1/48 Revell Ventura Part IV

Into the paint shop.

I've decided that NZ4540 is the aircraft I'm going to depict. There are several reasons for this, firstly it is one of the aircraft that retained its fuselage art when on operations, secondly it has a couple of distinct patches and splotches on the rear fuselage and tail which IMHO add interest, and finally it was operated by No 2 Sqn, which I serviced in when I was in the RNZAF.

There are a 3 photos of NZ4540 being broken up in the Ventura Publications "Pacific Twins" book, which allowed me to confirm the patches and that it was quite weathered when it was broken up in March 1944.

The aircraft is in the 3 tone USN Scheme of Non-Specular Sea Blue (upper fuselages and wing leading edges), Semi gloss sea blue  (upper wings and upper tail plane). Intermediate blue fuselage sides and tail surfaces and non spectacular white lower surfaces.

My problem with USN schemes is that in 1/48 Sea Blue straight out of the bottle is almost black. The photos of NZ4540 show the sea blue darker than the intermediate blue, but the contrast is nowhere as dark as using Sea Blue direct from the bottle would appear on my model.

So as usual I went with my eye and chose colours I could live with. 

I like the Mr Color Lacquer paints for spraying, although the lighter colours can be a bit tricky to apply. I also like the Tamiya AS spray can's. These spray beautifully and it's a cheap way to buy paint.
 

Although the upper wings and fuselage are supposed to be the same colour but with different gloss levels, in all the images I viewed, they looked the same. I decided to try and do the same.

The base colour for the upper surfaces was Tamiya AS8 "Navy Blue" decanted and mixed with a touch of Mr Color #311 FS36222 to lighten it. This was applied first. Using various blues and blacks I applied random marks and shading to this area.

The leading edges are supposed to be the same as the upper fuselage. But again in the images I viewed the leading edges looked considerably lightly than than the wings and upper fuselage. I used Mr Color H72 intermediate blue to simulate this.

Next was Mr Color 366 Intermediate blue which was applied freehand with my Sparmax airbrush to the fuselage. This intermediate blue comes from Mr Colors USN Navy color set, and is quite different hue to H72, which is also intermediate blue.Again, using blues and greys, I applied some shading, mottling, and marks.

Next was the lower surfaces. Rather than white I used a gray,  Mr Color #311 FS36222. In my opinion white of this much would look to stark This is one the colours that is hard to apply and I was having trouble. So I switched to the Mr Hobby (Aqueous) version of this colour. I used some thinned darker greys to show weathering.

Finally I applied the patches to the tail. The decal sheet and Pacific Twins show this a light gray and from the photos it impossible to tell so I went with their recommendation. I used Mr Color # 315 FS16440, again applied freehand