Ngantek

I have very little idea about these things so this is more a query for me out of interest... might there be a route by scratching an intake onto one of IBG's d-15s? The v18 was an 'A' frame adapted with a different thrust line to the D- derivative 603 installation? Andy

Lovely work wrestling it to shape Mark. Annoying about those flaps. Given the only variable is the outer flap length, unless you lopped off 2mm from those in your sleep, it's hard to see how it could be your error. You could also have a quick looksee if the 'flaps down' parts fit better with the locating stubs removed I suppose. I see lots of little suggestions that airfix's last few families of 48 spits aren't their best. Andy

Lovely model! Beautiful flawless finish is very pleasing to the eye. Sounds like you were building for a competition to use as many different paint brands as possible! It's an intriguing aircraft that I'd never heard of before. I was going to make a facetious comment about the fin looking like it had been sawn off for spare metal and it seems that's not far from the truth. I really like the look of these Japanese inlines (been keeping my eye out for a fujimi d4y2 kit for a while), and this one also fits the brief of being a slightly nutty idea, which I'm always partial to. Really nice job, thanks for posting! Andy

Superb work. You've kept the detail razor sharp and some lovely subtle weathering. Stunning! Andy

That looks terrific. For once might almost be nicer without the decals! Andy

Not much time this evening, but a quick wipe with an IPA-damp cloth, a brief attempt to junk the thing with a scriber and Hasegawa template tool, then... the bit I always look forward to. Behold! The moment of EDSG is nigh! Again Gunze Mr Color (this time C333) thinned with MLT about 50/50 straight onto plastic. This stuff is terrific. Nice even satin finish, even with me at the helm. No time for shading, but probably better to take a photo now before I ruin it. In anycase I need to do a bit of thinking and looking at photos to decide how to shade. My view is slightly that I'm primarily trying to mimic the uneven surface with shading (plus some discolour and panelling for variety), and my recent experiments have been rather unsuccessfully using stripes and blobs of lighter immediately adjacent to darker in the hopes of giving the surface some wobble, denting, mild canning, wrinkling, overlapping panels where instead we have panel lines; that kind of thing. Of course the surface finish was rather better on these than, say, a beaten up spitfire, so it's probably sensible to use as light a touch as possible. Looking ahead, I'm still not really there on scheme. I don't have any decals for a FAW1, but conceivably I might be able to cobble together some underwing serials from what I can find lying around. Original plan was to shamelessly slap on the kit decals and hope no one noticed do some really thorough research, but honestly, I'm not really that fussed about telling a story here, given the likelyhood is I'll get it very wrong without putting a lot of time and effort into it. One thing for any Sea Vixeniados out there, I've noticed those 'iconic' red 'no-step' markings splattered all over the upper fuselage never seem to show up nearly as much in photos, partly I don't doubt, due to weathering and partly because I suspect decals in kit size are going to be necessarily out of scale. I had planned overspray them lightly with EDSG to dull them down a bit, but a lot of photos of FAW1s don't seem to have them at all... or at least I can't make them out. Have a look at some of these (if you're also bored and trying to procrastinate from work) and see if it's just my bad eyes, the camera or they really aren't there: Really it's an excuse to waste some time watching Sea Vixens landing on carriers, which to my mind, is the coolist single thing in all of aviation. XJ481 in storage at the FAA museum has none either (credit James Thomas, happy to remove) Anyway I'd rather leave them off if I can justify it, I think overall it looks better without. There we go Andy

Verr-ry nice. That combination looks really good. I might consider painting the AZ PRU hornet in that mix if ever I get around to it. Heh you say that but you should see the carcrash that I've managed to achieve with those lovely idiot proof paints in the past! Andy

Nice job on all that annoying fussy work. It looks even sillier like this, I'd be tempted to slap on the wheels and call it done! Andy

