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1:72 Folland Gnat CFS Little Rissington


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Finally!  This thing has been on the go for what seems like forever - probably taken me 9 months to complete it.  I entered it into the Trainers Group Build back in June to try and get some impetus to complete it, but the abysmal quality of the Humbrol flourescent orange paint took the wind out of my sails.  There's about 10 coats of that on this thing and it still looks terrible, I eventually gave up trying to get a decent finish on it and decided just to get it finished.

 

The aim of this was to get some experience back before tackling the Fujimi Phantom that's sitting in the cupboard.  I chose the Gant because I liked the colour scheme (not so keen now!) and I thought it would be a fairly straightforward build.  Boy was I wrong!  Maybe it's because I'm 20+ years out of practise, but I found this really hard and fiddly to build.  The interior of the cockpit is a state, the alignment's all wrong but you can't tell because I clouded over the canopy by wiping it with turps trying to get a spot of silver paint off it 😀  To be honest, I'm amazed it sits up and looks like a passable impression of a gnat.

 

Anyhow, here she is, more to prove to the world that I finished it than to show it off!  With a bit of luck the silver lining to the cloud is that I have learnt some lessons to apply to the Phantom.  Although I'm none the wiser about how to best brush paint gloss - when I last did modelling gloss paint was guaranteed to cover almost anything, it was that thick.  I guess now that they've taken all the nasty harmful stuff out of it that's no longer the case 🤷‍♂️

 

48881984333_0b3f2839b0_b.jpgIMG_7504 by Alistair Henderson, on Flickr

 

48881984898_9649237dae_b.jpgIMG_7506 by Alistair Henderson, on Flickr

 

48882699727_5719020987_b.jpgIMG_7516 by Alistair Henderson, on Flickr

 

48882700377_3bffdcac32_b.jpgIMG_7517 by Alistair Henderson, on Flickr

 

Al.

 

 

 

 

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Looks great. I had the same problems with the flourescent orange....to the point where my Gnat nearly went in the bin! I ended up priming several coats of white, then several coats of basic vallejo model color orange paint to achieve a nice solid colour, then only used the dayglo for a couple of thinned coats at the end to 'lift' the colour. I used a Vallejo model air flourescent orange. Since then I've purchased an airbrush and this makes any yellow, orange, red or dayglo a whole lot easier!! 🙂

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It sure looks good to me, the canopy might have improved with a couple of dips in some Klear or equivalent, likewise a coat of satin clear cote of some description would have toned down the gloss of the orange & lifted the silver so they were more even (not too late) but even so, it is a most attractive little model & looks good just as it is. 👍

Steve.

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Thanks for all the kind words everyone, lifts the spirits a bit 😀 

 

I did get some great advice on another thread about the canopy, and dipping it in Klear was mentioned, but I figured I'd already spent enough money on the gnat so I'd just have to live with it.

 

As for airbrushing, it's tempting but since I'm clearly only an occasional modeller (9 months to build a gnat!) I'm not sure it's worth it. Also sounds like there's a lot of cleaning involved. Not to mention I guess you need a decent sized clear area to be sure you don't spray the walls etc. Whilst the good lady wife's always keen for me to decorate, I'm not sure that would count!

 

Al

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I wouldn't discount an airbrush completely. I was exactly like you... occasional modeller, faithful to brush painting, limited space and saw no reason to change. But since I've bought an airbrush you will never go back. I bought a reasonable airbrush and compressor kit for around £50 and made a small homemade spray booth out of a small cardboard box. It does me fine! I do use acrylics so there's no smell, and as for cleaning, provided you get some decent cleaning fluid ...its a doddle...almost as quick as cleaning a couple of brushes thoroughly. I'm sure other modellers have different ideas and solutions but this was my experience 👍

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Looks like a cracking Gnat. Sorry to hear of your travails with the kit.  I don't remember having too many issues with mine, to be honest.  I made the mistake of leaving the undercarriage off until the end to help with painting and also to avoid damaging it but it was very difficult to fit out of sequence.  I seem to remember the canopy wasn't the greatest of fits as well.  It's a pity day-glo is so difficult to do as I'm rather partial to non-operational types from the 50s and 60s.  I think Chris's tip above is a good one.  I've used white as a primer before not not thought about using matt orange as well. I think I'll try that next time on my JP3, especially as I don't fancy the Airfix decals judging by what other members have said about them.  Anyway, your day-glo coverage looks good to me.

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5 hours ago, CT Modeller said:

Just a note on dayglo paint - if you paint matt orange over white first it gives a good base for that flourescent paint. It just doesn't work over simply white because, as you say, it takes so many coats.

I did a coat of matt white as an undercoat for the whole thing, and then when it became clear that the flourescent orange wasn't going to cover I did a couple of coats of another orange (can't remember which), but it was also gloss so coverage wasn't an awful lot better.  Matt next time (if I ever go near flourescent paint again!).

 

Al.

