Academy B-47 Stratojet, Part I

The kit was pretty easy. I assembled everything but the landing gear with no problems -- aside from getting the cockpit in a little crooked. Heh. I spent some time making sure the cockpit looked nice and I even painted in a bunch of microscopic instrument detail. It all disappeared after assembly. All you can see are the pilot's heads and the backrests for the seats. And they're in crooked. Oh well.

I agonized over using a buffable paint like Alclad II that really looks like metal, but that would mean I'd need to buy a spray gun. I'm just not ready for that yet. Maybe when I get back to the States for good this summer. So I decided to go with the Tamiya paint cans. The panels on bare metal aircraft weather differently resulting in a non-uniform finish, so I picked up silver and aluminum hoping to recreate the effect.

I sprayed the model with primer... So far, so good. Then I gave it a good coat of silver.

Wait, I have to explain how I paint in Singapore. I don't have a workshop, so I do my modeling on the dining room table -- which is right in front of an air conditioner that we leave on for the dog (the company picks up the electricity bill), which keeps the area dry as well as cool. So when I use the spray paint, I have to go outside into 100% humidity, spray really quick, then get the model back inside before the moisture can do too much damage. At least that's the way I think it works -- in any case, that's what I do.

So, I'm walking the Stratojet back to the dining room table to dry in front of the aircon, and I stop to admire it a bit; turning it this way and that. And I drop it on the Persian rug. Aiyaaah!

The rug is fine, but the paint job now has rug indentations and dog hair all over it. I panicked. It's good to panic a little. It gets the adrenaline flowing and your mind ticks over a little faster. Thinking quickly, I figured that since the acrylic paint is water-based, I might be able to quickly rinse the paint off so I can start all over. Nope. The paint smudged a lot, but it didn't want to come off. What a mess.

At the time, I was thinking I could strip the paint -- I even looked up a couple methods over at the Fine Scale Modeler forums -- but the model only cost me about ten bucks, so I think it's not worth the time or effort to try. I think I'll just pick up a new one at some point. Ugh.

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