Airfix Folland Gnat T.1 1/72

[jrlx]

Dear Fellow Modellers,

 

I intended to participate in this GB with two builds: a Typhoon Mk I.B and a Tempest Mk V. However, life got in the way (too much work, very demanding German classes and tests every month, including a Goethe Zertifikat B1, which I managed to achieve) and I didn't found the time to build them past the first posts. I will build them properly later, as regular WIPs, as these aircraft deserve all the care and attention I can provide.

 

However, to regain some modelling motivation and still finish something for this GB, I decided to build a simple kit, just OOB. The choice fell on Airfix's 1/72 Folland Gnat T.1, which is shown in the following picture:

IMAG3348

 

As usual, I started by taking the cockpit parts off the sprues

IMAG3352

 

These were glued into sub-assemblies in order to ease painting:

IMAG3353

 

IMAG3355

 

Next, I took the fuselage halves and air intake mouths off the sprues:

IMAG3354

 

The air intake mouths were glued in place but fit is not the best, especially on the port side:

IMAG3356

 

IMAG3357

 

This was followed by the wings:

IMAG3358

 

Holes had to be made on the lower wing parts in order to install the external fuel tanks later:

IMAG3359

 

The wing parts were glued together:

IMAG3360

 

The external fuel tanks were, then, built and the poor fit is readily apparent:

IMAG3362

 

A lot of filing and sanding will be needed on these to make them acceptable...

 

The next step was building the main undercarriage parts. These must be installed in the fuselage halves before closing them. Here we can see one of the wheel wells (on the right) and a gear leg already glued to the corresponding wheel well door (on the left):

IMAG3363

 

Here are both sides of the landing gear ready for installation in the fuselage:

IMAG3364

 

It seemed to me that I wouldn't be able to install the gear legs after closing the fuselage. So, some complicated masking will be needed in order to paint the fuselage with these in place.

 

I managed to break the nose gear leg while taking it off the sprue. As can be seen, this part was defective, as the shaft for installation of the nose wheels is missing:

IMAG3366

 

First, I glued the broken part using super-glue:

IMAG3365

 

Then I carved a shaft for the nose wheels from a piece of sprue. Here it is between the wheels, together with the remaining nose gear parts:

IMAG3367

 

A slot was made in the middle of the shaft, to provide a stronger point of contact with the gear leg:

IMAG3368

 

Finally, the shaft and leg were glued together using Tamiya Extra Thin Glue, later reinforced with a drop of super-glue:

IMAG3369

 

Here are all the parts, ready for priming:

IMAG3370

 

The interior areas and all parts to be painted with metallic paints were, then, primed using Alclad's Grey Primer:

IMAG3371

 

The intake inner walls were painted with Alclad's White Aluminium and the main gear wells with Alclad's Dull Aluminium (these according to pictures of real aircraft):

IMAG3372

 

These parts complete the inner air intake walls and were also painted with Alclad's White Aluminium:

IMAG3373

 

The centres of wheels and all other parts making up the landing gears were painted with Alclad's Dull Aluminium. The exhaust was painted with Alclad's Jet Exhaust:

IMAG3374                                                                                                IMAG3375

 

After the paint dried, the air intake parts were masked off:

IMAG3376

 

and the end faces (where the turbine face should be) were painted with Alclad's Steel:

IMAG3377

 

Finally, these parts were glued in place. They form part of the inner cockpit walls as well. The fit, again, is not very good and some putty had to be applied in order to fill in the joins:

IMAG3379

 

This is how the build stands right now. This post covers a week's worth of work, from Easter Sunday night till yesterday (Saturday).

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[PlaStix]

Hi Jaime!! Good to see you starting (started) a new project! Progress is looking very good too. I'm always impressed with your precise work!

Looking forward to following more of your progress.

Kind regards,

Stix

[jrlx]

Hi Stix,

Thanks for your very kind words! It's always great to have you on board

Cheers

Jaime

[Col.]

It's certainly been a worthwhile week of work on this one Jaime

[jrlx]

Thanks Col, much appreciated

[specky]

^{Hi Jaime,}

^{looking good and nice job on the landing gear repair.}

^{A lot of people seem to be having dramas with these kits, but you've got it covered! Keep it going.}

^Craig

[CliffB]

It's nice to see new builds still coming into the GB (and a great choice too Jaime)

Cliff

[jrlx]

Craig, Cliff, thanks for the kind words and interest!

[charlie_c67]

Might be a bit late, but it almost looks like those intake lips are round the wrong way? I believe there has been the odd occasion whereby the numbers were mixed up. May this be a similar thing?

