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Finally the weather is just right to take a few pics outside! This is my effort at the new Airfix 1/72 Gnat kit. I found the kit somewhat fiddly to fit, so much so that this is in fact build No2, build No1 getting trashed as it emerged that it was quite easy to build this kit badly! red3 Main tip is to fit the intakes to the fuselage halves before you fit the cockpit sidewalls, which otherwise will stop them fitting flush. The fit of the wing also needs a fair bit of sanding and fettling to get it to sit down tight against the fuselage without gaps. I also left off the main gear until the rest of the kit was put together - this needs some nervous bending to get them in, but it was a better result than on No1 where I mashed them up proper with misplaced thumbs while sanding the seams. red1 Paint is Humbrol Acrylic Arrows Red which sprayed very nicely, and has been observed here, is proper red rather than orange like the Xtracrylix version. Decals are a mixture of kit and the S&M Decals Gnat sheet. The S&M has a number of decals which are not identified on the instruction sheet and after much peering through a magnifying glass I reckoned one tiny one was a Silver Jubilee marking found on the tails of the Red Arrows in 1977. I chatted with Mr S&M (aka Mel) at the Croydon aviation fair in January who confirmed this. As I hadn't seen any kits with this marking I thought I would do one, and found a nice pic of XS107 on the net to use as inspiration. red5 To add a bit of interest I also opened up one of the nose panels as can be seen in a few pics on the net, but as I have no idea what is in there, I just blanked it off and hope no-one objects!! red6 Hope you like! red4 Pat

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.

Airfix is to release in 2014 a new tool 1/48th Folland Gnat T.Mk.1 kit - ref.A05123 - Folland Gnat T.1 - released Source: http://www.airfix.com/shop/new-for-2014/148-scale-military-aircraft/a05123-folland-gnat-148/ - ref.A05124 - RAF Red Arrows Folland Gnat T.1 - released Source: http://www.airfix.com/shop/new-for-2014/148-scale-military-aircraft/a05124-raf-red-arrows-gnat-148/ - ref. A05123A - Folland Gnat T.1 - release Summer 2020 Source: https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/shop/new-for-2020/folland-gnat-t-1.html V.P.

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

Never able to make much of a showing in quality, I continue my efforts to make headway in the quantity department. Finished since January 1: a TSR.2 prototype (Airfix), E.D. "Rosie" Mackie's Tempest V (Academy), Bohdan Arct's Mustang III (Academy), an IRIAF F-14 (Hobbyboss) and an F-5E (also Hobbyboss), a CFS Gnat (Airfix) (surprisingly tricky build, which may tell you how poor my skills are), a 54 Squadron Jaguar GR1 (Hasegawa), and a Voyska-PVO MiG-21bis FISHBED-L (Zvezda). I have made a jillion mistakes, including forgetting to add the anti-glare strip on the Tomcat, but by that point I was so fed up with it I was long passed caring. There! My shame, laid bare for all to see. Also, in retrospect, I would have masked the Tomcat's camouflage, rather than trying to freehand it, as the masked F-5E's scheme came out much better, I think. One thing I am surprised at is that I've seen a number of Jaguar builds where the LRMTS window is painted silver; this seemed to me to be something that I might be able to actual use some "basic modelling skills" (almost all of which totally elude me, I'm sorry to say) to improve upon, and so I drilled some holes in it with a pin vice and then slowly expanded the hole until it was more or less LRMTS-window-sized, whereupon out came the micro-crystal clear. I think it looks quite nice.

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

Hello! Here is my Oscar EW5894 from the movie Hot Shots! Jay Chladek sent me his custom decals. it worked great! Some screenshot: [bMy build[/b] I had a lot of fun building this tiny plane ;D Hope you had too seeing it ^^ Cheers! rom