Hobbycraft
Bell XP-59A Airacomet
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Once
the landing gear had been installed it could be seen that it would
be better if the main struts were shortened about 3/32 inch to
match the stance on the photo of the airplane.
I'll fix that when I build the P-59B version, maybe I'll fix these then
too but I don't want to right now. The
insignia were painted using masks cut with my Silhouette
Cameo vinyl
cutter. Flat White was sprayed first,
then Insignia White. Then, the star
stencil was put in place. Insignia Blue
was applied. After a minimum curing
time
the masks were removed. I could see some
white edge outside the blue when looking from the side even though the outer
stencil had not been moved
until all painting was done, just the thickness of
the paint was all I was seeing but it was noticeable. More circles were cut, this time solid, no
cutouts for the
stars. Once applied the
surrounding colors were sprayed and that
took care of the problem. I
suppose that is going to be how to do it in cases where the white
has to be as
large as the blue, as in this case where there are no bars on the insignia, nor
the usual blue extra edge that covered up the short lived red perimeter.
There is no clear coat, once all the paint had cured, the whole model was sanded with 2500 sandpaper, insignia and all. The sanding dust was wiped down a little and there you are.
Hobbycraft 1/48 XP-59A
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