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6 hours ago, binbrook87 said:

I wouldn't discount an airbrush completely. I was exactly like you... occasional modeller, faithful to brush painting, limited space and saw no reason to change. But since I've bought an airbrush you will never go back. I bought a reasonable airbrush and compressor kit for around £50 and made a small homemade spray booth out of a small cardboard box. It does me fine! I do use acrylics so there's no smell, and as for cleaning, provided you get some decent cleaning fluid ...its a doddle...almost as quick as cleaning a couple of brushes thoroughly. I'm sure other modellers have different ideas and solutions but this was my experience 👍

Out of interest, what airbrush did you get? in case I was to be interested in such a thing.. 😉

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5 hours ago, Meatbox8 said:

Looks like a cracking Gnat. Sorry to hear of your travails with the kit.  I don't remember having too many issues with mine, to be honest.  I made the mistake of leaving the undercarriage off until the end to help with painting and also to avoid damaging it but it was very difficult to fit out of sequence.  I seem to remember the canopy wasn't the greatest of fits as well.  It's a pity day-glo is so difficult to do as I'm rather partial to non-operational types from the 50s and 60s.  I think Chris's tip above is a good one.  I've used white as a primer before not not thought about using matt orange as well. I think I'll try that next time on my JP3, especially as I don't fancy the Airfix decals judging by what other members have said about them.  Anyway, your day-glo coverage looks good to me.

I think my issues were more from rustiness and possibly a certain amount of cockiness - "it's only a difficulty level one kit - how hard can it be??"  If it were a rugby game I didn't give the opposition enough respect and they punished me for it 😀  I can imagine fitting the main wheels out of sequence must have been a pain!  It was hard enough in the right order.  I left the nosewheel off until the end, didn't fancy breaking that off with my cack-handedness!

 

Al.

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21 minutes ago, alhenderson said:

Out of interest, what airbrush did you get? in case I was to be interested in such a thing.. 😉

I picked up a used Sparmax Max 4 Airbrush off a well known internet auction site and then a cheapo compressor. I think even new they would be less the £100 for them both but I'm sure there are probably even cheaper ones out there. Even if you stick with the brushes the recommendations for a white base coat, orange top coat then dayglo on top of this is about as good as it gets for tackling those tricky flourescent colours. 🤪 To be honest your end result looks great 👍

Edited by binbrook87
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Well, it looks like a Gnat to me, so don't be too hard on yourself.

When Aldi (or was it Lidl?) were selling Airfix kits cheap last Christmas I got a Gnat, as did my young son, as a kind of family group build. While a great bonding activity, we both had problems with the fine tollerances of some of the parts, especially the undercarriage. Florescent orange would have been great, but thankfully we went with a Red Arrows finish.

In the past I have used Halfords acrylic florescent spray paint, which seems to work ok over a white primer, although it can be rather thick, certainly looking out of scale thickness at 1/72. Very careful sanding down alleviates that problem somewhat. I will try that tip of putting down a coat of regular orange first.

Great what you learn here! 

 

 

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I really like that, I reckon you should get a replacement canopy from Airfix, I think the rest of the kit deserves it :clap:

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4 hours ago, F-32 said:

I really like that, I reckon you should get a replacement canopy from Airfix, I think the rest of the kit deserves it :clap:

That is a replacement canopy - managed to lose the first one!!  Thanks for the kind words 🙂

 

Al.

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On 12/10/2019 at 10:54, alhenderson said:

Thanks for all the kind words everyone, lifts the spirits a bit 😀 

 

I did get some great advice on another thread about the canopy, and dipping it in Klear was mentioned, but I figured I'd already spent enough money on the gnat so I'd just have to live with it.

 

As for airbrushing, it's tempting but since I'm clearly only an occasional modeller (9 months to build a gnat!) I'm not sure it's worth it. Also sounds like there's a lot of cleaning involved. Not to mention I guess you need a decent sized clear area to be sure you don't spray the walls etc. Whilst the good lady wife's always keen for me to decorate, I'm not sure that would count!

 

Al

The canopy looks just like the one in  Newark Air Museum, so you have created a classic display look !! Seriously if you drop Airfix an e-mail they will send a replacement canopy might charge psotage if its a second but the rset of your finish deserves it.

I had just finished a Valiant for display when my then 3 and a 1/2 year old daughter took it for a test flight an the landing was not good. I e-mailed Airfix with the part numbers and a few days later had a full replacement set of U/C legs. Great customer service..

Remember its for fun 😉 

 

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3 minutes ago, Paulaero said:

The canopy looks just like the one in  Newark Air Museum, so you have created a classic display look !! Seriously if you drop Airfix an e-mail they will send a replacement canopy might charge psotage if its a second but the rset of your finish deserves it.

I had just finished a Valiant for display when my then 3 and a 1/2 year old daughter took it for a test flight an the landing was not good. I e-mailed Airfix with the part numbers and a few days later had a full replacement set of U/C legs. Great customer service..

Remember its for fun 😉 

 

I emailed airfix when I realised I'd lost the original canopy, but they said it was "discontinued" or something, so I had to pay £4 for a replacement. Or maybe it had been too long since I bought it or something..  

 

I half thought it might look a bit like one that had been sat out in the elements at a museum, so that's a plus 😁

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