kiseca

Time to reveal my completed Red Arrows Hawk. It's not a great build. I'm a terribly slow builder and I just wanted to see the Red Arrows colour scheme floating from my ceiling so this was an attempt at a quick and simple build. Get it finished and looking passable from a foot or more away. I ran into a few issues en route which have ultimately increased that estimate to at least 2 or more feet away.. nice from far but far from nice. It is, however, a simple build of a simple kit, it's a learning process, and all that, so here it is. Work In Progress thread is here: Paint is Tamiya gloss red X-7 over a Tamiya white fine primer. I usually use a grey primer but chose to use white to let the red stand out unaltered by the base coat. In hindsight I think if the red had been a shade darker it would look better, so maybe I should have stuck with the grey. Or I could have mixed the red a little and put another slightly darker coat on top, but I chose to live with it as is. Top coat, to seal the decals, is Vallejo satin clear varnish from a spraycan. I applied these lightly to the acrylic colour coat to avoid any melting but I had no problems with the paints reacting to eachother in the end. It did look a bit plain, all red, so I did try bring out some of the panel lines just a little. At first I tried by applying Tamiya powders with a fine brush, but the powder went everywhere except in the groove, and that would not do. Red Arrows aircraft are always immaculate, so a weather worn one just didn't feel right. That kind of thing hasn't worried me in the past, but here, for some reason, it did. Don't look for the logic there, you won't find any . In the end I went with a brown wash, tried to keep it as subtle as possible while still bringing the panel lines out a little. It wasn't a great success and there are some iffy areas on the white stripes, but then weathering rarely is a great success for me. It was a learning process, at least. There were a few problems with the build. It needed quite a bit of filler. The intakes in particular did not fit well and I had to grind those, and the mating surfaces, down quite a lot to get it all sorted out. And hardly any of the add-on strakes have any locating holes or lugs to secure them, so they're all attached just by a really thin edge and were prone to falling off under very light nudges. They seem more secure now everything's painted, thankfully. One of the main landing gear doors had snapped in half on the sprue, so I glued it back together being very careful to line it up properly, only to discover later in the build that for a wheels down build, the gear doors have to be split along the exact same line it had broken on anyway. Doh. The paint, my first effort with Tamiya acrylic gloss for overall coverage, didn't lay down smoothly enough for decals, so I had to apply a clear gloss coat first. That cost me a week for my "fast" build. And then the decals themselves. Probably nothing wrong with them when new but they had aged and deteriorated terribly, so much so that I initially gave up on them and was going to hunt for aftermarket ones. They were brittle, either wouldn't stick at all on the model or would get stuck fast before I could align them, and the whole decal wouldn't separate from the backing paper at the same time. Half of it would be floating while the other half was still stuck solid. After a while of cooling down I changed my mind and tried them without any Microset, let them soak a lot longer, and with that made slow progress. the end result isn't great. There are touch ups in a number of places. One side of the tail fin, for instance, is missing the union flag because that part of the decal broke away but also managed to set itself solidly on to the model. I couldn't remove it with masking tape, Blu-tak, it wouldn't even scrape off with a fingernail nor cocktail stick, even though the paint around it would. And it was out of position. In the end I just painted the red, white and blue over the top of it. Finally, the landing gear doors have locating lugs, but no equivalent holes in the fuselage to match them to. So they're hanging on precariously just like all the other little bits were, and without the added benefit of a helping layer of paint on top of them. I expect to lose half of those bits over time. Apart from that, it was all good! For me the end product looks interesting enough to join my displays, so I'm calling it job done. And now on to the images: And finally, the side with the half painted, half decalled vertical stabiliser. There's blue, red and white paint on there, all touching up where the fragment of decal ended up stuck to the fin, too far forward and a bit too low for it's intended position. The decal adds the white and blue to the tail. The red is painted on, but because the fragment was too far forward I had to touch up the red as well. Thanks for looking!

