Jetpack Tanks Finished

Work progresses on the jetpack. At this point I've gone through almost an entire roll of Frog brand masking tape.  The whole process is pretty maddening.  Tape for an hour, then spray for 30 seconds. Wait a day, tape for another hour, spray for 30 seconds.... over and over...

Anyway...For the side tanks, I started with the usual coat of silver, followed by liquid mask.  Then I hit it with Satin White.

Using my new favorite Rustoleum color for grime, Anodized Bronze, I misted the white...

Then I re-taped and sprayed the black bars on the upper tanks.  I bought some vinyl decals for the alien symbols in the middle of the black bars, but in the end, I decided to free-hand it with a very fine brush and Testors Black with a touch of gray.  Then I misted over the whole thing with a very small amount of white. Most people keep these bars very dark black, but I wanted them to look a little sun bleached.

Guess what I did then?  That's right! I re-taped, re-applied liquid mask, and sprayed the red areas of the tanks.  

Once they dried, I misted them with black, peeled off ALL the tape and liquid mask, and then attacked it all with a screwdriver and some gravel. Once I had all the damage done, I dipped a papertowel in a custom mix of Testors paint to simulate deeply embedded grime, and dry-rubbed it over and over so the dirty brown color would sink into the dents and dings...

...and finally we have finished tanks!

Next up I'm going to tackle the top and rocket.

~N