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Tiny Finnish Gnat - Special Hobby 1/72


reini

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Gaining a lot of enjoyment from watching your progress. As well as seeing your Gnat take shape there's a Hunter making an apperance and that map background is inspired - please tell your wife she's a genius and many of us will be stealing her idea ;) 

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11 hours ago, Col. said:

As well as seeing your Gnat take shape there's a Hunter making an apperance and that map background is inspired - please tell your wife she's a genius and many of us will be stealing her idea ;) 

:D By all means, said she. 

 

 

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Just a little bit of putty. Canopy in place and masked, so protects the cockpit from dust etc.

 

 

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Like I mentioned earlier, attachment points are bit more complicated than usual, following panel lines. The fit is mostly quite good - so no issues here.

 

 

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We are soon ready to protect the airspace :)  Some paint on next...

 

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Thank you :) 

 

- - - - - - - 

 

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All the thingies ready for primer.

 

 

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And like always - half way thru the priming - I remeberered that I had forgot to paint the canopy framing with the cockpit interior color. Well, a quick brushjob with black should do the job...

 

 

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Primed! I used Vallejo grey primer.

 

 

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Not sure what happened but I had broken a fin out of a fuel tank.

 

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But a new one was quickly made out of plasticard.

 

 

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I mostly liked the colors with the Hunter, but I felt that the grey could be a tad lighter and maybe with a hint of blue. So with the very scientific method of adding a tad of white and a hint of blue to the Vallejo Basalt Grey - I painted the upper surfaces with it. Lets just hope I don't need to do big touch ups, not gonna be able to produce that color again :P  Next up, I will mask the grey in preparation for the green.

 

 

 

 

 

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Nice update, I initially thought that some of those panel lines looked a wee bit deep, however they don't look too bad under an even coat of primer. This is another one that's looking really good, really quickly. it won't be long and we'll have another in the gallery! 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

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1 hour ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Nice update, I initially thought that some of those panel lines looked a wee bit deep, however they don't look too bad under an even coat of primer. 

True, they are a bit on the deep side, further exaggerated by the small size of the subject. But once the paint is on I think it  looks good. Special Hobby's Vampire looked quite similar but turned out real nice.

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Masking tape on.

 

 

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Again, I wanted to tune the color a little bit. 70.892 Yellow Olive as a base, but I felt it could be a tad darker and bit more brown. So a dash of 71.294 US Forest Green into the mix and lets see the results...

 

 

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Green on, lets remove the tapes...

 

 

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And here she is. Mixed feelings. On the other hand taping went well, no oversprays and clean nice lines - but I'm not sure on the colors. Of course, for me, the colors of a Gnat are the ones in the museum example which are very old and worn. The scheme was the basic RAF colors of that time. So those who are more familiar with the RAF colors, does this look like it should for a late 50's fighter?

 

 

 

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To my mind the green should be a bit darker, but then that might happen when you varnish it. Post war RAF green did seem to be a little darker than the wartime colour, but I have this shade in 3 makes of paint and they all come out slightly different. Go with what looks right to you.

 

Pete

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4 hours ago, Col. said:

Looks to be good in my eyes. Are you going to weather the paintwork at all?

Yeah, I'm gonna add the usual panel line washes, minor chipping and stains.

 

4 hours ago, luis pacheco said:

Four years ago I did build one. The grey color was from Gunze and the green from Tamiya. 

That is a fine looking Gnat! :) Superb work.

 

2 hours ago, PeterB said:

To my mind the green should be a bit darker, but then that might happen when you varnish it. Post war RAF green did seem to be a little darker than the wartime colour, but I have this shade in 3 makes of paint and they all come out slightly different. Go with what looks right to you.

 

Pete

Yeah, it's a difficult subject for sure. I'll look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow - but currently I'm leaning towards keeping it.

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I had the same ‘colour perception’ issue when I was painting my Frog Canberra last year. For some reason the colours just didn’t look right as the green was too light in comparison to the grey. I decided to just leave it and continue and I’m glad I did. As Pete mentions a clear coat or two and some decals takes your eyes off the colours and onto something else. Even unmasking the canopy will draw your eyes  elsewhere on a model. One idea maybe to lightly overspray the grey with a lighter shade (perhaps on one hori stab) to see how it looks. Overall, It’s looking very nice. 
 

Cheers.. Dave

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.... aaand I've repainted it. Well, started to. 

 

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New grey, slightly lighter. I did some testing with the colors and I wanted bit more contrast in addition to different tones so I went slightly lighter grey and will be doing darker green. Reason I ended up in this decision was that

a) I wasn't completely happy with the colors;

b) I noticed I hadn't painted the underside of the wing leading edges as was customary in these brit camo jobs;

c) this is such a tiny build with easy masking that I'd rather do it again than regret it later.

I managed to get the first layers quite thin so I did not bother stripping the paint. In the picture, grey has been re-done - when it has cured I will mask it (again) and re-do the green.

 

 

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This was my choice of grey. I wanted a bottled solution this time, in case I need to re-do something (again). Green I will most likely go with FS34079 US Forest Green, it has the dark slightly  OD tone I want.

 

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reini, I´m glad for what you achieve regarding what other Britmodeller regular group builders now think of us Finns as modellers, skills wise, as so far they have had to base their opinion solely on my clumsy efforts :rofl2:. I just love your Gnat! V-P

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C'mom V.P, the aim is to talk yourself up and we fellow GB'ers are only too happy to praise your efforts. I think the new colours are already looking better Reini. Good going. 

Cheers.. Dave

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it's a pity you had to re-paint her Reini, but we all know that feeling when know something isn't quite right and just can't leave it be.

 

I one nice thing is the panel lines are quite pronounced (not quite death Star canyon type), so extra layers of paint won't be an issue.

 

I do love the finish you're getting with the paint jobs, very nice.

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Alright, masking, take two.

 

 

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And here's how it looks. I like these for a more worn look and it's closer to what I had in mind. So this one is a keeper. Next is masking for couple of smaller bits, like the nose, spine and couple of spots in the tail. Then I can move on to the bottom of the aircraft.

 

 

 

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Thanks guys :)

 

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I painted some of the smaller details - such as the nosecone, couple panels etc. 

 

 

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Then masked of the upperside in preparation for the silver on the underside. Bottom has nice splinter camo from oversprays :D 

 

 

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I re-primed the underside with gloss black.

 

 

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And it got a two light coats of Valle Metal Color Dull Aluminium.

 

 

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And the masking tape is off!

 

 

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Some minor touch ups and a day or two to cure - and we can clear coat it in preparation for the decals :) 

 

 

 

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