AdriaN (MLT)

being maltese myself this post was of great interest. excellent job on the camo and weathering! and the weathered tyres! i saw this plane at the aviation museum in rome.

yes you are 100% right! the roundels are massive! but what could I do.. couldn't stop build because of roundels

Decals are the worst ever. Even decals from the 1970s give better results. They are very grainy and the transparent film turns ghosty-white. Also out of scale and they lack a white backing so when applied the colour darkens. Instructions are very misleading and instruct you to stick on incorrect parts on jut dont give you the part reference number!

is it raised panel lines? and does it fit well?

ive never built the italeri/esci ones. what are they like? i imagine OLD tooling so i think... none! But i do have x2 1:72 mirage F1 EDs from Special hobby. fingers crossed. yes the jaguar is a well known disaster kit!

Finished this kit in Decmber 2021. Ultra happy with the result! I will never build a Kitty Hawk ever again. Crappy kit from beginning to start. The fittings, the instructions, incorrect parts, the decals. I will also never used Agama acrylic again. Here are the final photos: First.. the build: ............ 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌............ The Shoot:

thanks. its all very small and will get covered with glass. infact i might leave one panel of glass "open"

So far so good! Fits together well, but its full of gaps and will need a lot of filler! PMask masking set was bought from EBAY 2011 Tooling Interiors sprayed Gunship Grey, dry drushed with light grey, washed with water colours. Decal panel Wood effect was hand painted 🥰

Hats off to you sir! Adrian from Malta.

https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/italian-aircraft-hijacked-and-flown-to-malta.733759 https://www.facebook.com/aviaphotohistory/photos/cant-z506-airone-this-cant-z506-photographed-at-kalafrana-malta-belonged-to-the-/3018525831522283/

Some old progress before finishing model in December and becoming covid+...... Scratchbuilt canopy hydraulics: Hydraulics painted and seats fit into place: Ladder: Painted nav lights:

Seats painted. Happy with the result. The seatbelts were painting a bit... randomly, as belts in real life.. are way more complex then this brass set! Jet pipe painted silver and stainless steel. Tail rubber anti corrosion tip added. Wheel hubs masked using masking set. First time ever painting this way. Usually its free hand. Love the wheels! With the photo flash for some reason... decals look yellow!

Weathering done and I am very pleased with the result. Panel lines done with water colours. Staining/streaking done with artists oil paints. Finished with my favourite.... Revell Enamel Matt varnish. Gives a nice sheen & non yellowing. Aluminum was also sprayed matt since in real life the bottom side wasnt shiny nor clean!

Highly recommend. you mix them with water. Drop of dish liquid is a must in order to break surface tension and to make it spread. Once dry you just rub off with tissue, leaving behind the mix in the panel lines. If you're not happy just introduce some water and it comes off. Similar to the Flory clay wash.

Weeks after completing decalling, i realised i stuck on 33-FD instead of 33-FS. Luckily all what needed changing was the D->S. Painted over the D with base color, deliberately making it look like a 'touch up'. In the end the mistake is quite undetectable. The 50 from 509 got torn off by masking tape. Lucky i managed to use the 5 and 0 from the 520 decal. Panels washed using my favourites... water colours! Once dry they rub off with ease. No thinners needed. First time ever using photetch seat belts. The rubbish instructions instruct you to stick them... the wrong way round! thankfully I rotated them when the C/A glue began to harden.

I have the PZL23 Karash and when going over the instructions a few times, I was also very confused with the interior colours! there doesnt seem to be a proper guide. Its also hard to find proper/coloured reference photos of interior. what colour have you decided on? same as exterior camo?

Canopy masked up using Eduard masks: Black internal colour first, base coat after:

they stick to the decal paper once you bring them out of the water actually. once the water starts to dry.. they will not move! on plastic i find they break easily.

are the decals bad also!? tempting to buy the SuE. But maybe not Kitty Hawk. Kinetic?

Some older progress. Happy with the results. But... Very disappointing decals. They are very thick, rough and matt. Secondly they are out of scale (look at roundels). They break easily and even after many gloss coats the transparent part of decal looks frosty. Its not silvering, as decals went down well. At one angle is looks painted, at another angle is turns frosty. Dont get me started on the instructions as they are a mess in terms of numbering and positioning! For some reason they inserted the same badge on the tail, when it should have 2 different badges. Give me 1970 airfix decals anytime over these

Well all kits have some filling/rescribing to do. The instructions are just clumsy. For markings best look at real reference photos as positioning can be incorrect or not labelled at all. Cant understand how a new-ish kit has such bad fitting parts! The 2 halfs of the wheels dont even fit in place and the fitting reference points need to be removed. Ooh yes and the decals are extremely thick! Youll see my post soon... I wonder if the single seat will have the same issues?

On a positive note. Very happy with the tail. Possibly 1 of few stages of this kit that went well! 😆 Blue & white are revell acrylic, Red is Vallejo. NO PEELING!

Blue-Grey was sprayed using Agama acrylics. They dry quick and spray on nice and thin. But.....last time i'll ever use Agama acrylic. A very weak paint and even with a primer coating and many layers of Klear.. it peels off under any sticky tape or blutac. But its not just the sticky parts of the tape that lift the paint off, but it even gets stuck the the sides of the tape. On numerious occasions I hade to hand paint these patches. The problem it posed was a slightly bumpy finish, but trickiest of all was getting the right shade used during post shading since paint was lightened on the spot.

Not at all impressed with this kit!!! 😤 Fittings are not good at all. Gaps, misalignments, hopeless & badly labelled, misleading instructions! Loads of filler to correct misalignments & gaps. Sadly lost some detail and rescribing was a disaster. Instructions give you the numbers of incorrect jet intakes. This B version has 1 identification light on the left, but the instructions tell you to insert the intakes with the lamps on both side. While it snubbed off the correct intakes from the instructions! thank god i realised before painting and filled it in. Model looking neat after a good coating of Mr surfacer 1200 primer & a light sanding. I found low psi (15) is best for this primer.... not 20-30 psi. High psi fumigates the room and comes out very rough.

Old progress shots of the Mirage. Till now very happy with the overall results... But as stated in another post, its very disappointing kit. Most parts dont fit well at all, loads of trimming to be done beforehand and filling. Parts simply dont line up - example the 2 wheel halfs. Incorrect placing of panels. Instructs you to stick on the incorrect intake, but correct intake was snubbed off- realised just before painting. Seatbelts on instructions were placed the wrong way round. Very clumsy & careless instructions. Badly labelled & oversized decals, some decals had no numbers etc etc.