Tag: aircraft model

Airfix 1/72 de Havilland Vampire T.11(A02058A)

The completed Airfix 1/72 de Havilland Vampire T11

Aquired the Airfix 1/72 de Havilland Vampire T.11 as a Christmas gift one year, so has been sat in my stash for a while.

Another one built straight out of the box, but with the addition of some decals from the Xtradecl set “de Havilland Vampire T.55 Pt.1 X72173”.

So the scheme I went for is a Vampire J-28C-3 from the F5 squadron, Royal Swedish Air Force at Ljunbyhed, August 1967. The Xtradecal sheet contains markings for a Olive Green Swedish version. However I liked the high speed silver scheme.

Also on that sheet, there are markings’ for an Austrian, RAF, RNZAF, RAAF and South African Vampires. So plenty of choice for when I build some more.

Anyway, on with the build…

The box art

Box art of the Airfix 1/72 de Havilland Vampire T11

The attractive box art, with a very interesting RAF scheme.

However from what I have read, the dayglow decals supplied in the kit are very thick and take some work to get to sit as expected.

Kit contents

Kit parts of the Airfix 1/72 de Havilland Vampire T11

Kit contents, well the plastic parts anyway. Not too many parts, so should be quite a quick build.

Early paint stage

Work in progress on the Airfix 1/72 de Havilland Vampire T11

Various bits and bobs built and painted, plus a bit of a wash added in some areas.

Interesting note about the Swedish Vampire’s, they were not fitted with ejection seats!

Painting stages

Work in progress on the Airfix 1/72 de Havilland Vampire T11

OK, jumping ahead here, model primed (Halfords metal car primer), and some pre-shading.

One thing to note about this kit, is that you have to attach the landing gear legs during the build, and not after, which you can do with most builds.

Yes you guessed at, towards the end, one of the legs got snapped off.

Work in progress on the Airfix 1/72 de Havilland Vampire T11

Top half primed and pre-shaded.

Work in progress on the Airfix 1/72 de Havilland Vampire T11

Silver airbrushed on, in this instance Tamiya XF-16 Aluminium and a start made on the dayglow stripes. The stripes are a mixture of Hataka Luminous Orange (A194) and Hataka Signal Red (A276). These came from the Hataka Modern Royal Air Force Paint Set Vol.3.

The finished kit – Airfix 1/72 de Havilland Vampire T.11

Products

During this build I used a number of products, that you also may find useful. To start with, fillers are something every model maker requires. The 2 that I find the best are Vallejo Plastic Putty and Standard Milliput Yellow-Grey.

For masking I use Tamiya 10mm tape and Tamiya 3mm tape plus when reuired standard decorating tape.

I always, well nearly always, take some of the stickiness from the tape by sticking it to my trousers before applying to the models painted surface. 

YouTube

Quick update – 1/72 Airfix builds

Sorry, not been posting for a while, been busy with other projects that had to take priority over my model making. So here is a quick blog post about 2 1/72 Airfix builds I have on the go.

The Airfix 1/72nd Folland Gnat which will be finished as a Yellow Jacks aircraft (slowly building up my RAF aerobatic collection).

The other is a non-Cold War aircraft, and it is the Airfix 1/72nd Supermarine Spitfire Mk1a, I quite like taking a dip out off the Cold War builds as a break.

The Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk1a and the Airfix 1/72 Gnat, both work in progress.

Surprising how small the Folland Gnat is compared to the Spitfire.

Anyway, will post some updates when I get the opportunity, still have lots of non model maing projects to work on.

Airfix 1/72 builds – updates

Folland Gnat

So a week or so later and I’ve managed to move on with both builds.

With the Gnat, I have used Vallejo 71.408 PRU pink as a 2nd undercoat (over Vallejo Grey Primer) and then spraying the yellow, in this case Tamiya XF-3 Flat Yellow.

The reason I did this, is that yellow can be a pain to paint, as it is very transparent. So the pink gives it a better base coat. As you can see from the photos, did the job quite well.


Supermarine Spitfire

As for the Spitfire, that build is going really well.

I have now airbrushed the model, very happy with the finish of the paint. However that camouflage scheme, not right.

As this is my third attempt at airbrushing a camouflage scheme, I’m going to take it.

The method I used was to use blue-tak snakes to mark out the edges of the camo scheme. Then in fill with masking tape. Much harder than it looks to get those snakes to curve and stay in place.

Airfix 1/72 Hunting Percival Jet Provost T.4

This Airfix Jet Provost kit was completed last year (2017), apart from some non Cold War figures and a Spitfire Mk1 this was the only kit completed in 2017.

My reason for building the Airfix Jet Provost Red Pelican’s, is that I wanted this to be my first airbrushed kit. As the colour scheme is red, this fitted in with my airbrushing plan.

To keep things simple I stayed away from any pre-shading and weathering just so I could concentrate on getting the airbrushing right.

The kit went together relatively well, just some issues with the fit of the cockpit tub, which required some trimming.

I did struggle with the seam line on the nose which took some work to hide (not sure I did completely). 

Once built and ready to paint, I primed it with Vallejo Grey Surface Primer.

Moving on to the next step once I was happy that I’d got all the seam lines sorted etc., was to spray the red colour. For this I used Hataka paints, the ‘Modern Royal Air Force Paint Set Vol.3’. (Red set for airbrush).

Both the Vallejo primer and the Hataka red went on well, any imperfections in the finish is totally down to my lack of experience. 

Considering this one is my first airbrushed kit, I’m quite happy with the result. OK it’s not perfect, but I’m still in the learning stage, especially getting the paint to the correct consistency and the right pressure on the airbrush.

I hand painted the anti dazzle area on the nose. Would prefer it to be better, but this is a learning curve.

Airfix Jet Provost Completed

Anyway, here is the finished model. I do have some more Jet Provosts in the stash, so expect to see some more in the future.

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Useful bits:

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I’ve got a couple of Gnats on the work bench, so hope to have one of those featured soon.

Happy to take constructive crits.