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Airfix Gnat released!


Don McIntyre

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It is indeed high speed silver, which Airfix recommends using Humbrol no.11 for, but it is worth bearing in mind that from about 1967 light aircraft grey replaced high speed silver on RAF aircraft. Many Gnats featured this finish until the signal red/white/light aircraft grey colour scheme was adopted in the early 1970s.

Having had a good chance to inspect the kit, I think it's fair to say that Airfix have another winner on their hands.

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Just been up to the Hornby shop in Margate and..............................................................................................

they will be getting it at the end of the month :mental::doh:

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Just been up to the Hornby shop in Margate and..............................................................................................

they will be getting it at the end of the month :mental::doh:

That does seem a tad peverse!

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I have used a Halfords spray can - Peugeot Aluminium - for a high speed silver finish for a long time. Recently I have found it goes on even better over a gloss yellow undercoat (again Halfords) rather than the grey primer used previously. I discovered this when spraying the yellow trainer bands on a Vampire T.11 (ending up with a yellow Vampire) before masking and using the silver. Worth ago. As to costs - a Halfords can is sufficient for 3 (recent Lightnings), the Vampire and a Gnat (all 1/72)

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Hi

Got one on Saturday,a nice kit.

The only thing you need to do is check as the seat face blind handle as its the later B style in the kit so any a/c before say 1973 ish would have had the early D style, ceck your info and photos ref this.

In all a nice kit and a big thanks to Airfix for doing it should sell well, makes you feel like you are 10 or 12 again back in the 60,s ( yes i was) when Airfix brought new kits all the time.

I use Halfords Aluminium code 451625 for my HSS it works for me and is one of there standerd colours.

Paul

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I agree with PaulT 876, use standard Halfords Aluminium for a HSS finish.

Regarding the kit itself it looks to be very nice and my pair from Hattons arrived this morning. If you are an IPMS member then you wil have recently received the very interesting supplement by the Aerobatics Teams SIG about the Red Arrows aircraft. I read it last night and two things now stand out. Firstly there is an emergency oxygen bottle on the right hand seat frame (surely not RA specific but at what point in tiome was it fitted?) and, secondly, if the rear is seat is not occupied then there are a couple of bars that go into the seat frame to deal with seat straps, PEC and so forth so, if you want to do a bit of detailing, the nicely moulded seat straps are technically not correct. They would probably have been better produced just draping, not plugged into the QRF.

Another thing that intrigued me is that the instructions show the tailplanes as at 90 degrees to the fin but the later drawing showing the main gear canted out shows an angle of 80 degrees but the horizontal line suggests the tailplanes have a bit of anhedral!! I know, too much time on my hands but it entertained me!!

Simon

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Got mine on Saturday and started it immediately ( been a while since I've done that with a kit). Had the cockpit together in no time, fit very positive. Same goes for the air intakes. Construction of the fuselage is interesting. Its very floppy with very little plastic in the mid section where the wings and intakes will fit. I think it will stiffen up once the engine intakes are fitted. Clever engineering indeed, but I think the lower fuselage join may be problematical ( at least for me) as holding up to the light I can see some small gaps even after a bit of fettling. The plastic is the usual soft light blue stuff Airfix have been using so liquid cement might melt it sufficiently to get a good join, but a little re scribing might be in order underneath. The seats are pretty good for injected plastic, but the uniformly placed straps will probably be removed and replaced with some replacement from foil or spare etched ( unless Neomega or similar beat me to it). Only downside so far is that even using very sharp Xuron sprue cutters, the plastic is so soft I'm tearing tiny little chunks from some of the parts. Switching to a fine JLC razor saw for the rest of the build.

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Simon:

The Emergency Oxygen bottle was a standard fit to all RAF Gnats and was fitted from day one.

The 'Solo Bars' normally were stowed under the nose hatch and, when they were fitted to a seat, they held the rear seat equipment, so that it could not move, for solo flight.

The two bars clipped together for stowage and consisted of a straight bar to retain the equipment to the seat pan and a second 'P'-shaped one that went over the emergency oxygen bottle, to hold it in position.

The oxy/mic connector was pugged into a fitting on the upper bar.

You did up the straps as if the seat was occupied, and stowed any spare length of straps so that they would not come loose.

The leg-restraints were caught under the lower bar and stowed in their normal position.

As far as I can remember, there was no anhedral in the tailplanes!

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Brian

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Simon:

The Emergency Oxygen bottle was a standard fit to all RAF Gnats and was fitted from day one.

The 'Solo Bars' normally were stowed under the nose hatch and, when they were fitted to a seat, they held the rear seat equipment, so that it could not move, for solo flight.

The two bars clipped together for stowage and consisted of a straight bar to retain the equipment to the seat pan and a second 'P'-shaped one that went over the emergency oxygen bottle, to hold it in position.

The oxy/mic connector was pugged into a fitting on the upper bar.

You did up the straps as if the seat was occupied, and stowed any spare length of straps so that they would not come loose.

The leg-restraints were caught under the lower bar and stowed in their normal position.

As far as I can remember, there was no anhedral in the tailplanes!

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Brian

Thanks for that Brian, it sounds like the kit straps maybe okay then if you fit the solo bars in the back seat then - assuming you're modelling the jet flying!

I also think that there is supposed to be no anhedral but it amused me how Airfix had got their instructions!

Simon

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Looks very nice. Typical marketing strategy, release the standard version with trainer decals first, so everyone will buy it cos it's a new mould and hold back the Red Arrows version for a while, as they know they will sell those by the bucketload! I will wait for the Red Arrows version...as I want 9 of them! :thumbsup:

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Adrian you are retired now you do not have time to do 9 Gnats.

I bet some one will point that out to them at SMW about the pilot.

Still a good kit and at a good price.

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Looks like Mount Tryfan in the Nant Ffrancon above Llyn Ogwen behind that Gant from valley!

Looks like a fantastic kit and one that I will be picking up when we return for the summer, in 8 months time... :weep::raincloud:

Strange as I am, I wonder who will be first with a conversion to make the Finnish and Indian service jets?

Christian the Married and exiled to africa

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Strange as I am, I wonder who will be first with a conversion to make the Finnish and Indian service jets?

Christian the Married and exiled to africa

I startedt trying to convert a MB Gnat to a Finnish fighter some 20 years ago, and not so much would remain unmodified from the donor. Probably a full kit would make more sense, therefore.

As the Gnat has a very low-set tailplane: Would the stbd. one be visible from the boxtop perspective, I wonder ?

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That does seem a tad peverse!

Not really, they're giving their main customers (the retailers) priority, with no favouritism.

Incidentally, there was no such colour as high speed silver; it was "silver, to a high speed finish," which isn't the same thing, since it was plain old silver with a gloss varnish over the top.

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Not really, they're giving their main customers (the retailers) priority, with no favouritism.

Incidentally, there was no such colour as high speed silver; it was "silver, to a high speed finish," which isn't the same thing, since it was plain old silver with a gloss varnish over the top.

The Gnat is now in the Hornby shop.

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