This one is a childhood favourite. Airwolf is one of my favourite TV shows ever, and is my absolute favourite where the vehicle is a star. Prettier and far cooler than KITT, sleeker and more dangerous than Blue Thunder, way more interesting than Street Hawk. The Bell 222 is a good looking helicopter as standard but the Airwolf bodywork really complemented that basic shape, didn't jar with it at all, but added a healthy dose of muscle and aggression. There are plenty of technical limitations that make Airwolf an impossibility, e.g. the extra weight of of carrying four jet engines hurting maneuverability. The single rotor disk putting a natural speed limit on the helicopter that would make the extra two engines useless anyway. The weapons selection and amount of ammo. The whole thing is bulletproof. The shape is aerodynamic but not for supersonic travel, and the two extra engines with their simple intakes wouldn't be able to drive anything to supersonic speeds anyway. I don't care at all. The thing just looks so damn good! For me, Airwolf is one of the prettiest real vehicles ever made. It's right up there in my books with the Spitfire, the Ferrari 288, The Ducati 916 and the Lotus 79. In JPS colours. Yes, it lacks authenticity compared to the rest of those but it doesn't matter to me. It's still the best looking helicopter I've ever seen. And then in 1987 Airwolf toured the country I grew up in: South Africa. One Saturday morning I, as a teenager in a mining town called Boksburg, was sitting in my bedroom when I heard a helicopter approaching the house. I was used to JetRangers, police MBB105s and and the occasional army Puma nipping around but this sounded like no helicopter I'd ever heard before, with a deep, rich beat from its rotor blades and a complex, expensive thrum from its machinery. I went outside in time to see Airwolf gliding low and slow overhead, on approach to land at a show taking place just a block away. She was majestic. As soul stirring in the flesh as she was on TV. She didn't sound like Airwolf, of course, with the distinctive howl from the TV soundtrack being absent, but she didn't sound any worse for that. Her cultured, exotic beat carried the unmistakable message of power. I was awestruck. So, I'm a fan of Airwolf! I'm aware of two kits in 1/48 scale and the Aoshima one is apparently the better one, so I was very happy to receive this one for Christmas, and now it's time to build it. There are some big decisions to be made along the way. The cabin, particularly Dominic Santini's station, is well detailed but completely hidden away. I've seen at one person put a light in there to make it a bit more visible through the windscreen. This is an opportunity for me to have my first try into lighting on models. Gotta start somewhere! Then there's the colour. The white belly is easy, but the almost-black-but-that-looks-blueish-grey-wait-is-that-a-hint-of-green? upper colour is the challenge. The real thing was painted in a Dupont colour called Phantom Grey Metallic. I've not yet found a model paints manufacturer who has replicated this colour. The kit calls for a mix of black and dark blue. On screen in sunlight there's a very dark grey hint like coal. Some have mentioned Anthracite, but that's too grey. I bought Vallejo Black Metallic and Anthracite, with the hope that a mix of these might come close. But it doesn't. I mixed those for parts of the Brabham I recently built, and the resulting colour is very pretty, but too light for Airwolf. The metallic black itself is too light. Maybe I could mix the metallic black with a gloss black to calm it down a bit. The third challenge is a couple of details of the model I just don't like, and will put in a rare effort to rectify. The riveting on the rear fuselage is way too pronounced and really stands out on completed models, where the actual aircraft has a very smooth skin. So I'll want to tone down the rivets while preserving the panel lines. And the section just behind the doors, where the side extensions meet the helicopter's body have a large ridge on the model. On the real helicopter this area is almost smooth. I'll want to tone that down a lot and that will be rather harder to do without losing detail, but the severe ridge marking its front edge really does stand out on completed models that I've looked at, and breaks the sleek lines. So it must be done. I'll explain this with detailed images when I get to that stage of the build. Other than that, it's just about finding my way around Aoshima's complicated and confusing instructions, something this model has in common with the same company's Brabham, and a headache I've recently gone through. However, experience should hopefully be a blessing this time around. So, a long build up, let's get to the pictures. The box art: Sprues: The kit comes with two complete bodies, one in black and one clear. I'm not really sure what they expect us to do with the unused one. The rear station is hidden as I said earlier, but the clear body won't help as the station has interior walls that will still hide the detail anyway. Unless one of the walls can be left out, but they do look structural. I'll play a bit more with that. I don't think I can build the helicopter without the rear station (thus display it separately or in the clear body alongside the otherwise fully built model) because it seems structural but I'll look at options. I'll say the body is quite big. This is going to be a decently sized model with a lot of presence. Not many decals included and most of them are internal, which is understandable. Airwolf hardly had any external markings. Chromed parts, unfortunately. They do look very plasticky. I believe I'll need to strip the chrome before I can paint these parts. A display stand is included in the kit. The helicopter's display angle is adjustable. An example of the instructions. I do find Aoshima's instructions more complicated and harder to read than average. Maybe it's just me.. You can see what I mean about the hidden rear station in step 16. Santini sits inside a box which sits inside the fuselage. The floor and roof of the box appear to support other parts, and the walls appear to keep the floor and roof in place. Only one colour scheme available in the box, surprisingly My reference material. The percussive theme tune is playing in my head even now. As usual I'll post updates as I work through it. Wish me luck!

