RAF Lightning

Decals were applied.

Lamps and lights were painted red.  The models were given a brown wash to highlight the panel lines.

The models were set aside to dry for a night and then a clear coat was applied.

Now some of the finer details are painted.  The inlet fan got a coating of Runelord Brass.  The exhaust nozzle  was partially painted Runelord Brass; leaving some of the nozzle Leadbelcher where the nozzle meets the fuselage.  Next some Brass Scoprion was painted around the nozzle exit.  The different metal paints on the exhaust nozzle give an effect of discolouration due to heat.

As with other aircraft that I have painted, the windows of the cockpit where  painted in several layers of blue.  A layer of Hoeth Blue was added, this was followed by a mix of Hoeth Blue and Glacier Blue.  Then a dot of Glacier Blue.

Next was adding the yellow stripe to the wings.  Unlike the thunderbolt, this model did not have a separate panel that could be painted yellow.  Thus care was taken to apply yellow paint to just the leading edge of the top of the wing.  This yellow was the same as the nose of the aircraft; as detailed in the previous section of this project.

The next step was to do some touch up of the base coat; not pictures where taken of this.  This was just to do some tiding up of the paint work.

The aircraft where modelled with two types of missiles.  The simpler skystrike  missiles where painted white.  The heftier hellstrike missiles where painted green with a white nose cone.  Both missiles exhaust nozzles where painted Brass Scorpion.

Time to put the airbrush away and start painting some of the details with a proper brush.

First up, apply a base of Averland Sunset yellow to the nose and cockpit of the aircraft.  This is followed by Leadbelcher for metal bits like the guns, exhaust nozzles, intake fan and other techie bits.  There are various techie bits on the underside of the aircraft, like four nozzles for vertical takeoff.

Going back to the aircraft nose, a layer of Yriel Yellow added and this was followed with Vallejo Golden Yellow.

Like the previous Thunder model, parts of the engine where painted Brass Scorpion. This would be part that look like engine exhausts.  Also bits that looked like lamps Brass Scorpion.

As with most models, the starting place was an application of black primer. The primer was applied using an air brush.

The fuselage and the right wing will have stripe of a Sky Type S by Vallejo.  This was air brushed.  This part of the painting was not neatly done, but that does not matter, as later stages with clean this up.

First some masking tap is used to cover the stripe areas before painting the base colours of the model.  For the wing, two piece of masking take where laid down side by side to get the correct width.  Masking tape was wrapped around the fuselage. Due to the shape of the model, there where some gaps between the masking tape and the fuselage.  These gaps where filled with blue tack.

The bottom surfaces were airbrushed with Vallejo BS Medium Sea Grey.  Then the top surfaces were airbrushed with Vallejo Ocean Grey. The Ocean Grey is slightly darker than the Medium Sea Grey.

After letting the previous coats of paint dry for bit, it was on to the green blobs of the camouflage.  Blue tac was used to mask off part of the top surface that was going to stay the Ocean Grey.  Again, an airbrush was used to apply the Dark Green.  After further dry time, the all masking was removed. Unfortunately some touch will be required.

For my Aeronautica Imperialis, I have a World War 2 RAF paint scheme (see RAF Thunderbolt, Marauder Bomber and Marauder Destroyer).  When the Lightning Fighters came out, I was going to continue this trend.

Long ago I had attended an air show in at the Vintage Wings of Canada in Gatineau Quebec Canada.  There I saw a Mustang painted in Royal Canadian Airforce 442 squadron colours.  This appealed to me.

This aircraft has typical RAF day fighter colours: top of dark green with dark grey, underside a light grey.  The nose is painted yellow and yellow trim on the wings.

As in past project, I will be using paints from the Vallejo RAF Day Fighter colours.