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This project was a rescue from the shelve of doom, reason being that with a mix of the thickness of Tamiya's decals and my poor application i just wasn't happy with it so for about a couple of years i finally got the motivation to short the mess out. The main areas i wasn't happy with was the shark mouth...  

....and the underside roundels. They just just didn't want to conform.  

 

So Fist job was to strip the decals off and clean up, but trying not to damage the surface of soften / remove the details. 

Removing the horrible , thick Tamiya Decals and cleaning up the paint work ready for re-priming. 

So that's the model prepped for paint. 

 

I decided on UP-F 'Have A Go-Jo' 79 Squadron RAAF, Morotai early 1945. 

I decided to use the decals from this Kagero book. 

The decals are a lot thinner than the Tamiya kit decals. But no stencils or national markings.  

Primed with Mr Surfacer 1500 Black. 

Can't see any irregularities from the old paint job coming through the primer.  

 

 

 

Underside painted with Tamiya XF-83 Medium Sea Grey RAF, then some post shading with Tamiya XF-77 IJN Grey. 

Then i over coated with the XF-83. 

Happy with the results.
 

The rest of the camo was done in pretty much the same way with Tamiya XF-81 Dark Green and XH-82 Ocean Grey. The white was Tamiya XF-2 Flat White.
Also had 'paint' on the painted over markings where the Red/Blue roundels and RAF airframe code has these Aussie spits had them painted over - No RED allowed in the PTO. I used XF-26 Deep Green for this. 

Measuring out the masks and cutting them out. I got the measurements from the original markings before i stripped them off. 

Painting all done.
For the Spinner XF-5 lightened with white.
I Applied Humbrol Maskoil with a piece of sponge over the areas to be painted white to create the base for the chipping. 

And glossed over with Tamiya Clear. Pretty happy with how this is looking. 

 

 

 

 

Sorry i didn't capture the rest of the work, but the decals went down really well with no issues.
Weathering was with Flory Models Dark Dirt for the general grime and MIG pigments for the dust.
Further chipping done with a fine paint brush.
Various Oil paints used to further weather the paint work. 

And all done. ?
I didn't want to give up on this model but i was just unsure initially how to rescue it. So that's why it sat around for awhile before i got the bug to get back into it.
 

 

 

Barracuda resin wheels to replace the kit rather poor efforts.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have to say I'm really glad i rescued this one and happy with how it now looks.
Note to self - Get replacement decals for my remaining 32nd Tamiya kits...!!
Thanks for looking in.