That is supreme! Excellent work. I am truly astounded.

My Red Arrows Hawk is nearly complete so it's time for me to make a start on my next projects. This is one I've had, and been keen to build, for quite some time. I've mentioned a number of times on this forum that I grew up in South Africa in the 1980s, so I won't go to deep into repeating that story again. Suffice to say the Mirage F.1 was the air force's premier fighter at the time. Thus the F.1 and its predecessor the Mirage III are the fighter jets that dominated my childhood. I love the look of the F.1 in particular so have always wanted to build one, and now the time has come! The model is Italeri's 1/48 kit with the Bye-Bye Mirage markings, commemorating the aircraft's final years in service with the French airforce. According to Scalemates, this kit was released in 2019 as a rebox with new decals, but it started life as an ESCI kit in 1978. It's age shows in a number of ways which I'll get to during the build. The box shows two of the available liveries provided with the kit: Here are the sprues. One sign of its age is that, on the body, the two antennae on the spine, and the two bullet fairings that are part of the moulding on the vertical stabilizer both need to be removed according to the destructions instructions. There are mouldings for a second ejection seat. I have no idea why. The decal sheet is dominated by the tail decals. All three options have the sunrise style stripes on the tail. This is the livery I'm going to go with. I'd originally planned to build it as a 1980s SAAF CZ but when I saw the livery options, I thought this one looks too good to ignore. I don't have many models in my stash that come with desert or middle eastern style camo so I think this will really stand out. Also, I have some reading material to help keep me emotionally engaged during the build. "Vlamgat" is the story of the South African Mirage F.1s in SAAF service. They saw action on the border war, and enjoyed roughly twenty years of service. After it's retirement, an F.1 was upgraded to accept a Mig 29 engine. This project didn't go any further as South Africa committed to the Gripen. "Vlamgat" is an Afrikaans nickname for a jet fighter, most commonly in my experience applied to the F1 and / or the jockeys who flew them. The literal translation is "flame hole" but the slang as used would be more closely translated as "flaming bum".

It looks fantastic! I'd imagine its size makes it much more impressive in the flesh, just for sheer presence if not for the detail.

EDIT: Oops meant to post this in the RFI thread! OK, I've read this thread now and the work is amazing! Looking forward to seeing the end result. I haven't seen many projects like this on here.

Very cool! I can totally see the origins of it as well, both in your model and in the Stingray's one! It wasn't so obvious when looking at the Stingray picture, though the tail looked familiar, but when I saw the top view of what you'd built it became very clear. Very clever work. EDITED: Is there a thread for the Zombite build? I was looking for one but didn't find it.

Oh that does look nice. I'll hop aboard for this ride if you don't mind!

Lovely looking build. I have a thing for 1980s grand prix bikes. So many sporting heroes from my youth were around in that era to spice up the racing in a way that I've never had since. With Sheene, Spencer, Mamola, Lawson, Gardner, Rainey and latterly Schwantz all adding colour to the sport for me. They are the characters who made it interesting. I'm looking forward to the RFI!

Same here. Looks utterly spectacular even very close up.

That looks fantastic, even more impressive given the scale!

