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I wanted to do something less well known or covered for this GB and thanks to @Corsairfoxfouruncle I can. He pointed me at the Hobby 2000 re-release of the Hasegawa Dewoitine D.520. They do two versions, one of them containing three schemes used by French forces in Africa. I was so enamoured I bought two!!

 

This is the box:

 

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Oddly, that is the one scheme I won't be doing as it required masking and painting all those stripes yourself and I'm way too slow a builder for that. I will be doing the other two options shown below:

 

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Option two looks at first like a standard French air force early war scheme, but check the rudder - that's a French naval aircraft. The other scheme is odd enough that it was just crying out to be built. You can start arguing now whether the Crosses of Lorraine should be red or blue :) 

 

Sprue shots and anything else I think is relevant when the posties have been - each kit, plus a paint set is coming from a different supplier.

 

Allez!!

 

Andy

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Just hit the first snag - I have just received two boxes. I have two sets of instructions, two decal sheets and two sets of paint masks. I only have one D.520 though. The other box has the sprues for a P-51B/C in it :o 

 

I don't which box came from which supplier so I'm not sure which one to contact.

 

Andy

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1 hour ago, Foxbat said:

Just hit the first snag - I have just received two boxes. I have two sets of instructions, two decal sheets and two sets of paint masks. I only have one D.520 though. The other box has the sprues for a P-51B/C in it :o 

 

I don't which box came from which supplier so I'm not sure which one to contact.

 

Andy

That's a tricky one!

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OK, worked out it was Hannant's parcel that had the errant kit. Dropped them a line and by return they said "No problem, we'll get a replacement straight out to you". Now THAT is good service.

 

Photos of what's in the box and maybe even the first progress shots after I've eaten. It's been a  long day.

 

Andy

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Inside the (correct) box are a five grey sprues, one clear one, some poly caps, the instructions, decals and a sheet of paint masks (the black rectangle). 

 

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My first photo of the contents was taken without an SD card in the camera, so this one is missing the cocpit parts and shows the painting started. The rest of the cockpit is here; floor, seat, stick and IP which had a decal for the instruments and no raised detail. The instructions say midnight blue for the interior but since I didn't have any of the colours isted I just went for the darkest blue I had. It's a small hole and the canopy can't be posed open so I thought close enough was good enough.

 

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Step 2 of the instructions would have you button up the fuselage, and seeing no need to be a rebel, I did just that. Step three then concerns building the wings - a full span lower with moulded in wheel well detail and two uppers. They went together very well, with no obvious gaps and only minimal seams to clean up before paint. Trailing edges are commendably thin and there's some nice detail. Scalemates says this was a new tool in 1997 but it doesn't feel almost a  quarter of a century old.

 

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The next step was to join wings and fuselage. The fit is TIGHT!!  I mean pull-it-apart-and-sand it then bend the wings to an acuta anhedral to get everything together tight. The upside of that is that you are left with these gaps to fix:

 

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And along the wing roots:

 

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Don't know about you but I'm impressed. If the rest of the build follows the same form, I could imagine this being a very nice Blitz Build contender.

 

Stopped there for tea. It's Sunday, so obviously curry is on the menu :)

 

Andy

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Curry was good, thanks. I can barely move now.

 

One last update for today. I left the SD card in the laptop so there's a couple of picturs missing. What they don't show is I applied a tiny amount of filler - I was genuinely surprised how little it took. I had a little sand of the seams on the fuselage while I was there, and decided some primer wouldn't hurt to see if all the gaps were filled and seams rendered invisible.

 

I just used matt white, brush painted with a Stix style broad flat brush. It was a bit patchy, but didn't reveal any obvious flaws. It dried quickly too, so I pressed on and put a first coat of top colour on. The instructions give five different references for 'Buff' and both the Mr Color and Tamiya ones translate to Vallejo Iraqi Sand which I happened to have in so that's what colour this one is. The second one will be in the four colour scheme when the paint set arrives.

 

All that meandering brings us to here:

 

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My camera saves me a lot of blushes, I'll definitely need another coat before I get into detail painting and decals. This is where it gets tough. There's lots of delicate engraved detail that deserves to be seen. I've wrecked more than one aircraft model trying to do what is a simple job on an AFV or figure. I'll have a ponder and an bit experimentation and see what I can come up with.

 

Andy

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Ive used fine tip pencil to highlight fine panel lines before. The grey graphite isn't as stark as a darker wash and it does help highlight stuff. The added benefit is that if you drag a brush along the direction of wind flow, it adds a bit of grime to the plane for some weathering. 

