Kawasaki Ki-61 Ko 68 Sentai, among banana trees...
Komentarzy
SpanjaardI was going to ask how did you achieved that mirror like black base, but I see you already explained in detail. tou certainly invest a considerable amount of work, but the result speaks by itself, congratulations!
JohnAmazing NMF and added camo. Perfect weathering also (in my opinion). Definitely a used machine but not so much it obscures the beautiful paintwork.
Leszek Cader@ Spanjaard, Sebastian, John - I do much appreciate your feetback gentlmen. I have to admit I am pretty happy with the final results. A lot learned.
Album info
I have completed a Hasegawa kit, which proved to be of high quality with no major fitting issues. My intention was to experiment with achieving a natural metal finish (NMF) before moving on to more challenging projects.
The first step involved polishing the grey plastic to achieve a perfectly smooth, mirror-like surface. To accomplish this, I utilized abrasives ranging from 400 to 8000 grit, followed by Tamiya Polishing Compound in a Fine grade. In my opinion, this initial preparation is crucial when aiming for a flawless NMF. Simply touching the surface to check for smoothness can be deceptive; sometimes, despite feeling smooth to the touch, the surface may still exhibit semi-rough spots, akin to orange peel. To ensure adequacy, one should aim for a surface so smooth that printed letters can be clearly read in the reflection, resembling a mirror.
Next, I applied a primer layer using black Gunze GX2, thinned with Gunze Leveling Thinner at a ratio of approximately 30:70 paint to thinner. This resulted in an exceptionally smooth base for applying metallic paints. Painting with Gunze paints from the Mr. Color Super Metallic line was an absolute delight. Absolutely superb stuff. These paints effortlessly flow through the airbrush when thinned with a few drops of Mr. Color Rapid Thinner, yielding an extremely thin, shiny metallic layer. The painted surface can be touched almost immediately with bare fingers, and any fingerprints can be gently wiped away with a piece of cotton cloth without leaving any marks. Buffing the surface with a cotton cloth can enhance the metallic appearance, followed by the application of additional layers for further effect. I found that masking tape adhered well to the metallic layer without risk of peeling off, though for convenience, I first painted the red Hinomaru, orange parts of the leading edge of the wing, and blue-white squadron marks before applying the metallic paint.
To protect the metallic paint, I applied a highly thinned layer of Mr. Color GX100 gloss super clear varnish because, I had discovered that metallic layer unexpectedly reacts with enamel wash when applied directly, which was a unpleasant suprise.
The most challenging aspect of the project was painting the green snake like camouflage. It required extensive testing on a mule kit to determine the optimal paint thinner ratios, air pressure, and airbrush trigger control. After several evenings of experimentation, I finally achieved satisfactory results with the intricate green pattern, though it IMHO remains far from perfect. Nonetheless, considering my level of expertise with an airbrush, I am quite pleased with the final outcome.
Lastly, weathering was accomplished using oils from AMMO Mig and Tamiya weathering sets.
I wanted to apply a different kind of camo than commonly seen on websites by other modelers, which was pretty challenging, and here are the results. Thank you.
