quarryman

nice job pappy, this is one ugly old bird . remember building one of these years ago

doh!, knew that would happen , thanks perry, I shall now go and buy a pot of blue

Hi Mish, try this one too, http://www.paintmatcher.com/tool/tool.asp it's great for cross referencing with a number of filters available regards Q

looking great Mike, cockpit's excellent

Hi David, the lights are just the kit parts painted with Tamiya's clear red and green. The kit instructions state blue rather than green, but (1) I have never heard of blue starboard lights before (although I stand to be corrected on that ) and (2) I've only got green and red in the paintstore anyway regards Q

Hi folks, this is my completed Trumpeter Wyvern S.4. I just love the look and huge size of this aeroplane, and this was a thoroughly enjoyable build with the kit fitting together beautifully for the most part. Paints used were Gunze acrylic Dark Sea Grey for the upper surfaces, Gunze lacquer Sky for the undersides and Alclad Dark Aluminium / Jet Exhaust for the bare metal bits. Finally, I gave it a couple of mist coats of Xtracrylix Satin varnish mixed with a little flat to dull it down a tad. There appears to be various opinions on the actual finish of the engine casing and the undercarriage bays. There is not a great deal of info available about the Wyvern (not that I could find, anyway) so it came down to a matter of choice. I decided to do the engine casing in aluminium and the bays in Sky. Apologies if I chose wrong. (oops, just noticed the canopy is off centre. That'll be cos I forgot to glue it in place before taking pics ) Again, opinion appears to be that the Wyverns were kept pretty clean during their 4 year service life, so weathering was kept to a minimum, Promodeller Dark Wash being used for the panel lines and my first attempt at post shading to represent sun bleaching on the upper surfaces. I do intend to add some exhaust stains when I can get hold of a pot of Tamiya’s Smoke. (local model shop shut for a week) The stripes were airbrushed as I found the decal quality to be a little lacking, but to be honest I think I would have done them myself anyway. I enjoy experimenting with masking / airbrushing and I still have a lot to learn. I also airbrushed the fins on the tailplane, then found out they are supposed to on the outside only... more haste, less speed. ah well, it adds a bit more colour... I screwed up on the canopy painting first time, so re-did it and managed to leave tape residue which did not want to come off, so stay on it did. Another obvious difference is the seat cushions, Apparently, they should be a Khaki colour, but again, with the model shop shut and me not having any, they were painted Olive Finally, just for an idea of the size of this thing, park it next to a Phantom So there you go, 2 completed builds this year already. I think I’ll go have a lie down now. Thanks for looking, and if you’re interested, the build is shown in WIP here… http://www.britmodeler.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9991 Regards Q ps - Phil, if you're reading this, I will put that seat you sent me in the Phantom, I got so engrossed in this build I haven't got round to doing it yet

Hi Periklis, I applied it straight onto the paint, and Gunze drys to a semi-gloss finish, especially the lacquer. You have to rub that little bit harder when cleaning up, but not much. regards Q

Hi qcn. I got my Gunze paints from Model Design Construction thro' t'interweb, although Netmerchants stock them now as well, and seem to carry a larger stock. They both only carry the acrylic range though, apart from the little box sets of RAF and USAF colours which are the lacquer paints. For some reason, nobody seems to sell the lacquer range individually in the UK, I have no idea why. It's a pain, as I think they are by far the best paint for airbrushing, they spray beautifully, and dry to a tough eggshell finish. The acrylics are pretty good themselves though. regards Q

well, nearly there. The decaling done, I decided to try my hand at post-shading to represent the sun-bleaching effect. I just used some Tamiya flat white heavily thinned with IPA on the Dark Grey upper surfaces, and a very light mist on the fuselage sides. It was guesswork for the most part, and I decided to err on the side of caution and leave it more to the subtle side (I think ). Next step was the panel lines/weathering. Using Promodellers Dark Wash on the upper surfaces, leaving it to dry overnight followed by wiping with a damp piece of kitchen role, we got this a quick flip over and the same was done to the underside and finally, all the breaky offy bits ready for final assembly So there you have it, one nearly completed Wyvern. This was an absolute pleasure to build, the fit being excellent apart from the wings. I think I'll be building another one of these pretty soon, maybe as a what if. Thanks for all the kind comments, it is very much appreciated. I'll post pics of the finished job a little later in the RFI section Ta for looking Q

Hi Dave, yes, I do know about the doors, thanks, didn't know about the fins tho'. I will probably still put them on as it would mean filling, sanding, etc. on the tailplane and I don't fancy all that re-work now it's just about finished. besides, I've already painted 'em now and I would hate to see the hours of hard work gone to waste regards Q

ok, latest update. After advising Buccy that I hadn't broken the tail wheel, just merely hadn't attached it yet, I've now gone and broken the bottom of the oleo that'll teach me to . I've lost the broken part, too... anyway, humble pie duly eaten, this is the kit masked and misted with several coats of Gunze Dark Sea Grey acrylic. The underside is painted with Gunze Mr Hobby lacquer. I love Gunze paints. out of all the makes I've experimented with so far, they are by far the best for me. Then it was ready for the stripes. I masked off first for the yellow. After ending up with Games Workshop Golden Yellow due to Hobbycraft deciding to drop Tamiya paints, I was pleased as it is quite a good match for the decal yellow. It sprays well, but is prone to lifting when removing tape unless you are very gentle. I then used some 2mm linetape and to mask off the yellow for the black. got a few bits of touching/cleaning up to do before I move onto decaling and weathering. The preshading is on the underside is subtle, and does not really show on the pics Thanks for looking Q ps - in my last post, I meant the Classic Airframes Gannet, not Trumpy

went down to my local Hobbycraft to stock up on some Tamiya paints at weekend only to find they have dropped them from their range. I really needed some yellow for the invasion stripes on the Wyvern I'm currently building so ended up buying a pot of the GW Golden Yellow. It's a good match for the decal yellow and when thinned with Xtracrylix thinners, sprays beautifully. I tried thinning with IPA first, which it definitely doesn't like, then water, which was ok but not great. Does take a while to dry tho', and my airbrush needs a lot of cleaning afterwards to get rid of all the residue.

