Detail work

Hand-painting the details

As I had pondered earlier, I picked up a paintbrush and painted the landing gear bays the old-fashioned way. The white I have been using (VMA 71001 White) is clearly in the end of its lifecycle and usefulness, but it's been there for a good bunch of years already. I wouldn't consider letting that in my airbrush anymore, but this method was still ok. Besides, slightly uneven and "used" result kinda worked here pretty well.

I had already painted the wheel hubs white, so I just glued the missing main wheels on at this point. After that I proceeded to the metallic areas (VMA 71065 Steel). From a certain point of view some of these should've been painted before the assembly, but it worked this way too. I didn't start adding special weathering or chippings, as my idea was to go for a plane that could maybe be just out of full maintenance.

The engine exhaust nozzle I painted white on the inside, just the way my sources claimed it would be until its first flight. For some reason the tube wouldn't stay white for long, while operational. I didn't get to wash the business end of the engine yet, as the steel paint was still wet.

To wrap up my session I painted the wheels themselves black-grey, as my basic approach has been. This time I didn't file or sand the bottom arcs of the wheels flatter, just to do things differently. Maybe this was a horrible idea and my model would end up shaking like a see-saw, but that'd be a consideration for another day.

[90]