1275GT's Airfix 1/72 Folland Gnat "Red Arrows"

[1275GT]

Hi all, hope I'm not too late to get in on this one ! I hadn't actually planned to, bit then I saw this, and seeing as I've already built the yellow version, I figured it'd be rude not to.....

Obligatory box and sprue shots, for those not familiar it's a lovely little kit ( "little" being the operative word), fairly straight forward and well detailed for the scale. One minor gripe is that there don't seem to be the same amount of stencilling as the other I built....a bit odd, that.

Hopefully I'll make a start at the weekend, and it should be my first airbrush victim.... :o

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[Dave W]

I'm building the 1/48 kit.So I will watch this one with interest.a good one for a first time airbrusher as its just one colour all over.

 

[flyjoe180]

Welcome aboard Neil. Nice choice, will go well with your aerobatic collection.

 

[1275GT]

Hi all. I've been finding it tricky to get any plastic bashing done lately, but progress has been made. Made some minor improvements to the cockpit, during with time the carpet monster swiped its largest piece of plastic yet, namely one of the rear cockpit side panels !! Seriously, I don't know how I lost it.....

Anyway, using the other side as a pattern, it was pretty straight forward to rustle up another, and its position means that the result isn't particularly obvious anyway. The joys of model-making......

I've also added a little mod to the air intakes. Where I thinned them down, I lost any idea of the splitter plate, so had a crack at making them. The result doesn't look too bad, but I'll reserve judgement until some paint goes on.

Anyway, the basic airframe is complete, once the canopy is on I can get some colour on her.

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Cheers, Neil

 

[Dave W]

Coming along nicely Neil.That reminds me, I must finish my 1/48 version.

 

[flyjoe180]

Nice start Neil. Regarding stencils, I noticed that with my Vampire builds. The starter set had less detail on the sheet.

 

[1275GT]

Evening all. So finally broke my airbrushing cherry !!! Had a minor blip, trying to thin Airfix paint with Tamiya thinner.....bit of a no-no. Luckily I had the Tamiya equivalent to hand, and the final colour doesn't look too bad. It's not the best of jobs, but I've learned a lot out of it, so it's all good.


Moved on quite quickly, 99% of assembly done along with most of the decaling. The only hiccup here was the tail markings on the post side, which have some tricky details to try and cover. They've eventually softened enough to cover them nicely, but have spit slightly in a few places, so some touching in will be needed. Other than that, nearly there


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Cheers, Neil

 

[flyjoe180]

You're motoring through this one Neil, nice paint work. Looking flash with the decals on.

 

[1275GT]

Ok, all done !! Must be some sort of record for me, a whole kit done in just over a month !!!!.


However, I have had a bit of a canopy disaster. Got a little bit of bleed of both primer and topcoat under the masking, and some sort of marking on the inside that defiantly wasn't there when it went on, I'm thinking maybe a touch of condensation perhaps. Also, some of the clearfix has got onto the coaming and its ended up as an odd stain !! Still, it's not too bad, and the rest has come out pretty well. Even got a decent colour match on the touch-up on the tail decal.


Picked out the main flying surfaces with a bit of panel wash, added a cut down needle for a nose probe and I'm done. I'll post finished pics in the completed section.


Thanks for watching


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