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F174 - Gloster E.28/39 (1/63 scale?) - "No Airscrew Necessary!"


Rabbit Leader

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Actually Mike, I've given up on scribing after just re-doing the upper wing ailerons and re-scoring along the elevator joins. This kit is of Eastern Express Frog Spawn origin and the plastic used has to be some of the worst I've ever tried scribing. It's quite hard to explain, however there is an almost coarse and brittle effect all at the same time, which leaves you with that finger nails on chalk board sensation after each scribing stroke. I've got another idea about highlighting some of other areas, so I'll quit whilst I'm relatively ahead and get this non serious 'Desk Top' model ready for paint. 

 

Cheers.. Dave. 

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Update #5

 

This is the end result after a second Primer session. My priming weapon of choice is Gunze's Mr. Surfacer 1000 thinned with Mr. Color Levelling thinner. The first coat revealed a number of minor imperfections and missed areas, which is hardly surprising after all the cutting and sanding involved. Once these areas were attended too another thinned coat was applied however there is still one minor missed flaw I've now spotted on the starboard upper wing aileron, this should fill up fairly easily. For something different I sprayed just a fine mist layer of straight Levelling thinner over the whole model and this gave it a nice eggshell appearance which I was happy with. I'll next spray a few coats of white primer on the lower surfaces before attacking it with the yellow paint, won't that be fun! 

 

Cheers.. Dave (apologies - photo's are a little grainy due to the low level indoor light)

 

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Update #6

 

With the main construction completed and all surfaces smoothed and primed it was time to start painting. Now there were actually two Gloster E.28/39's built, the first (and most famous) W4041/G which still survives today and the unfortunate W4046/G which had an in-flight mishap and was forced to crash on 30 July 1943. I have chosen this latter machine on two fronts - first it was finished in the Ocean Grey / Dark Green / Yellow colours & Prototype (P) that I wanted to portray and secondly it flew without the small horizontal stabiliser finlets which are commonly seen on the earlier W4041/G. It was whilst reading an article on these aircraft that I found out that these finlets were only added quite late in '041's service life (1944) and as far as I can tell were only on for a very short period of time. There is some confusion out there as many modellers seem to include these finlets even whilst painting their models in the earlier Dark Earth scheme. Anyway, enough of the history guff!  

 

OK, here's some modelling shots. The undersides were primed with two to three thin coats of Tamiya LP-2 (Lacquer) White. This will act as a good base for the Yellow. 

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Then Humbrol 24 Trainer Yellow (Enamel) was applied and this took three thinned coats to obtain a solid colour density that I was happy with.

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Once dry, I applied two light coats of Pledge / Klear floor polish which was thinned with Tamiya Acrylic Thinner. This clear coat will help protect the yellow paint from the effects of masking, chipping and general mishandling as I hate touching up yellow paint with an absolute passion! Once the lower surfaces were masked, I sprayed the top coat with Tamiya's XF-82 Ocean Grey and left it at that for a short while. 

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The Dark Green camouflage pattern will be masked off and applied in the next instalment. So far it's gone well and thankfully there's been no major hassles or large recovery sessions to contend with. 

 

Cheers and thanks.. Dave 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Update #6

 

With the main construction completed and all surfaces smoothed and primed it was time to start painting. Now there were actually two Gloster E.28/39's built, the first (and most famous) W4041/G which still survives today and the unfortunate W4046/G which had an in-flight mishap and was forced to crash on 30 July 1943. I have chosen this later machine on two fronts - first it was finished in the Ocean Grey / Dark Green / Yellow colours & Prototype (P) that I wanted to portray and secondly it flew without the small horizontal stabiliser finlets which are commonly seen on the earlier W4041/G. It was whilst reading an article on these aircraft that I found out that these finlets were only added quite late in '041's service life (1944) and as far as I can tell were only on for a very short period of time. There is some confusion out there as many modellers seem to include these finlets even whilst painting their models in the earlier Dark Earth scheme. Anyway, enough of the history guff!  

 

OK, here's some modelling shots. The undersides were primed with two to three thin coats of Tamiya LP-2 (Lacquer) White. This will act as a good base for the Yellow. 

48091334178_e8d99dca88_b.jpg

 

48091391847_43df3090fc_b.jpg

 

Then Humbrol 24 Trainer Yellow (Enamel) was applied and this took three thinned coats to obtain a solid colour density that I was happy with.

48091684498_597e92ef24_b.jpg

 

48102170223_e35fbdb2cf_b.jpg

 

Once dry, I applied two light coats of Pledge / Klear floor polish which was thinned with Tamiya Acrylic Thinner. This clear coat will help protect the yellow paint from the effects of masking, chipping and general mishandling as I hate touching up yellow paint with an absolute passion! Once the lower surfaces were masked, I sprayed the top coat with Tamiya's XF-82 Ocean Grey and left it at that for a short while. 

