SPA Modeler

Looking good Tom!

D-Day Invasion stripes finished!! I had to brush a hair over for the last white stripe towards the tail. Using Floquil Weathered Black looks so much more realistic than straight up flat black. Once dried, I'll go over and touch up minor spots of the black that didn't cover over the white.










Next, the Aluminum paint for the rest of the fuselage and underside.

Looking really good!

Looking good Tom! Looking forward to the next phase of painting!

Very nice!!

I like the faded black and will try to remember it.

Touched up the black spots, finished off the last white stripe and sprayed a coat of gloss clear to seal it all in before masking in preparation to sling on aluminum paint. Once that's all done, another coat of gloss for decaling.

jeaton01 wrote:I like the faded black and will try to remember it.

Another tip.... use Vallejo Off White too. Using regular black and white is just too stark for my liking when doing D-Day invasion stripes. I never use the decal invasion stripes at all. Also, I never airbrush my stripes at all. I hand brush them to give it a little hand-brushed on look.

Tip #2 - Invasion stripes were never straight because they were hand painted on. If you look at my pics of the invasion stripes, they look straight from a distance. But up close, they're not. That's the look you want to achieve.

However, entering a subject with D-Day stripes at a model show contest, would be very interesting to see or hear the judge's opinions on the D-Day stripes. I'll bet they believe they are to be straight lines between colors. I can argue with the judges their opinion is wrong with proof of my theory. Who knows... but it would interesting to hear.

On colors for stripes it all depends at which point in time that you choose to depict. They were stark and bright, but not neat and straight, on D-Day and the week or so afterwards. But then they faded, being applied under field conditions rapidly by ground crews having to paint every aircraft needing the stripes in theater. By July, they would indeed be fading, and by August they were either over painted or scrubbed off of the upper surfaces.

I agree.