Hurri Up and Wait: Hurricane Part 10

I put a coat of RAF Dark Earth and Dark Green on Bader’s Hurricane. The colors started out being the bottled versions from Polly Scale. I bought two bottles of each color when I first heard that Polly Scale was going to be discontinued. To my surprise (see–I’m not so cynical) the colors were off. Way off. It seems that when Testor’s discontinued Polly Scale they gave their customers a goodbye kiss in the form of a shipment of defective paint. Defective in color, anyway.

After mixing and re-mixing the color “by eye” I can tell you this–that trying to match these RAF colors is a nightmare from hell. I think I got close, but through this exercise in frustration I learned something–that color is just not worth having a stroke over.

It ain’t.

So here are my versions of the “official” colors. The original, prior to corporate dog stuffing color from Polly Scale was right on the money (to my eye). This is an approximation.

Sigh.

Here’s the cockpit after a bit more work. One of the things about Golden Molding Paste as a filler is that you apply it AND PAINT IT IMMEDIATELY. No, I’m not kidding. I put some on the “headrest” to fill the seam, smoothed it with a “trowel” of decal paper, and put on a coat of paint. Just. That. Fast.

The seam. SHE IS GONE!

Now about the painting technique.

You use a SMALL brush and you use a FULL brush. I use a size 1 from Floquil. If you compare the size 1 from Floquil to the size 1 from Revell you’ll see a problem. Size numbers mean (almost) nothing. Most of the time, I find a size 2 to be best for painting camo. But the Floquil brush is a LARGE size 1.

Small brush. Full of paint.

Now, look at the “fine surface detail” on the model. Does it look like the nasty old brush painting filled the panel lines? The idea is expressed, almost daily, by adults, that brush painting fills panel lines, so you have to apply the paint very thinly and OH I WANT MY AIRBRUSH!

Ok, I’ll stop. It’s just that when you expect a coat of paint to “fill” the panel lines, maybe that’s what you see. I dunno. But I’m telling you that with Model Master Acryl, Revell Aqua Color or Xtracrylix this does not happen. Doesn’t happen with properly thinned Tamiya either, but that’s a story for another day.

The Hurricane needs one more coat of each color.

NOTE: I did not paint the upper surface Dark Earth and then draw the camouflage pattern on top of it with Dark Green. NO NO NO. I painted the pattern in Dark Earth. Then in Dark Green. I did not paint one color over the other.

No I did not. No. Do not do this. This is how airbrushing is done. We are brushpainters. We carefully paint the pattern every time we apply a different color. There is no layering. There is no overlap (mostly). Feel free to ask me if I mean this literally in the comments. I’ll answer that question now. Yes. I mean it. You paint the pattern in Dark Green, then paint the pattern in Dark Earth. Do not try to paint “dark over light” because, again, this is not valid. “Dark over light” has been repeated so often it has taken on a kind of shadowy life, but THIS IS NOT GOOD ADVICE. I intend to paint the Sky underside color LAST because it makes sense. Easier to get those good, clean lines.

Do not even think about “light over dark.” That idea no longer exists for you. Do not paint one color over the other. Do that, and you will be expelled from the Academy.

Here’s a fun fact. Exhausts on aircraft engines do not rust. Not even in 1940. They did not rust. The color I paint these exhausts is a “home brew.” I mix aluminum paint and black paint to make a dark “steel” color. Then I had a HINT of red.

This matches actual exhausts on aircraft I have observed over the years.

I had intended to “do something” about the “fish tails” on the Hasegawa exhausts, but now I’m not going to bother.

Check ya later.

3 Replies to “Hurri Up and Wait: Hurricane Part 10”

  1. Usually I paint exhaust’s metal of sorts and then a bronze drybrush followed by a “rust” drybrush to finish it out.

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