Part I | Part II | Part III | PART IV | Part V
Finally!
After first starting this kit waaaay back at the start of November, three months later, it’s finally ready for paint. And with the wife and kids out of town for the weekend, I decided to buckle down and get it done in hopes of just maybe having this build wrapped in time for ModelFiesta on February 16th.
Primer
To my mind, the best primer is still a tossup between Model Master gray enamel primer (bottle not rattlecan) and Mr. Surfacer 1200. Of course, enamel requires more curing time, and with a weekend to work in, I wanted to move fast. So Mr. Surfacer it was, smoothed down nicely by high-grit polishing sandpaper and micromesh.
Are You Yeller?
Next came the various stripes. C9*I was festooned with a yellow tail band, yellow wing bands, and yellow wingtips. So, counterintuitively, I started with Gunze C2 Black.
This made a very nice base for a haphazard white that would underpin the yellow. I used my go-to white, Gunze C69 Offwhite. The stuff sprays beautifully and isn’t quite as vibrant as other whites.
This was topped with some Gunze Yellow. Sure it looks kinda patchy here, but that’s intentional.
The reason is simple. If you look at just one color, your eyes are fairly sensitive to micro changes in contrast. But when you add additional colors around it – like olive drab – and break the surface up with markings and whatnot, your eyes lose that sensitivity, so even a really patchy yellow looks way more cohesive at the end of the painting. You’ll see!
After giving the yellow a night to cure, I masked it off with Tamiya tape. 10mm for the tail band, and 15-ish millimeters for the wing bands.
Shading
Then, lacking my go-to Gunze Black (I’d run out), I opted for the darkest gray I had on hand, Gunze Engine Gray, and used some Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black to pre-shade panel and rivet lines.
Next I turned to RLM 70 Black Green and RAF Dark Green to add some streak-shading and disrupt things. This was done with my Grex Genesis XN by streaking the airbrush close to the surface in rapid sweeps.
After the shading I tackled the underside with Gunze Neutral Gray.
And then moved on to the upper surfaces, which were sprayed with Gunze C12 Olive Drab.
As mentioned above, the addition of multiple colors really crushes down the local contrast of each one…those yellows don’t look anywhere near as patchy with the olive drab flanking to either side (nor does the olive drab look as patchy…).
And that, as they say, is that for the main painting of this big Jug. But the airbrush isn’t done yet. In the next section, I’ll be using paint masks to tackle the major markings of C9*I.
Doogs Models 
Nice approach. Really like the way you get that paintjob explained to us readers!
Keep it going Doogs.
Thanks for the painting tips. Go info that always keeps me coming back!
Check that…… “Good” info not “go”
Doogs, your 1/32 P-47 saga is good fun to watch. Thanks for sharing.
I won the Hase P-47 from your first giveaway and ordered some resin bits from MasterCasters in UK. The fix for the cowl is to insert .030″ shims on both sides. I know… so terrible. But that seems to resolve the worst of it and the rest of the kit seems ok (besides a few sink marks to fill). Interesting the Trumpy is giving you fits as well. Any chance Tamiya might make a 1/32 P-47 to go with their Spit and Mustang? We can only hope!
I’m curious why you laid down black, then white, then yellow… can you explain that?
One more question… how did you make the jump from acrylics to Gunze lacquer based paints? I ask because i still have a lot of acrylic paints and hard to see how to transition.
Thanks for a great blog!
Andy
I REALLY hope Tamiya does a 1/32 Jug. Their 1/48 kits are still the best Jugs on the market in any scale. And, if they do a Corsair next as is rumored, they’ll already have a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 to play with, so it’s a possibility. The Jug is also a super-popular subject (moreso than the Corsair I believe), so it would certainly sell.
As for the black/white/yellow…I’ve found I HATE laying down colors over gray because if forces you to over-cover. If you don’t, whatever’s underneath looks like poor paint coverage. Whereas, if you use black, it looks worn. I like it under the white (and thus the yellow) for that reason…
As for transitioning…I haven’t used acrylics for some time. Well, Tamiya acrylics, but they’re rather different from Vallejo/Lifecolor/MM Acryl, and I’ve been thinning them with Gunze lacquer thinner for a while now. I still bounce back and forth between the two…
I hope Tamiya takes a new approach to the Corsair’s wings. The 1/48 kit with wings down is a bit weak. But yeah, with the Pratt & Whitney why wouldn’t they? Just like the Merlin on the Spit and Mustang.
Thanks for the explanation on the yellow. Yellow is usually a PITA to get good coverage on without white under it. So the black is acting as the pre-shading and worn look to the white essentially?
I am all over the place with acrylics. Vallejo for brush painting and armor (Vallejo Air). Tamiya acrylics cut with Mr Leveling Thinner for some things. LifeColor with their thinner and some Vallejo dry retardant… had pretty good luck with that last one and really like LC’s colors.
The Gunze stuff really intrigues me. I may grab a few bottles of basic colors and give them a try. I already have the thinner…
Thanks again
Andy
So, it looks like what you’re doing is preshading the panel lines randomly, right? They are random in opacity and whether or not they’re shaded at all. They look cool right before you put the olive drab on. Third picture from the bottom. I guess you bring them back out later w/washes.