Project Update: Project Liberator
ByThis has been a slow progressing project, mostly due to too many other distractions. But as you read in the previous post I have the propellers now painted and ready for decaling. 
The ship has been given a new pet name…Eight Ball. I think it a fitting name since she isn’t going to be a typical B-24. Just a reminder, this aircraft is being finished with acrylic paints…including the NMF which my Talon Series NMF Paints!
I used an old school technique to create this 8 Ball marking. I simply masked the area to be painted white. Once the white was applied and had time to cure I applied a dry transfer 8 on to the surface. I didn’t burnish it down too hard but enough to keep it in place. Using a circle template as a painting mask (see in the image below), I place the template circle over the rudder (not yet mounted to the aircraft), aligning carefully where I wanted the “Ball” to be placed to hold the template snugly in place with some clothes pins. Be sure to mask any surrounding holes on the template that might let paint overspray hit the model.
I airbrushed on the Black holding the airbrush 90 degrees from the surface (square on) to keep the air from pulling and lifting the edges of the dry transfer. I applied it in light coats until I was satisfied with the coverage. Carefully I removed the clothes pins and the circle template from the rudder piece and set it aside to dry. After it was no longer tacky I used a piece of masking tape to lift off the dry transfer. Since it has less adhesion than the surrounding paint it lifted off leaving behind a white 8.
I could have used decals or white dry transfers for this but it gave me the opportunity to practice and share this technique. It is also easily and realistically weathered, including picking and scuffing to expose the NMF underneath. I have to touch up the other rudder because I forgot to pull some of the masking necessary to apply the white band. Oops. So the white area is incomplete…an easy repair.
The nose section has been painted and temporarily attached with some tape. I do have a couple of seams to address and clean up but that shouldn’t be too difficult now that I can see them! The whole nose section is make up of three clear pieces which make it hard to see the seam joints once cemented. Fortunately the fit is fairly good so it won’t be too hard to fix the minor seam issues.
The fun part will be filling the gap at the back side of the canopy where it meets the upper fuselage…I may have to insert a piece of cardstock to fill the gap. Nice thing about acrylics is you can use a little Windex on a Q-Tip to remove paint from the area that needs reworking.
I need to dig through the spares stash to see if there are any bits and pieces I might want to add to this project to emphasize she really is an Eight Ball!
