Macchi C 202 Folgore - battle testing a pre-production model

[Rick Lowe]

No.  I just spent 4 days laying a floating floor in an 8m by 6m room (on top of my usual job) so i'm slightly fatigued.  Must be affecting my thinking.

That'll do it every time... 

[zenrat]

I'm slightly surprised i'm not laid up with a bad back after all that crawling around with a hammer, but give it time - another 5 rooms to do.
However, hardwood windows & doors to stain and oil before I tackle them.  Plus arcs & skirts in the Ballroom (as we are calling the big kitchen/dining/family room).
I stained a door today and one of my gloves split so I have a brown finger.  Looks like i've been sticking it someone dirty... 

[zenrat]

Masked the yellow and sprayed the blue today.

[Captain Canada]

Looking good ! We`re doing some work around the house as well. Painting and new trim etc. After sitting about for the last couple of months I can attest to aching muscles !

[zenrat]

The tricky bit is fitting in all the renovation around the modelling...

Today I painted the upper surfaces of the Folgore grey (02).
Not being sure whether I should have a hard or soft demarcation between the blue and the grey I consulted the interweb...
...to find each profile of Galland's Bf 109 shows it differently.
So I went for a hard line and brush painted the tops of the flying surfaces and the fuselage.

Followed by attempting mottles of the same colour on the blue fuselage sides with the airbrush.  I'm not really happy with these.  I think I had the paint too thin and the air pressure too high.  Not that they show up anyway as the blue and the grey are quite close in shade.

And then unmasking.  Some touch ups to do then clear then smoke ring decals.

[zenrat]

Decaled.

[NARSES2]

 

[Dizzyfugu]

Is that RLM 02 from above? Looks very light/pale to me? 
Interesting look, anyway, and the more your C.202 makes progress the more I wonder how close my DB601-powered C.200 will come? I also plan a yellow cowling, but a rather different paint scheme, rather Italian style (incl. nat. markings).

[Rick Lowe]

Looking good.

Are those transfers for the green blotches, or ink pen?


Cheers

[zenrat]

Thanks folks.
Dizz - that's Mr Color RLM 02.  The gloss makes it look lighter (by some mechanism I don't understand) but it's much more of a light grey than Vallejo RLM 02 which is more of a green.
As shown below.

Rick - the smoke rings are decals I made.  There is a technique involving drawing them on with watercolour pencils which I mean to try but haven't got round to yet
.

[Dizzyfugu]

Thank you for the color info. For RLM 02, it's really rather pale. But it's funny to see how broad the manufacturers' interpretations of this tone are.

[Rick Lowe]

Thanks, it's always interesting to see how different folk use different solutions.

Dizzy - yeah, the differences in interpretation of the same colour is amazing sometimes... (I always think back to Humbrol 66 Olive Drab as the prime example I know of)
you'd think the mixing people were colour-blind sometimes.

Cheers

[zenrat]

Depends where they get their initial colour sample from.  What did Vallejo use to decide that shade was RLM02?
A photo?  A paint chip?  A restored aircraft?  A pot of someone else's paint?  Tamiya mixing instructions?

What I do know is that even if you managed to find an unopened tin of genuine 1940 vintage RLM02 paint and used it to paint a model then you would still be told by someone it wasn't right because of scale effect, or modern undercoats or the different qualities of sunlight filtered through an atmosphere choked with coal smoke...

[Rick Lowe]

Or the numbers that came up on the dice on any given Tuesday...   

[zenrat]

Phase of the moon might come into it as well.

No pics today but I satin cleared it and started on all the little fiddley bits I leave until last to paint - undercarriage, prop, canopy etc.