It was a long day yesterday, ended the work day up writing another segment of Night Lark which is close to being complete and should be appearing here shortly. After a late supper I ventured downstairs to put a little more touches on the “Rocket Rod” taking it one step closer to being finished.

The main gear legs were attached, and I applied a little white paint to the upper surfaces to simulate where the cyrogenic fuel vents off overpressure. To do this I needed a way to mask to allow me to spray a very slim line of white from two of the vent portals. I accomplished this after looking at the resources on my workbench. Foam! It was a perfect medium to easily cut that would produce a soft edge mask. This particular foam is used for furniture making and crafts. Easily sourced at craft and fabric stores.

Using a sharp #11 blade I cut a beveled wedge out of a thin slice of the foam. Once I had the angle of the wedge shape cut I used a T-Pin to align the end of the mask to the location of the vent hole on the model. Then I simply gave the open space in the center of the foam mask a couple light passes with the airbrush containing the color I wanted…in this case I used flat white thinned down to almost transparent in consistency.

This technique is also useful for applying streaking from machine and cannon cordite residue, hot gas and exhaust streaking along surfaces. I suggest wearing a protective glove when doing this technique, as I use my fingernail to check the paint flow from the airbrush before beginning to apply paint down the gap in the foam mask.

Decals. What markings to use? I laid out a few choices, though I haven’t completely decided yet but you can see which direction I am leaning. I guess I’ll know for sure when I apply the first national insignia as to whose aircraft this is going to be.

The canopy has been painted and I have the dash panel painted and ready to be inserted as well. Once those are in I will place the joystick inside and probably a pilot figure, at least an upper torso since you won’t see much else anyway.

I’m hoping to wrap this project up over the coming weekend. That is if other obligations allow me to spend several hours of quality time at the workbench.

Back to Chapter III.