Hobby Boss Easy Assembly 1/48 P-47D - Work in progress

[Nikola]

Hi gents,

While the clear coat on my first NMF build (HB Easy Assembly P-51D) is left to dry for an infinite amount of time, I decided to try my second NMF build, this time using buffable Mr. Metal Color and I think that I have found a winner for now.

I primed it with black Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 (no buffing), marbled it with Tamiya Nato Black and coated it with Mr. Metal Color Aluminium. Doesn't need thinning, sprays kind of dusty but once polished with a cotton bud, paper tissue or cloth it gives a really nice finish. It takes buffing very well since it was designed for it I guess. It dries in 10 min and it is ready for buffing.

Apparently I shouldn't even dream about masking it before protecting it first, so I will probably go with Tamiya X22 with levelling thinner. This needs more research.

Thanks for looking.

Best,
Nikola


Unbuffed Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500:



Marbling with Tamiya Nato Black using Uschi Trinity Splatter:





Buffed Mr. Metal Color Aluminium:

[digger303]

[BigWall]

That looks great!

[Nikola]

This is after second buffing and some play with the masking tape ripping off some paint.
As for the clear coat which will be next, I tested Tamiya X22, Alclad Aqua Gloss and Mr Color GX UV cut gloss and decided to go with Alclad since there is the least alteration to the metal sheen.
Wish me luck.

[digger303]

[Nikola]

Hi gents,

This is after Alclad Aqua Gloss coat. It looks like it only slightly killed the sheen and depth. Not bad.

Best,
Nikola

[BigWall]

It's looking very nice. I'm looking forward to watching it progress.

[digger303]

Nice smooth metallic finish with a nice mottling effect...great work.

[Nikola]

Well gents,

This is going to be harder than I thought. I should have expected a catch since it was just going too smoothly.
After masking I had to remove the entire Aqua Gloss coat since it just lifted off when I removed the masks.
Mr Metal Color is very durable when buffing, but the clear coat just doesn't hold that strong to make masking possible without problems (except in few places which can still be seen on the model).

Maybe Mr Metal Color should be used on areas which don't require further masking, painting, etc...

I buffed it again, as much as I could, and will now have to find another solution for protecting and masking. The saga continues...

Best,
Nikola

[Nikola]

Nice smooth metallic finish with a nice mottling effect...great work.

Thanks Digger. But the battle continues, haha.

Best,
Nikola

[digger303]

I always thought Alcad Aqua Gloss was as tough as old boots so I'm surprized your having a tussle with it. I wonder whats caused it ?

[BigWall]

Sorry you're having issues but it sounds like you'll be able to recover from it.

[Tomcat64]

That's just awesome metal work, but really strange about the aqua gloss lifting off the top of it.

Looking forward to seeing how you sort this one out.

[Nikola]

Well gents,

First successful masking and color. I didn't use any clear coat this time, just buffed the hell out of it until there was almost no pigment to be seen on the cloth.

Yesterday I did the black tail stripes and white base for the invasion stripes. I am afraid to mask the red and white now but I guess I will just have to make a leap of faith.

Will test it on a plastic spoon which I prepared for that.

Masking was not perfect so I will have to do some touch-ups.


Best,
Nikola

[Parker]

[Parker]

That red looks spectacular!

[ForeverPlasticKits]

The aluminum paint makes me think of an used P-47 but with the red marking it' looks very good!

[BigWall]

It's looking great! Good luck with the masking!

[digger303]

[Nikola]

Operation successful, the patient lives.
The gloss white invasion stripes survived masking.

Next are the decals and then OD anti glare because of the tricky masking around nose art text (pic at the bottom). I will have to protect the decals before masking somehow or think of another approach.

[Nikola]

That red looks spectacular!

Thanks Parker. Glad you like it.
I had to gather my will power to mask it the second time after I had that hickup with Aqua Gloss.

Best,
Nikola

[Nikola]

The aluminum paint makes me think of an used P-47 but with the red marking it' looks very good!

Thanks FPK. Appreciated.

Best,
Nikola

[Nikola]

It's looking great! Good luck with the masking!

Thanks BigWall! Glad you like it.

Best,
Nikola

[Nikola]

That's just awesome metal work, but really strange about the aqua gloss lifting off the top of it.

Looking forward to seeing how you sort this one out.

Thanks Tomcat. Appreciated.

Yeah, I have no idea about what happened there. I will do it again on some scrap plastic just to try and figure out.

Best,
Nikola

[Nikola]

Hi guys,

A little update after a while.

Main decals are on. The decals are fine and tough, and conform to the panel lines and shapes without the need for a decal softener which is very nice, although the white on them is somewhat translucent.

However, the painting guide and the decal/stencil scheme is terrible so for the stencils I will have to take a look at one of Tamiya's 1/48 P47 kits and try to work from there.

