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.
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.
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.
Not sure when I acquired this Airfix 1/72 Spitfire PR XIX kit up. I obviously got it because it fits in the Cold War period.
Construction of the kit was straight out of the box.
To enhance the cockpit, seatbelts were cut from masking tape. At this scale and size of model, adding detail to the cockpit seemed a bit irrelevant.
The Airfix 1/72 Spitfire PR.XIX build
Step 1 prime the inside areas, such as the cockpit, wheel wells etc., and then give them a coat of Hataka A025 Interior Grey-Green. I hand painted the cockpit details with various paints to hand.
Gluing the main components together, including the transparent areas where the cameras would be located in the real aircraft. Usual use of tape and pegs to hold the parts together while the glue sets.
Seam line and gaps filled and sanded. For small areas I use Vallejo Plastic Putty.
For larger gaps, such as the wing roots, I use standard yellow-grey milliput.
Sanding and filling is now completed, a black paint is applied to see if further work is required.
Canopy masked using Tamiya masking tapes and attached to the kit with PVA glue.
Kit primed with Halfords grey metal primer paint. I was keen to get the primer on, that I had forgotten to mask the side camera window. Then when I attempted to remove the primer, I pushed the window into the body of the fuselage. I did mask the two underside transparencies, I used Vallejo Liquid Mask.
With this kit, I decided to have a go at pre-shading. Lucky for me,, pre-shading does not have to be very accurate, as my airbrush skills are not up to precise work as yet.
The underside pre-shaded.
As this is a photo reconnaissance aircraft, it has a nice simple paint scheme. I sprayed Vallejo 71.109 Faded PRU Blue for the overall colour. The pre-shading adds a nice subtle effect.
The underneath, wheel wells masked with blue-tak.
Jumping ahead, model given a coat of gloss varnish then decals applied. I used Micro Sol to set the decals, but I really need to use much more than I do, as they don’t always settle in to the panel lines. Followed by a coat of varnish to seal the decals. To add a little extra I also did a very subtle exhaust stain using some pastel chalk from a cheap set of artist pastels.
During the build of the Airfix 1/72 Spitfire PR XIX I used a number of products, that you also may find useful. To start with, fillers are something every model maker requires, and 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 required 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.
