Kato's miniatures & model page: What happened last year?

Last year started off rough with covid followed quickly by an ice storm knocking out power for six days.

That really put a damper on the whole thing killing a lot of my motivation. Never really did feel like doing anything on the computer.

I did do some modelling and painting!!! Let's take a look at some of the things I did.

Well the next thing in my painting journal is actually a 40k Space Marines Rhino/Razorback.

BUT NO PICTURES ???? So you don't get to see that just yet.

That's okay because my next thing is a project like my F4 Phantom vs. Mig 17.

I present....The Gruesome Twosome:

This kit actually has some really nice details. Good panel lies too.

As always with 1/72 models there were no pilots so I had to go get my own and these are pretty good.

And as always I spent a ton of time on the cockpits when no one is going to see them other than on this blogspot.

Since these are going to be flying models there was a modification or two that needed to be made. The tail wheel doors are molded open so those needed to be closed.

I also had to do something with the props.

Going to try a bit of a new technique (for me at least) on these.

First cut out the circles and try to make them as circly as I can.

Locate the center and then tape the actual prop to the back to use as a guide.

Then airbrush those bad boys!

After assembling the rest of the planes it was time to paint.

For one I just masked off the entire cockpit without the canopy because I'm not real confident in how I masked the canopy on the other. I went for the safe move on one and got a little aggressive on the other.

After watching and reading stuff about bare metal painting techniques I decided to go with a black base coat and do some pre-shading on the tails.

There were decals for the yellow stripes and red bits at the wing tips but went with paint instead. I figured it would look more uniform with the pre-shading and wouldn't be such a stark bright yellow contrast. I definitely didn't want that.

I also had to go back and add yellow to the props.

Here's photos of some real life P51s I'm trying to emulate:

I didn't want to even attempt the cowling. Those stripes are just too fine detail to get right. Decals did the trick for this.

The model I bought was a Lee Archer kit so I had to hand correct the "73" and "Alice-Jo" for Wendell Pruitt's plane. I was so stressed I would mess it up and fixing wouldn't be easy but it turned out pretty good.

Once they're hung it'll be fine. I actually finished these by November 2021.