Kitbash of the first prototype F-5G, aka F-20 Tigershark

[A-10 LOADER]

"This thing looks like a flying billboard for Coca-Cola in bright red and white!"🤣

 

She certainly is bright, nice paint work.

Steve

 

[lgl007]

Damn, that re and white scheme is just so eye catching... I think the lines on that scheme make the jet look even sleaker and faster then it is... 😉  The Ferrari of the skies 😉 

 

-Greg

[Geoff M]

Fabulous paint job so far!  Can't wait to see more.

[Drew T.]

Thanks guys!

[Drew T.]

Hi guys,

 

Time for an update now that painting is mostly complete.  After getting the red and white colors down, it was time to paint the black striping.  Although the Freedom Models kit includes the black stripes on the decal sheet, I wanted to paint them since I figured using the decals would require paint touch up anyway.  Plus, I always paint on markings whenever I can just to avoid decal silvering and hiding the decal film.  The black striping consists of a wide and narrow stripe on the red and white border.  To get the width of the stripes correct, I bought several widths of narrow masking tape from Amazon and found three widths that were correct.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Drew T.]

The photo below shows a strip of blue, white, and black tape.  The blue and black tapes were used to set the widths of the wide and narrow black stripes.  The blue tape is 3/16” wide and the black tape is 1/64” wide.  The white tape in between is used to set the space between the wide and narrow stipes and is 1/32” wide.  After this photo was taken, I added yet more tape on both sides of this tape “sandwich”, then went back and removed the blue and black tape.  I then sprayed Mr. Color GX-2 over the exposed areas where the blue and black tape was. 

 

 

 

After spraying, I removed all this tape, which left behind two evenly spaced black stripes.  All this masking is definitely lots of time and effort for a few minutes of painting, but the end result is very satisfying.  I did  have a few spots of the red paint peel off with all this masking, so I had to go back and touch up these areas.

 

 

 

 

One trick I have discovered spraying gloss lacquers is that top surface of the paint can be “melted” with a light coat of lacquer thinner.  For example, I usually get the orange peel texture when spraying gloss paint.  To fix this, I sanded the paint with 3000 grit sandpaper and followed up by spraying the surface with Mr. Color leveling thinner.  After a minute or two, the thinner evaporates and “melts” down the sanding scratches and leaves a smooth glossy finish.  It may take two or three applications to get the sanding scratches to completely smooth out.  It won’t leave a perfectly glass smooth surface that would be suitable for a car model, but I didn’t want to go overkill for an airplane that was shiny, but not necessarily buffed to a mirror finish.  I had to use caution when spraying thinner over the black stripes and the markings, as too much thinner will cause the colors to start to bleed into each other.  In this case, several light coats of thinner is better than one or two heavy coats.

 

After touching up a few places where the paint peeled from masking as well as painting the navigation lights, here’s the result. At this point, I just need to add a few decals, apply a wash to highlight details, and spray a gloss coat.  Then I’ll be ready for final assembly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Drew

 

 

[A-10 LOADER]

WOW, she looks fantastic Drew.

How did you mask off that curved area, on the bottom between the intakes, with the intakes in the way ??

Steve

[Geoff M]

Pain staking attention to masking and lining things up gives a great finish.  Looks amazing!

[ST0RM]

Dang Drew, what a journey. I went back to the beginning and looked again at everything you completed. Very impressive, capped off by the excellent paint work. 
-Jeff

[lgl007]

WOW, WOWO, WOWOWOWO.... that is an incredible paint job.  What an eye catching piece!  Looks awesome!

 

-Greg