Blood Red Skies Vietnam

Finally managed to get the airbrush out and have a got at a A7 as a bit of a test model. Plenty of lessons learnt to take forward onto my next attempt.

I picked up the AK 3G USN & USMC paints to use. I struggled getting a good covering with the insignia white over the grey undercoat. I think going forward I’ll use a white undercoat which may help. I ended up going over the white with a brush, which gave a better covering, but not a smooth consistant surface. It’s on the underside so I decided to accept it as it was and move on.

I used some liquid mask just to cover the white which worked out well before applying the grey. Once the base layers were one a couple of coats of gloss varnish, then added some decals. These were from the MiG Alley kit but there are some A7 decal sets available from Misc Minis.

I wanted to add some modulation as the paints looked really flat. I opted for some dot filtering & weathering. I think on the next model I just go for some white/grey/light blue tone dot filtering and skip the weathering. Next up was some panel lining with Sky Grey, a tidy up with a cotton bud dipped in the mineral spirits then a gloss varnish to seal that all in. Just the canopy to finish then a matt varnish to take away the shine. Overall I’m happy with how it’s come out and looking forward putting into pratice what I learnt from this one.

I’ve added some links to resources below, like rules expansions, models etc.

January has mainly been reading up on Operation Linebacker and some aircraft specific books from Osprey Publishing. I did manage to get some primer on my A4s and pick up some era specific paint sets. I’ve got the MiG17s on the workbench as well, one of them needs a little bit of tidying up, nothing some fine grit won’t fix.

I’ve been really interested in Lead Pursuit Podcast’s venture into rules and models for time periods beyond mig alley. As an early xmas treat to myself I’ve picked up some models. This was prior to Blue Falcon Hobbies Kick Starter launching, which I have also backed.

The prints are great quality and I’m really happy with them. The F105 wasn’t in stock, but I’ll be definitely getting that at some point. Shipping was around $20 from the US to the UK which I thought was good.

https://www.leadpursuit.net/store