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Gnat T.1 PK-15, or recapturing the spirit of bygone days... - Completed


Giorgio N

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On 11/2/2018 at 7:40 PM, dude_gan_ainm said:

I'd say that's a very good result with the masks Giorgio.Looks like it should be crossing the finish line soon.

Jimbob. ..

 

Thanks, masks worked ok, I'm now doing some experiments with a different masking material that promises to give even better results. Should this work I can see a lot of potential uses

 

On 13/2/2018 at 11:33 PM, Dermo245 said:

Home stretch Giorgio and looking great :clap:

 

Dermot

 

Thanks Dermot !

 

Quick update with no pictures: I've now added all decals but unfortunately this required robbing bits from another kit. The Airfix sheet includes two nice ejection seat markings but the Gnat had 4, one on each side of the fuselage for each seat. As these markings are in white only they are not a style commonly found on other schemes. Fortunately I have a few Red Arrows Hawk kits in the stash, with no intention of building a Red Arrows Hawk so all these were fair game.

The Airfix sheet markings are too large for the Gnat and so are those of the old tool Revell/Italeri kit. The markings in the new tool Revell kit however are perfect for the Gnat so I used these. They adhered very well with no visible film but I noticed that the words are simply a row of white dots, not what I usually expect from Cartograf printed Revell decals. Strange. In any case I've sorted this detail.

I'm now gluing the landing gear and oh dear... the legs are very toylike, with all various links moulded together with the spaces between them, not really realistic. I considered removing the extra plastic but in the end realised that I would have risked breaking them, so I just painted the spaces in black.

The main gear legs also wobble in the holes where they are supposed to be glued in and getting the right alignment is not easy. Hopefully superglue will help

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And now some pictures to illustrate what I meant in the previous post.

Let's start from the bottom

 

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The landing gear legs are well visible in this picture, as you can see the black painted areas are not really the best solution but what can I say, will do on this one

Then let's see the top

 

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The white ejection seat triangles are quite small but they are visible on the real aircrafts so I had to add them on the model. Also noticeable is that I glued the seats in place. One of them fell on the carpet and the headrest broke, they are very brittle for some reason, don't know if the allow deteriorated over time or I got a bad pair. Some 2-component epoxy sorted everything and the seats are now firmly in place. Belts were very simply made from strips of masking tape.

Yesterday evening I sprayed the wheels, hope they are good enough so that I can glue them today. Then it will be a matter of finishing the canopy and attaching the pitot tube.

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Between yesterday evening and this morning I had planned to complete the model, as there were only a few bits left to be glued. As seems to have been all too common during this build, I've had a few problems here and there.

Let's start from the canopy, that was glued after I added a couple of control sticks made from plastic rod. This for some reasons didn't fit well at all. I managed to improve things by sanding a bit at the rear but still it was practically impossible to get a good fit in the windscreen area. What would I have done back in the days of my youth ? I probably would have not even noticed... no, I'd have noticed ! I'd have noticed and I'd have tried to do something. I could have used some filler but this would have meant sanding an area that had already been painted. The easy solution was to use some white glue as filler, a trick I've used for a very long time.

With the canopy sorted it was time to attach the pitot tube and while I prepared this, it broke. Brilliant ! As a replacement, I used some plastic rod to reproduce the attachment point on the fuselage and the tube itself was replaced by a length of Albion Alloys brass tube. Simple and effective.

At that point I could attach the wheel wells doors and the two antennas. There is one antenna missing I believe, but I'm not going to bother adding this.

Another thing I'm not going to bother with is the white sealant around the transparencies. I've added this on the windscreen using white paint, I should add it around the other clear parts but really it's going to be a nervewracking exercise and you know what ? I've pretty much had enough of this kit !

So let's call this completed !

 

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Definitely not my best model but will do. Let's say that it's the kind of level I could have achieved many years ago when I was young and full of energy and I looked at every kit as if it was a masterpiece of plastic injection technology. Granted, today I could do better and I could have done better on this one with some more commitment. The plan however was to relive the joy of modelling when I was a teen, and this was achieved... or was it ?????

 

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So, to conclude this build, did I really recapture the spirit of the days when I was a teen and was all excited about my hobby ?

In those days I was sure less dedicated, building models was fun even if the final result wasn't that great. But did I have fun building this kit ?
Ok, this is a simplified kit, I knew that before starting. It's also not too accurate in several areas, something I discovered while building. That this kit was for a long time the best in scale tells a lot about how bad the competition was. Today there's a way better kit on the market and I'd buy that one (and have a couple in the stash).

I realised from early on that I could not simply build the model from the box. I would have done this when I was 12, but I'm not 12 anymore, a bench inside an empty cockpit is not for me anymore. Then I had to add panel lines, again I wouldn't have bothered when I was 15, now I do.

The kit fought me quite a lot, fit was not great in several areas, maybe I would have not cared too much at 15, today I do. Of course today I'm more skilled and I know how to sort these things. I also have access to better fillers and tools, so no problem sorting everything. But did I have fun doing it ? Not really...

Looking back at these last few weeks, I didn't have much fun building this kit at all ! My plan of recapturing the spirit of bygone days didn't really succeed.

Thinking about it, it's not something that worries me ! Simply this build showed me that I'm not a teen anymore, I've grown up and my taste has changed. There are things I enjoyed back then that I don't enjoy anymore while at the same time there are things I didn't consider in those days that I really like today. And you know what ? I like this ! I like the fact that today I set the bar higher when it comes to judging a kit, I like having new skills, I like that I want more. More important, I like that I'm capable of looking at the past without drowning in nostalgia !

This model is done, roll on the next kit ! That fortunately will be a modern kit, with decent cockpit detail, recessed panel lines, decently accurate shapes and good fit.

I'll always be thankful to Matchbox for introducing me into the hobby ! But give me a modern Hasegawa kit and today I'll be way happier

 

 

Edited by Giorgio N
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