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"Big Ed" Gannet


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Here we go with my first work in progress post. I've always loved the Fairey Gannet, and despite the opinions to the contary I think it's quite an elegant old bird. It's not so much "ugly" as it is "functional." Having built the Frog kit back in the 20th century, I was quite pleased to see not one, but two modern tooled kits released in the last few years. After researching both the Trumpeter and Revell offerings, I went with Revell. Having also received my tax return from Uncle Sam, I opted for the "Big Ed" detail set from Eduard. Big Ed consists of three photoetched frets for superdetailing the Gannet, a fret with "Remove Before Flight" flags (I now have enough of these to equip several carrier air groups), and a sheet of time-saving masks for the wheels and cockpit framing.

 

The cockpit detail set is self-adhesive, and in color! :rolleyes: As we'll see, the cockpit panel color (gray) doesn't quite match the black found in Gannet cockpits, but it still looks much better than the kit-supplied decal. The other frets contain wheel well, weapons bay, and landing flap details. (The Big Ed pix are from Eduard's web site - buy stuff from them!)

 

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Unlike any other kit I've ever made, I decided to start with the pit. All the reference photos I've found on the web indicate that the cockpit was black, but I decided to use a very dark gray instead. The Revell kit mounts the cockpit tub on top of the weapons bay, and features two wing struts on each side to provide the proper anhedral to the inboard section of the wings. After adding the photoetched bits to the pit, I airbrushed Gunze H77 Tire Black. I found the self-adhesive on the instrument panels was not quite strong enough to be secure, so a bit of superglue was added. I've left out the seats, belts, and joystick until later in the construction.

 

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(The instrument panels appear much "bluer" in these photos than in real life, where they're more of a dark sea gray color.)

 

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The Gannet is a tailsitter without weight in the nose, so I taped all of the fuselage and wings together (simulating the finished model), and stuffed in as many fishing weights as I could in the "out-of-sight" spaces so that it would balance. As I would soon find out, it wasn't enough.

 

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The fuselage halves capture the pit and weapons bay, but I found that I needed to open up the wing strut slots towards the rear of the aircraft in order to make everything line up at the front. This photo also shows the instrument panels and consoles more in their true-to-life color:

 

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Next it was on to the wings, and some very nice photoetch details in the main wheel bays. Here are some nice shots of before and after, with the standard kit wheel well detail, and the bay after the addtion of the Big Ed details. I've worked with some photoetch in the past, but not in this quantity and size. However, it wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it might be.

 

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Here's the same shot from the other angle, so you can see the detail on the other side. Really quite nice, I think, as Eduard has captured the look of the real thing:

 

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The front landing gear bay also has its share of photoetched goodies from Eduard, although a lot of this will get covered up due to the gear doors being normally open only during take-off and landing.

 

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During the fuselage assembly, I found the fit of the kit to be quite good, perhaps too good! What I mean by that is the layers of paint that I put on the outside of the cockpit tub were thick enough to cause some interference putting the fuselage halves together. Where this really showed up was with the weapons bay, which didn't quite contact the fuselage sides. I had test-fit these parts prior to painting, and it was a very nice fit then. The tolerances seem so tight that the paint on the tub caused the fuselage halves to spread apart a little bit down where the weapons bay is. Anyway, it's not a lot, and even though I fiddled with it for a while, I decided to leave it like it was. We're talking the thickness of a couple of sheets of paper on each side.

 

The Revell kit is a throwback to the 50s in one respect - the flaps and rudder are moveable. The hinges are molded into the fuselage and wing halves, and I found the motion to be quite easy. So easy, in fact, that they wouldn't stay in any position, but always set into whatever position gravity defined. So I glued 'em where I wanted 'em. Besides, I'm not going to play with this, it's just for looks! :coolio:

 

Not much filler was needed, just a bit around the top of the nose (I ended up with a tiny step there) and a bit more around the radar dome aft of the weapons bay. I also decided to fill in the side porthole windows, as these seem to be absent or painted over on most pictures I've seen of the real plane. The tailplane joint to the vertical stabilizer/rudder needed some fill as well. I've always found this type of joint to be a PITA to sand, especially here in Braille Scale. So instead of the tube of trusty putty, I applied what we Yanks call "spackle" which is used to fill seams on gypsum wallboards.

