Airfix 1/72 Me410a

[Andy T]

The canopy polished up reasonably well. Not perfect but good enough for me and the scale, so I masked it up (after breaking it for about the 5th time) and secured it in place. Fit wasn't the best but given how much I've faffed around that's probably down to me.



It wouldn't be one of my blogs without some bits on sticks, so here are a few things a painted yesterday. Landing gear, guns and props:



A few bits ready for primer:



And the aircraft itself primed:

[Tworrs]

A fine bit of airbrushing there Andy

[Andy T]

A fine bit of airbrushing there Andy

Thanks Garry, I've done a bit more since.

First off was the underside in RLM 76 over black & white preshading:



The a fair bit of masking before the grey:





Then there was even more masking before spraying the green. I don't have a picture of that as I got straight on with the next bit.

The instructions show a much more faded and mottled pattern on the sides than the bf110 I finished recently so I removed the masking as the white tack had produced a harder edge than I wanted, and freehanded the colours, blending down the fuselage sides a little, before adding the mottles in grey and green.

Paints were MRP and S M S lacquers, thinned with Mr Leveling Thinner:







It's now been gloss coated ready for the decals. There are a couple of black green bands for the horizontal stabiliser that come as decals but I may spray those. I should have done it before the gloss really, but I forgot!

[scottie3158]

Andy, I am in awe of your airbrush skills mate, that is a beautiful result so far.

[The Smythe Meister]

Not had much time for the site of late Andy,
Just caught up with this though mate... Superb stuff mate

[Nicko]

Looking lovely....

Nick

[Andy T]

Thank you all for the great comments and positive reactions, much appreciated.

The side mounted machine guns can be made to swivel up & down but I've fixed them in place as I'm not keen on moving features.

Also the chin part is just clicked into place for the moment. The fit is so good it doesn't need cement, meaning I can pop it off later to add the cannon.

[Andy T]

Decals have been applied.

The red dotted "no walk" ones were a bit taxing. Being so fine they wanted to break up into sections but I've wrestled them into shape as best as I can:

[Andy the Sheep]

WOW!

[Jim R]

This is looking superb Andy. Glad you were able to polish out the canopy issue. Neat masking too. Love that paint job. MRP is a great paint. Is that SMS paint very similar? I ask because that is what John sells in the shop and I always prefer to support my own where possible.

[adt70hk]

Coming on very very nicely Andy!!

[Andy T]

Thanks Andrea & Andrew!

This is looking superb Andy. Glad you were able to polish out the canopy issue. Neat masking too. Love that paint job. MRP is a great paint. Is that SMS paint very similar? I ask because that is what John sells in the shop and I always prefer to support my own where possible.

Thanks Jim.

Yes the S M S is very similar (note I have to space the letters or the forum gremlins convert it to a shop link lol)

It will spray straight from the bottle very nicely but I find it a tad thicker and more pigmented than MRP. My personal preference is for very thin paint, I even thin MRP a little most of the time, so do tend to add some Mr leveling thinner, especially when trying for semi opaque layers.

Certainly worth trying a couple I'd say. My only bugbear is that I haven't found a colour chart for it yet, so have to scroll through all the pages on John's shop to find the specific one I'm looking for.

[Andy T]

My only bugbear is that I haven't found a colour chart for it yet, so have to scroll through all the pages on John's shop to find the specific one I'm looking for.

Scratch that, I've finally found one! :smiling5:

[Jim R]

Thanks Andy. I didn't realise the forum changes what I wrote to the shop. In future I'll also write S M S. I'll give that paint a try sometime.

[Tim Marlow]

Scratch that, I've finally found one! :smiling5:

Just going to say, Frome model centre do a leaflet one….I’ve got it in my paint drawer