Some of the decal sizes on the drawings do not correspond to the actual decal sizes at all, haha.

Next are the stencils and then a clear coat for protection. After that the OD anti glare and so on...


Best,
Nikola

[ForeverPlasticKits]

That's a decoration, very colored! Nice job!

[digger303]

It is brightly colored, but it carries it well. A lovely result looming I feel.

[Kevthemodeller]

Coming along very nicely

[Nikola]

Hi guys,

Just a little report on the effect of Mr. Color GX-100 on Mr. Metal Color metalizer. It looks like it only slightly killed the sheen, but nothing too bad.

However, in one area (just left of the rear part of the canopy) it slightly reacted with one of the leftovers of Aquagloss which I couldn't completely remove. Nothing serious and should be easy to touch up especially since OD anti-glare will cover half of it.


Before GX-100:








After GX-100:

[Nikola]

Well, this NMF saga unexpectedly turned into a ''what if'' scenario. The big bird has been captured!
I didn't have a heart to crash her so I landed her safely into to the enemy territory.
The new markings are leftovers from Airfix's Stuka and are BS of course.

One of the many lessons which I have learned throughout this NMF journey is DO NOT MASK MR. METAL COLOR if you have any other coats or decals on it! It pulled off the decals and two coats of clear coat just like that. I weakened the stickiness of the masking tape but still no mercy.

Mr. Metal Color is great paint but just does't have the proper grip to hold masking well, probably due to it's ''powederness'' which makes it buffable I guess.

So - spray it last since it has great coverage, buff it, decals, protect and weather. Did I mention not to mask it?

Also, due to this ''powederness'' it is very hard to control hairspray chipping method.


Anyway, on to the photos (17 of them, sorry. It's very hard to get proper angles on NMF) (still got to finish weathering properly though):

[BigWall]

It's looking really great! Would you recommend masking over the Mr. Metal Color?

[Nikola]

It's looking really great! Would you recommend masking over the Mr. Metal Color?

Thanks Joe. Appreciated.

Kidding aside, if buffed really well you can actually mask directly over Mr. Metal Color. Also, even if a clear coat is on top, the peeling by the masking tape gives a very interesting variation effect but it is very unpredictable so a little risky.

I am really confused about this whole thing, due to inexperience of course, but the Tamiya red held on without a problem (although it did have a few more coats of clear) except where the decal was. Tamiya OD chipped slightly in some places along the edge when I removed the mask. Alclad Aquagloss was a disaster when masked as I have mentioned in one of the earlier posts.



I guess I will have to do some thorough tests in the future.
Also I will test AK Extreme Metal and some car paints which some fellow modelers recommended.


Best,
Nikola

[Tomcat64]

Such a shame this didn't behave and go the way you planned but that's a great way of recovering the situation without heading for the bin

[Nikola]

Such a shame this didn't behave and go the way you planned but that's a great way of recovering the situation without heading for the bin

Thanks Neil.
In BJJ we say that you either win or you learn! I learned a lot this time, mostly about what not to do!

Best,
Nikola

[Kevthemodeller]

Sadly you've learnt they way I did some time ago with clear coat and metal finishes

I now use only Aqua clear, it pretty much retains all the finish but only if I know I'm going to have to handle it. I use mainly Alclad 2 these days, it's very tough once dried, never had any issues with masking or decals etc. I've had good results with AK Extreme, but find they differ in how they apply from one colour to the next, I had to do a fair bit of testing. Alcald 2 just works

What I did with my metal finishes I'd use GX100 on was to polish the clear, in my case it brought back a fair bit of the shine. Like Nikola, I found polishing Mr Metal Colour after it had dried for a good few hours, makes it quite robust.

[Nikola]

Sadly you've learnt they way I did some time ago with clear coat and metal finishes

I now use only Aqua clear, it pretty much retains all the finish but only if I know I'm going to have to handle it. I use mainly Alclad 2 these days, it's very tough once dried, never had any issues with masking or decals etc. I've had good results with AK Extreme, but find they differ in how they apply from one colour to the next, I had to do a fair bit of testing. Alcald 2 just works

What I did with my metal finishes I'd use GX100 on was to polish the clear, in my case it brought back a fair bit of the shine. Like Nikola, I found polishing Mr Metal Colour after it had dried for a good few hours, makes it quite robust.

Thanks for the input Kev! Appreciated.
What do you use to polish the clear?

Best,
Nikola

[Kevthemodeller]

I used various wet/dry 800, 1000, 1200, if you've got a few rougher patches start with 600, possibly even 400. You don't need any real pressure let the paper/pad do the work, use plenty of water and move/cover the whole surface, don't keep the pad in one area.

I then finished off with the Tamiya range of polishes course, medium & finish. It's possible you may only need the polish, just start at the finest polish/pad and work backwards until you start to see things flattening, then go back the other way getting finer.

Just take your time and remember no pressure.