My first project in a long time is an FA-18 Super Hornet, I was wondering of most people finish this model off in a gloss or flat finish?
Miltary finish would be flat, NASA research aircraft would be gloss.
Gotcha thanks!
Also the model I am doing is a 1:48 revell model, the seams are ok, but the nose to fuselage connection on the right hand side has a significant overalap. How do you guys fix that, do you file it down and then use putty?
That’s a bit of an oversimplification, to say “military aircraft are flat, NASA are gloss…” unless it’s meant in broad terms, i.e. “warfighter aircraft are flat, special-use aircraft are gloss…” Depending on the period you want to represent, there are/were lots of F/A-18s painted glossy, obviously including the Blue Angels’. I believe many such aircraft used for showy exercises and shoot-offs such as Red Flag were also gloss, sometimes with very special paint schemes as well. And Air Guard units have painted service aircraft gloss as well, as I remember.
Stephan
Definitely.
A lot also depends on the amount of time it spends between repaints. A factory or overhaul fresh Hornet or whatever in standard unit service will most certainly be flat. However, supersonic aircraft do face friction from the slipstream around them and over time they often do take on a slight sheen in the paint from the air resistance.
Blake, Your best bet is to look in the instructions and if they give FS color numbers, this is how they work: If first number is 1 then it is gloss If first number is 2 then it is semi-gloss If first number is 3 then it is matt Dean
That is good to know! Thank you![tup]
Great thats a really interesting tidbit! I have all of the contruction don and I am beggining to fill in som of the seem lins using my blade glue and sand paper, and painting it a flat white base coat so I can better see the imperfections in the fuselage and repair them. Your guys help is most appreciate, and I will post pictures soon.
Blake;
A general rule of thumb most military “Combat” aircraft will be painted flat, but military “Diplomatic” aircraft will be painted satin or gloss, with “combat” planes that are deployed to CONUS stations like Nellis AFB for combat excercises like Red Flag, Gun Smoke, William Tell, Top Gun then the units will “dassle” (tail markings are of bright colors) them up a bit just for that excercise but they will still have their primary flat colors, the US Navy has more of the “dassle” then the US Air Force (because the USAF is more strict on personalization of the aircraft {which I fell it’s bogus), but the “diplomatic” aircraft like the Blue Angles & Thunderbirds are of a high gloss as with the Air Force 1, Army 1, Marine 1, & Navy 1 that fly the president around as with the other politicians transports, as for NASA they are in their own relm of thinking, yes they fly “combat” aitcrfat but those planes are retired from active service and are rendered “non-combatant” and are owned by NASA so they could paint them what ever they want to gloss, satin or flat
so if your doing a “combat” F/A-18 then the end finish would be flat but in order to apply the decals you need to have a gloss finish so paint it flat then apply a gloss coat, then apply the decals, then apply a flat coat and call it done
It should be noted that there can be other exceptions to the “rule”. Present day US Navy combat aircraft are “flat” but there was a period from the late 50’s to late 70’s during which “front-line” Navy aircraft were finished in Gloss Light Gull Gray over Gloss Insignia White undersurfaces.
Wow thanks, I never knew that I needed to have a gloss coat to apply the decals.
Blake;
the reason for the Gloss coat is so the decals will not silver ( this means the clear edges will not show ), and then hit the model again with a gloss coat to seal the decals then, weather as wanted, and then hit it one last time with a Dull Coat (flat), if you are doing a Bare Metal Finish (BMF) then just trim the clear edges off of the decals (just the ones with color I.E. national emblems, Stars & Bars, Etc…, the ones that are data placards don’t worry about them) and maybe hit it with a sealer coat for the BMF paints and then display,
As time passes and you have a bunch of kits under your belt like Swanny & Pixilater these little tips will go a long way, like instead of using a gloss coat paint (like Testor Gloss Coat, or Tamiya’s Gloss coat) just use Future Floor Acyrlic, it’s cheaper (for the same price of the paint you could get a large bottle of Future and do just about 20 kits as to the paints 2 to 3 kits) and a little will go a great long way, and also dip the clear parts into this and it’ll keep the super glue vapors from fogging the clear parts as well as making the clear part more clearer