Jump to content

1/48 Folland Gnat (fast build)


Recommended Posts

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

A bit more progress today.....

Got all the kit decals on that I'm using:

AVvXsEhjUhalZmYo2Sb5rFFLNZrxazFgK9N58WXv

(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:

AVvXsEiU4-CIIJdBwe5uNR8JX1XbctRD12du92l6

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 by Flying Badger
replace lost photobucket images
  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

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

  • 3 weeks later...

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:

DSCN1325_zpsxuwxoymx.jpg

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

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 account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...