Right off the bat, big thanks again to Fermis for his input, and you guys for weighing in and brainstorming. This gave me a lot of food for thought.
I was kept up a little bit last night because I couldn’t stop contemplating the shift in hue and “color” which occurred on the gun/ammo panels on Spare Parts’ wings. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy with how that stage came out. The issue though was that I couldn’t find a single photo of a P-51 sporting panels which stood out that much
... so while I wanted those panels to stand out, as if they were replacement panels from a different aircraft, I didn’t want them to be “that” obvious.So enter what I’m now referring to as “The Fermis Protocol.”
Taking what he said into account, it occurred to me quite naturally that by carefully spraying over the whole wing with a few more coats of the RAF High Speed silver, I could probably bring them up to where they just looked like a slightly darker shade of “aluminum lacquer” due to the fact that while this stuff is technically also a primer, the inherent thinness and translucency of it which John pointed out still holds true. Below are the results.
BEFORE (cool but not necessarily “accurate”):
AFTER (still cool, more subtle, looks like they came off a darker airplane or maybe one which was more worn, in keeping with the “salvaged” spirit of this build):
I’m convinced!
...each wing got three light, misting coats each. Next I hit them individually, going a shade or two heavier on the port side wing, so that there’d be a subtle difference between the two areas.
I’m stoked at how this turned out. Very much so in point of fact. This “philosophy” or “methodology” of Fermis’ is absolutely what I needed in order to help me begin to understand painting with “metal” and how to incorporate my own previously-established methods and understanding of painting in-general so that I could get my head around it.
Very, VERY cool.
