spejic

Flats tend to do that, so you should always use light coats just until you get the desired level of flatness. I would actually do another gloss coat, which tends to darken things and hides most of the mistiness from the flat coats, and then do the flat again (just less so). But try this out on some scrap before to see if you get the desired outcome.

I haven't updated the thread, but I've been doing steady work. I should be done in a few days, but I can't guarantee I'll finish by the due date of the group build. The landing gear is fully attached, which required a little rework of the original parts. I've also installed the decals. The gloss coat is Tamiya Clear. This is the first time I used it, and I didn't to a good job - the surface is a little pebbly. I'm worried that the decals will silver once I put on the dull coat. What remains is the wash, the gunsight, attaching the landing gear doors, adding seatbelts to the seat, and painting the canopy.

This was way trickier than it should have been. But it's finally done and I can get to gloss coating. The curvy bits are boat davits from a 1/700 scale ship model.

I really enjoyed the story you told with the model. It reminds me of what they used to do in Japanese modelling magazines.

It's a straight copy of the frigate from the original series. Here's the 1970's version of the model kit:

Here we are. New retraction arms and gear doors. As an added benefit the retraction arms are far more realistic than the ones Revell originally included. There's a few more pieces to add to the arms, but those need to be fit in place because I'm not sure where the arms attach to the gears yet.

Don't press hard. You just want to knock off the waves in the putty in the first passes. And wait a day for the putty to set. It shrinks as it dries. If you sand after a few hours when it looks set it won't look right the next day.

I always used the cans, so I don't know.

The paint revealed lots of deep scratches, so I filled, sanded, and repainted those areas multiple times. I've started putting the landing gear on, but I could not find some of the doors and the retraction arms for the rear gears. I looked in every kit box I own, and they are nowhere to be found. I have to scratchbuild them. I'm doing research for that now.

It's not a part that requires strength, so I recommend using PVA glues (white glues). They give lots of working time, hold parts well while wet, clean up easily, and dry clear.

I use the same as the post above. The Acryl flat isn't as dead flat as the lacquer you are used to, but it's pretty fool proof. Lacquer clear coats will work with acrylics, but you better wait a few weeks between painting and clear coating just to be sure.

You shouldn't be getting paint there from just the normal operation of the brush. You are probably introducing paint there by pulling the needle out through the rear when you clean the airbrush. This not only puts paint in a hard-to-clean place, but it might eventually get in the air valve, which is tricky to disassemble and clean (or, more accurately, easy to disassemble and clean and a pain to put back together). I always remove the nozzle and push the needle forward when I clean.

It helps to spray with the absolute minimum paint coming out of the airbrush and not letting the paint look wet. Slowly build up the color moving the brush constantly. This will prevent bleed-under and build up on the mask edges.

Oh, and you should post an image in the Showroom thread.

Anything that moves a model from the unfinished pile to the display case is a celebration in my book. I'm glad this thread gave you the stroke of fortune to do that.