Thanks Mark that's high praise indeed. If nothing else, it's a little more interesting than uniform white, I guess I won't really know how it's turned out until it's against EDSG, had oils spilled all over it and all the mess hidden under varnish. Not much time yesterday so I contented myself with getting ahead of the masking job. Before that though, the off-white of the canopy frame that I forgot, needed to go down before I could do the EDSG later. This is when I remembered that, when masking the canopy at silly in the morning, I'd forgotten to mask for the earlier frame with crossing white and EDSG bars over the canopy centreline. The sensible thing would've been to completely re-mask, but never one to miss an opportunity to lengthen- and simultaneously mess up- any given job by trying to cut corners, I opted to try and slice a gap through the tape and masking fluid to put a new pair of guide lines down. It was, as one might expect, only moderately successful. The middle bar isn't undercoated in cockpit black, but ahh too lazy. I had at the flaps as well which made them correspondingly more dodgy, before finishing the masking job, hopefully. I've actually used the expensive tape all over and done a proper job, seeing as I usually just do the edges in the knowledge that only an incompetent fool would manage to get paint on the middle. Then get paint all over the middle. The Revell instructions (I guess the paint diagrams are freshly revellified rather than CH holdovers?) are, frankly, a little lazy (by which I mean very wrong) on various locations of the top bottom demarcations, which are pretty easy to see with a 20 second google search. EDSG soon I hope. Andy

Lovely even sheen on that blue. Looking forward to seeing it with the MSG Andy

Thanks guys. I'm not particularly taken by the results, but I'm always happy if it's serviceable and I have ideas for how to do it better next time. I think I've put my finger on why I don't particularly take to the preshade technique at least. This one wasn't even supposed to be preshaded, but ended up that way! I've realised I forgot to do the off-white canopy band, so might try and reinstate some definition while I have the paint out. Yeah I agree, but I'm not holding my breath. In some ways, it's in the worst place of having no 'really good' model, but is quite well served by well tooled mainstream or decentish shorter run options, I imagine it's hard to justify the market for another one. The FAW1 is probably the best bet since the CH kits are not super common these days, but the existence of that tool for potential rerelease, and the fact that I would guess a lot of the research and scan work that Airfix has already done is not applicable to that mark aren't strong points in its favour. The FAW2 of course has the CH and this kit easily available, along with the SH/MPM/Xtrakit line, and of course the various frog derivatives, as I'm sure you know. None of which are perfect, but they do occupy a lot of potential demand. But yeah if they did I'd probably buy three! Andy

Would that I could ever achieve a gloss cote I too would do the same! You're very kind Chris. I think 'rough experiments in shading' is about right! So I've had some other colours out. It's kinda hard to show the effects because photos seem to wash out any colour distinction and it all looks like shades of the same colour. Please forgive the excessively detailed post, it's really for my reference more than anything. Essentially I cut with some Sky, shaded some areas and did some streaks. Next I went for some 'colder' shades by adding some blue, then gradually added more and more grey, layering on darker and darker effects, highlighting certain areas, a few weathering effects you can see on photos and whatnot. So to make comparison easy, we were here last: Various other shades added brings us to this: which was then toned down with a heavily thinned white overspray: With the mark 1 eyeball, I'd say the effect is rather more pronounced in person, but yes, its a finish that could be achieved much quicker with less effort. Something I'd noticed in the past but not had the gumption to learn from, is that when you uniformly 'tone down' with overspray, you also lose definition. It tends to look less deliberate and more just badly applied paint. I also find you want to tone certain things down a lot and some not at all, and that's not particuarly easy to achieve with even mist cotes. I think the ideal is to have the bal cohon relevant anatomical features to get the right balance first time, then apply the shades over the top without the 'blending' too much. That of course requires rather more airbrush control than I've ever managed, but I think the effects can occasionally look pretty good 'raw'. The issue I had, was the base layer was so dark, that a lot of lightening was needed to blend it, and despite the shading being a little more wiped out than I ideally would like, it still is a little too on the grey side all over. White is not very forgiving in that respect I think. I might even next time start from white and add colours and shading as appropriate, given how much more difficult it is to 'whiten'. I think given that, I'm mildly tempted to go back and sharpen some of those effects again over the top. Anyhoo, here's the same progression on the wings: Again, the effect is maybe a little more obvious (and with more colour variation) in person. I think I've learned enough from this to move on. It looks serviceable, and if I've learned anything from previous models, it's that techniques don't just get learned in a binary fashion; they get a little better (or if you're me, about evens a little worse) every time until hopefully you're one day achieving something approaching what you're looking for. Question now is whether to risk sanding back a bit to smooth any inconsistencies. Otherwise, I think mask up when it's dry and then do the same with the EDSG; I expect it will be a very different situation with such a dark colour by comparison. Anyway, progress at least! Cheers, Andy

