Raiden JU88 Preparation

I started on the JU88's yesterday evening although not before 9.30pm as I had to put the kids to bed, do some ironing etc etc. Anyway, I succsessfully cleaned up and based eight models ready for undercoating.

This was pretty easy once I worked out how to go about it. The models themselves have very little flash and few casting lines so were quick to clean up with a file. I also devised a simple system for temporarily basing the planes ready for painting.

I cut the head off a 20mm wire nail then glued it with superglue into the pre-drilled hole in the underside of each plane, leaving the sharp end of the nail pointing downwards. The plane can then be held by the nail for painting and can be stuck into a block of balsa wood while it dries.

As long as I can unstick the nail from the plane at the end of the painting stage it should work really well?

The plan for this evening is to clean up and base the rest of the planes before undercoating them with Humbrol matt light grey or dark green.

I also painted the bases of the North Africa planes in the usual Citadel Electric Blue, using an old pot of paint that I bought years ago but that has served me very well for the purpose. I need to tidy up the underside of the SM81 and add a white cross insignia to the tailplane before spray varnishing both the Pipistrello and the Bf109's.

I'll try to get this done this evening as well.