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Penguinclaw

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    United Kingdom
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    Military Aircraft modeling, building pc's, Linux, music - very wide taste from classical to metal!, photography, art.

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  1. I purchased this from my local model shop last week as I love the Phantom. The shop owner, an avid modeller himself, was very impressed with this kit and as we looked through the box together, what struck me was the detail of the panel lines. He mentioned the easy snap fit and no paint option but That didn't put me off as the kit looked so good. Well today I have started construction and I am so glad I bought this. The engineering is fantastic and really well thought out. The cockpit is coming along well and the snap fit nature does not affect the look; I am glueing and will be painting. In fact the positive fit really aids in getting the parts installed at the correct angles even if the instruction miss out the instrument panels altogether!! Okay, I have only just began construction but to those thinking this is toy-like I would urge you to reconsider and give this kit a chance to impress you.
  2. @K404 you're right I forgot to mention I was using lifecolour! Thanks for your tips; I think you're right about the practise side of things. My bottle of klear is the original and I've never noticed a problem before.... Certainly makes the finish look more painterly and as I said may be incorporated into weathering. On another note I have a daft question. How does one upload photos to the forum. When I click on the picture tool the box greys out
  3. That's a good point!! I'll have to get snapping Thanks for the warning on the Italeri kit as I was considering following up this build with that model.... maybe I'll stick with airfix. It is actually a good kit considering the age and certainly is beginning to look the part. It has always been one of my favourite aircraft.
  4. This is a follow up to my first posts, a good couple of weeks ago, where I introduced myself and indicated my excitement at waiting for delivery of my first Airbrush. Well my Iwata Nero arrived and I decided that the project to use it with would be the Airfix Short Sunderland III as it is large and I thought would be a good place to learn! As I'm sure most of you know this kit was from 1960(?) and thus is all raised detail and little cockpit detail. As for the gunners, well the less said the better really. However with the figures all painted up little can be made out through the rather thick glazing (so that is a blessing in disguise). The artwork on the box is fabulous and shows the 'flying porcupine' in full action; really whetting the appetite. There is a lot of flash to remove but as mentioned this is an old kit. What really surprised me though was the excellent fit of most of the parts.... really showing up some much more recent models I have built. Now onto the painting. With all the major construction done I gave the whole airframe a coat of Airfix's acrylic primer. Then out came the airbrush..... White first..... Oh! Well that's not good. The coverage was bad... I mean really bad. I had followed the advice of my local model stockist and thinned the paint 3 parts to 1. But I couldn't see the white paint!! I decided to clean out the airbrush and cheat. A trip to Halfords and out came their white spray paint. Wow that went on a treat. Next was I masked over the white with Tamiya tape and masking tape (a big mistake) and then as usual I sketched with pencil where the camouflage would go. Out came the Iwata and with renewed confidence after reading a blogg of a guy that didn't follow any given thinning advice; he just used instinct and played with the air pressure. A few practise blasts and I got the coverage I was after and attacked the model with a vengeance. To be quite honest I found initially that I had the pressure too high and mixture too thin as I was moving the paint around on the surface like you do as a kid with a straw.... But as time past I eventually got a decent, in my eyes, finish. I didn't mask the between camouflage colours, preferring to paint by hand. So off with the masking and oh dear.... paint bleed over my carefully painted white!! I attempted to touch up with acrylic using a brush but the coverage was very poor. So I decided after failing to decant the halfords paint to go back to my enamel white and hand brushed the whole white area. I'm almost glad of those airfix raised rivets! After that I brought out the vanish so that I could move onto decaling and weathering. But next disaster.... The Lifecolor paint doesn't seem to like the Klear.... It left a very uneven swirly effect; much like water staining.... grrr! I was too far down the road in my book to consider retreat. Perhaps weathering will be my friend. So after a few more coats I moved onto the decals. Not many. Looks simple. Out came the Microset and dish of cool water and Nooooo!!!!!! The decal must have be from the 1960's as they disintegrated.... I spent a few hours nudging and feathering until I got them on in a reasonable fashion. And that is as far as I have got! I must admit this has turned into a bit of a character building exercise. But am I pleased with the airbrush.... hell yeah!!!
  5. I am currently building one of these Revells and although shockingly unsophisticated it is building up into a pleasant looking model and for £3, I'm not complaining I considered going all out and detailing her but then decided to do an out of the box build to see what it would look like. That seat is almost worth the price of the kit for the laugh I had.... it is more of a bench....
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