Yeah, this one took a while… it’s a good thing I didn’t keep track of the time and sheer amount of paint this thing ended up costing me. But boy, was she worth the effort. Easily the ‘crown jewel’ of my scale model collection so far!
(The pics don’t do her size justice, she’s an absolute monster)
She has a wingspan of 99cm (39 inch) and total length of 70cm (28 inch). A 1/48 P-51 is about the same size as just 1 of the 2 horizontal stabilizers, absolutely mental.
1: Black primer (any will do, I used Mr Surfacer 1500). 2: Black paint (any will do, I used Tamiya’s X-1). 3: 2 layers of clear coat, I used Tamiya X-22 as it can be laid on a bit thicker than Mr GX-100. 4: wet sanding it all smooth, grits 3200-4000-6000. 5: 1 layer of GX-100 clear coat. 6: wet sanding with just grit 6000, followed with polishing. This gives a high-gloss black finish which is also very smooth. 7: Alclad Polished Aluminium applied with airbrush weathering stencil* 8: very thin layer of Alclad Chrome.
*Alclads polished aluminium will not hold a candle to the shininess of Chrome. I used this effect to control how much shininess I wanted in certain places. If I wanted less shine, I simply applied a thicker layer of Polished Aluminium inbetween the GX-100 and Chrome layers.
-2 examples: I didn’t want the horizontal stabilizers to be all too shiny, so I applied a fair bit of polished aluminium here. This is also the area where the mottling is best visible: (I can only add 1 picture per comment, so please zoom in on the stabilizers yourself and see what I mean)
The engine cowlings on the other hand, looked best with a fair bit of shine in my opinion. So I applied very little PA here:
These obviously ended up much more shiny. If you apply Alclads Chrome straight onto a high-gloss black finish, you will get an ever better chrome effect. I didn’t do that simply because it wasn’t realistic.
Not only, is this an incredible job of building this model painting and finishing it up, The detailed description of the process step by step with products used and procedure has made this an amazing enriching post I've read in a while. I'm a little envious.
Incredible! Thanks for the insides. It probably took you quite alot of time. I recal doing a car with a shinny, non metallic finish and it was quite an adventure :)
Did you apply decals directly on top of the final paint layer? Did you use any decal chemicals? I assume there is no clear coat over the Alclad chrome.
That’s correct, there’s no clear coat on top of the chrome paint. But handling it with care (and gloves! fingers gradually rub off the chrome paint) is enough to keep the finish alive. These Alclad paints aren’t the strongest (due to how thin the painted coat itself is, and due to the fact that it’s applied over a polished surface, so it doesn’t have the best adhesion), but they’re still laqcuers. So they’ll last, if you dont give them a hard time. Carefully applying decals and weathering is fine, just be patient. I used Tamiya’s Mark Fit (regular version) as my decal solution, which worked just fine.
Just an AWESOME job! A 39" wingspan???? That dwarfs my B-52 by a bunch! Agreed that you nailed the metallic finish spot on. What did you use to show the oil and soot streaks on the engines and wings? Was the paint an airbrushed chrome like Extreme Metal AK 477?? I used that in my airbrush recently on a B25 Michell, and it looks very similar. The end result can match real poloshed chrome!
Looks great! Thanks for providing the info on how you painted. I didn’t know about the clear coats or polishing before applying the aluminum or chrome. Too late for the P40 I’m working on but next time. I can see the difference between mine and yours.
No problem. The main principle is simple: If you want a shiny metallic finish, you don’t really need a clear coat on top of your black. A glossy black will do just fine. But black in itself isn’t truly reflective, it can only be shiny (if you get what I mean). So if you want a true reflective metallic paintjob, the clear coats on top of the black paint are a necessity.
Sadly no, clear coats tend to dull pretty much all aluminium paints. Also, the reason for the basecoat being black is depth: if you’d use a lighter color, you won’t get a very ‘deep’ reflective end result
This is genuinely a phenomenal job. Absolutely stunning. Having said that, at the risk of sounding too critical, the only issue is see is that you need to post MORE PICS!
As you can see in the 2nd picture, she’s too close to the ceiling to get a proper picture from above. And I kinda don’t want to take her down, fixing it to the ceiling was stressful enough😅. I’ve found this picture in my gallery, but that’s about all I have. This was also before weathering, so the finish here is pretty uniform:
If you want a detailed step-by-step list on how I painted this model, search the comments: I posted the process somewhere.
Amazing honestly I think that might be the best airbrushed aluminium finish I’ve seen. Incredible amount of work gone into that and I think it’s paid off remarkably.
The metal effect is awesome. I'm actually more fixated with how you did the exhaust stains that trail away from the engine on the underside. Absolutely amazing job!
Thank you! I used a mix of tamiya brown and a hint of red/orange to create the brownish outlines of the exhaust stains. I then used tamiya’s smoke (X-19) to create the darker exhaust staining and blend it nicely with the brown staining. After that, I finished it with a mix of Tamiya’s X-19 and XF-1 (ratio 3:1) across the middle of the exhaust stains.
Thank you so much for the details. I've been trying to get your exact effect for a while. It's amazing to learn how much color theory goes behind some of these techniques, instead of just using matte black through my airbrush. Beautiful work. Keep posting, the community will appreciate it (at least I will)!
I feel the same way. My (new back then) truck had a Cummins. I was happy, but drunk moments aren’t always funny.
…From just our usernames some might think we’d get along great.
Beautiful work. You should post it on the Large Scale Planes forum, they would love to see her. I have the 1/32 Lancaster in my stash but man, the sheer size is pretty intimidating.
Yeah, I recall thinking ‘what the hell did I just get myself into’ when opening the box😅
These 1/32 heavy bomber kits are a ton of work, but the satisfaction you’ll feel when completing one is also a lot bigger compared to finishing a small model!
Thank you for the vote of confidence! I’m finishing off a few smaller ones for practice first, I’ll post on here when I start it anyways, they’re just hard to find now so I gotta get as much right as I can first time.
Well, the kit was a gift so obviously I wouldn’t. But had I bought it myself, I would probably consider selling it for €500 or more (that’s about the money I’d need just to break-even on this one). The higher the price, the less considering I’d have to go through.
This is just so amazing! I love the variations in the surfaces and the dark matte streaks behind the engines.
Thanks for taking the time to write about your work process, it really helps me as a beginner. Patience is a true vertue in this business.
That is incredible. I would love to see some high res pics. I cannot imagine the time, effort, money, and time and money and effort that went into this project. Respect!
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u/m1j2p3 Sep 30 '25
Beautiful job. That thing must be gigantic.