Deano353

Outstanding model! I've personally seen one of these up close and it's just massive. I can imagine this is a big model.

The attention to detail in this is astonishing, I can't believe this started in 2012 well I think that's what I read. Unbelievable, I can't wait to see what this looks like finished.

That's awesome I like it a lot! Was this a real plane? Or just a design that never was? Seeing things like this is why I have too many models already lol.

I forgot to mention there was one area where the parts didn't fit and it was the wingtip lights. Mine broke trying to fit them so I coated the detail with klear/future let it dry for a day and used gorilla clear glue. It took a while to dry enough to put down so I was literally left holding the wings for an hour or so each as I'd applied the glue before looking for a jig to hold it but on the other hand I had to keep turning the wing so the glue dried in the same contour as the wing and didn't cause any drips. So if you manage to fit those you're pretty much figuring out the only actual issue I had with it.

The surface of the plastic is matt. Primer might be ok but to be safe a light sand with 600 grit would smooth the plastic nicely. No need for much pressure as the plastic is soft but the details are not going to go away with a bit of light sanding you'll be fine. I would say the tolerances on the kit are so tight that a painted surface will cause fit issues so just be aware of that. I say that as I used virtually no filler whatsoever but with so many parts to put together any parts that don't fit but get filled instead will likely cause a cascade of problems throughout the build. Thanks very much!

Thanks the reason I went to town polishing it is because if it's not a glossy finish the stressed skin effect might not be noticed.

Some great detail for such a small model. Nicely done.

I know what you mean. It's actually the dried Tamiya polishing compound that stuck in the recessed details and there's gotta be thousands of rivets and after 6 months building and polishing I had considered using a toothpick to remove it all but I decided to live with it lol. Initially I did think about removing it though.

I have a few more photos i forgot to post yesterday. Glad the finish came out so well myself. It's actually too light a shade of blue but I think it works slightly better as the details are more visible.

Yes they absolutely did! I'm hoping they decide to make a Zero or perhaps a retool of their Stuka. Man it was a lot of work but worth it

Yeah a chunk of a kit is right lol. It must weigh close to a kilogram or there abouts. The landing gear is solid though so no worries there.

Fair enough. To be honest the amount of work required in this is a lot. Although if you're going to do a wrecked drone at least you've the interior details included.

Didn't know it was out of production. If they do be sure to smooth the plastic before painting so you've a superb finish.

Thanks man I almost got obsessed with buffing the surface lol.

A few extras here which shows the gloss better.

This is the result of 6 months worth of work. The Airfix 1/24 Hellcat. Quite frankly an incredible kit to build. Considering there's close to 600 parts I had to use absolute minimal filler. The interior is a tight fit so mating surfaces have to be clear of paint or you'll have issues. The entire model is directly oob with no add ons as you honestly don't need any. The fit is really very good. I just wish I had sanded the plastic smooth prior to painting as the grainy surface is visible under the paint. I can tell you I sanded each layer of paint and gave it several gloss coats plus an absolute ton of Tamiya polishing compound from coarse to finish and it's almost mirror like in finish. The reason I went with such a high shine is because of the stressed skin effect and this shows it better. Overall this is easily the best kit I've made and no details were omitted from the box that I could tell. The folded wing is not glued in place as it hides a lot of the plane so it can be removed. So please enjoy the photos. I am going to celebrate this with a cold beer and think about the next project. I hope everyone is having a great weekend. If anyone has any questions about this kit just ask away. I decided to give this a clean finish as the details speak for themselves and I think weathering it might hide the sheer fantastic moulded surfaces of this kit. Overall this is in my opinion better than the Tamiya 1/32 F-16 which I think is so good I've built it twice. I'm not a WW2 enthusiast but as I built this I learned about it and have to say I actually really like this aeroplane. If Airfix decides to do a 1/24 Zero I'll have an opposite number sitting on my shelf as I'll definitely be buying it. The parts which I anticipated difficulty such as the engine were surprisingly easy to assemble and paint. I actually built the engine fully wires and all before painting. Like I said the tolerances on this kit leave ZERO space for adjusting so painting is a step that you need to consider when fitting. Anyway enough of my essay here. Enjoy the photos. Somehow they never look as good as on real life but hey ho. I'm going to grab a cold beer and put my feet up and enjoy my work. Cheers everyone!

I would use something like 400 grit sandpaper then gradually work down to 1000 or so. It will be time consuming but you will need to remove the roughness and you won't be able to do that with fine grit sandpaper to start off with. If you have Tamiya polishing compound I would use this once you've polished out the damage and it should bring it up like new. Good luck if you haven't already fixed it.

I have been there with decals silvering myself. You can fix this issue after applying a matt varnish as I have done it myself but you have to be very careful. Get a new scalpel blade a number 11 is usually the best which is the most common one. gently slice along where the silvering has occurred and then if you have a decal softening solution apply it over the area you just cut this will get the decal to settle down into the area where the air was trapped. It doesn't always work but it will certainly help a lot. I used it to fix silvering I had on a 1/48 F-111 I made on here years ago. If you smooth every layer of paint with fine grit sandpaper then when it comes to applying a gloss coat for decals you're going to have an ideal surface to apply decals. It is time consuming but ever since I was given this tip myself I have had no problems with any silvering at all. Plus this also stops the orange peel effect if you want a gloss finish.

Thanks for the reply I emailed Hannants asking to see if I can get an exchange. There's no way these decals are going to conform to surface detail. If the next set are as bad I'll just choose another manufacturer. I hope they're good because the marking options are seriously good. What a shame how the decals came out. This is what I'm on about here. The decals actually have shadows if you are able to see them.

I have to ask did you by chance use after market decals for this model? I have the new Airfix Buccaneer and yours looks great by the way. I bought Kits World water slide decals for some other marking options and the decals are incredibly thick and I'm afraid to use mine.

Has anyone ever used Kits World water slide decals? I bought some for the Airfix Buccaneer as there's some great looking schemes but the decals themselves feel incredibly thick. So thick I'm possibly not going to use them as they look like they will have an almost embossed effect once on the model. Can anyone verify this or advise they won't dry so thick? It's just they're easily the thickest decal set I've come across.

Wow this is awesome. I've only ever seen photos of the parts of this kit. Never seen it built before. I'll be watching out for updates not often a model this impressive shows up!

Looks great I really like the weathering.

Thanks for the compliments guys! I'd forgotten about this thread hahaha. Haven't posted anything in a long time but hopefully in the next month or two I'll be posting the Airfix 1/24 Hellcat. It's certainly going together easier than this Dolphin did. I'm glad it came out as well as it did. I would say it's worth the effort and other than decals I never found anything to update the kit with so had to build everything myself.

Work of art