Moments of Zen

[Captain Canada]

Is that 262 ever looking good. Looking forward to seeing the other jets, and hopefully you can make time for the Bearcat as well !

[DogfighterZen]

Thank you, Captain!  The bearcat is one of my favorite prop planes and i'd like to do a good job on this kit. I've even bought the Airwaves cockpit photo-etch set to use on it... which, if i build now, will be my first PE set ever. The only other PE parts i've used were on the F-16W's nozzle from the aires F-22 Raptor nozzle set, and it was just one big bit, no microscopic stuff like for the cockpit. It will be amazing if i get to finish it without loosing or breaking some of the bits.
Well, time to go to work till 1p.m., then lunch with the family and after that, maybe a couple of hours free for modeling!

[DogfighterZen]

Well, as always, the weekend was mostly spent outdoors so i only had an hour to paint the canopy and spray some matte varnish on the 262...
I'm calling it ready for delivery to it's rightful owner.









I can say i'm happy with the way the paint job turned out on this model, i'm feeling much more comfortable with my airbrushing skills now.
Guess i'll have to buy another one of these kits, after this, i'd really like to build a new one.
Moving on, my mind is now free to deal with the last 2 models of the ones i've built during my first months back in the hobby, in 2013. These are also the last 2 "in-flight" mode, from now on, i think i'll build most of my models with the gear down.



I'm glad i decided to hold these builds back then as i was starting to loose interest in modeling because i wasn't happy with the results i was getting. These builds served their purpose very well, as i wanted to learn new stuff and try out more colors and mixes, and i did it without ruining any of the great models i've been buying since my comeback.
Now, let's see if time will let me finish these 2 in time to enter the In The Navy GB with the Bearcat.

[NARSES2]

262 looks very good

[DogfighterZen]

262 looks very good

Thank you!  I'll definitely have to buy another one of these kits... and a proper canopy for it.

Today i got back to work on the F-15CSE, painted a few bits and gave it a gloss coat for the decals. I've got an idea of the markings but i don't have the tail markings i'd need to do it... i'll have to consider the options, which are:

1- Print the tail markings i need
2- Use markings from another squadron cause nobody's gonna give a damn...
3- Use markings from another squadron cause i don't give a damn...

The "i don't give a damn" part is just cause this is supposed to be just a relaxing bit, to clear another one of my old builds, before moving on to more serious builds, so i don't wanna loose too much time with it.



I also gave the Airfix F-86E a few touch-ups, needs to be masked for the rest of the scheme... And, as always, i'd mixed a bit more paint than i needed to do it, so i dug out the Italeri SU-27 that was already sentenced to be chopped up as a parts donor to, once again, serve as a guinea-pig for my airbrushing tests.
Free-handed camo test to train my trigger finger...





I was trying something like the UAE F-16E's camouflage... i think it's a good way to use the left-over paint, at least i don't just throw it away, right?

[DogfighterZen]

So, the F-15CSE is finished, next up, the Airfix F-86E, as said before, it will be a PoAF bird but being an E version, it's something they never had, so it's a complete whif...
The scheme will be different from the ones used on PoAF Sabres, so, the next step is masking.

Zen

[The Chaos]

Good work on the 262 

[DogfighterZen]

Good work on the 262 

Thanks, mate!

[DogfighterZen]

Ok, the Sabre has been painted...



Did the normal PoAF Sabre blue bits in X-4, but also painted the anti-glare panel, along with the canopy with XF-69 nato black, influenced by the Yugoslav NMF Sabres.



I still have to paint the NMF panels of the gun ports and exhaust area, after that, a good gloss coat before decals.

[Captain Canada]

Looks great ! What an awesome trio of aeroplanes you're working on right now.

[DogfighterZen]

Thank you very much, Captain!   
No progress in the last couple of days, too tired from and busy with real life events...
Maybe today after lunch...

[DogfighterZen]

I shouldn't have gone near the bench today... First, i scratched the fuselage and wings in several places so i had to begin the session with correcting that, which obviously ruined most of the pre-shading that i'd done and was very happy with how it came out after the XF-24 layer...
After that, masking the exhaust and gun ports, sweaty hands were beginning to take their toll and almost ruined it again, but decided to get of my *ss and go get a pair of medical gloves. Still, i was a bit scared of chipping the paint again so i didn't press the masking tape well enough and this was the result...





Can i ruin a paint job or what?

The only thing that i see as a bit ironic, the hardest bit of masking with two colors, XF-10 Gun metal and XF-11 Silver, the exhaust area, came out ok...





This was a very frustrating session... Now i have to redo the anti-glare panel and touch up a few blue and grey bits...  Still, the fact that temperatures rose up to 36ºC at the time during which i was down in the Zencave, could help to explain the sweaty hands and the masking tape might have suffered from that too...

[zenrat]

We all have good days where every thing we touch fits perfectly and our hands are steady enough to paint 1/144 stencilling freehand but somedays the mojo just isn't there.  The trick is learning to spot those days before one destroys too much and then having the sense to walk away until later.

[NARSES2]

The trick is learning to spot those days before one destroys too much and then having the sense to walk away until later.

Something I still haven't really mastered, but I will

[DogfighterZen]

We all have good days where every thing we touch fits perfectly and our hands are steady enough to paint 1/144 stencilling freehand but somedays the mojo just isn't there.  The trick is learning to spot those days before one destroys too much and then having the sense to walk away until later.

The trick is learning to spot those days before one destroys too much and then having the sense to walk away until later.

Something I still haven't really mastered, but I will

You're obviously right, guys, guess i'll have to try to learn that too... In retrospect, i probably should've walked away when the tape just didn't want to stick properly for more than a few seconds... another reason was the heat, because the paint was drying up at the tip of the airbrush's nozzle and when it came out, sometimes it would be in big blobs that were blown underneath the tape and through the panel lines. Today things went much smoother as i came down to the cave much later and the temperature was around 27ºC with the fan on max power. The paint didn't dry up on the nozzle and even with the tape still refusing to stick, it came out better.





Still needs a few bits of XF-24 but i will have to use it again on other spots of the fuselage so it will be done later...  it'll get there. Guess i'll have to do all my airbrushing after 8pm, at least, till the heat goes away... 
I've also been thinking that, the pre-shading's gone, so why not try post-shading the panel lines?