3 Week Painting Challenge Day 3 & 4 - models & decals

So having picked up this particular gauntlet I needed to get a start. Luckily the P11 is available from the PlanePrinter Patreon scheme so I can 3d print them. Only problem is the printer has been lying pretty much dormant over spring as I tend to suffer print fails in low temperatures. 

With some trepidation I ran some quick tests and all seemed well 

My Photon Ultra has a small print bed so I can comfortably fit only five models on it, though in the end I settled for only four so I could run it twice and get all the planes I would need. I chanted the rituals, and ran the printer. My incantations seemed to be correct and I now have eight usable models.  

First four just off the printer and ready for a bit of clean up

So clean up then undercoat and hopefully get some progress on paint.

At this point I had a bit of a setback. I had hoped to get some decals for these guys from Miscellaneous Miniatures in the US of A. They've always been my first port of call for decals and they usually are fast and very reasonably priced. However they've had a reorganisation and have changed postal service - which sadly meant that the $5 decal sheet was going to cost rather more than that to ship to me in the UK - full disclosure, I was thinking of bulk ordering twelve sheets, so $60, but the postage was quoted as $63 which was not really viable :-(

Step forward Pendraken Miniatures. I had to visit the shop to do some checks for the event anyway, so I drove through and picked up some Polish decals from the I-94 Enterprises range that they carry. The I94E range is a bit of a curates egg for me. They're not specifically designed for 1:200 scale - in fact they seem to be in any scale but 1:200, but they have a very wide range and there's usually something in there that will do. Sadly they don't do individual unit markings and numbers like Misc Minis, but beggars cant be choosers.    

The range can be viewed here https://www.pendraken.co.uk/i-94 and I suspect until the "decal drought" can be fixed theyre going to be getting a lot of business from UK based players.

So still on track - paint next