Paint
Paint work has begun. First, I sprayed down a coat of Tamiya surface primer (of the airbrush variety). I accidently deleted the pictures having thought they’d been uploaded already.
I really prefer to have a black base to work with. Gunze makes a black Mr. Finishing Surfacer, but every time I make an order from Sprue Brothers they are out of stock. I also have found I much prefer the Tamiya primer, so I’ve been using it followed by gloss black decanted Krylon spray paint. For whatever reason I like applying main colors over this surface.
After that has dried a couple of day I begin with Mr. Color Earth. I intentionally leave the paint patchy. This helps a lot with post-shading and weathering by adding depth and a worn/faded look. Note the engine nacelle. While laying on the Earth i spilled a little from the airbrush cup. This was wiped away with some thinner and sanded smooth. Fortunately, it happened on the nacelle that was to be Dark Green, so it didn’t slow me down too much.
After another couple of days of drying I begin masking off with blue poster tack and masking tape.
The Dark Green is now sprayed and removing the masking reveals the areas where touchups will be needed. Not many will be necessary, so all is good.
After this was allowed to dry a couple of days I moved on to the under-surface.
I used lacquer (earth) and enamel (dark green) on the topside. Knowing I was going to use Tamiya Sky on the belly is why I went with painting the upper surface first. You’d never want to spray lacquer or enamel over acrylics; the risk of overlap was my concern.
I masked off the top with thin strips of Tamiya tape which allows it to be worked into more complex curves. I had mentioned previously in the build that the wings were such a snug fit they could be painted separately. I’d recommend that approach now, actually. Masking on the insides of the nacelles between them and the fuselage took a little more time than necessary; it’s a tight area to work with fat fingers.
Shark Tank Plastic Works 