airea

Wow this is an insane build, really a piece of art!! My eyes are bleeding:)

First of all, do not paint anything with pure black (unless it is a black hole :)). NATO black, anthracite grey or anything similar would give a better scale effect.

Fantastic build, really amazing...

Revell's antracite is also nice.

Hi, I used salt weathering for my F-4 build, which you can see in the link below: I had applied decal on the base coat and built a brand new F-4 in pristine condition. Then I had applied all weathering. Decals should also be weathered in line with the rest of the plane, otherwise it will look unrealistic, I believe.

Heating the film with an hair dryer may work to make the film conform to curved surfaces?

After 12000 grit of micromesh, I use compounds (not tamiya but similar) for the final shine. As the final gloss coat, 2k auto gloss clears are the best. I built the panigale a while ago, really great kit...

I use future and an hair dryer for gluing PE parts, as long as they are not subject to load/weight of the model. For more strenght, I use CA and clean the residue with CA debonder.

Tamiya and novus seems to be very expensive. I use helmet visor and car headlight polishing compounds for polishing model canopies and all sorts of clear parts. They are sold in hardware stores and auto parts shops. I guess tamiya or novus compounds are basically the same stuff with visor/headlight polishers. Maybe slightly not that strong but definitely more expensive...

That is a great model, cleverly weathered... Very realistic..!

Amazing model and great photography!

Very nice build of a goodlooking aircraft. I would advise using 2k auto lacquer gloss for the instruments to simulate the glass look. Just carefully put a small drop of the gloss on each instrument. The 2k auto gloss has a very high shine and ability to hold on vertical surfaces.

Very nice build and clever weathering...

I believe a realistic black in modeling is not black but something like nato black, rubber black, antrasite grey or something similar. So instead of painting the model with a nice pure black color, I would advice using above mentioned colors with some variations on different panels...

You are a true artist... Very nice work!

In the clear parts sprue, there are two circular clear parts fitting to those depressions. I cant recall their parts number in the sprue but you will see them there. The manual is not correct on that issue, so just check the clear parts sprue and you will see them.

For a beginner, it seems that you really made a very nice camo scheme! Congrats:)

Woww, this is just excellent! Great work...

Really very clean and neat work!

I have just painted the exact same part of Tamiya Panigale kit:) I either thin x-18 with tamiya yellow cap (I also add just one drop of 2k auto gloss coat's thinner, which is a very strong stuff. It melts plastic if applied too much) or I thin tamiya paints with my homemade acrylic thinner. Add 40 ml of water to 20 ml of isopropyl alcohol and add 1 ml of acrylic flow improver and 1 ml of acrylic retarder. Now you have homemade tamiya white cap thinner...

Thanks Joel, it is great to hear nice words from such an experienced modeller😊 Salih

Thanks a lot friends:) The decals in the kit are really great, they are thin and very strong as well. So it was easy to make them comply to curves and panel lines with some solvaset/microsol...

Thanks mate:)

Hi all, greetings from Istanbul; In roughly 6 months, I have completed this model. It is a great kit, very enjoyable. Fit is very nice, excluding the intakes. I guess it would be wise to invest in some aftermarket intakes. Decals are great, very thin (compared to tamiya) and very strong. I like weathered and dirthy aircrafts, so may have overweathered it a bit:) * I scratchbuilt all landing gear hyrolic lines and other plumming thingies, pitot tubes on the vertical stabilizer, some stuff in cockpit backwalls and seatbelts. * I have used eduard's cockpit set, which is nice. Instument panel