andy.m

Unusual subject and a great result!

The story of the TSR2 is well known and a friend bought me this kit on my 50th birthday as representative of British aircraft that flew in the year of my birth, 1964. I'm not sure how to take that! The Airfix kit shows it's age and is pretty appalling. I started this kit, realised what it was like and re-boxed it for a rainy day. Six years later I pulled it out again and have wrestled it into an out-of-the-box representation of XR219. Parts fit is generally horrible and involved lots of tape, clamps and muttering. I've tried to keep filler use to a minimum and, if you don't look very closely, it's vaguely OK. I primed the model, adjusted the worst bits then did a little bit of pre-shading. I sprayed it in the Vallejo aged-white Model-air paint then put a number of coats of tamiya matt white over (not a good finish on large areas and needed some sanding to smooth out the gritty texture). Following varnish I gave it a wash of paynes grey oil paint. I can't say I particularly enjoyed building this kit but I'm pleased I have. It won't be at the front of the shelf! We can only regret that the real plane didn't make it into service and that our government effectively destroyed the British aviation industry when, technically, it was at the top of its game.

Great model and story! One day I'll summon up the courage to have a go at a WNW kit...

Beautiful plane and so we'll finished! Stay healthy.

Very impressive! 👍

😂 Not sure I have enough wall space for a Victor - at least where my wife would allow it 😳!

Agree, but cleaning the flash off the parts and the sprue too ages! 😂

Airfix's Mk.1a Spitfire in 1/72, courtesy of Aldi for £4. Frame from EBay. Inspiration from elsewhere on here. Some of the parts have been removed from the sprue and reattached facing the 'front' (I really didn't want to see the pilot's backside...) then everything painted in the usual way. No weathering because it clearly hasn't been outside yet! Done for a bit of a giggle. Hope you like it...

Absolutely lovely. I really like the understated weathering - 'clean' but used.

Love both the plane and the write up!

Thanks! My last completed model was a Defiant in March 2018 - I started the ICM He111 after the Defiant and got scared of all of the clear bits at the front! I'll pick that up again at some point. My other hobby is stained glass and I've been busy with that - even sold a few bits - so getting the Lightning at Christmas prompted me to get all the modelling stuff out and do a bit more. It's all very relaxing and I'm not that fussed on doing much else than out of the box (although I'm a sucker for some of the Eduard etch...). I like having a go at the weathering although I haven't plucked up courage to try some of the more extreme effects - yet. I've just bought the 1/48 MikroMir DH88 Comet - my all-time favourite plane. It's a short-run kit so I suspect I'll spend a very long time looking at the bits before getting the knife out. I'm trying to decide what paint to use as it will need a high gloss smooth finish - something I've not done before. I might get a car kit to practice on first...

Hi Gary. I spent a few hours online watching 'how to' videos then found this blog, https://www.jonbius.com/2018/06/29/dot-filters-demystifying-the-spots/ , which I followed on the Lightning. The best bit Is that if you don't like the result you can remove it and do something else!

Thanks all for the comments and support. I'm now doing something silly with a MkII Spitfire in 1/72... More later.

It's such a lovely kit to build! You've made a great job of it. Well done 👍

Hard to believe it's 1/72! Looks really good.

Love this. It's such an aggressive looking plane!

Love that paint scheme!

Excellent!

I dip in and out of modelling and it's been ages since I last built anything. My wife bought me the new Tamiya P-38 kit for Christmas and I wanted to start building the moment I opened the box. The kit is so well engineered that it's easy to build with no filler anywhere! I feel like I've had to learn how to use the airbrush again but the Vallejo ModelAir and Tamiya acrylics are very forgiving. As other builders have said, the kit decals are quite thick - which also meant they stood up to me moving them round a lot! - but they settle in with softener. There is a bit of silvering on the tiny stencils but I can live with that. I tried using hairspray for the first time to get the wear on the wings around the cockpit - perhaps a bit much given the lack of wear on the rest of the aircraft. I used oils to accent the panel lines and to give a bit of depth to the colours (using dots of colours and then pulling them over the model with a tiny amount of thinners on a wide brush). Overall I'm quite pleased with how it has turned out. Photos are done on the workbench so not brilliant... I'll do something better ones when the weather is good enough for decent light. Comments welcome!

Cheers. It's a while back, but I don't recall any issues there. I spent most time getting the intakes to sit in nicely, but don't think I resorted to much filler!

Here's a couple of shots in daylight...

Just managed to take a couple of shots in daylight-between snow showers...

Thanks! According to Airfix, these were at Little Rissington. This one is dated as 1964.

Hi Paul. I know what you mean! I sprayed this on, diluted by 15-20%, and had no issues with it clogging. The finish on this plane worked out reasonably well after I had given it a few coats of clear gloss before decals etc. I've recently bought some of the Vallejo Model Air metallics and they seem to be much smoother.

Really lovely. Well executed modifications!