Looking good. Your scratch building continues to amaze me. Nice save from what probably would have caused me to chuck it in the spare parts bin.
D
I entertained the idea of saving it for spares for maybe a minute. Then I thought I’d just put it together for fun. Now its probably going to be in my tiny museum lol.
Since I have no russian A/C in there this will be a welcome addition. 
And finally, the first bit of color. I mixed Sky Blue with White over black primer and I only faded it just a pinch to get some subtle shading. Nothing too fancy, just enough to break up the monotony of the overall color.
I probably should’ve done the pit first lol.
I just love watching the “Brindos” magic happen before Forums members very eyes! This is just too good. Great job sir, this is just superb!
Toshi
Hahaha! Brindos magic! That’s new lol!!
Thank you my friend! 
Well… two out of three so far.
I couldn’t find my thin acetate and I had to substutute for thicker stuff. This caused a problem with the rear window and I had to sand it. Its now a bit foggy because I couldn’t polish it well enough due to the type of acetate it is. (Sigh) so moving forward I am just going to live with it.
Do to my heavy handedness while sanding I managed to rub off my paint at the trailing edge of the wings, plus I forgot to mask the landing light. So it looks like a repaint is in order… 
Once I get the last canopy piece completed I’ll finish the pit, paint the pilot, and reprimer for a second time. I should’ve done this right the first time.
Just goes to show how unpredictable this hobby can be when you scratch build. I’m sure I’ll recover like i usually do, but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to these unexpected setbacks.
Thats some impresive work thereMike, never seen a scratched canopy before. Hats off to you for that one.
[dto:] As for unexpected setbacks, they can happen with a straight kit build, and I would imagine scratch building just ups the chances of that happening. That said, I feel your frustration. But…pulling off a scratched canopy is something few could say they have done, and many would say they wouldn’t even try (like me [:D]).
Your builds are always fascinating, so thanks for sharing.
D
Well next time I’m going to try Pawel’s suggestion. That rear window was trouble.
Thanks D. As I’m finding out, there was a better way to do this lol. The center section is done and I began painting the pit and the pilot. Shame about the paint getting rubbed off but it just means I’ll have to do better.
Your skill are beyond anything I could even dream about lol
Oh you say that now, but you just wait. Your skills will improve. Mine did.
I wasn’t much better than you when I joined up. [:)]
Round two… FIGHT! (Mortal Combat pun)
Okay so, yeah. Second round of primer went on and I decided to paint the topside first this time.
Since I’m painting the topside in white I chose to put down Neutral Grey as a base.
After that I shaded with an off White for to make it easiermfor the pure White to lay over.
Then finally just straight White. The end results are nice and subdued.
I finished with a flat clear coat in preparation for the Red on the outboard upper wings. I traditionally have issues with red bleeding so I’m going to be real careful with my masking from this point forward. I don’t want this next step to be any more trouble than it has to be lol.
To prevent any bleeding under you masking, shoot a gloss clear over the edge first, then shoot the red and you will have zero bleeding. Ever.
It is looking really good.
BK
Ditto! I use this technique religiously!
Why didn’t I know that?? Thank you, Brandon. That seems so obvious and simple. I don’t know why I didn’t know that! D’oh.
[Facepalm] why didn’t I know about this?
Okay, well… I got lucky. I didn’t have any bleed, but I did have compressor issues. Lol
Did anyone else get locked out last night? Looked like the entire forum locked up and I couldnt log in.
Anyways, here’s what I couldn’t post last night;
Hand painted numbers for the tail and hand painted stars for the bottom of the wings.
I’m quite chuffed with myself. Typically my attemps at such hand painting fail horribly. Good job, me! Lol.
My compressor is acting up again so I went old school and hand painted the bottom. I can live with it.
Not like this is going anywhere but my collection anyways lol.
Hand painted or not it is looking SWEET. I totally dig these little Migs. I need to build another one. Maybe a dark camo green one with the black nose or a light green one with a NMF nose. So many options, they all look cool.
And yes the forum was not working last night. I thought it was me as I just did a clean OS install and I was fighting that headache.
BK
Looks great! Maybe your compressor should kick up more often, since the hand painting looks excellent. LOL. Seriously, hope you can sort out your compressor.