Progress has finally made it to the color coat stage. After hand brushing the darker gray colors and then masking them I painted everything in my base color using Vallejo Model Color White Gray. To my eye it makes the perfect base color. It is almost white with just a hint of gray. I sprayed all the parts with the base color. Model Color is primarily intended for brush painting but I was able to airbrush it by thinning it 50/50 with a custom thinner I made that was 66% distilled water and 33% isopropyl alcohol with a few drops of Model Color Flow Improver added. This worked very well and gave me pretty even coverage.
After painting the base color I removed all the masking, except for the open pod bay door and the cockpit window area. I let the paint set for a day and then mixed a batch of 25/75 base color/thinner and applied a mist coat over the command sphere and neck parts that had the darker gray areas. This toned down the difference in shade from the base color and looks pretty good to my eye. Sorry I didn’t get any before pictures. I’ll apply a clear flat overcoat to protect the paint. It is rather fragile and can be damaged if not handled carefully. The clear coat should give a tougher surface.
Next up will be to start installing the interior parts into the command sphere and continuing the assembly.
Thanks for looking.
Luhman-ations 