• Top: Non-specular Sea Blue (FS 35042 )

• Sides: Intermediate Blue (FS 35164)

• Bottom: Insignia White (FS 37875 )

• Insignias: Insignia White and Insignia Blue

I used the Frank Tiano color chip book to match my colors to, which were all custom mixed in latex. Here's the rundown on the tools and materials I used...

The Materials
I used Sherwin Williams Exterior Satin Latex to do all my primary painting, which included the tri-color scheme and the insignias. I took the Frank Tiano color chip book in to the local SW store, and we spent about 3 or 4 hours matching them to the book. I also took in 4 books with historical photos of SBD's in action to use as a point of reference to help us in determining the appropriate colors. They were very helpful at the SW paint store, and I was able to buy the custom mixed colors in quarts for only $10 a quart. Only $40 total for all the paint to give my plane her colors... what a deal! To do my masking, I use low-tack blue painters masking tape, Badger Artist's Airbrush Frisket film (8-1/2" x 11" sheets), and Bob Dively Liquid Mask. For my Clear Coating, I'll use Nelson Hobbies waterbased polyurethane clear coat, both flat and gloss. For my wingwalks, I laid a base of Rustoleum "Anti-Slip" Enamel. For my weathering I'll use a combination of latex paints and water-based hobby acrylics, mostly "Model Masters" brand. Lastly, I used both Black and White artist's Charcoal sticks.
The Tools
	To get a good paint job, you need the right tools. The majority of the paint job is done with a Porter Cable detail paint gun. This lays down a decent coat of paint with just the right pattern. It uses a removable plastic gravity feed paint cup on top, and holds just enough paint to do the job without having to remix. For smaller details and weathering, I used my Iwata Eclipse artist's airbrush. It has a small gravity feed cup on top which gives good paint flow with a minimum amount of paint required. This is very helpful when you only need a dab to hit a small spot, wasting very little paint. As with any airbrush worth it's weight, the Eclipse has a dual-action trigger, which allows you to push down to control the amount of airflow, and pull back to simultaneously adjust the paint pattern size and volume. I use Badger airbrush thinner to keep it cleaned and lubed. I ran both of these guns off of a 15 Gallon Campbell Hausefeld air compressor. Quick disconnects allowed me to eaily switch back and forth between guns. Most of the time I set the regulator to about 25psi to spray my paint.

I pre-mixed all my latex paints into small medicine bottles to avoid having to mix in the middle of the job. To mix my latex, I go for the consistency of milk. This means about 50/50 paint and Windsheild Washer Fluid, with a dab of Floetrol added to aid in paint flow and retard the drying. Basically, latex dries very fast. So to avoid "orange-peeling" you want to retard the drying to give the paint time to "level out" and get very flat/smooth. Using windsheild washer fluid makes the paint dry slower and lets it level out very well.

I first masked off all areas that I didn't want to get paint on, which includeded using the Dively Liquid Mask to mask off all the tiny light fixtures. Next I began shooting the white on the bottom of the wing, applying it in a number of very light coats, slowly building up until it was opaque. The latex is diluted so thin that the majority of you mixture evaporates leaving very little paint behind. However, latex pigments are so strong, that a very thin/light coat does a great job of covering with virtually no weight gain.

Before shooting the flaps and brakes, I had to mask the red "inside" surfaces off with blue tape. This was to keep the paint from "overspraying" through the perforated holes in the surfaces and ruining the red paint job on the insides.

The top side of the wing was shot with my custom Latex color first, then I used Model Masters Non-specular Sea blue and various shades to airbrush a "mottled" effect on the surface. I believe that one of the things that makes a ship look more "realistic" and less like a model is to get rid of that even/smooth coverage of your primary colors.

Looking at historical photos of fullscale planes, you'll find that the paint jobs were very irregular and mottled in hue, saturation, lightness and specularity. This process starts now by producing the mottled effect with very subtle variations in the paint colors applied with an airbrush. This will be further enhanced later with the weathering steps and clearcoating steps. I did this technique on all colors shot on both the wing and fuselage.

The picture at left shows the finished wing and all 10 controls surfaces painted.

Here you can begin seeing how the rivets and access hatches come to life when paint is applied. These will really look great once all the weathering and distressing is complete. To see the fuselage in her colors, continue on to the next section... "Painting the Insignias."