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A Right Defiant Cock o' the North


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Anyways, a bit of a thread resurrection.

 

I was bemoaning in another thread that I had unfinished kits queueing up to get onto the SoD, (You can't come in here in those, they're trainers!!!), so I thought I'd better extract the digit and do something about it.

 

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I had ground to a halt before stickering up the Defiant as I wan't sure if all airframes had the prominent walkway markings present on the kits decal sheet.

 

Now Having a goodly number of Reference books on the Defiant, I spotted on the cover of this......

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.... showing that machines from the same squadron had them so that was good enough for me to release the log jam.

 

Annoyingly going through references has also thrown up some conflicting info re the serial number of PS-X that I wish to model (just when you thought it was easy eh?!!).

 

Now the above publication includes a photo of PS-X that it captions as L7006 rather than L7005.......

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....  and it then has an article on L7005 as an airframe under replication which you can see is PS-B....

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Now I only hear good things about Dulcimus (and I know @Troy Smith's famous signature strapline holds true) but their profile of PS-X is L7006......

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..... and to throw more fuel onto the fire, this publication also has a similar Photo to the Brew one above (in fact the author credits Brew) but captions it L7005.

 

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Now in the flesh the last picture is the clearest and although a bit indistinct, by using a loupe I think I make out the serial to be L7006 so that is what I am going for.

 

@AndyL I know it's my model but are you comfy with that rationale?

 

Anyways with all that nit-picky stuff pushed aside in my tiny brain I could get on with some stickering.

 

Now where was the next almighty clusterfeck coming from?  There you go it's here already.....  I used the kit decals for the majority of markings bar the fuselage roundels and the individual codes and serials.  Now using the photos above to scale out the required size of fuselage decal I worked out that in 1/48 a roundel of about 29mm was required.  Searching through my 1/48 decal stash was fruitless, but I found an Xtradecal 1/72 sheet that matched the required dimentions to a tee.

 

Oh goody, well until they touched water that is and disintigrated!

 

We also had a more recent 1/48 Xtradecal sheet from which I used the 49" roundel which although 2-3mm underscale on the model is still far larger than the kit offering.

 

OK one bullet dodged.  The Airfix kit decals all applied beautifully I have to say, conforming extremely well to the panel lines and other bumps and bits on the surface, helped with MicroSol, but when it came to using the individual X decal from another new Xtradecal MSG code letters sheet they silvered like nobody's business.

 

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I know a couple of flame wars started in the chat section over poor quality form Xtradecal, however these code decals really weren't up to scratch.

 

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and to a lesser extent... (it looked far worse to the Mk1 eyeball).....

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They still remained resolutely silvered after many applications of Microsol, and just as I was contemplating the nuclear option of "waxing" them off with tape to replace them, I came up with the idea of using boiling water on them having pricked them good and proper (a la jacket spud) with a Swan Morton 10A blade.  The next leap of faith was to use a kitchen sponge to apply and hold the boiling water on the decals as by holding the Scotchbrited end I only inflicted relatively minor burns on my fingers rather than the far more serious burns I was expecting from a cloth!

 

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Anyways the scalding method seems to have worked and to celebrate I added the L7006 serials.

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Monkeys!!!!!  I can see the port L has had a wobble from this photo.  Hopefully not too far set to undo, so I'll nip down to the kichen and sort out once I've pressed the send button.

 

Anyways what is needed next is another coat of Future, a bit of weathering and assuming I can find the box with the turret in, a little final assembly then we can call this done and just squeak it into 2019's Yearbook.

 

Anyways, until the next thrilling episode, I'll bid you all adieu.....

 

Chris

 

Edited by Fatcawthorne
Lost a picture -doh!
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Mate, go for it. You're doing an excellent job!

However it indeed should be L7005. 264 Squadron operational records book record it as such. But L7006 did serve with 264 as well.

Edited by AndyL
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On 12/29/2019 at 8:22 AM, AndyL said:

Mate, go for it. You're doing an excellent job!

However it indeed should be L7005. 264 Squadron operational records book record it as such. But L7006 did serve with 264 as well.

I wouldn't fo that far Andy, but I am happy with what's gone on so far.  I trust you so I have removed the 6's and 5's are now on so L7005 is hot to trot!!!!

 

Anyways after our identity swap a good Florying got us to here....,.

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..... which was then wiped back when dry with a damp bit of kichen roll, the last couple of touch ups made and the bits that had fallen off were stuck back on, an exhaust stain misted on and then a topcoat of W&N Matt Varnish before unmasking the clear parts (oh and some more touch ups resulting from that!!!).  Therefore as it's New Year's Eve I think we can now call this one done (ok need to put an aerial wire between the posts but will wait for the varnish to completely go off before we do that), get it into RFI and therefore the Yearbook without being caught out cheating, phew!!!!

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So until we select the next unwilling virgin for sacrifice I'll bid you all adieu for a bit and will see you on the other side of a new decade....

 

Chris

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