mass build, HS-123 by Airfix, Let the Painting Begin!!

        Having assembled five Airfix HS-123s in record time I got to the task of painting them. The group is being split up; one is headed for the sunny skies of Spain, another to the distant shores of China while three will serve with the Luftwaffe. As the two foreign-service aircraft will have distinctly different schemes I decided to do them first. The China-bound aircraft would get the dreaded "squiggle pattern" while the Spanish plane would sport the almost as difficult "Picasso pattern". In comparison the Luftwaffe birds will be pretty plain-Jane.

 

last we saw this project it was "in the white"

 

 

I shot both of these with gray primer  and started painting, this is where more careful thought would have paid dividends, if I had started the Spanish plane first I could had done the squiggles as each coat of paint on the Spanish plane dried, instead I painted the Chinese plane completely before moving on to the Spanish aircraft, thus time was once-again lost to watching paint dry (literally)

130minutes

 

I tried to redeem myself by painting the SCW bird while decaling the Chinese model, this saved some time as I was able to swap back and forth between models instead of just waiting for things to dry

45 minutes

 

 

once the decals had set I added another coat of gloss in preparation for the matte finish

I have learned (the hard way, of course) that it is very important to let the gloss fully dry before adding the matte finish, nothing ruins your day of painting than a foggy final finish

15 minutes

 

while these are drying I am off to vote early to "save civilization"

 or some other nonsense like that

        These two only need pilots and windscreens to be completed. The next step is the Luftwaffe birds. I will be sorting out decals to ensure that I don't end up with kits that bear the same markings. As far as I have been able to discern the marking system on HS-123s was pretty chaotic. I will try to work from known photographs but this aircraft served from 1935-1944 and was in a bunch of different units so the best I can manage is an educated guess.