Now
that I have developed a good approach to painting yellow and lighter colors, I
am really enjoying the variety of color these Golden Era aircraft add to my
display shelves in my office. But before I get into my painting approach to
yellows and whites, I’ll share a bit about this plane. This is an SNJ-2, BuAer
No. 2009, used at the New York Naval Reserve Aviation Base, circa 1940. This
plane flew out of Floyd Bennett Field in
New York
in its day. The NYNRAB insignia on the fuselage depicts Father Knickerbocker.
At the time of publication of these decals, this plane was currently being
restored to flying condition by the Fighter Factory.
The
kit itself is a converted 1/48 scale Modelcraft (old
Occidental) T-6G kit. SNJ-2s had a rounded rudder as you may notice in the
picture above, different from the iconic triangular rudder of later Texan
variants. The conversion from a T-6G to an SNJ-2 was made possible by a few
additions and modifications. I’m sure I missed a few things regarding complete
accuracy on the conversion, but she’s close enough for me. First of all, many
thanks go to Mike Belcher for making this very nice scheme readily possible and
allowing us the ability to convert back to the old pre-war SNJs
and AT-6s with the replacement rudder. A resin replacement rudder comes with
Mike Belcher’s (Belcher Bits) decals for the SNJ-2 variants (see Belcher Bits
Product No. BD5). This replacement rudder is more easily applied to the Modelcraft
T-6G kit than the Monogram AT-6 kit since the rudder in the Modelcraft
T-6G kit is a separate part from the fuselage parts. The Monogram kit requires
sawing off the rudder from both fuselage halves; one less tool needed to build
the model.
Another
necessary conversion for the early Texan variants is making sure the frames on
the rear canopy are accurately portrayed. As the Texans matured into later
variants the frames on the rear canopy began to disappear with advancements in
technology with glass manufacturing. These technological advancements are more
obvious with the bubble canopy variants of the P-51s and P-47s. From what I
remember the kits came with clear and “caged” rear canopies for Texan
variants used during, but not prior to the War. I used Chris Loney’s
vinyl EZ-Masks for the Modelcraft (old Occidental)
T-6G kit and modified the masks for rear canopy accordingly, allowing for six
panes of glass, as opposed to the original four panes provided by the kit
parts.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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Painting
consisted of applying a Alclad
Gloss Black Base to the entire airframe. I let this cure for 36 hours, and then
applied Alclad II Aluminum. After returning from a
business trip five days later I noticed that the Alclad
finish had cracked in several areas on the fuselage. The only conclusion I could
come to after reading a few posts on various forums, and not having this problem
in the past on planes I have painted in the past using Alclad
products, is that I didn’t let Alclad Gloss Black
Base cure long enough. In the past I usually timed it so the Alclad
Gloss Black Base was the last thing I did before walking away from my workbench
for the weekend. Regardless, I applied another coat of Alclad
II Aluminum and let that cure for a week itself before I started anything else
on the plane.
Alclad
cured,. The tail, fuselage band, and nacelle areas
were then masked and airbrushed with Model Master Enamel True Blue FS15102
(couldn’t get it in acrylic).
After
letting that dry I then tackled the yellow wings. I’ve never had much success
with Yellow and White over NMF in the past. My F2A-2 Buffalo being a case in
point and thus why it’s in the back of the display case. The
problem is the paint needs something to adhere to and a NMF finish is like
painting on glass. I found that a coat of Tamiya
Flat Yellow serves as a great primer for the more accurate color of Model Master
Chrome Yellow FS13538. Tamiya Flat Yellow doesn’t
run or pool on NMF like Model Master Chrome Yellow tends to do regardless of
airbrush setting. Tamiya paints also provide the
“teeth” thinner Model Master paints to adhere to when it comes to the
lighter colors like Yellows and Whites. Furthermore, I find this approach allows
me to weather more easily (if desired) using salting and other chipping
techniques where the NMF can be exposed. I then finally masked off the
anti-glare panel and wings walks and airbrushed them all Tamiya
Flat Black.
The
antenna was manifested from some styrene strip and monofilament was used for the
wire and adhered using CA. The propeller was painted
using Alclad II Chrome. The backs of the propeller
blades were painted black from the tips down about half way so any glare from
the chrome on the propeller would not impede the pilot’s sight. Classic Red,
Yellow, and Blue markings were painted in the front of the propeller blades.
The
decals provided by Belcher Bits were excellent with one minor exception. The
white trim for the fuselage band came up a little short to cover the underside
of the fuselage, but that could be a function of me placing the fuselage band
too far forward. Eduard PE USAAF seatbelts were added as well. A fun build of a
very interesting subject.
Ryan
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