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1/48 Aerospatiale Gazelle HT2 705 Naval Air Squadron (Fujimi) - DONE FOR NOW


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Crisp, yes - Crispy never! (The real name is Crispin, but only my Mum calls me that!)

Green and grey? Pah! You'll be asking me to stick bloomin' weapons on it next. Everyone knows that the Gazelle is merely a splendid Gentleman's Conveyance of an aircraft rather than a steely war machine - perfect, as you say, for land-aways (and student filth like me...).

[bTW, I live in Salisbury and am an IPMS member, so I really ought to get my act together come down to your branch]

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Masks starting to come off, and so far pretty pleased (as well as the small areas of seepage under the tape visible here, there are a couple of minor areas on the port side that need touching up, but nothing serious).

Gloss varnish next for the decals, then final assembly of fenestron, skids, rotor head, pitot head, horizontal stabilisers...

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Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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First coat (the one shown in early pics above that I said wasn't as pick as it looks) was Vallejo Model Colour 70.817 Scarlet. When it dried it was just a little too orange in natural light, so the second coat was Vallejo Model Colour 70.947 Red. To my eyes the colour os pretty good now, though I know these things are always subjective, and depend on how much the real aircraft has faded, the light etc. As far as I recall, the 705 cabs when I was a stude were kept pretty immaculate, so there will be minimal weathering and the paint job can't be too faded.

More later.

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Again, the canopy masking has worked OK, with only a few minor corrections. Note also that the aircraft finally has a tail rotor!

God bless Tamiya masking tape...

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Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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GAAAAAAAGGGH! And it was all going so well!

All the masks off, and everything looking pretty good from this angle...

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But possibly not from this one...

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Yes, that's right; there's a piece of masking that I have left inside the bloody cockpit. D'OH!

I am laughing rather than crying; it's simple enough to fix, though that will mean some more painting to be done round the canopy.

Could be worse, but I do feel more than a bit of a prat!

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I have removed the rogue maskers without any significant damage to anything; just need to re-attach the canopy and do some paint touching up. Could have been a lot worse!

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So here we are - pretty much done. There has been a death in the family (v elderly relative, peacefully after a long illness, so sad rather than a tragedy... but none the less), which means this will be my last posting for a while. I am almost certainly going to miss the end of the GB as a result, since we're off to Nottingham on Wed for the funeral, and then on holiday for a fortnight in Norfolk. Taking a 90% complete Gazelle to Norfolk would probably cost me a wife!

I will finish it, obviously, but it won't be until I return in mid-September.

FWIW, I've got most of the decals on (only the day-glo 45 on the windscreen to be done). I'm using the Model Alliance RN Aerobatics Teams set, and they're robust and really nicely done; some of them needed a fair amount of manipulation & MicroSet/Sol to get them to sit properly, but they've taken it very happily.

Anyway, here's the result. I still have to re-fit the windscreen following the stray maskers debacle, plus of course fit the skids, horizontal stabs and rotor head. That was going to be done tomorrow evening, but that's no longer going to be possible. So here, as close to finished as it's going to get in the GB timeframe, is my First Solo Gazelle, 21 October 1985.

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Thanks for all the support; the rest of the build (probably only a couple of hours) will be in about 3 weeks!

Crisp

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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Sorry to hear about the death and possibly missing the GB end, but these things happens in life. The Gazelle is looking really good though. Scary moment with the forgotten mask, not the sort of thing one wants to discover, but very good recovery it seems. Don't forget to show the finished model even if it misses the GB end.

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