Here's my ancient 1/48th scale P-51B I started and yes even painted when I was stationed in Hawaii back in 1990 or so. I had to double check with the calculator but yeah, like 33 years ago. The decals were falling off because they had never been oversprayed. Since I had already replaced the stars and bars I went ahead and scraped off the letters on the side.





I had painted it with an airbrush back then including some shading on the tops of the wings and a slightly lighter shade of olive drab on top of the fuselage and parts of the wings to show fading from sunlight.



Some Super Scale decals to finish this off properly. You are correct, I'm not doing a whiff.



The decals I choose required a white strip on the wings, tail and horizontal stabilizers. So I started masking with Frog tape, which I have heard is nearly as good as Tamiya tape, and some green masking tape.



No, its not a whiff racing scheme. This is the second time I've tried this Frog tape and I've had the same problem of paint running under it. The whole point of Frog tape is not to have paint run under it! And that's with acrylics and enamels. I'm going to leave the Frog tape to painting rooms. Plus it doesn't stick very well. So this was the result



Just a little clean up to do. At least that long ago layer of glosscoat keeps me from scrapping off paint right away.



Here's another one that I was going to do in natural metal. The wings on the P-51 had that aluminum dope on them so it will have to be a little different than the fuselage.



I tried painting it with a silver paint pen but gave up on that. I hope that plays well with whatever I use for NMF. At least I still have all the parts to finish the assemply of it. I know I said I wanted to finish projects that have been laying around but this is stretching it. We'll see what happens next.

Looking good 

Nice. NMF ridgeback Mustangs look suite unusual. 

If I read correctly the SuperScale "Super accuracy" envelope label, it says "Muatang" ....  

It's only 33 yrs since you started it ?? ..oh well least your getting back to it at last   
At some point I gotta get a Mustang..a D model probably..easiest to get and the Tamiya ones ain't that much for what you get.

For a nice BMF if you do not airbrush, get it ready for paint and figure out a way to handle it so that you can spray paint it.

Here's the trick - Go to an automotive shop and ask for a chrome or shiny aluminum touch up spray paint.

Shake well then let it sit in a bucket of warm to hot water for 10 minutes... This makes the paint much finer and up's the pressure in the can a bit.

Spray in a really well ventilated area.

Quote from: Lord_Voyager on April 04, 2023, 12:36:05 PMFor a nice BMF if you do not airbrush, get it ready for paint and figure out a way to handle it so that you can spray paint it.

Here's the trick - Go to an automotive shop and ask for a chrome or shiny aluminum touch up spray paint.

Shake well then let it sit in a bucket of warm to hot water for 10 minutes... This makes the paint much finer and up's the pressure in the can a bit.

Spray in a really well ventilated area.

Interesting idea!

You can do the same thing by just leaving the can in the sun for an hour..it can't get to hot then and explode..that's what I do and not just for models.

Automotive spray paints are very good for metallic finishes, in the UK we tend to use Halfords, but be very careful when it comes to putting them anywhere near a heat source. By all means use warm water, but I'd avoid hot water and direct sunlight.

I give mine a good old shake, leave in warm water for 10/15 minutes, then shake again and it's ready to use. As far as the water temperature goes, as long as I'm comfortable putting my hand in the bowl then fine, any hotter, then no.

I might be being ultra cautious, but better safe than sorry.

Chris I use automotive paint by VHT and Dupli-color  for my primer and also colour coats on small repair jobs on car.. tractors and so on and I've left paint out in the sun here for hours.fact i did it only a few days ago when i sprayed the wheels on my car and that was Rust-oleum gloss black...the biggest problem is burning my damn hands on the can and our sun is bloody intense here ..working on cars outside in summer ya gotta make sure your tools are in shade or you will burn your hands..trust me I know this first hand ..well it was my right hand but still   
I've gotta take a pic of a Tamiya spray can I did put in water which was a little to hot and I did over pressure the can but man did it spray nice .

Quote from: Wardukw-NZ on April 05, 2023, 02:38:59 AMChris I use automotive paint by VHT for my primer and also colour coats on small repair jobs on car.. tractors and so on and I've left paint out in the sun here for hours..

I'm almost certainly far to cautious, but I've heard some horror stories.

Quote from: NARSES2 on April 05, 2023, 02:40:46 AMI'm almost certainly far to cautious, but I've heard some horror stories.

Yeah, one from me maybe 12-15 yrs ago!   

I had a few cans of Halfords sprays up in The Loft during a very hot summer in 2000-something, and one afternoon the late Mts_PR19 said 'What was that?' She'd heard a loud 'POP!' from above but I hadn't got my hearing aids in at the time. I went up to have a look and one entire end of The Loft was silver! 

One of the cans had blown up, the plastic cap was long gone and the valve in the top had been pushed up through the top cap of the can, spraying the paint all over everywhere! The other cans I had up there were hot to the touch and I got all of them back down pretty fast and dunked them in the bath!

Aerosol cans thrown in a fire tend to fail at the valve as its plastic parts melt.
However, should one stand them upright, propped up against a length of channel for example, with a fire built underneath the can then it is more likely that the base of the can will fail launching it upwards.
Don't ask me how I know this.

I heat rattle cans by either standing them in a couple of inches off freshly boiled water in a bucket or in front of a small fan heater.

Quote from: NARSES2 on April 05, 2023, 02:40:46 AM

Quote from: Wardukw-NZ on April 05, 2023, 02:38:59 AMChris I use automotive paint by VHT for my primer and also colour coats on small repair jobs on car.. tractors and so on and I've left paint out in the sun here for hours..

I'm almost certainly far to cautious, but I've heard some horror stories.

Nothing wrong mate with being cautious when it comes to anything which can explode.
Heard and seen a few horror stories of cans going bang..it's sad and kinda funny when ya hear of ppl leaving them in there cars and the paint goes bang .
Kits story is not that uncommon..you can develop a massive amount of heat in the loft of a house during summer..ppl have died after being trapped in lofts during super hot days ..how they got trapped I have no idea ..ladder fell away and their to scared to jump..no idea really.

Quote from: Wardukw-NZ on April 05, 2023, 02:12:17 PM

Quote from: NARSES2 on April 05, 2023, 02:40:46 AM

Quote from: Wardukw-NZ on April 05, 2023, 02:38:59 AMChris I use automotive paint by VHT for my primer and also colour coats on small repair jobs on car.. tractors and so on and I've left paint out in the sun here for hours..

I'm almost certainly far to cautious, but I've heard some horror stories.

Nothing wrong mate with being cautious when it comes to anything which can explode.
Heard and seen a few horror stories of cans going bang..it's sad and kinda funny when ya hear of ppl leaving them in there cars and the paint goes bang .
Kits story is not that uncommon..you can develop a massive amount of heat in the loft of a house during summer..ppl have died after being trapped in lofts during super hot days ..how they got trapped I have no idea ..ladder fell away and their to scared to jump..no idea really.

More likely they didn't realize how bad it was and passed out before getting out. It can sneak up on you.

I've had cans of orange marking paint start spraying in the back of the work truck but that was after being punctured by a tool. If you shoot a spray can with a BB gun they spin around as the liquid sprays out. Good fun if you are a teenager! White or yellow paint looks cool!

All I would have to do is run some hot tap water into a bowl to heat a can. Or water heater is on scald. It's my wife's idea not mine. We've argued about.