Time for some updates. This one has thrown a few challenges and so is not yet complete, as I expected it to be. Firstly, I added primer. I went for white with this one so that the red would come out as intended from the bottle. I used Tamiya fine white spray primer, and found it works as well as the grey does. I do really like their spray primers. Very easy to use and they do go on really well. Then came the coat of red paint. I had Tamiya's X-7 gloss red acrylic available, so that's what I used. I added the undercarriage doors so I could paint the whole thing at once. This had seemed like a good idea at the time, but when I tried to apply it, I realised that, if you want to model the undercarriage down, as I do, there are little lugs on the doors that stop them from fitting flush with the body in the closed position. So I tried to cover the holes as best I could with the understanding I may get some red inside the wells. I had to finish them off anyway. Also, the band around the middle of the canopy should stay white, so I masked that band off. It will show in the white primer when done. And here is where the first delay hit me. It's an acrylic gloss coat, so I was hoping it would dry to a reasonably smooth finish and I could go straight to decals in a day or two. But the finish, while regular and shiny, has a lot of very fine orange peel. Much more than I'm used to when I use Humbrol enamels. I was now worried about silvering, so I decided I'd best add a gloss varnish first, carefully because it's over acrylic, and then that would need plenty of time to dry before I could apply the decals. This added a week of waiting to the project. With the varnish done and dry, I ran into my next problem, which is that the decals are simply past their best. They take forever to separate from the backing paper, and don't separate evenly. And they break up very easily. They are really brittle. And then, when I try to apply them. I started with a couple of smaller cockpit ones to test the decals, but it's when I started with the larger ones - the blue-and-white stripes on the tailfin on one side, that the problems really started. The decal just wouldn't move on the surface. It would adhere wherever it touched down. I was using Microset. I actually gave up for a while and decided I needed aftermarket decals. After a while, I decided to wet the decal and tailfin with water, and I managed to get it in position. From there on I persevered with the rest, leaving them to soak in the water for longer, and not using Microset. In this way I've so far managed to get all the major ones on but I've had a lot of breakages, a few that just don't fit well and need trimming, and it's a job that needs a lot of work before I'll commit them it to film. They're also still very brittle so tidying them up is going to be a challenge. I have some Microscale decal repair solution. In hindsight, I should have used that, but I forgot I had it! Anyway, it's where it's at now. Undercarriage components are painted so once I've got the rest of the small decals on, and the big bits tidied up, I can put a top varnish on it, stick the legs on and call it done.

Looks fantastic. I don't remember having a problem with the intake, but I had a problem with fitting the saddle tank at the front in behind the nacelle's front face. Maybe it's linked to whether you apply the engine bearers to the engine or to the wing first. Overall I found the fit pretty good but it had its frustrating moments. I had a lot of trouble getting the main gears on, I remember that. And the pilot doesn't fit in his seat when the cockpit is in the fuselage unless you cut his left arm off! Maybe I got something out of alignment there too. It's a huge model!

That's great, thanks for the recommendations everyone. I'll give MRP a try as well as SMS. I've used AK Interactive's airbrush ready metals, the Xtreme Metal range I think, and find them easy to apply, easy to prepare, and good finish but they are really aggressive and I find I have to be very careful what I'm spraying them on and how I've prepared the surface. Their thinners are also very strong smelling (and the only thing I have capable of cleaning the airbrush afterwards) so I don't actually use them all that often. The Vallejo Model Airs do have a big range of colours and they are easy to clean, so I can always fall back on them I guess, and they do indeed smell pleasant. They are good, but just to me feel like they could be perhaps pre-thinned a little more than they are at the factory.

That is beautifully modelled. The detail in and around the cockpit windows is a real highlight too.

Thanks to you all for the positive feedback! I did enjoy the build and while I wouldn't rate myself in the top half skill wise on here, the model does come out looking really lovely in the flesh. For those of you who have said you have one in your stash, I'd say it's well worth it. I think it looks good in pictures but they don't do justice to the car's proportions that really do leap out from the model when viewed directly. It's a very shapely, purposeful looking thing.

Beautiful build! I remember reading about the "Super Mirage 4000" when I was young, in the 1980s, and assuming it would show up all over the place in due time. It was supposed to be the ultimate Mirage. A very pretty jet that has its place in my mental airforce of what-if fighters from the 1980s alongside the F-20, F-16XL and maybe that spoofed F-19 stealth fighter as illustrated on a Loral advert. Hope this link works:

I was thinking the same thing. I've read about that 707 in a couple of different accounts, but this is the first time I've seen any visual reference to it, whether photograph or model. Up until now, in my mind, that aircraft has always been only a blip on a radar screen. Now it's a real aircraft with numbers, a paintjob and people inside it! Excellent subject choices, aro0!

