Mountain goat Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 (edited) Hi, my first RFI here. I started Airfix's 1/72 Gnat kit about a year ago, and recently decided to finish it. It's OOB except for after market decals by BD.. I mean S&M productions, and Albion micro brass tubes for the pitot tube. It's not great, but it's what my skills can produce right now, and I'm happy the build is now over - so I'd like to share the result. I wish I could say it was an enjoyable build, but in all truth it wasn't - partly it's down to me because I tried all kinds of new techniques and paints on the model and some of those experiments didn't go as planned and needed arduous correcting. Then again the kit itself wasn't a big joy to build either, including the well-known gaps between fuselage and wing section possibly resulting from fiddly-doodly %##^ing with the intake walls aka cockpit side walls . Intake trunking was done with paper-thin evergreen plastic sheet and pva-glue, which actually kind of worked. The undersides of the intake splitter plates were sanded. I detailed the ejection seats with wire and Tamiya tape - the harness came from lead foil on top of a wine bottle. For the nose light to appear like one I stuck some aluminum tape behind the transparent piece before glueing it on. All paints are Gunze Mr Hobby. For the orange I painted first a layer of H11 flat white, followed by Lemon Yellow, followed by a H14 Orange with a dash of red in it. Post weathering done with pastels and cosmetic eye shadow from the drug store's make-up department. I'm almost thinking weathering is overdone, but then again it's supposed to depict a Gnat in the very last days of the colour scheme before the fleet switched to the red/ white affair. What do you think? DSC_0459 by J Goat, on Flickr DSC_0466 by J Goat, on Flickr DSC_0465 by J Goat, on Flickr DSC_0472 by J Goat, on Flickr DSC_0475 by J Goat, on Flickr DSC_0483 by J Goat, on Flickr DSC_0480 by J Goat, on Flickr DSC_0500 by J Goat, on Flickr Thanks for looking! Jay Edited November 22, 2015 by Mountain goat 35 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 Neat Gnat, looks rather nice. I like the base as well, Sean 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cngaero Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 A very gnice gnat. Gnice base too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcdonnell Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 Hello,Mountain Goat - Welcome to Britmodeller and what a fine start you've made.Your Gnat is beautifully built,finished and displayed.All the best,Paul. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F4u Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 Lovely Gnat and on a great base, I really admire you guy's that do 1/72 scale as I just find them to small to work with!! Guy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Low flyer Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 You have maybe had some trials with this build but I think you have turned out a good job 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountain goat Posted November 22, 2015 Author Share Posted November 22, 2015 Thanks all! The base in the last pics is the Verlinden revetment. Jay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimHead23 Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 That looks excellent. Very well done! Regards Jim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul A H Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 That's a lovely looking model 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 Cracking build, it looks more 1/48 than 72 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedy Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 I like the Matt finish, very effective. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 Nice build! Martin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stesca Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 Lovely Jay, very nice indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Mollica Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 I like it Jay, I like it a lot. Cheers Tony 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountain goat Posted November 23, 2015 Author Share Posted November 23, 2015 Wow! Thank you for the comments everyone! Jay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger331 Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 Nice Gnat…….I drove past one of these almost every day for 3 years on my way to work, when I was based with No 4 FTS…….different color scheme, of course. You have done a great job with a great little kit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 Jay, Now that is a GORGEOUS looking GNAT.. SUPERB finish and quite RESPLENDENT and subtle weathering. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 Fantastic work! I'm doing two of these atm, and they are causing all sorts of headaches as well! The trainer version is nearly ready for silver paint, but the Red Arrows one is awful. It's about to get a flight into the bin! I think you're right, it's all due to the intake fit, seems to knock everything out. I just cannot get the canopy to line up on it! Yours is an amazing model though, top work Val 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 Thats a helluva nice job. I'm building one of these just now & yours looks much nicer than mine. Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountain goat Posted November 25, 2015 Author Share Posted November 25, 2015 (edited) Wow, these reactions really make the build feel much more worthwhile, thank you! I drove past one of these almost every day for 3 years on my way to work, when I was based with No 4 FTS…….different color scheme, of course. Nice. I presume you mean the red/ white livery - hope to complete one of those soon. I just cannot get the canopy to line up on it! Had the same problem, I stuck the canopy on with ca glue, got it as aligned as possible, then carefully sanded the canopy framing to conform to the spine: it's too thick anyway. A relaxing build the Gnat is gnot. Jay Edited November 25, 2015 by Mountain goat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ c Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 Great job on that, Really nice work 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark4700 Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 Excellent job. Love the matt finish. I've done the Airfix 1:48 version and had major issues with the orange paint. Got there in the end though. May have a go at the 1:72 having seen yours. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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