Airfix 1/72 Angel Interceptor

[sunray]

I built one of these a few years ago as a birthday present for my brother then a few weeks ago I caught an episode of Captain Scarlet on Youtube. For those too young to remember Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was one of the creations of Gerry Anderson in the late sixties made for children television. Every boy in my street and school used to watch Captain Scarlet fighting the Mysterons and Captain Black. With the help of Captain Blue and of course the Angels, Captain Scarlet most of the time would win the day. Gripping stuff.

Anyway thats why I have decided to build another and here we go. The kit is an old one which is still available from Airfix. It has raised panel lines and as you can see from the photo's below there aren't many parts. Most of the parts have flash on them but I think thats no surprise considering the age of the kit.







The canopy isn't the best but then again I put that down to the age of the kit.



The decals are spot on and as I remember from the last one I made they went down without any problems.



My first job was to re-scribe the whole kit and for a 1/72 kit of this size there is a lot but it is relatively straightforward. I started on the fuselage halves first as they have the awkward parts to re-scribe.



The top half is how it comes in the kit and I have started re-scribing the bottom half.



Then the tail plane. To re-scribe the winglets and supported the tail plane using a small block of MDF and a piece of blutac to keep it still while I was scribing.





And then the wings.



I have one mistake on the port wing so I used a bit of home brew Tamiya filler to sort it out.



With the re-scrbing all done I thought I would dry fit the parts to see how it looks. There will be one or two gaps to fill but the fit is quite good considering I haven't used any glue.













There is one thing I will be removing are the little stub wings above the nose canards but I will wait until I have glued the nose in place.



Still no glue used. The big gaps are around the air intakes but they shouldn't too hard to sort out.







I can't remember the last time I have dry fitted nearly the whole kit. To be continued.......

[Madmonk]

Nice start on a kit that is well past retirement age, wish Airfix would re-master this in 1:48.

Might be too late now but RetrokitS do a nice cockpit upgrade for this kit.

https://retrokitonline.net/product/angel-interceptor-cockpit-detail-set/

As for the canopy, if you have some clear packaging plastic or sheet of Over Head Projector film and a hairdryer you can create a new on using the original as a master. Secure on a stick with blu-tac ensuring that all the edges of the cockpit are clear, then heat up a small piece of the clear plastic with the hairdryer. When it goes soft and malleable pull it down over the original canopy making sure you get it all the way down to get an impression of all the edges. Then trim and fit. Simples!!!!

Cheers,

Warren

[Carts]

Love the Angel interceptors,and like what your doing to upgrade this kit.

[sunray]

Nice start on a kit that is well past retirement age, wish Airfix would re-master this in 1:48.

Might be too late now but RetrokitS do a nice cockpit upgrade for this kit.

https://retrokitonline.net/product/angel-interceptor-cockpit-detail-set/

As for the canopy, if you have some clear packaging plastic or sheet of Over Head Projector film and a hairdryer you can create a new on using the original as a master. Secure on a stick with blu-tac ensuring that all the edges of the cockpit are clear, then heat up a small piece of the clear plastic with the hairdryer. When it goes soft and malleable pull it down over the original canopy making sure you get it all the way down to get an impression of all the edges. Then trim and fit. Simples!!!!

Cheers,

Warren

Thanks Warren, I haven't started the cockpit yet so I might have a look at the upgrade set. The canopy I think I will have a go at polishing to see how it comes up first or I might get my vacuform machine out and make a new one. Thanks again mate.

Thanks Carts. I don't know anyone who doesn't like an Angel.

[ElectricLightAndy]

I love seeing these built, I have one in the stash but i'm leaving it till I can do it justice

Andy.

[Hunter Rose]

Cool, look forward to seeing this come together

[sunray]

Thanks chaps, I have ordered a resin cockpit set for the Interceptor (thanks Warren) so while I am waiting for it to turn up I turned my attention to the canopy. The plan of action is to sand out any marks and then polish using Tamiya polishes. If that doesn't work out comes my vacuformer. The good news is that the Tamiya polishes did their trick.

