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SAAF Silver Falcons


Gajman

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Hi,

I'm sure I signed up for this GB a while back so I hope it's okay if I join in now (better late than never and all that).

I plan to build a few SAAF Silver Falcon Impalas (Aermacchi MB-326(.

As far as I can determine the Silver Falcons went through 5 major colour scheme changes during the time they used the Impala.

For this GB I plan to represent three of those schemes.

The kits will be built out of the box, the main thing being to show the colour schemes.

Here are the kits as they were a few days ago.

bm1101.jpg

bm2.jpg

And here we have the production line in progress.

bm3.jpg

Thanks for looking and feel free to comment / criticize.

Gary

Edited by Gajman
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MAV decal Silver Falcons

MAV decals do pretty much every scheme of just about all SAAF aircraft. They're pretty decent decals, I've used them a few times and they really provide the 'correct' looking details for a SAAF plane. They also do a great range of Southern African decals(Angola etc)

(Gold Springboks rather than some of the kits orange or yellow Springboks, Afrikaans stencils, correct sized numerals etc.)

You will need a good set of references though as the decal placement instructions are a bit vague.

Edited by Parabat
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Hi,

The production line is well under way. I have the three original kits proceeding nicely.

I have decided to start another three. This is because looking through my reference book there were 6 major schemes used by the silver falcons on their impalas. I may as well do them all now :)

This pic shows the progress of the three already started and shows the unstarted state of the three additions.

sf3.jpg

Thanks for looking and feel free to comment / criticize.

Gary

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All 6?! This is going to be good! I'm not going to let you NOT finish this until they're all done! This is going to look sweet as! Bring on the Oranje Blanje Blou!

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Very nice, Gary! I'm building the same kit, but progress is a lot slower than you ... even though I'm building just one, not 6!

I'm looking forward to seeing all the schemes on your builds.

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An update on the production line. All kits have the wings on. Three are still lagging behind slightly as far as filling goes but that should be resolved by the end of today.

The Silver Falcons removed the back seat and replaced it with a canister that had to do with the generating of trailing smoke during the display. I am scratchbuilding some of those using the drop tanks provided with the kit.

150712_imps1.jpg

Thanks for looking and feel free to comment / criticize.

Gary

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Oh wow, I must have a look in group build section more often. This looks promising !!

I don't know much about the kit at all gary. How does it compare to the 1/48 Italeri (ESCI) Imp? I rate the 48th as one of the most pleasurable builds I've done as I found the fit to be really good. Is this a scaled down version or a new tool?

Edited by Avgass
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Thanks for the responses everyone.

How does it compare to the 1/48 Italeri (ESCI) Imp? I rate the 48th as one of the most pleasurable builds I've done as I found the fit to be really good. Is this a scaled down version or a new tool?

The Italeri 1/72 kit is a re-release of the old kit that was originally issued by a SuperModel (not sure if I've got that right?). I have built one of the 1/48 kits and, like you, I found it went together well. I have built 7 of these Italeri/SuperModel kits and have always had trouble with getting a decent fit of the wing tip tanks to the end of the wing and the wing to fuselage join. Also if you want to fit the air brake up and the wheels up you need to be careful as the brake/wheel bay covers tend to fall into the holes they are covering. EricP has a build of this kit going in this GB and he has a clever way of avoiding that problem. Having said all the above though, it is a pleasant kit to build so don't be put off by the issues I have mentioned above.

I also see that Italeri are soon to release a single seater Impala in 1/48 scale.

Gary

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As Gary rightly said, this kit first appeared under the Supermodel brand. This company is now defunct and all the moulds are in Italeri's hands.

Interistingly, Supermodel was started as a result of a split within the then Italaerei, original name of the company that after the split changed its name in Italeri, so in a sense now the 2 companies are united again. Supermodel did a small but interesting range of kits of Italian subjects, the only non italian being the Bv-138 IIRC. Together with the 326, they did the single seater and the 339, again both 1 and 2-seater

The former Esci 1/48 kit has nothing to do with this one and is IMHO better. Still, the 1/72 kit can be made into a decent model with some work, although the fit is not great.

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I have still not decided whether I am going to pose the aircraft flying or not, so I've started preparing some pilots just in case. Here is one of them safely strapped into his aircraft.

120720_imp1.jpg

Because the Silver Falcons removed the rear seat of their aircraft and installed a tank for the smoke system I am having to scratchbuild some tanks. I am using the drop tanks that come with the kit. Cut them into suitable lengths, put two different diameter circles of plastic card on the top and then drilling through and inserting 4 rods through the top. Finally I have put a pipe coming out the side.

In the following photo there are a number of in progress tanks. The completed tank at the bottom of the photo has still got to have the rods through the top filed down a bit.

120720_imp2.jpg

Thanks for looking and feel free to comment / criticize.

Gary

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Painting has started.

Impala 1 is the plain old overall silver scheme. The only thing that really distinguished them from any other Impala in the air force was the lack of a rear seat and the number on the tail. Of course the problem with overall silver finishes is that it hilights the smallest imperfections, so this kit is going to have to be micro-meshed one more time and repainted.

120729_imp3.jpg

Impala 2 is the first colourful scheme attempted by the Silver Falcons. What I have done here is to paint the parts that will have colour in white. I then need to mask that with some curves and start adding colour.

120729_imp4.jpg

Thanks for looking and feel free to comment / criticize.

Gary

Edited by Gajman
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Hi Cliff,

Thanks for letting me know about the photos not showing. I have double checked everything. Is the problem still there?

In the mean time I've added some new pics ...

I've been rushing ahead with Impala 2.

Initial masking on ...

120729_imp8.jpg

Orange on, masking off ...

120729_imp7.jpg

I removed all the masking because I need to tidy up the orange before doing the blue. The overspray from the orange marks where I need to reapply the masking to save the white when the time comes to add the blue.

Thanks for looking and feel free to comment / criticize.

Gary

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