Vought Kingfisher 1/72

Pulling of the Montex masks. I stopped construction to score these and a Peewit. Tried both, and went w Montex. They are a bit stretchy, but still required a bit of trimming.

A little weathering and my first use of Mr Finisher 500 on the wing seam that was just too big after all of the filling, sanding, painting. Seems the color is almost exact so that worked well... I do like this stuff I can see why folks rave about it.

Showing the float details and checking against the box art.

Poor man's jig, cardboard and putty. I couldn't figure out another way to get the 4 parts of the struts aligned to both the float and the holes in the wing (some of the very few holes provided in this kit btw).

Assembled float, or is it? Seems the 2nd one was assembled in the jig exactly the same. Whoops! Pulled it apart and started again in the jig after rotating it. That worked.

Totally primed (Tamiya light grey rattle can).

Montex masks on the canopy

Getting started with the Montex masks

However, the main canopy... well I just couldn't stand this - hence ordering the Montex and Peewit masks.

Painted the rudder white, then masked to paint the red (the new Revell box paint - acrylic)
2nd try, ok, at least I have the right number and sizes of stripes. There's hope for me yet!

First attempt to mask on my own (Tamiya). This one turned out ok.

I thought this looked cool when I pulled the mask with the red paint.

Prepping the tail for painting the stripes

My first hamfisted attempt ... I can't even count!

Cutting board used to pull scale from the horrible bars decal that the kit provided.

Without a jig I use my cutting matt's lines to align. Cheap and mostly effective if you are patient.

An example of the molding detail (not)

I never could get the color right on the inside (I have MM Zinc Chromate on order but thought I could roll my own). Also had fits with the few fiddly interior pieces. In hindsight, I should have painted the inside of the canopy black and skipped all this headache!