Vampire T.11 and X72-172 - orange stripes and resin seats

[alhenderson]

Morning All,

 

Starting planning for my next build - the Airfix 1:72 Vampire T.11.  Of the two options in the kit, I'm not especially interested in doing WZ507 and I swore when I did my Gnat recently that I'd never again attempt to brush paint humbrol 209 - so that rules out the other option.  I found Xtradecal set X72-172 which has some nice options on it.  I'm quite taken with the Shawbury Central ATC school option which is mainly grey with orange stripes (the cockpit section at nearby Sywell is in a similar scheme, I think, and I won the kit in one of their raffles, so...).  I did see a build on here involving orange decal stripes on a vampire and the feeling seemed to be that they were horrible.  That was a different scheme though, I think they covered most of the wing!

 

Has anyone used X72-172 and can comment on the orange strip decals?  Are they any good or did you find yourself wishing you'd painted them?

 

Also thought I might take a first foray into resin, I have seen the Pavla Martin Baker Mk.3B seats on the Hannants website which says they are for the Airfix kit.  Are they any good?

 

Thanks for any tips!

 

Al.

[Antti_K]

Hello Al,

 

unfortunately I can't help you with the decal question, but I just painted dayglo areas for my Ilyushin Il-28.

 

I tried Humbrol 209 and found it useless. The paint is more like a lacquer with a faint orange tint. Once dry (on top of white) it looked very light pink. There was no "Dayglo Effect" although the paint in the tin looked promising. It would require 10 (or more!) layers to look good. In my opinion Revell makes an excellent Dayglo-orange (Re 25, matt). It looks and feels like jelly when you open the lid. Mix with good quality white spirit until the paint flows properly (separate drops fall easily from the stirring tool) and you are good to go. Paint a matt yellow base and then using a soft, wide brush apply the dayglo paint. Once dry you can brush a clear lacquer (like Hu 35) on top of that without problems.

 

HPH

 

Cheers,

Antti

[alhenderson]

35 minutes ago, Antti_K said:

Hello Al,

 

unfortunately I can't help you with the decal question, but I just painted dayglo areas for my Ilyushin Il-28.

 

I tried Humbrol 209 and found it useless. The paint is more like a lacquer with a faint orange tint. Once dry (on top of white) it looked very light pink. There was no "Dayglo Effect" although the paint in the tin looked promising. It would require 10 (or more!) layers to look good. In my opinion Revell makes an excellent Dayglo-orange (Re 25, matt). It looks and feels like jelly when you open the lid. Mix with good quality white spirit until the paint flows properly (separate drops fall easily from the stirring tool) and you are good to go. Paint a matt yellow base and then using a soft, wide brush apply the dayglo paint. Once dry you can brush a clear lacquer (like Hu 35) on top of that without problems.

 

HPH

 

Cheers,

Antti

That's really good to know.  I ended up complaining to Humbrol about the 209 and they sent me 3 replacements each of enamel and acrylic versions, thinking I had old ones.  Nope, made no difference.  To look at my gnat now, it looks acceptable, but like you took 10+ coats.  I'll bear in mind the Revell option should I be tempted to go dayglo again!

 

Al.