48100573722_2a3dd8f890_b.jpg

 

48100521513_f3b949de6c_b.jpg

 

The Dark Green camouflage pattern will be masked off and applied in the next instalment. So far it's gone well and thankfully there's been no major hassles or large recovery sessions to content with. 

 

Cheers and thanks.. Dave 

 

 

So far, so excellent, Dave. This is a little cracker and good planning on protecting the prototype yellow. I really enjoy all the history guff as well so who was the regular pilot and what was his shoe size?! All the best. Mike.

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Ha!! ... not much about shoe size Mike however there’s a good chance Sqn. Leader D. Davies’ white Y fronts were a kakki shade of brown after he bailed out at 33000 feet!! Incidentally, this was the first recording of an RAF pilot ejecting from a jet aircraft after W4046/G became uncontrollable from the effects of aileron jamming. 

 

Thanks also for the encouraging  modelling comments. It’s always nice to hear when someone else thinks you’re on the right track. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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Update #7

 

I won't waffle on too much for this update so just showing the application of the camouflage masking, Tamiya XF-81 Dark Green and a light clear coat to seal in the paint prior to decals. I'm quite happy with the stark upper and lower demarkation lines, less so with the camouflage pattern although this should all blend in once decals, a little weathering and a dull coat take effect - perhaps? 

 

Cheers.. Dave  

 

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Sorry chaps, I’ve seemed to have jinxed myself with my last quote!! I’ve experienced my first hurdle with this kit, which is mainly attributed to the odd 1/63 scale. Try as I may, I’m struggling to find correctly proportional roundels that I’m happy with! Also my Prototype (P) decal that I had in the decal bank proved to be out of register and quite brittle. I’ve now ordered a set of Xtradecal P’s which will probably take two weeks or so to arrive from the UK. On top of all that, my decal solution played havoc with the upper wing roundels, so these came off and I have to recover some slight damage to the paintwork - no biggie, but a little annoying. I’ll do some other stuff whilst this one has a wee break. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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On 23/06/2019 at 01:26, Rabbit Leader said:

Sorry chaps, I’ve seemed to have jinxed myself with my last quote!! I’ve experienced my first hurdle with this kit, which is mainly attributed to the odd 1/63 scale. Try as I may, I’m struggling to find correctly proportional roundels that I’m happy with! Also my Prototype (P) decal that I had in the decal bank proved to be out of register and quite brittle. I’ve now ordered a set of Xtradecal P’s which will probably take two weeks or so to arrive from the UK. On top of all that, my decal solution played havoc with the upper wing roundels, so these came off and I have to recover some slight damage to the paintwork - no biggie, but a little annoying. I’ll do some other stuff whilst this one has a wee break. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

It's the dreaded 'things have been going well so far' hoodoo! (and I feel your pain). Sounds like you have beaten it off though. That paintwork deserves new decals so I think you've made the right decision, and it gives you more Canberra time. All the best. Mike

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  • 4 weeks later...

Belated Update #8 - Stickers on! 

 

I decided to give this thing a little love over the last few days, so restored the scratched paintwork after I had big issues during the first horror decalling session. I'm still not convinced I've got any of the national insignia sizes correct and although photo's do show some minute underwing type C roundels, I still think that mine are a smidge too small. They were the only ones I had so in the effort to get this one done and closer to the gallery it was time to press on. I'm in two minds to find a way to weather it or just leave it as a small 'mahogany' type desk model as Sir Frank Whittle once had? Either way I will tone down the sheen a little to something closer to semi gloss. I'd rather not drill a whole through its guts to mount it on a stand so may find a suitable size perspex rod and wedge it down the tailpipe. 

 

Cheers... Dave 

 

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Looks fine to me Dave. What's the old biblical thing about making not a silk purse out of a sow's ear - looks like you have done just that! If I ever get round to building the one in my stash I will have quite a bit of work to do to get anywhere near this beauty.

 

Don't know about anybody else but I always thought WWII RAF machines were all matt. However I note Mike Bowyer in his book says that they started to get a bit of a sheen by the middle of the war, and of course some pilots had their machines polished up to get more speed. Guess the introduction of the "Type S" smooth paints helped.

Edited by PeterB
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Thanks Pete. Having read Bowyers books since I was a young takka I concur with the RAF’s transition from matt paints to smooth paints with a slight sheen. The limited photos available of W4046/G (circa 1943) would also suggest this to be the case. Either way, it’s getting finished one way or the other. 

 

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Cheers.. Dave 

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That really is a top notch bit of modelling going on there. The finish looks pretty much perfect to me.

 

It would look stunning on an early, round FROG stand, but then I would say that, wouldn't I?

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