With that done I started on making the mounts for the stand. The last time I made of of these I used a machine bolt and brass tube.



But on this one I am going to use 5mm acrylic rod mounted through the jet pipe. To do this I removed the locating pin in the jet pipe.



To give the rod extra strength and to keep the rod straight I added a small bulkhead with a 5mm hole drilled through it. I have added extra bits if plastic to give the bulkhead a better fixing to the fuselage half.



It doesn't have to look pretty as it won't be seen.





I also used a 5mm drill and drilled out the kit jet pipe.



Here is how it works.



At the minute the only thing that is glued is the bulkhead to the fuselage. The jet pipe will be glued when the fuselage halves are ready to be joined, the acrylic rod will not require gluing as the fit is tight enough to hold it.













So now I am just waiting for the resin cockpit. I wonder if there is anything good on the telly?

[S5 modeller]

Nice save on the canopy. Like the acrylic rod idea too.

As for anything on the telly, I doubt it.

Matt

[sunray]

Thanks Matt. You were right about the telly.

[sunray]

I am happy to say the resin cockpit turned up from http://www.retokitonline.net. From order to receipt took about three days which was quite fast. The detail isn't fantastic but it isn't bad either and it will do for what I want it for. As you can see you get the cockpit tub, standing pilot, sitting pilot on ejection seat, empty ejection seat and controls; so the options aren't bad.





To get the cockpit tub to fit required a bit of work but I put that down to the age of the kit. Before I finally glued the tub in position, the instrument shroud required sanding to ensure that the canopy would fit and also the seated pilot's arms required sanding as they were slightly too wide to fit in the cockpit. I then attached the cockpit to the fuselage half using CA glue.









I decided not to paint the cockpit until I have glued the fuselage halves together, added the wings, tail plane, etc because I know I am going to have a few gaps to fill and there will be a bit of dust around so I thought I would wait. I then turned my attention to the air intakes. To make them a bit more interesting I add two pieces of metal grill from my "scrap box". I stuck oversized pieces of grill to the kit grill with CA glue and once dry I trimmed the metal grill to size. I also added a thin piece of plasticard to the sides and lower edge of the kit grill as there is a large gap between the kit grill and intake sides.



I glued the fuselage halves together and filled the gaps with homemade Tamiya filler and strips of plasticard, giving then a rub down once cured.



The nose was added and that to required filling.





I normally leave the filler to harden overnight so its rock hard. Then I cut off the small vanes at the side of the nose and also the gun as I am going to add a gun latter on. Then it was just a case of rubbing the nose down.







The tip of the nose is too blunt so I sanded it to make it a little sharper.



I added the air intake sides which also required filling.











The other job I had was to fill in the for the forward undercarriage as its not required. To do this I just used a sanded down piece of sprue placed in the hole and glued and once the glue has cured I just cut off the excess sprue and sanded flat. I have done such a good job you can't see it in the photo, so I must be doing something right.

[HL-10]

I'm really enjoying following your work.

I have three of these in my stash, and intend to build them on their section of Cloudbase deck.

Very impressed with your work

[sunray]

Thanks mate. I have attached the wings and tail plane without too much trouble but there were a few gaps which I filled with sprue dissolved in Tamiya Extra Thin cement and left over night to harden.



When the homemade filler was rock solid it was just a case of sanding down the filler and adding more if there were still gaps.













Then I moved on to adding the wing tip skids and the nose canards which also had a few gaps which were again filled.







I had already cut off the piece of plastic that was the nose gun. I am going to make a new one from a syringe needle so first I drilled a hole the same diameter as the needle.





I cut the needle to size using my Dremel with a cutting disc with the needle held in a vice.



I stuck a small piece of tape to the end of the needle as it makes in easier to find if the cut piece of needle decides to go walkabout once cut. Also I don't cut all the way through the needle just in case it flies off. I leave just enough as to make it easy to snap apart.





Then I just glued in place using CA glue.



Now its starting to look the part.

[Nigel Heath]

Very nice work on the rescribing, I'm sure that will come out looking really good.