 

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What I like about this stuff, is that you don't have to sand it, just wet a small cloth and smooth it away (as it dissolves in water). Be light on the touch, and you can create a very nice fillet joint without sanding off any adjacent detail. I've not found spackle to be much good at really large voids, but it seems to be the bee's knees for these kind of right-angle joints.

 

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After finishing up all the seam work, rescribing some panel lines that got lost in the process, and adding the main wings, it was ready for some paint. Normally, I would start with the lighter color first, but due to the curvature of the hard demarcation lines between the colors, it seemed to me that it would be best to start with the Extra Dark Sea Gray. I masked off the cockpit prior to spraying with Gunze H333, which I've found is a good match. After letting this dry for a couple of days, I masked off the Extra Dark Sea Gray areas to get ready for Sky.

 

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Also at this stage, I added the landing gear (including some VERY delicate photoetch brake lines and oleo scissors) and the Eduard details for the bay that the Fairey-Youngman flaps retract into. This consisted of one large piece of photoetch that you have to bend in a concave shape (to match the bay) but also in a convex direction (to match the wing anhedral/dihedral transition). This compound curvature took some trial and effort to get right, but I think it ended up OK:

 

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I was going to use Gunze H74 Sky, but it just looked a little too green in the bottle for me. So I used ModelMaster Sky Type S, which looked a better match in the bottle. After some test painting, however, I found the two to be virtually identical! I realized at this point that the model was still going to be a tailsitter despite the weight I added. Lucky for me, someone at Revell knew this was going to happen, and they engineered the front instrument panel coaming right out of the kit. This left a very convenient opening through which I could drop a whole boatload of small air rifle shot. I added a drop of superglue to each pellet before dropping it in to make sure it wouldn't rattle around. (Remind me to scratchbuild the coaming later!) :)

 

After the main painting was complete, and the low-tack tape removed, she's starting to look like a Gannet! :yahoo:

 

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Next, it was time to paint the weapons bay (Gunze H335 Medium Sea Gray) and add the tires. The round masks that Eduard provides for masking off the wheels are just fantastic. I've never found it easier to paint the wheels and tires, and get a perfectly round pattern. Kudos to whoever thought up that idea. Although the Revell kit instructions don't call it out, I've seen many photos that show the front wheel on the port side to be red, and that on the starboard side to be green. So that's what I did. I have no idea why this was done, so anyone out there who knows feel free to add a comment. At this time, I also painted the radome black.

 

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Next up was to add a couple of light coats of Floquil Crystal-Cote to provide a glossy surface for the panel line sludge wash, shadowing, and decals. I like Crystal-Cote because it is very glossy and extremely clear - no hint of yellow. Plus, my bottle is old enough to be from the time when Floquil was a lacquer, so it will not be affected by any acrylic thinners used to remove the sludge wash. The sludge wash that I use is two parts Pactra Acrylic, 3 parts water, and 3 parts dishwashing soap (to reduce adhesion). Because the Gannet has a very dark upper surface, I went for a black wash, which would highlight the panel lines in the Extra Dark Sea Gray. This is probably too dark for the Sky, but the panel lines are delicate enough on this kit that it should still look pretty good. So here is the sludge wash going on:

 

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Once all of the panel lines and shadowing was added with the sludge wash, I removed the excess with a small cloth slightly dampened with PollyScale acrylic thinner. As it turned out, I found I didn't need the thinner at all, as the excess wiped away with only a dry cloth. Once I was happy with the panel lines (some had to be deepened a bit to take the wash), I added one more coat of Floquil Crystal-Cote to seal in the wash that remained. Then I applied the kit decals. They worked great, and settled down nicely with Micro-Set and Micro-Sol, even though they're a tad bit on the thick side. No silvering was noticed.

 

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Having a look a the underside shows off the shadowing in the weapons bay and wheel wells to good effect:

 

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And that's where we are for now!

