Flying Badger Posted April 11, 2016 Author Share Posted April 11, 2016 I'm slowly adding the decals: You may also notice the seats are done and I've hand painted the equipment boxes in the nose equipment bay. So much for the "fast build" bit in the title! FB 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleeperService Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 Compared to my progress (within sight of the finish line on a tank I've been building for 8 years) that is a fast and very nice build. Good work Sir! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flying Badger Posted April 11, 2016 Author Share Posted April 11, 2016 Incidentally, whilst the current aircraft wearing the fake serial XR992 (G-MOUR) has very few decals on her I am rather assuming that back when the real yellowjack aircraft flew they the normal set of decals and warning signs. I can't for any reason believe that the aircraft maintenance engineers at No 4. Flying Training School at RAF Valley decided not to bother with them on these aircraft whilst at the same time ensuring all the other gnats they maintained for the training school did get a full set of decals/placards etc. The few images I have of the aircraft from the 60s are grainy and black and white so hard to see small details, so I'm going with a lot of the small "jack here", "No step" or "don't put your finger in this hole you'll get it stuck you muppet" (you know the maintenance engineers would have painted one if they could get away with it!) placards that are liberally scattered over all such aircraft. Some of the decals (like the red or black "Keep off" warning lines on the upper trailing edge of the wings) are big enough that I'd have seen them even in the poor quality images from the 60s so I assume they were left off for aesthetic reasons. FB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flying Badger Posted April 17, 2016 Author Share Posted April 17, 2016 (edited) A bit more progress today..... Got all the kit decals on that I'm using: (the canopy, nose equipment bay and seats aren't glued in place yet) Just a few more little jobs to do on this before I get to panel washes etc. Some touching up in the cockpit, then a few final parts still to glue on (mainly gear doors), paint the wing tip light glass and then give it all a coat of Kleer to seal it. But first I need some custom decals.... so I spent an hour designing them and getting the scales and fonts right: The Black tail version is Flight Lieutenant Lee Jones's (after whose call sign the yellowjacks were named) aircraft (XR992). If I'd left the tail yellow I could have done one of the others (XR986, XR991, XR993 or XR994) Except the custom serials (1/48 versions of the RAF post war font 8 and 16 inch serials) there are also some replacement decals for sling and jack point (as the originals had yellow parts to the decal so wouldn't show up), a "92" for the nose gear door and "AVTUR" decals that I have a photo of to replace the kit number 62 or 71 decals) But my home printer is a bit crap so I'm saving the printing of those until I get to work tomorrow where our printer is a bit more reliable (and higher resolution!) More soon.. Edited March 9, 2022 by Flying Badger replace lost photobucket images 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lesthegringo Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Looks fantastic, certainly an eye catcher in that lo-viz scheme! I was at Cosford on my last visit to blighty, and saw their Gnat - I couldn't believe how small it is in real life! Cheers Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
March Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Incidentally, whilst the current aircraft wearing the fake serial XR992 (G-MOUR) has very few decals on her I am rather assuming that back when the real yellowjack aircraft flew they the normal set of decals and warning signs. I can't for any reason believe that the aircraft maintenance engineers at No 4. Flying Training School at RAF Valley decided not to bother with them on these aircraft whilst at the same time ensuring all the other gnats they maintained for the training school did get a full set of decals/placards etc. The few images I have of the aircraft from the 60s are grainy and black and white so hard to see small details, so I'm going with a lot of the small "jack here", "No step" or "don't put your finger in this hole you'll get it stuck you muppet" (you know the maintenance engineers would have painted one if they could get away with it!) placards that are liberally scattered over all such aircraft. Some of the decals (like the red or black "Keep off" warning lines on the upper trailing edge of the wings) are big enough that I'd have seen them even in the poor quality images from the 60s so I assume they were left off for aesthetic reasons. FB Big clue there as to the former owner of the aircraft (G-MOUR) - Pink Floyd's David Gilmour. Perhaps he sold it because he'd finished "Learning To Fly" and due to the diminutive size of the Gnat was fed up of his bum going "Comfortably Numb"? I'll get my coat... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flying Badger Posted April 18, 2016 Author Share Posted April 18, 2016 Big clue there as to the former owner of the aircraft (G-MOUR) - Pink Floyd's David Gilmour. Perhaps he sold it because he'd finished "Learning To Fly" and due to the diminutive size of the Gnat was fed up of his bum going "Comfortably Numb"? I'll get my coat... Groan! ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousAA72 Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 (edited) what a cracking build..lovely. Just one observation, the serials should be Roundel blue, it looks like you've printed yours in black... Edited April 18, 2016 by Bill Clark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 She is looking very smart! Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flying Badger Posted April 18, 2016 Author Share Posted April 18, 2016 what a cracking build..lovely. Just one observation, the serials should be Roundel blue, it looks like you've printed yours in black... Hi Bill, thanks. Are you sure? I've not printed them yet so its no disaster so thanks for the heads up! Do you have a source for the serial colour for the original yellowjacks? I know airfix decals on their 1/72 kit are blue but I assumed this was based on the G-MOUR aircraft that's doing displays at the moment which has blue markings (I assumed this was due to its engineering sponsor - who's corporate colour is blue)... but all the other RAF Valley 4FTS gnat aircraft have black serials so I assumed it was an error on airfix's part. Happy to be wrong and I can easily change the colour if you are sure. FB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flying Badger Posted May 8, 2016 Author Share Posted May 8, 2016 Finally got around to taking to some decal paper into work today and printing my custom decals on the works high quality inkjet. Here they are drying after a coat of clear lacquer to seal them: I managed to be a muppet and not check what paper settings I had in the print options so ended up with streaks and smears because the print was on high quality premium glossy so put a lot more ink on than normal. Bugger! Fortunately I had designed the decals to have every one of the Yellowjacks aircraft I can prove they flew and enough for 2 examples of each one (so that's 14 models worth!). My plan was to use this as a test run but it seems the ones for the particular aircraft I am making came out ok without smears (XR992) so I should be OK to use those ones once the lacquer dries.... So more once they are dry and applied to the model. FB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr B Posted May 9, 2016 Share Posted May 9, 2016 outstanding work lovely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted May 11, 2016 Share Posted May 11, 2016 great work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now