Serenity Model Build

I have been puttering on this model.at least the painting. I am on about the third coat of paint trying to get it right. It is a touch paint job! I can't quite get the colors right and all my reference pictures have lots of variations so I'm guessing a lot.

Also I am trying to make do with mostly acrylic paints from wal mart since they are cheap and easy to get for me. The nearest decnet hobby shop is an hour away so if I run out of a color that is a huge setback if I can't use the acrylics.

I have learned that diluting acrylics wit water sort of works..but clogs the airbrush. Diluting with alcohol makes it gummy!!

The trick is diluting with Windex with ammonia! It works great for my acrylics and for my old model paints I have from years ago!! Sprays GREAT in the airbrush, helps paints dry fast.

I spent a few hours last ngiht painting panels and the odd detail by hand. I was trying to do all this with an airbrush but in the end it just made sense to do a lot of the detailing by hand.

I still have a lot of detail work to do but here it is so far. The base says Firefly and I painted that months ago with my old airbrush. I'll have a rod come up from the base to hold serenity 'mid air'.