Cheers,

Bill

Edited by Navy Bird
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Thanks for the nice comments. Here is a short progress update:

 

I decided to work on the propellers and spinner, nothing fancy about the props, just painting and decaling. The kits markings require that the prop spinner be striped, which is always fun due to the curves on a spinner. Hand-brushing never seems to get a good even line, and I've not had much success with masking compound curves on such a tiny part. So I put on my engineer's hat from 1975. :clif:

 

Back then, we didn't have C-A-D systems for drafting, we had W-O-O-D (as in a drafting table). If we wanted to draw a nice circle, we didn't select Insert/Circle from the Draw Menu, we used a fancy hunk of plastic called a circle template. We used the template, along with a wonderful device called a pencil, to manually put the circle on the paper, without the need for a plotter! I painted the tip of the spinner black, and then dropped the spinner into the appropriate hole in the template that would give me the proper diameter. Secure the spinner to the back side of the template so that it doesn't move during airbrushing. Like this:

 

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I painted the exposed part of the spinner white, let it dry, and selected larger diameters for the other lines. When she was all done, it didn't look half bad.

 

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The next step is to finish the weapons bay and landing gear doors, and the flaps. Big Ed comes to the rescue here, too, and provides some nice photoetched details for all. First, a multi-part photoetch process allows one to build (through some intricate folding) what I believe are the boxes on the inside of the weapons bay doors that hold and eject flares. If they are used for some other purpose, please let me know! Next, photoetch covers the top surfaces of the flaps (when extended) and provides nice raised rivet detail. This is a bit tricky to get the fold on the photoetch to match the airfoil shape of the flap. If you don't get it just right, the superglue won't do a good job of holding it in place. The kit parts for the front landing gear doors are replaced by a two-piece photoetch that is just superb. Eduard has provided a really creative way to bulge out the air vents in the doors by pushing from the inside-out with a ball point pen. Very effective and it looks great. Finally, the main gear doors get the raised rivet treatment on the inside, although some Gannet photos I've seen on-line don't seem to have any detail here - just a flat panel.

 

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I added the flare dispensers to the weapons bay doors, and painted the inside Gunze H335 Medium Sea Gray. Revell provides some tiny actuators for the doors, and after mounting the first door, here's where we are (note the eight-bladed monster taking shape in the background):

 

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Eduard also provides some very delicate actuators for the Fairey-Youngman flaps. Although not mentioned in the instruction sheet, it seems likely that you could adjust these to represent different flap angles. But my biggest concern with using these components was that there are no positive attachment points, and as I said, they are very delicate, even "spindly." So I consigned these to the spares box, and used the kit moldings. Here are the flaps and front gear doors after assembly, painting, and shadowing.

 

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Next, it's time to mount the flaps, being very careful to ensure a good secure mounting and to keep all four of them in alignment, depending on your choice of position. My understanding is that these flaps were not often deployed on the ground, but only for take-off and landing. However, the guys with the spanners did not work on them in flight, so I think it's OK to show them in the static display. Here are a couple of shots that show the four flaps (and the front gear bay doors) attached to the Gannet. I'm starting to like this kit more and more! :thumbsup:

 

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I decided to tackle the seats now, and the first thing I noticed was that the shape of the back of the seat is wrong in the Revell kit. Whereas the kit seat is very square, the seats in the Gannet were more curved. Simple fix with the sanding stick:

 

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The Gannet seats were made of Bakelite, and sometimes it's a good thing to be old. I actually remember what Bakelite is (or was)! I painted the seats Gunze H47 Red Brown, and proceeded to use the Big Ed seat harnesses. The belts supplied are simply outstanding, in their proper blue color and with very accurate detailing in the metal buckles and slack adjusters. The result is very nice, as you can see in the following picture. You'll also see that I've posed the seat (this is the third seat, for the radar operator) next to a 5 Eurocent coin. I have to stop now and let my eyes recover from working with such tiny bits!

 

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That's it for today. Thanks for looking and for any comments. Gannets rock!

Bill

Edited by Navy Bird
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Looks stunning that, fantastic work. Cannot work the photo etch stuff myself, its small, fiddly and my eyes cant track it long enough, that and the carper seems to eat one of them after the other is already on meaning I have to scratch build another.

Top stuff this, cant wait to see the finish kit.

All the best,

Dan.

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Rosenberg92 said:
Looks stunning that, fantastic work. Cannot work the photo etch stuff myself, its small, fiddly and my eyes cant track it long enough, that and the carper seems to eat one of them after the other is already on meaning I have to scratch build another.

Top stuff this, cant wait to see the finish kit.