[jrlx]

Might be a bit late, but it almost looks like those intake lips are round the wrong way? I believe there has been the odd occasion whereby the numbers were mixed up. May this be a similar thing?

Hi Charlie,

You may be right. I believe I tried fitting them the other way round but couldn't find a big difference. Anyway, it's a bit too late now. I'll have to do some sanding and filling to make them look good.

Cheers

Jaime

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

Just a small update, as I managed to find some bench time in the last few days.

 

I sanded the putty I had applied to fill the seams on the cockpit walls and then applied another coat of Alclad's Grey Primer. Here's the result:

IMAG3383

 

It's not perfect but is good enough, considering that the canopy will be closed.

 

Next, I painted all the cockpit parts with Gunze's H82 Dark Grey. No pictures, as they would just be a repetition on a different shade of grey.

 

Then I applied the instrument panels' decals. Here's the set-up for that:

IMAG3385

 

After application and letting the decal solutions dry, here's the result:

IMAG3388

 

It should be noted that the decals are bigger than the plastic parts and as much clear film as possible must be trimmed in order for them to fit. Even so, the lower-centre part of the decal on the right is wider than the plastic part.

 

Next step: finishing the seats' painting and detailing (seat belts).

 

Thanks for looking

 

Jaime

 

 

[Col.]

I forgot you hadn't finished the cockpit Jaime. All your sub-assemblies will make for quick final construction now

[jrlx]

Hi Col.,

I still have some work to do on the cockpit

Cheers

Jaime

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

A quick update of work done last night.

 

I painted the backs of the seats. I decided to brush paint, using Gunze's Khaki Green. I thinned the paint in order to apply thin layers but I think I didn't thin the paint enough... Anyway, here's the set-up, right before painting:

IMAG3389

 

After applying the first layer of paint, with the paint still fresh:

IMAG3390

 

I think the paint is too thick for my liking. After letting the first layer dry for more than an hour, I applied a second layer and left the seats to dry. Still haven't taken a picture.

 

While the paint dried, I decided to cut the canopy off the sprue. For that I used a nano-saw, as shown in the picture below:

IMAG3391

 

I sawed the connections a bit away from the canopy, to avoid any damage:

IMAG3392

 

The excess plastic was, then, sawed right next to the part:

IMAG3393

 

After sanding and polishing, the canopy was like shown in the following picture:

IMAG3394

 

I had to polish a few scratches using micro-mesh pads and micro-gloss fluid, which took me quite some time.

 

The canopy was then dipped in Alclad's Aqua Gloss, to give it enhanced clarity and transparency and left to dry overnight.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

[PlaStix]

Hi Jaime. Good to see more progress on your Gnat and all looks to be coming together very nicely. The decals for the IP actually look much better than some of Airfix's usual efforts. I'm always dismayed by the fact they seem to make so little effort with these. With regards the seat backs - I'm sure they will look fine after the second (or third!) thin coat. I do like your nano-saw. I've not seen one of those - I shall see if I can get one from somewhere. Your work on the canopy has certainly paid off - it looks excellent!

Hope you have a great weekend.

Kind regards,

Stix

[jrlx]

Hi Stix,

Thanks for your kind words. The seats are not too bad after the 2nd coat, after all. But a 3rd thin coat is in order. Nothing as smooth as your paint jobs, though...

I'll also have to repair the Aqua Gloss coat of the canopy, because some water droplets were trapped by the varnish (I washed the canopy in running water before dipping it and didn't dry it very well), but shouldn't be too difficult.

Last night I only had time to print a copy of Eduard's PE fret for the Airfix 1/48 Gnat, scaled to 1/72, so that I can use it as a template for my masking tape seat belts. Let's see if it works.

Cheers

Jaime

[PlaStix]

Hi Stix,

Thanks for your kind words. The seats are not too bad after the 2nd coat, after all. But a 3rd thin coat is in order. Nothing as smooth as your paint jobs, though...

I'll also have to repair the Aqua Gloss coat of the canopy, because some water droplets were trapped by the varnish (I washed the canopy in running water before dipping it and didn't dry it very well), but shouldn't be too difficult.

Last night I only had time to print a copy of Eduard's PE fret for the Airfix 1/48 Gnat, scaled to 1/72, so that I can use it as a template for my masking tape seat belts. Let's see if it works.

Cheers

Jaime

Hi Jaime. A lot of my stuff has three or four thinned coats of paint before it starts to look okay. I'm sure yours will be fine. Shame about the canopy, but, as you say, it shouldn't be too hard to repair.

