gengriz Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 (edited) Britannia Royal Naval College Air Experience Flight - 1957 This one has been a lot more difficult than I expected or its size suggests, but it is finished at last and photographed on this bright and sunny Spring/Easter morning! It's the recent 1/72 Airfix kit, with a set of home compiled decals for one of the four ex-RAF-ex-Civil aircraft that the RN bought in 1956 for use as flying acquaint aircraft. This one lived at Dartmouth until it was written off on 16/8/1962 after a crash on take off from Anges in the Pays de la Loire (sounds like a nice flying jolly to France was being had by someone at the time - fortunately no casualties!) This is a very impressive little kit with some superb fine detail. Mine was the civil version, with bright red and silver scheme out the box; another issue has WW2 camouflage and yet another starter kit has bright yellow trainer colours. However, despite its generally excellent fit and well thought out layout, it is not the easiest of builds, mainly due to the fragility of some parts, especially the wing struts. The main issue is the extra supporting structure that keeps the interplane struts at the right angle as you assemble the kit. These are an excellent idea and Airfix intend that you cut them off after assembly. making them suitably thin to help you with this. However the struts themselves are also very thin and I know I am not the only one who has has issues removing the unwanted parts afterward. I broke three of the struts trying to shave the helping parts off before giving up. Nice idea Airfix, but one that may cause more heartache than help for many modellers. The other surprising issue is that Airfix have provided the anti-spin strakes as separate parts, requiring you to cut out the upper fuselage and insert the new ones. This is really quite a fiddly task and difficult to tidy up afterward. A much better idea would have been to provide both versions as inserts; the excellent level of fit of the rest of the kit suggests that this would have been entirely feasible and certainly a lot easier for the builder than cut and shut. Rigging is lycra thread and just about drove me nuts. I normally enjoy threading biplanes and this is a fairly simple one, but on this occasion it seems my superglue has passed its sell by date and wouldn't stick to anything except my fingers. Much cursing and chuntering later it was finished, but not as neatly as I had hoped. Recommended for those with patience and a light touch!! FredT Edited August 17, 2019 by gengriz Undoing the damage that Photobucket inflicted 46 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 A beautiful little thing in a bit unusual postwar trainer scheme. Like it a lot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darby Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 With those letters painted down both sides it looks better than any other. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyot Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 Very nice Fred,.......fantastic subject and I`m relieved to hear that it wasn`t just me who broke the struts on this one,......they are far too fragile aren`t they! Cheers Tony 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire31 Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 A really pretty little model! The rigging looks a tad overscale to me and something seems to have happened to the stbd interplane cross bracing, but I can understand that after fighting the superglue, you let good enough alone! ;-) Nice work! Kind regards, Joachim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carius Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 Excellent job indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Head in the clouds. Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 Love a Moth and yours is very nice indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomoshenko Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 Nice work on a wonderful subject. I did mine in the trainer yellow - a personal homage to the original Airfix kit as it was the first model I ever built - in a galaxy far far away a long time ago. Yes the struts are a pain, glad to hear I wasn't the only one having a faff with em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Dyck Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 Very nice Fred,.......fantastic subject and I`m relieved to hear that it wasn`t just me who broke the struts on this one,......they are far too fragile aren`t they! Cheers Tony ......me too......:-((( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huvut76g7gbbui7 Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 Nice to see one built in RN markings. I have XL717 on the go (slowly!) and she will be in the later scheme with dayglo RG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russmeister 101 Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 That looks rather splendid! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reini78 Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 lovely work with that midget still waiting for a decent 1/48 kit... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 A lttle stunner,great scheme too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 Nice effort! Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 Lovely. Want to do mine but need to learn rigging... J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyTiger66 Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 Very nice indeed. The yellow bands on the silver look superb! Best regards Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manipled Mutineer Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 Lovely work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrlx Posted June 19, 2016 Share Posted June 19, 2016 Beautiful scheme and great finish Thanks for the tips too. I still have to finish mine. Cheers Jaime Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orion Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Excellent construction and finish. Fun to look at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Really like that Fred. I'd agree about it being a fiddly build, I've build a couple and the struts are really brittle. Looks like you won the battle though! Cheers John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glatisant Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 That's a lovely build.Must get one for myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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