All the best,

Dan.

 

Ah, the carpet monster! I lost a few of the smaller bits myself (as they seem sometimes to fly away from the tweezers in direct contradiction of the laws of gravity), but Eduard seemed to expect this and provided extras. Good thinking Ed!

 

Hope to start working on the canopies next (have to remove a mold - mould? - seam down the middle of each). Had to order some 2000 grit sandpaper, which arrived today. I'll try to post some shots of the finished pit, as the control stick and seats/harnesses all all installed. Also, I've done one coat of a semi-gloss clear to tone down the glossy finish that I put on before decaling.

 

Thanks,

Bill

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shark 64 said:
Very nice work on that plane. Lovely paintjob.

Dont forget to add the wash inside your roundel decals as well.

OLiver

 

Thanks Oliver. I'll be post-shading with pastels.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Big Ed Gannet is finished! :partytime:

 

Here are some details since my last post. First up was to use pastel chalk to do the post-shading. I use Weber-Costello pastels, and apply the chalk dust with a brush. For post-shading I generally concentrate the pastels around the panel lines. This is similar to pre-shading (where you paint these areas prior to the main colors) but I think doing it afterwards allows a little more control, and you can vary the effect from subtle to pronounced. With pre-shading, in order to get a pronounced effect, you have to have very thin coats of the main colors. Either method works great, I just find the pastel method a little easier for me. Pastel chalk dust won't adhere to glossy paint, so a coat of clear flat is in order.

 

Once the post-shading was done, I moved on the the greenhouse. Using the Eduard die-cut masks made this job a lot easier. The three "bubble" canopies are molded in the correct bulbous shape, which means that each had a seam at the top. I used 2000 grit sandpaper to remove, then a bit of Gunze Mr. Rubbing Compound to polish, and a Future Floor Wax dip. Here are the canopies all masked and ready for paint:

 

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Eduard includes photoetch parts for the Gannet exhaust. These pieces are a little thicker than the rest of their photoetch, and were a little more difficult to fold. I rolled them around a small wood dowel, and as you can see they look a bit nicer than the kit parts - in fact, I don't think they need any additional finishing at all. They're a perfect match to the actual metal appearance of the real thing:

 

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Final assembly consisted of the rest of the fiddly bits. Photoetched pitot tubes were added to the underside of the horizontal stabilizers. Ingress handles were added to the starboard side lower cockpit rails. Canopies were decaled, and attached to airframe, add canopy handles were added. A phototetch windscreen wiper was added. The main radio aerial was mounted, and the antenna lines added. The landing lights were added to the wings, along with the wingtip formation lights. I used Gunze H90 Clear Red on the port side; H94 Clear Green on the starboard side.

 

And that's it! I can highly recommend both the Revell kit and the Eduard photoetch accessories. Enjoy the pictures of the finished model.

 

I posed the Gannet on an old Verlinden cardboard carrier deck:

 

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Thanks!

Bill

Edited by Navy Bird
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  • 1 month later...

Brilliant work, Bill! And to think that I just put my Gannet kit on sale on eBay (albeit the Trumpeter version). Makes me want to withdraw the sale. Almost; I could really use the quid. Does anyone know of a nickname for this peculiar bird - it must have acquired one from its, uhum, interesting appearance and long service. "Double Ugly" maybe, no, wait, that's been used.

Regards,

Learstang

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Brilliant work, Bill! And to think that I just put my Gannet kit on sale on eBay (albeit the Trumpeter version). Makes me want to withdraw the sale. Almost; I could really use the quid. Does anyone know of a nickname for this peculiar bird - it must have acquired one from its, uhum, interesting appearance and long service. "Double Ugly" maybe, no, wait, that's been used.

Regards,

Learstang

Well, the last surviving airworthy Gannet (at least that is how it's marketed) has a nickname of "Janet." But somehow, Janet the Gannet doesn't sound worthy of a warbird. Plus, it's obviously borrowed from the lyrics to "Billericay Dickie" by the late Ian Dury:

I had a rendezvous with Janet

Quite near the Isle of Thanet

She looked more like a Gannet

She wasn't half a prannet

Her mother tried to ban it

Her father helped me plan it

And when I captured Janet

She bruised her pomegranate :headphones:

Cheers,

Bill

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