pin wash, anything darker isn't going to show anyway!
Best wishes

Jim
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Re: Suggestions on best way to finish Airfix172 Mosquito NF?

Post by AndrewR »

What I did for my Twin Mustang Night Fighter was to use an extremely dark blue as the base colour. Then picked out the prop and spinners in black. This gives a bit of contrast.

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With the Vallejo washes, you can clean them off again, if you don't like the results!
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Re: Suggestions on best way to finish Airfix172 Mosquito NF?

Post by fredk »

In the Railway colours Humbrol do a 'Dirty Black' acrylic paint.
I've bought a pot, but not yet tried it, just for this sort of all black finish.
It'll be a while till I will be using it, but one of us should try it and see if its up to much.
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Re: Suggestions on best way to finish Airfix172 Mosquito NF?

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

Tamiya flat black is too black, but you might mix with a dark grey to tone it down a bit.

I use White Ensign Night Black enamel which may now be available "over there" from Sovereign Hobbies http://www.sovereignhobbies.co.uk/;
Another good one, in acrylic, is from Mr Kit of Italy.
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Re: Suggestions on best way to finish Airfix172 Mosquito NF?

Post by flakmonkey »

You could give Tamiya's NATO black a try. I always use that on large unbroken areas of black.
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Clashcityrocker
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Re: Suggestions on best way to finish Airfix172 Mosquito NF?

Post by Clashcityrocker »

Revell number 9, Anthracite could be useful also.

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Re: Suggestions on best way to finish Airfix172 Mosquito NF?

Post by rob_van_riel »

You might want to dig a bit deeper into your nightfighter lore; I seem to remember reading somewhere that they were actually gloss black, since that turned out to be harder to spot than matt. If that is the case, you could probably use gloss for the main colour, and various levels of matting plus dark greys to dirty things up.
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Re: Suggestions on best way to finish Airfix172 Mosquito NF?

Post by Gadfly »

A good Scale black for nightfighters can be had by mixing 2 parts of Tamiya flat black with 1 part Tamiya Red brown..

This reduces the black a bit and then allows you come in and add panels and shading in with both Flat black and NATO black..

Here is a F4U nightfighter I recently did using that mix..

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Once you have the base finish then you can think about chipping and Exhaust stains etc..

Cheers
GF
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Re: Suggestions on best way to finish Airfix172 Mosquito NF?

Post by DH-Drover »

100 Group used gloss black on their heavies too. I'll hunt the book out from the library after dinner.

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