Sopwith Dolphin - more ideas on bodged paint job on wings

After some thought and a bit of experimentation, I've decided that the wing surfaces will after all need a bit more work. Not only are the ribs a bit too prominent and jagged, but there are an annoying number of little bits stuck to the painted surfaces, even though I had brushed all the surfaces with a soft brush before doing the final coat. Perhaps I charged them with static in the process, thus attracting the small bits. I'll have to be careful about that in future. In addition to those problems, I've decided that the colour I've used for Clear Doped Linen is far too rich and I need to tone it down a bit.

Sopwith Dolphin - rethink on wings

Having looked a bit more closely at the paint job I've done on the undersurfaces, I've decided that the wing ribs are not quite right: they've come out a bit too jagged, with an obvious ridge at each side caused by the masking tape. This is what comes of not doing a coat of primer to reveal this sort of problem. Also, the clear doped linen effect has turned out to be more of a custard effect. I might have to rub the wings down with 1200 wet and dry and do another coat or two of a slightly lighter colour. But then I'm in danger of making the rib detail disappear altogether.

I'm going to have to ponder this for a while.

Sopwith Dolphin - Undercarriage

Right, I've just finished the bits for the undercarriage, and this is what they look like.

Sopwith Dolphin - In Colour

I've just done the first coat of the undersurfaces, as you can see, with a kind of clear-doped linen colour. The wing ribs are showing up nicely, I think. Because of their dark colour I had to do two or three coats, but to save repeatedly cleaning the airbrush, I only waited a few minutes between coats (until the finish had gone matt). Enamel paint is very forgiving of this sort of treatment. Even when I got a few spatters (too thick mixture maybe? Incompetent airbrush technique?), they just flowed out when oversprayed. So I think it's all looking OK so far. I'm going to wait until tomorrow to see if another coat is needed. But at this rate, we're getting close to seeing some actual PC10 in this blog.