Search the Community

As promised in my WIP, here are some pictures of the completed Gnat F.1 It was quite an old model and I did struggle a bit at times with the canopy and the yellowing decals, however I think it's turned out quite nicely. I do hope that I have done a good enough job on it to do this great old kit justice. Thanks for looking.

This is the brand new Airfix 1/48 Folland Gnat T.1. Although I have a dozen projects on the go, I couldn't resist starting this little beauty straight away. It will be built OOB in the boxtop scheme. I can't guarantee that it will be a particularly quick build, although the kit itself certainly has the potential to be. It is well engineered and actually quite simple, although it looks complex at first glance. This is the box. And the sprues The transparency sprue has alternate parts for an open or closed canopy. Should be fun. Hold on tight, rider!

Not looking forward to painting all that Red and White, or NMF and Da-Glo, but I am looking forward to the kit itself.

Just received my IPMS Magazine and included is an excellent 24 paged illustrated history of all the colour schemes and marking variations of the Gnats and Hawks used since 1964. What a reference source!!

Hi Everyone, This project was built for the Less Than A Tenner Group Build. This is probably the most interesting project I have built for a long time, due to its colour. As the title says its Pink. Anyway here is the side on photo of the kit. I am very happy with the way this came out and I hope when my niece gets it for her birthday later in the year she will be as well. Thanks for looking everyone. All comments welcomed. Rick

While clearing out the garage today I found this old friend a little battered. I made this with my daughter (then 6 years old) over 10 years ago. She did the painting (brush painted Humbrol enamel) , I did the construction and decalling. It just need a bit of clean and to be reattached to its stand.

Well before I completed the F-84E, I did these. The YF-22 and one 23 were strip-downs and repaints of kits first built in the early 90s. The dark grey 23 has decals from the Dragon kit, bought specifically for them. The details - The YF-22 is the Italeri kit with Airfix decals. All the original kit was still in one piece, I just removed the u/c, added a bit of filler, and the nose probe from the Airfix kit too. Both YF-23s are the Italeri mould (one from a Revell release). Not too much weathering on them but the decals on the dark grey one silvered quite badly. The YF-17 is the Anigrand tooling. Straightforward if not too accurate at the nose end. The nose probe I added is a bit on the long side! The canopy was quite cloudy though. The X-32 is (IMHO) a gorgeous looking machine! This was the Revell boxing of the Italeri moulds, of which I have another, and may well end up as the X-35B. Accuracy, again, is not all there, especially in the back end, but I couldn't be bothered to make new vertical stabs or move the wing, OR put in an exhaust on the back left fuselage.. but I enjoyed making it - went together well! Finally the Gnat and Vampire make up the Brit end, Airfix versions of course. They went together ok, but not superbly. A bit of filler and rubbing down on a few joints that didn't want to mate up, and panel lines that didn't seem as fine as the aforementioned X-32. On the Gnat, I had a lot of trouble with the Alclad orange peel effect, despite being rubbed smooth and properly primed. In the end I opted for Humbrol Metalcote overall, along with their 209. The Vamp was painted too initially in Alclad, but I wasn't happy with it (I have seen pics of Vampires having what looks to me like a greyish metallic colour, whilst the Alclad seemed a bit too... metallic?? So I opted for Xtracolour High Speed Silver instead.) You will also notice some of the display stands in their naked formats - I haven't gotten around to stain varnishing them all yet Also, I put the YF-22 next to an F-22, just for comparisons.. Apologies if this is a tad pic heavy URL=http://s764.photobucket.com/user/jasman71/media/null_zps13090729.jpg.html][/url] Thankyou for looking

Argh.. Well.. The last model I made was thirty years ago when I was still at school. Thanks to a nostalgia fest last Christmas, when I received these couple of kits from my girlfriend, the 'hook' is back and will probably stay. Although I'm unlikely to have the time to develop the skills needed to produce the amazing work I see on these forums, the additional patience I've learnt since leaving school, as well as the wealth of information on forums like this does mean these first attempts ARE better than I used to make. Phew! Both straight out of the box builds of the Airfix 1/72 Folland Gnat and the Revell 1/72 F4U Corsair. So I make that about £11.98 for the kits and about another £150 updating my tools and materials (even though 90% of my paints from 30 years back were ok!). What went right: They both kind of look like the aircraft they're supposed to represent. I learned things about some tools and techniques that I wouldn't have been aware of previously. Those roundels on upper wings of the Gnat were such low density I could see the orange paint through them. Replaced by 40 year old roundels the thickness of elephant skin from my spares box. Hurrah for Microsol! What went wrong: Masking errors and over spray - Gnat. Carpet Monster - Bye bye Gnat control stick and Corsair Pitot tube. Varnish hiccups - Thinning incorrectly meant it wasn't sprayed on densely enough. Which leads to.... Decals MIA - Oops.. Did I accidentally rip a decal off because I hadn't sealed it properly. Gnat and Corsair Metallic finishes - aaaaaagh! Gnat Weathering - Too much? Too little? Wrong colours? Bad application? Oh well.. I hadn't done that sort of thing before anyway so I learned something. What's coming next: More 1/72 aircraft. I lack the space. Cold war, USAF in the U.K. Korean War, Falklands, Op Granby, Arab - Israeli conflicts. All these things interest me. But first, a 1982 Falklands SHAR I'm building from a second hand Esci kit that cost £5. Naturally, as it's a test bed for products I've never used before (resin, PE), that £5 turned into £20. Thank you for your attention. There's some great work on this site, with some really inspiring stuff and I feel barely worthy. JM5_5845 by IrritableRabbit, on Flickr JM5_8499 by IrritableRabbit, on Flickr JM5_8500 by IrritableRabbit, on Flickr JM5_8481 by IrritableRabbit, on Flickr JM5_8484 by IrritableRabbit, on Flickr JM5_8486 by IrritableRabbit, on Flickr