Operation Thunderbolt - Build Log Part Two

Hi folks, this update is a smidgeon later and shorter than I had intended, there is a short angry saga to explain this:

The above picture is of the undercoated Thunderbolts, note the white will be where the yellow is going to be. Eagle-eyed readers might spot some yellow on there already... yeah... that is how a crap paint can cost you four clear days of productive work and cause no little fury. Some of you might remember me being excited about Minitaire paints by Badger turning up. This was because the colours were not the usual drab military colours but instead the bright, saturated ones suitable for a lot of 40k stuff. I picked some up as it was literally the only pre-mixed option at the time. I was new to airbrushing and didn't want to mess up the mixes. I also assumed the problems I had were my fault rather than the paints.

I know better now.

Minitaire yellow joins all of the other Minitaire paints I have tried in the bin. No matter what I tried it would not cover properly. They shrank from edges. They pebbled so badly on a second thin coat that it looked like cellulite. I assumed there was a problem with the resin release showing through the primer. I stripped the paint, cleaned the "problem areas" - so I thought - and left them to dry. This takes some time. Then I tried again. The exact same problem. Rage, paints hit bin, strip models again, leave to dry. Buy some Vallejo Game Air Sun Yellow. Which was perfect.

So finally I had the yellow areas coloured. Now to carefully mask them off (almost certainly I'll get some bleed under but it's easier to fix than getting clean yellow over darker tones).

I've burnished the nice flexible Tamiya masking tape over the bits I want to stay yellow and packed the nose. This allows me to put colours on top and keep that nice clean yellow.

Next colour along is Dark Bluegrey a surprisingly agreeable colour and when this settles I'll mask off the camo patterns and get the Basalt Grey on and then the light underside. Honestly thought I'd be there by now. Curse you Minitaire! Curse you!!!!

That's enough of my griping though, we're back on track now. More fun next week!

TTFN