[S5 modeller]

That's some sweet filling there. It's looking good.

Matt

[sunray]

Thanks chaps.  Sorry about the delay on updating the thread.  I had to look for a new job as I have been made redundant today and it my birthday as well!  Finding a job in the North East of England isn't the easiest of pastimes but the good news I found out this morning is that I start my new job on Monday.  What a birthday present!

Anyway on with the real work.  I sprayed the seams and joints to check for gaps then I have painted the pilot and ejector seat but to be honest the pilot's face leaves a lot to be desired.  In my defence the resin moulding for the face isn't the best but c'est la vie.  I also painted the cockpit and added a HUD made from a piece of scrap clear plastic from the packing of a shirt.





The instrument panel was painted black and then I used the tip of a cocktail stick dipped into red, yellow and white paint to add the detail.



The HUD was painted with Tamiya Clear Yellow to help it stand out.



With that done I used Roket Card Glue to attach the canopy.



The glue cures really fast and gives a good joint.



Now for one of my favourite jobs and that is masking the canopy.  I first mask the canopy edges with thin masking tape.  I find the thin tape is easier to bend along the curves of a canopy than wider tape plus you use less, if you know what I mean.



With the canopy edge masked I then used Mr Masking Sol R solution to mask the remainder of the canopy.  I have used other liquid masks but I find this one the best.  As you can see from the photo is goes on green but as it dries it turns clear.

[Carts]

Looking fantastic!

[Hunter Rose]

Maybe im Weird but i always love seeing the preshade stage, i find it oddly satisfying! Tidy job on the canopy

[Nigel Heath]

Neat work on the canopy masking.

[TonyTiger66]

This has gone together very well  .

 

I made one in 1989, raised panel lines and all, weathered with a pencil  .

 

Great to see how good one can be made to look in the right hands.

 

Best regards

TonyT

[Andy Mac]

I made on of these when I was a boy, and I've now got one in the stash.

The work you've done with the re-scribing and filling is just superb.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this progress.

[Kallisti]

Looking forward to seeing this with some paint on! Nice job so far...

[sunray]

Thanks chaps sorry I haven't posted anything earlier but as you can imagine I have been a bit busy.  Anyway here is an update for the Angel.  Once the canopy was sorted I sprayed on the primer and added a touch of pre-shading.







And then on went the base coat of Tamiya XF-2 white.







When that was dry I did a touch of masking and sprayed a few marking on.









Tomorrow I will hopefully mask around the canopy frame and spray it silver and also paint the jet nozzle.

[theplasticsurgeon]

Looking good, and watching the detail bits with interest.

I built an Angel Interceptor for this GB on ATF and have another in my stash.  

Thinking USAF grey - like an F-16.

[sunray]

Thanks "Doc", this is the second one of these I have built and I am looking forward to seeing one in ghost grey.  Are going to use the kit decals?  Just a thought if you are not, I think a set of decals off a Typhoon would look the part, good luck or I should say SIG.  

 

What I noticed was the red stripe down the spine of the Angel wasn't as straight as I wanted so I used a bit of Tamiya tape to mask off the stripe and sprayed a bit of Tamiya XF2 white to tidy it up a bit.  I could of left it but I know it would bug me later on, so job done.  Next I masked and sprayed the canopy using Vallejo Metaliser Aluminium and finally I then sprayed a few coats of Tamiya gloss to seal the paint.









Once everything was dry on with the decals and for such a small model there are a few.  I used Micro-Set and Sol on the decals to settle them down with out any problems and now I think its starting to look the part.











I have applied the Micro-Sol about 30 minutes before I took these photo's and already it is starting to pull them down.



Also I have still the jet nozzle to paint.













I must admit for a 1/72 kit the decals are excellent, you can even read every warning sign.

  










 

[Kallisti]

Glad you fixed the red stripe, I noticed it in the earlier photos but didn't want to come across as a critic  Coming along nicely - i just checked mine and I'd forgotten how small this model is! I didn't rescribe mine, just sanded down the raised lines so they weren't so prominent.