Thanks Alistair. In true fashion I've made a bit of a meal of this one, then got sidetracked with experiments. Still hoping to get it out of the way for the new year! I'm not so sure I share your optimism, but since you got me into this shading milarky, I'm going to brazenly blame the inevitable car crash on you! 😄 Light, subtle shading of the type you excel at is apparently not particularly compatible with my 'first approach to any problem is with a sledgehammer' style. Ah, it's just tactical lighting to hide the liberal coverage of orange peel. I had at it with some sanding sponges in an attempt to fake the lovely sheen that you seem to always get with your colourcoats, but just ended up revealing more styrene and making it greyer! As for those little sponges, notice that getting one in every wheel bay was evidently beyond the limits of my endurance. Thanks for popping by everyone anyway, at the very least it will serve as guide as what not to do! Andy

Amazing work. Sounds like you had a pretty massive body of work just doing the conversion. Funny to see that discrepancy, but to have different (and I guess apparently historic?) aircraft ID decals. Incredibly sharp work, and all that fiddly work you've done on the personnel and diorama really bring it to the next level. The humblest of humble boasts! 🤣 I regularly leave pitot tubes off 'normal' scale aircraft as too fiddly! Andy

Lovely stuff Chris, that wash has really made it pop; the underside in particular. Very envious of that prop. I do hope your DIY skills are more reliable than mine! Andy

So had a few minutes to try another shade. First white. Disclaimer is I'm entirely new to this shading lark and all of this is really just experimental. Images of the now sadly grounded XP924 show often a lighter air brake, the odd panel, some ribbing giving a canning effect to the flaps and the seams on the underside fuselage pronounced by dirt giving an almost overlapping panel look. I had a go (with no real idea what I was doing) at showing that. The rather darker-than-planned basecoat gives a lot more contrast that I had intended, but knowing that I can easily tone than down with a mist coat, I think I'll leave the rather stark appearance and address it once I've added some more shade layers. So fair warning, yes it does look way over the top right now. So there we are, at the worst I can always bail out and dump a pot of white all over it. Andy

Thanks Mark, don't worry, we'll soon put an end to that! Andy

Whoops missed the start as usual. Lovely work so far, the blue looks great! Andy

Lovely and clean. God luck with the blue! Andy

Just finished with this one too. Lovely kit to build. The only thing I might flag up (other than the trailing edges being the major one), is maybe little care may be needed with the radiator assembly to ensure the radiator inner surface on the wing is able to reach over and snap into place. Good luck with it, wing scraping aside, I thoroughly enjoyed mine start to finish.

Thanks for the pointers Chris. Yeah the original plan was to pose it open for this very reason, but like all things with this kit, it becomes a bit more faff if you stray from the intended build. In this case, the canopy locates with stubs and holes which would need removing and filling. No major one but given I was going to do landing configuration, I opted to leave closed, which led to some knock on corner cutting when detailing the cockpit. I think I'll just grin and bear this one. Thanks also for the heads up on the conversion, another lovely build from your back catalogue that I'd missed. I see how you've done it, I'll have a look tonight and decide whether I have the willpower! Cheers, Andy

