Fifty Shades of Gray…

G’day Folks, I’ve been making good progress on the starboard fuselage sheeting, cutting out the panels and temporarily fixing with cleco’s.

I also tackled the fuselage tapered sections I’d started a couple of years back but was never entirely happy with. I’ve now improved my port side initial attempt and completed the starboard side as well. Much happier with the metal work now – shouldn’t require much filler for the edges to be nice and crisp.

Then onto getting the canopy finished. Time consuming, fiddly and a bit like a house of cards until it’s all properly bolted together…

Once the canopy is finalised, I’ll do the final fitting of the open/close actuator.

I’m also thinking that I’ll paint the canopy frames before final fitting, while it’s easier to access and mask etc. This has meant I’ve had to do some serious colour searching/matching to obtain the right base gray for the ship. I don’t know the original colour used, apart from it being referred to as ‘hotrod gray’. I started perusing some Dulux colour charts and discovered there are definitely more than 50 shades of gray! I found it quite difficult to match up screen captures of the filmed Viper, with various shades based on confounders such as studio lighting. I grabbed a few paint samples of grays to try and get a close match:

I’m leaning toward a lighter shade of gray, given that there’ll likely be some weathering applied. I rolled on a couple of sample coats to the front starboard nose of my preferred match, to get a better idea of how it looks. Some comparisons, which show how lighting affects the hue, but I think it’s pretty close:

I’m planning on using Dulux Metalshield Epoxy Enamel as a topcoat, with an etch primer and all surface metal primer to adhere to the aluminium.

I’ve been doing some testing with the etch primer and all surface primer when the aluminium is properly cleaned with acetone and deoxidised. I’m pleased with Dulux paint system and how well it adheres to the surface, as aluminium is notoriously difficult to get paint to stick to.

I also will be testing some filler products, for the rivet dimpling, gaps and minor dents. It seems that some bondo/filler/bog is better than others, both for application and sanding, as well as aluminium substrates. There are some aluminium/fibre reinforced fillers that I hear good reports about, as well as some epoxy resin fillers that might be suit my needs.

Anyway, stay tuned!