SPA Modeler

Beautiful finish on the black.

Nice! Now the best part of your builds, the painting!!

Looks great!

Thanks guys! On top of the black base, I started to spray Alclad on the bottom. For the primary color, I used Polished Aluminum, which is one of their "High Shine" finishes. The stuff dries so fast that repeated spraying causes a fine dust or even spider-webbing to appear on the surface of the model. This can be brushed off afterwards.


I used a few different Alclad shades such as White Aluminum, Dark Aluminum and Stainless Steel to highlight separate panels. I may add more.




The hinomaru and aileron masks are removed at this point. There is a slight ridge of black and metallic paint around the hinomarus that needs to be carefully knocked down as much as possible without marring the surrounding metallic paint. There are also some small black paint leaks that crept in under the mask.



Right now the metal finish is very reflective. This is going to get knocked down considerably when I apply the clear coats. Here are the stabilizers with a clear coat to show the change.

This is a very very impressive piece of work. The Tony is the best looking Japanese AC ever, IMO. This is a true masterpiece. Love it.

Gorgeous bare metal look!!!

Thanks guys! I've masked and painted several more panels just to break up the metal areas. I've also given the bottom a thin coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss to protect the finish from future work including masking off the wheel well and painting them. The finish is a LOT less reflective than it was before, which is a good thing on this particular build. But for those that want to preserve that highly reflective Alclad sheen, don't put an clear coat over it! I may tone back the two darker panels on the wings.

Masking over Model Master Metalizer was always a concern. What do you use to mask Alclad?

Mostly Post-its but the area where I put Tamiya tape down didn't seem to affect the Alclad too much. But as insurance, I laid down a coat of clear over the Alclad to protect it. It cut down on the shine too, which is what I wanted.

Using a scan of the wing bottom, I made custom masks for the wheel openings and cut them from Tamiya mask sheets. The wheel wells were sprayed with a flat coat because the Alclad is very smooth and hairspray tends to bead on glossy surfaces. The flat coat will hold the hairspray better.


After hairspray was applied, I sprayed the interior color which is a 50:50 mixture of Tamiya and Mr Hobby Aqueous IJA Greens.


About an hour later, I rubbed a stiff-bristled paint brush dipped in water over the green to create the chipping effect. I'll let this dry and spray it with a clear to seal the work and prepare it for the next weathering step.



While the wheel wells dry out, I can flip the bird over and work on the topside. The clear part frames have been sprayed with black. This is to create opacity and prevent light from shining through the canopy frames.


I'm going to do some hairspray chipping up top but only in a limited area. This area was sprayed with Tamiya AS-12 Silver decanted into an airbrush.

Love the work. The hairspray method works so well, so much control. Splendid work. I have several 32nd kits but I need to slow my roll when working on bigger stuff to get better results. Well done.