With the paintwork sealed under a gloss coat, I then was able to apply the scheme decals. With some of the markings being painted on with masks this phase of the build was fairly quick and proceeded smoothly. Where things bogged down was with the 200+ stencils that needed to be applied over top these markings. I can’t lie; this wasn’t a particularly enjoyable part of the build and I’m glad I’m past it!
With the decals more or less completed I was able to move on to weathering. With the amount of pre-shading work completed, I knew that I wanted to keep the weathering light as to not overpower the paintwork. I opted for a simple dark wash and some light streaking effects. After these were applied, I applied a flat coat to keep everything together. With the flat coat done it was finally time to unmask the canopy and camera bay.
At this late stage of the build the last things left were the gear bays, the camera equipment and the canopy frames. I completed the gear and gear bays first so that I could get the model standing on its own legs. Painting and weathering were pretty straightforward in this area, just some Gloss white over black primer before adding some decals and weathering in the form of a brown oil wash.
I also took this time to build up the pylons and the ECM pod. These were from Reskit and the detail was fantastic.
Last but not least was the canopies and their resin frames. The set from Hypersonic models really fills out the detail in this area and makes these parts look a lot more real in my option.
Nomad Models 