Looks beautiful, and the painted tail is a great idea. I've built that same model in the same livery. I used the decals on the tail and fortunately they went on reasonably well but I remember having to be really careful to make sure they sat well over the rudder fairings. I thought it was going to be a disaster. I had a lot of trouble joining the wing to the fuselage. The wing was simply too long and didn't fit in the slot made for it in the fuselage. I had to shorten the centre section on the wing quite a bit. Did yours go together any better?

Full support from me. I don't generally do what-ifs, I nearly always build one of the livery options that came in the box, but if for any particular thing I have a choice between more historically accurate or more interesting to look at, I'll choose aesthetics. I made the pylons aluminium instead of white on my Tigershark, because I thought it would add a bit more variety to the model. When I was building a Sturmovik, the box didn't show the camo pattern well so I just made up the invisible bits. I looked at a few photos but didn't put too much effort into it. Then, there were three different aircraft choices. I liked the decal choices for the second option, they looked nicer, but the second option had a grey / green spinner and the first option had a red spinner. I thought the red looked nicer, so I painted the spinner red, but used the more interesting decal set. I practiced pre-shading on a Marine Rafale to give a weathered look. The end result is nothing like any Rafale I've seen, but it adds some detail or interest to what is otherwise a completely grey colour scheme. So mine has some fading on the wing surfaces, and the control surfaces are a couple of shades lighter than the fixed surfaces. It's not historically correct, but it looks plausible. To me, anyway. So I'm completely with you. I don't build these things to be the most accurate representation of an original aircraft that I can manage, and once I've built them, there's nothing to do with them except look at them, so I build them to be pleasing for me to look at. To show off the shapes, to have details that keep one looking for a while. "Looks good" trumps "Looks accurate" for me any day of the week.

Ooh! Thanks for the correction! Sorry everyone, I should have looked more closely at the box.... and the description!

Looks like this is available now on the Special Hobby website. I can't tell if it's pre-order or not (it says it's in stock) and I can't find it on Amazon or Ebay yet. I haven't tried other online model shops, but the 1/72 version became available on Special Hobby's site before anywhere else too. EDIT: Scratch that. It didn't come up when I used ebay search for it, but when I searched for it on Google, an ebay link came up! Looks like it's hit the shelves.

Thank you! Here's a link to Stirling's day in the car for those interested either in the story or the pictures. https://the-race.com/formula-1/when-moss-sampled-a-1980s-f1-title-winner/ I also realise after reading your post that I was spelling his name incorrectly, as "Sterling". I'll edit the OP to fix this

Hi all! I'm sure this is a subject that has been visited in the past in some form or other, but I'm looking for current recommendations and personal preferences to give me some ideas. Situation: I currently use Humbrol enamels and Tamiya acrylics, both of which need thinning for airbrush. they both go on well once mixed, but once mixed, the mix is done, particularly the Humbrol paints. It may last a few weeks in a container but then it separates and turns to sludge. The Tamiya acrylics are a bit better. I also use Vallejo model air, which is much more convenient because, firstly, I can shake it and use it straight from the bottle, and secondly, it's water based so it's really easy to clean, particularly if I've mixed colours in a container. I prefer using the model air paints because of the convenience, but they tend to be a bit thick, need a higher pressure and don't quite lay down as smoothly. I've tried flow improver but, firstly, because I can't pour the left over paint back into the Vallejo container, I'd waste a lot of paint mixing to the right ratio, and secondly, it just doesn't make that much difference. I want to move to premixed airbrush paints because I like the convenience, so my question to you all is, do you use premixed paints, and which brand would you recommend as an alternative to the Vallejo model air range, that is easily available in the UK? Preferably water based acrylics but I'll consider oil based if they give better options too. I've googled it but the results I get tend to find the posts / articles always end up recommending something that needs thinning, like the Tamiya acrylics. So what premixed ranges are good enough, if any? Or are the Vallejo Model Airs as good as it gets? Their metallics are brilliant. No pun intended. But the model air colours are just not as smooth to use.

There was so much variety back then, some absolutely beautiful cars, and some stunningly ugly ones too! For me, they mostly stopped being pretty around 1990, with a few exceptions through the 1990s until the narrow track, grooved tyre regulations landed in 1998 and there are no cars since then I'd call beautiful. That is, until this year's Ferrari, which I think is absolutely gorgeous, and when someone releases a model of it I'll be all over it.