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 It is, but little has happened since the post. It turns out Montex DOES make a canopy mask set for the CA kit so that's on the way. Meanwhile, finished another one out of The Naughty Closet a couple days ago and another one (both stalled for years) spent the week racing to the paint shop so I don't feel bad about sitting on the last Defiant for a few days.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Quote

I wanna see it painted, painted black
Black as night, black as coal

 

 Well, black as Night:

 

DSC00795.jpg

 

 Blackened 👍

 

 The Montex masks showed up Tuesday and while they weren't the best fitting they got it done. Some had to be trimmed to fit, some had to be replaced and two were missing for the turret. But they're on and it's just painted in the pic with Testors flat black and a splash of Model Master Neutral gray to take the edge off.
 

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 Got caught up in some 1:1 projects over the last couple of weeks but, decals are on, final coat applied and ready for final assembly:

DSC00854.jpg

 

 The landing gear for this one looks rather fiddly but I suspect everything else should go into place smoothly. And that Spitfire is about ready for my True North enamel test.

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  • 4 weeks later...

  After a sidetrip into some long neglected 1:1 builds I'm closing on the finish line with this one:

DSC00919.jpg

 

  There were some issues.

 

 The turret dome was too tall. I had to sand about half the lower frame off to get it close. And the turret itself was too big for the opening and I had to take material off both the turret base and the fuselage sidewall to get it in deep enough. The landing lights didn't even try to fit inside the opening with the lens covers, as they were molded WAY too thick. I could've used the lights and scratchbuilt clear covers but I just didn't want to get into all that with this build. If it was the only 1/48 Defiant available it would've been worth it but it's really just time to clear the bench of this build. The landing gear didn't fit into the resin wheel bays. The locating holes for the main struts were suggestions, really, and some drilling had to be done to mount them. And of course, the gear door locations were vague suggestions as well. And no holes in the wheels to mount them to the strut-those had to be drilled out as well.

 

 Even the propeller was an issue. Here's a pic of the unused Mk.II prop parts still on the sprue:

DSC00913.jpg

 

 The collets at the base of the prop blades are almost perfectly round so there's no positive location points for blade angle. They're also too large to fit under the spinner. I ended up fitting the blades to the back plate, dry fitting the spinner and saturating the join points with liquid cement until I was able to jam the assembly together. Once it dried thoroughly I sanded the assembly to clean it up. In fact, painting the prop assembly is the lone remaining task and I think I'll call this one done.

 

 And the news you've ALL been waiting for, I'm sure. The Dark Green is on the Mk.I Spit in the background and True North Paints are not like Model Master-more like WEM/Colourcoats. And unlike either, it was not at all happy about being cut with lacquer thinner. It seems the lacquer thinner separated the pigments from the carrier to the point that you could shake the bottle, set it down and watch the pigments settle leaving clear solvent at the top! I made up a second mix with some old Floquil enamel reducer I've been kicking around and the results were much better. I also broke out the Japan Drier in the second batch as the first spray took a few days to dry to the touch. And a final note-the Dark Green was quite thick. MM and WEM enamels usually do well cut 1:1 out of the bottle but TNP is more like 2 parts reducer to 1 part paint. The Dark Earth will be TNP as well so we'll see if it's consistent.

 

 edit: Yes, I threw the CA box away today 👍

Edited by WymanV
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Done:

DSC00929a.jpg

 

 And further on the sidetrip: True North's spin on Dark Earth isn't particularly 'dark'. Or nearly as thick as their Dark Green-I only had to cut the raw paint 50% and it still took 2 coats.

Edited by WymanV
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Looks great, sounds like you had to overcome some frustrating challenges in the home stretch with the CA kit. And I can really identify with the feeling that it is time to get a kit off the bench.

 

Thank you so much for joining in and sharing these builds.

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