Global Scale Modeller

I got myself a super-trivial 30-part aircraft, for surface brush-paint practice. I've tried painting the right side without primer, and the rest with primer, to get an understanding of the difference, and it is very obvious the primer makes it much easier for the paint to stick.

I've also experimented with and without dilution, and a dilution of 2:1 seems to generate the best result for the color I'm testing with (matte coal black, interior green, aluminium and silver). Although not properly visible on the images, the silver actually turns out quite well, despite I'm brush painting it. Next up is to actually gluing the stuff together, painting three streaks of yellow and then gloss varnish. I won't finish off with matte varnish, since the plane is shiny alu and silver.

The T-20 itself is the trainer version of the fighter/bomber FB-11. A total of 60 planes was built of the T-20, and another 800 of the other versions of the Sea Fury.

So, the initial paintjob turned out quite ok after assembling the fuselage. Especially considering I've brushed it, and it's the first time I make a metal finish this large. Three layers of silver coating. Of course, a different angle shows the shadows cast by uneven application much more, although it appears smoother in real life. The left side has a layer of primer beneath, which the right side doesn't. I can easily spot the difference, since the right side is kind of speckled.

Right, the yellow stripes also in place. I lost count of the number of layers i did. Most likely something like 6 or 7 very, very thin layers. But it paid off; their surface became absolutely perfect (by my standards, at least, which means no brush-strokes, lumps, bubbles or dust particles)! There were some bleeding next to the panel-lines and at the end of some masking tape, though, but nothing that a little touch-up can't fix.

Cracking job mate

Touch-up is done, and all parts are now in place. I must admit, I'm quite satisfied with how the metallic turned out, especially since I've painted the aircraft using brushes rather than air-brush. Sure, there are some flaws that isn't visible on these pictures. But anyway.
Up next: Gloss varnish. That's where I've failed on my previous attempts, but I've been better at painting, so - hopefully - it'll turn out acceptable.

And now it's completed!
Lessons learned:

• Priming is a good thing - always do that!
• Read the instructions! Again and again! How hard can it be for an engineer? I noticed I had forgotten to mount three exterior parts just as I was about to put on the decals. Worse though, I missed two rather crucial things making fitting the tanks and underside light strobes a pain in the ***. But a little improvisation helped out. It got good enough.

All in all, I'm more than satisfied, since I got to practice brush-painting, which was the sole purpose of building this model.

Lovely looking seafury

For a brush job that is a super finish.

Nice build. Your skills really are improving

Thanks everyone!