Back to the Belle. As I said neutral grey was sprayed and masked off. The Olive Drab wraps around the front undersides of the engine cowls. Research, because especially with Academy kits, the painting guides are often wrong.
A coat of Olive Drab. Had issues with this, the first coat went blotchy. So I smoothed it down with thinner and prepared for a second coat. I put it down to not mixing the paint often enough in the airbrush. It was also near the bottom of the tin, so I got a new one and no issues this time. Unfortunately the pre-shading was a casualty of this.
Once dry I then masked off the control surfaces and applied OD mixed with grey to produce a faded appearance. It looks lighter in the photographs than it is in reality, and the gloss coat will darken it a bit.
I then proceeded to paint the starboard fin panel in a different shade of Olive Drab. Memphis Belle received a new fin panel after the original was damaged.
Then once that was dry, I applied some medium green blotching, as you can see in the photo in the previous post. Had a few goes at this, had to settle for the effect I've got here. I had to take the flash off the camera or the blotches looked too bright which they are not. I used Humbrol 149, and referred to photos of Memphis Belle to get the approximate positions of the blotches. The real blotches are perhaps harder-edged but I'm happy with the effect. They too will darken under a gloss coat.
And then it was time for the deice boots. I find it easier to do this after the main painting, and I used a brush. Masking off all those rounded edges from the outer edges would have been far more difficult than masking from the inside.
Normally I'd paint the exhausts a gunmetal or dark colour, but references show they were a rusty metallic colour. This is the Memphis Belle prior to the commencement of her restoration when she was living outside and had been subjected to the weather, birds and vandals.
Then I gave the Belle some feet. The fit of the wheels was not exemplary. I had to manipulate them to get them on the correct angle. It occurred to me afterwards that this was an effect of having altered the kit's wing dihedral (they had a toe-in look to them and would have been straighter if the original excessive dihedral had been left there).
.I usually gloss then apply the exhaust staining with a thinned down paint you can control it better and if it goes wrong you can clean it up without ruining the top coat of paint
Then decal time. Academy decals aren't always the best, but no had no major issues using Humbrol Decalfix. The white stars are perhaps a little translucent but not too bad.
And using the white glue again, I set the remaining nose side glazing panels into position. These were often field-fitted and photos show they weren't always a prefect match for the surrounding panels and had different shades of Olive Drab on them. Some sanding was required to make them fit, even though an earlier dry fit showed an acceptable fit.
Landing lights are in place, navigation wing lights are finsihed, the propellers are sitting in their engines (not glued), and final touches will bring this to a conclusion in the next day or so.
PS, I also had to reattach each pitot tube at least twice; luckily they didn't fall into oblivion. Joe 1, Carpet Monster 0
A landing gear strut went AWOL on final inspection, no idea how that happened, and it has vanished. I have refashioned a new one from sprue. Joe 1, Carpet Monster 1