I like the idea of using a copy of the Eduard fret as a template. You should be able to get a reasonable representation from that. I look forward to seeing your results.

Kind regards,

Stix

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

Another update of work done since the end of last week and over the weekend.

 

As I said to Stix above, the Aqua Gloss trapped some water droplets on the surface of the canopy and I had to repair the varnish. First, I removed it with IPA and made sure there were no residues or specks on the surface. Then, I dipped the canopy again in Aqua Gloss and put it away to dry in a storage box to minimise dust damage.

Here is the end result, after letting the varnish cure for two days. Seems to be quite good, very shiny and transparent:

IMAG3417

 

With the canopy put away to dry, I applied a third thin coat of paint to the seats:

IMAG3395

 

The next step was making the seat belts. For that I went to Eduard's site and copied the image of their PE interior fret for the Airfix 1/48 Gnat. This image was resized in Photoshop so that the seat belts would fit in the 1/72 seats: I measured the seats' width with a ruler, measured the width of the image of the seat belts in Photoshop and determined the resize ratio to apply. Then, I printed two copies of the resized image in a sheet of paper in order to use the seat belts part of the image as a template to cut the contours on a piece of masking tape:

IMAG3396

 

The image of the seat belts was held by tape over the tape to be marked:

IMAG3397

 

An X-acto blade was used to cut the contours:

IMAG3398

 

Here's the tape with the contours already cut:

IMAG3399

 

Then, I used Tamiya's Desert Yellow and German Gray to paint the seat belts:

IMAG3400

 

Here's the result:

IMAG3401

 

Next, I painted the head rests on the seats with dark grey (some touch ups still needed at this phase):

IMAG3402

 

and the tops of the seats with orange-yellow (here after two layers of paint - a third and last was applied later):

IMAG3403

 

I also used white and black to paint a few details on the cockpit walls (the kit isn't much detailed, though):

IMAG3410

 

This is how it turned out:

IMAG3411

 

For the seats and cockpit detailing I used the pictures in this site for the T.1 cockpit as a reference: www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/gnat/walkaround.php

 

To conclude the seats' detailing I had to scratch build the ejection handles that go over the pilot's head. These are also shown on Eduard's PE fret, so I used the scaled image of the fret again as a reference for the dimensions and made the handles with a piece of aluminium wire:

IMAG3412

 

Here they are:

IMAG3413

 

To paint the handles, I first applied a coat of white as primer:

IMAG3415

 

Then, they were painted yellow:

IMAG3416

 

Finally, the black stripes were painted:

IMAG3418

 

After the paint dried, the handles were super-glued in place:

IMAG3419

 

Here are the seats, after touch-ups:

IMAG3421

 

In the meanwhile, I also glued the "wheel well and main gear leg plus wheel door" sub-assemblies inside the fuselage halves:

IMAG3420

 

To finish with, I applied a coat of Alclad Flat Kote to the cockpit walls, cockpit base, instrument panels, control columns and seats.

 

The next step will be installing the buckles on the tape seat belts and the seat belts on the seats. With that done, I'll be able to assemble the cockpit components and close the fuselage.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

[PlaStix]

I just had to go back up to the title of your thread to check what scale you are building this in Jaime!! I have no idea how you had the patience to do those ejection handles! They are amazing!..........and in 1/72!! The seats themselves are looking great now too as does the canopy. I'm looking forward to seeing the seat belts!

Lovely work as always.

Kind regards,

Stix

Edited April 19, 2016 by PlaStix

[jrlx]

Thank you for the very kind words, Stix! As you can see, my intention to stick to an OOB build has gone through the window... But I promise that the seat detailing is as far as I'll go in terms of scratch building in this model. The masking tape seat belts were in the to-do list from the start, anyway

Cheers

Jaime

[PlaStix]

....... But I promise that the seat detailing is as far as I'll go in terms of scratch building in this model.

.........well..............you say that now!

[Col.]

Clever work Jamie

[jrlx]

Thanks Col.

[PlaStix]

Hi Jaime. Just checking if there has been any more progress? Hope so.

Kind regards,

Stix

[jrlx]

Hi Stix,

Thanks a lot for your interest. I'm afraid I didn't manage to progress much during the week. I've just applied a few buckles to the seat belts but haven't finished that yet. I only have some time for modeling late at night during the week and I've been too tired for precision work.

So, I won't finish this one in the time frame of the GB but hope I'll be able to finish it in one or two weeks.

I'll keep posting the updates.

Cheers

Jaime