Friday 18 November 2011

MIG-21 - part 2

More MIG-21 'Fishbed' progress to report.  The kits went together as well as I'd hoped, with only a tiny amount of filler being required to meet my (pretty low) standards.  I need two MIGs 'in flight', so decided to build the third with it's wheels down.
Following a previous disaster with trying to paint a 'bare metal' finish, Rich - he of westmodelsandfigures suggested I try the Revell (acrylic) silver.  A pot was duly sourced and I gave it a try on the MIG-21s.  Despite a decent undercoat of matt white (applied by spray can), the models each required three and a half coats of silver to produce an acceptable finish.  Is this normal?
Never a fan of trying to paint on framing and the like on transparent parts, I decided to paint over the canopies as I do on 1/144 and smaller aircraft models.  This has the added benefit of saving me having to paint pilots or internal detail.  These are wargames toys after all.
Coming soon - the finished models.
The three 1/100 scale 'Fishbeds' and some smaller chums.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always do metallics over as black undercoat- You can get fairly cheap silver sprays from Wilkinsons too that I use- that way you don't get the brush marks. I can upload some photos if it'll help?

Anonymous said...

I used a cheap silver spray paint I got from Wilkinsons over a black undercoat and had no trouble. personally I'd just spray over yours as they are. Can put up pics of mine if it would help?

Tim Gow said...

Spprojectblog
Thanks - I might try the spray approach on the next 'metal' aircraft I do. I hadn't even considered a black undercoat. Interesting. Pics would be good.

Don M said...

They look pretty good to me!

Paul said...

It does seem a rather excessive amount of sliver. I would be tempted to go with the spray can idea as well.

Those Migs look positively sleek and dangerous in the last shot.

Anonymous said...

I've put some pics up on my Blog. Hope they help. FWIW I always used a black undercoat for all my metallics.

Tim Gow said...

Spprojectblog
Thanks for posting your pics - I'll give your method a try next time.

Tim Gow said...

Don M
Thanks - I'm quite pleased with them too!

Tim Gow said...

Paul
I'll try the spray can next time, but the finish I've got with a brush is actually pretty good (to my eyes anyway).

ian drury said...

I had the same problem with my MiGs for my ROLLING THUNDER game. Spray paint and black undercoat sounds like the way to go as the acrylic silver just doesn't coat properly over white. What's the planned game, or is this a state secret?

Tim Gow said...

Ian Drury
Welcome - and about time! The game is about Soviet ground controllers trying to detect and intercept an enemy V..... - sorry that bit's classified!