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4 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Ive used fine tip pencil to highlight fine panel lines before. The grey graphite isn't as stark as a darker wash and it does help highlight stuff. The added benefit is that if you drag a brush along the direction of wind flow, it adds a bit of grime to the plane for some weathering. 

Brilliant, thank you :) I used to do that a million years ago (first tried on a US Navy A-7 Corsair), but had forgotten after years of using inks and paint effects. Sometimes old school is the right school.

 

Andy

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Flory wash? Clay based, cleans off with water. 

Alternatively, create your own pinwash with a very thinned down light grey enamel or oil paint (5% to 95% thinner) - you can wipe the excess off with a cotton bud with thinner.

Of course, best done after a varnish & decals. 

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Not much progress to report on the kit, but the postie is going to busy over the next few days as I've got this lot in transit:

  • A replacement kit being couriered direct from Hobby 2000
  • Some Flory washes in various colours so I can experiment
  • A pack of 2B pencils for drawing in panel lines
  • A litre of acetone to help clean up the two bottles of Games Workshop ink I've spilled so far this week :(
  • Some small scale armour, all suitable for inclusion in the GB. There's one in particular I've been itching to build for ages

Andy

Aquisitive by nature.

 

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At the end of a very clumsy week, a little progress. I managed to spill a bit of green ink on the spare duvet. Then I managed to drop an almost full bottle of crimson ink. Luckily the grey carpet soaked up what missed me and the Dewoitine 😭

 

I took a picture of the damage, but as it's been that kind of week it was another without the SD card in the camera so I can't retrieve it. Repairs have been made though, and the first decals applied to the rudder. One side split as I was sliding it into place. I was doubly careful with the other side and no such mishaps. I doused both of them with Decalfix and left them to dry. Then I noticed the one that wasn't split was a half mm out of place. I'll trim it up later and no one will know for sure (unless you tell them). Anyway, here is where I left it tonight.

 

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All the ancilliaries except the exhuasts have also been painted so it is just  a case of sticking them all together and finishing the decalling. But then that also describes all the stages since I opened the box 🤣

 

Andy

 

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46 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Looking very good Andy, It looks to be a trouble free kit. Thats a good thing as my Hasegawa Mojo is no good. 

So far it has been an absolute joy and there aren't many places left for any booby traps to hide. The right hand fuselage half needed a little sand to hide the seam between the cockpit and prop, and I used a tiny smear of filler on the underside wing joint but a bit of patience and dry fitting might even have avoided that.

 

It has taken paint well too, with the panel and rivet detail still visible through primer and a couple of thin top coats. 

 

Andy

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Having cleaned things up I got on ith decalling. It's a simple scheme, paired roundels in 6 positions plus the rudder stripes with the aicraft ID on. Hobby 2000 give you the later as seperate decals as each scheme has the ID written slightly differently and that saves them having to print up three sets of stripes.

 

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I've also got some Flory washes and I've experimented using the sand one on the starboard wing and the stabilisers. Have to say it was one of the easier weathering tools to use. It hasn't brought out all the detail, but that's maybe not a bad thing as it stops it looking overdone and toy-like. Once everything is dry I'll give the rest of the airframe a going over and see how it looks. 

 

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Everything else bar the canopy framing is now painted and ready to attach so this one should be done soon and I can get on to the four colour navy bird.

 

Andy

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Flory wash looks a bit brutal but it's quite fun and so easy to use even I didn't make a total hash of it. As the Karate Kid almost had it, brush on...

 

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...and scrub off.

 

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There's lovely. All that detail popping out and not a coal mine in sight :)

 

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Time to add the final details: aerials, exhausts, wheels, prop and canopy. The canopy masks weren't the best fit, so I donned my new Optivizor, grabbed the smallest brush I could find and just did the frames freehand. They're not 100% as I would like them, but they're within acceptable limits. Managed to pull some paint off withmy gluey fingers - some things never change.

 

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Paint repaired, canopy top coat on and side panels fitted and we're all done. I'm not sure whether to stick them in the gallery individually, or as a pair since it's a dual build but whatever, I'll take better pictures before I do.

 

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Andy

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1 minute ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Well that turned out quite nice. My thoughts are two separate entries as they are two separate locations and users of the same type.   

Cool. I'll give it another scrub down as there's still a bit too much wash left in places then a final varnish and into the gallery. I'll start the other one soon.

 

Andy

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