Yep true to form, I've left the requisite month before getting around to doing any serious work on this one again. In the intervening time, I've only had a few feeble pokes at it, so in the spirit KUTA, I resolved to really sit down and work through what was holding it back. A couple of evenings work without much obvious to show for it, other than finally cleaning a multitude of extra bits and bobs, another hack the filling jobs that I've been putting off, and generally getting everything ready and in order for paint. Was almost ready to start that today, but had a final-boss vacillation over the canopy. The canopy of course, is one of the things that's a fair way off about this kit. Starting from the aft end, the Sea Vixen's rear canopy reaches a peak and then gently curves down before meeting the windshield almost flush. The CH tooling has both rising to reach a sharp, discontinuous peak at the join, and while I'm generally not that fussy about kit inaccuracy, it is a rather obvious and characteristic part of the Sea Vixen's overall look. I do happen to have a Squadron vacform (made for the frog kit, I think), which looks great except for the fact that it has none of the lower and rear framing; so using it would require me to butcher up the kit version and then try and pull off some unholy union of the rather substantial lower framing, and the vacform clear bits. In the end I bailed out, feeling the chances of success were vanishingly small. I also (re-) considered whether to do some relatively major surgery on the long 'strake' or 'slide' to the port side of the canopy. The kit has this feature included (as it should for the FAW2), but most pictures of FAW1 have none, rather just a smooth fuselage that mirrors the starboard side. Removing it, however would also mean some significant work on the windshield, since it corresponds to the much larger windshield base. Seeing as I found a fair few pictures of FAW1s with this later windshield and 'strake' (what is it anyone?) I decided to wuss out of this too. Incidentally I noticed that new windshield and also refuelling boom from the port wing to be present on a fair few FAW1s in photos. Does anyone know about these intermediate 'upgraded' FAW1s? The starboard wing fuel dump pipe is another that I think I've both seen and not seen on FAW1s. In this case, I opted to fill the hole to accept this part with styrene. So finally we're on to real forward progress. I had at the thing with some black Mr finishing surfacer 1500 thinned about 50/50 with MLT, to show up any joins. Why black given the next layer is white? Erm.. I dunno. I suspect I might have had plans to black base this one, but it might also have been to save a paint step since I needed black for the canopy interior colour. Frankly I have very little idea what I was thinking 30 seconds ago, I blame the wee ragemonsters for not sleeping all week. Anyway black shows up seams better. A little remedial work still necessary, then shamelessly ignoring some rather egregious dodgyness on the scratch boom joins, I pressed straight on to paint. I'm experimenting with Gunze lacquers this time, hoping it might let me get away both without priming and then (since they're gloss or semigloss), maybe also save on a gloss cote pre-decals; hopefully sharpening up the final result. I've never done this post-war EDSG/ white scheme, or frankly anything with large portions of white, so we're into experimental territory here. I opted to do a basecoat of off-white, which is to say Mr Colour C1 with about 4% C333 (EDSG), my thinking being that my options for post shading would be very limited if I started from pure white. It turned out actually rather darker than I intended, I'd say it's fully a light grey. We'll see how it turns out. I'm telling myself that it's not the final colour, the whole point is to give some room to lighten it. The next stage will be some shading, starting white, and then gradually adding in various different tones and darkeners. I will say that I'm pretty happy with how the Gunze is behaving. I do use it a fair amount, but usually for lazy interior basecoats (since it doesn't need primer and is glossy enough to wash without varnish), so it's the first time I'm doing an exterior using them. The styrene had cursory wipedown with IPA beforehand, and I'm pretty happy with how smoothly they go on, and the satin finish. I'm tempted to plough on, but it's late and I should probably try and get at least one night's sleep this week. Hopefully reconvene tomorrow! Cheers, Andy

Behold! A gapless spit wingroot join with the right dihedral! Time to buy a lottery ticket I think. Andy

Thanks Steve. Yeah with my butterfingers, any further work, particularly post aerials, wheels and canopy, is a very low probability endeavour! Sticking all that on was a bit of a subconscious burning ships moment I suspect. Hehe yeah it stands out a bit, but I'm happy enough with it and in any case it's not a real scheme with any historical interest, being a mishmash of what I liked the look of and what is in the box. Massive thanks for all your help with various techniques and gently prodding me to have a go with the shading on this one. I really learned a lot, so from being in a place with this model of having absolutely no idea what to do, it's given me a lot of direction on what kinds of things work and what doesn't so much. In this case the little bits of shading are a bit glaring and make the un- and under- shaded bits more noticeable, but I certainly am in a much better place than I would've been if I hadn't tried. Thanks guys. It's been a fun one, it's very enjoyable just bosching together a nice easy kit without getting too bothered about the final result! I feel I somehow need to make some horrific 1960 limited run white metal monstrosity in penance. Thanks. There are a few little tweaks here and there but overall I've been really impressed with this kit. The design and fit, particularly around the wing roots and potentially awful Tempest landing gear was really pleasing. Andy

You're very kind Chris. I definitely can see a lot of things I should do to it, but want to push on, and I'd never intended to really spend much time getting this one 'just right'. Thanks for the help throughout! I'm glad I did have a hack at post shading in the end. It's clearly too piecemeal and stands out, but the bits that I did do at least gave me a lot of ideas and experience on how to do it properly next time. Andy Thanks very much, Matt. Thanks for reminding me: @Steve Coombs not much help to you, but since you asked, my undercarriage was fine, and actually went together really well. The only issue was the locating stub for innermost main undercarriage doors (triangular wheel covers) was clearly too large for the the hole and needed trimming down.