shall watch this one with interest, the CA Defiant is on the 'wanna build' list. Nice job so far.

nice job Ratch, I remember trying to build one of these myself many years ago, ended up throwing it in the bin in frustration. ( I was only about 12 )

Oz, you may well be right, The only photo's I've found of the Wyvern (which aren't many, 2 to be precise) on the ground, the flaps are up. I guess I'll have the flaps down like everbody else simply cos I can . Tbh, i don't think the fit is too great if you do them 'up', but that just may be down to my building skills... Give the Wyvern a try Bex, fits together very well apart from the wings, which need a tad more precision in lining up than I gave it. Must admit, I do fancy giving the Trumpy 1/48 Gannet a go myself now. Thanks to everyone else for the kind comments. I've just finished putting on the Sky coats, and it's now masked up awaiting the Dark Grey, but I'm just having a quick surf and a crafty bottle of Marston's Pedigree

Hi Buccy, I haven't attached the tail wheel yet, best to leave all the breaky offy thingies till the very end, I find. The oleo is there cos it has to be, of course, but the wheel is with all the other odds n sods, painted and waiting

Ah, sorry Mike, I've given the gearing a miss It would have too tempting to curious children, resulting in one (more) broken model and one peed off me, so I decided against it. I've been rather busy of late getting things ready at home for the builders who are about to start on an extension, so not much work been done, but I managed to put in a few hours yesterday. I found that the wing assembly was a little tricky. One side matched fine, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't avoid a small step on the underside of the other. Filling these steps does not come easy to me, but with careful application of putty thinned a little with liquid cement I managed a passable job. The join will be partly hidden by a 1000lb bomb so it's not too bad. I have read that the decals supplied are very thin and prone to tearing, so I decided to test the stripe decals on the airbrakes. I painted and varnished the airbrakes separately and applied the decals. Sure enough, they were thin and brittle, tore easily and were difficult to align. I decided therefore to scrap the stripe decals altogether and spray them myself, so before priming I sprayed a white undercoat for said stripes the masked them off I then primed with Alclad grey primer, made good where necessary, then went for the preshading Not the tidiest pre-shading you'll see, but it will have to do. Should now be able to apply the paint today, and assuming no disasters will post more pics later. (the canopy is masked with masking fluid, in case anyone thought I'd forgotten to do it ) Ta Q

lovely job Tez, big thumbs up here ,

Nice work Craig, I'll pluck up the courage to have a go at a NMF myself one day........

nice detail on the cockpit - look forward to seeing this one

Thanks for the kind comments fellas John, rest assured, I did give her one (or two) in return, and very grateful she was too ( best stop now, it's sounding like a Carry On film in here) Anyway, bit of an update - not much done build wise as it's been (for me) the boring bit, i.e. filling and sanding, and rescribing. There were no join lines to fill, but there were a number of sink marks, the most noticeable being on the fuselage sides, caused by the locating slots on the inside for the cockpit. These were easily filled with Mr. Surfacer 1000 and sanded down. I'm now working on the wings, which are a little bit fiddly and will need some careful alignment and clamping to avoid a small step on the underside (at the inner/outer join). I've test fitted and it does seem to be possible to do this, but we'll have to see. Will hopefully finish the wings and fit the tailplane in the next day or so, and then she should be ready for the paint shop

ok folks, first time posting a WIP so please be gentle with me... this is Trumpeter's 1/48 Wyvern S.4 as generously provided by my GF for xmas. I love the ugly looks of this beast (the Wyvern, not the GF...), and the size of it too (again...), and have been itching to make one for a while now. First up is the cockpit. This is an OOB build, so no fancy bits apart from what came with it. I have tried (and failed) to find out much info on the Wyvern, so I apologise in advance for any glaring mistakes. AFAIK, the pit should be black, not grey, so I used Vallejo Modelair black lightened just a tad with med.sea grey. I added a red and yellow button here and there (no idea if it's right or not) and then weathered using Light Promodellers wash and drybrushed Tamiya Flat Aluminium. The seat is not quite ready as I don't have the Khaki to do the seat pads. The weathering looks brighter than it actually is due to flash photography, so apologies for that. The engine casing was then sprayed with Alclad primer and then Alclad Dark Aluminium, same for the tail wheel assy. The fuselage halves went together perfectly, and now awaits sanding Should hopefully find a bit of time to start on the wings tomorrow. It's saturday night, so I'm off for a now Hope you like this, and any advice/hints/tips etc. would be welcome. Ta for looking Q

lovely work so far Jon, especially like the paint job. Look forward to seeing this one finished.

that is just superb Phil, I would never have the patience (or the skill, probably ) to do a paint job like that.

Nice work Mike, a great build of one of my favourite aeroplanes.