Stash Clearance #11. Hunting Provost

[Properjob56]

Matchbox Hunting Provost 1/72 ( #PK-30)

 

According to Scalemates a 1986 reboxing of a 1976 mould

 

After a stressful week I needed a fast easy build and in the dark dank depths of the man cave I found this. Typical Matchbox of the time. 3 colour plastic, few parts, little detail and basic instructions. Decals give 2 options, one for the Omani AF and the one I chose from the Central Flying School.

 

Paints are Humbrol Metal Cote Dull Aluminium #27001 covered with AquaGloss and Hu.193 for the leading edge Day Glo strip. Weathering was by differential applications of varnish and Tamiya weathering powders.

 

Points of Interest.

1. Few panel lines but those that exist are raised and not the trenches Matchbox are (in)famous for. Fit was good tho quite a lot of sanding was needed at the nose. The cooling vents at the sides had their walls thinned to give a more scale appearance.

2. I couldn’t leave the bare cockpit so scratchbuilt an instrument panel, joy sticks, trim wheels and levers and fitted some spare Eduard harnesses over a scratchbuilt frame. I discovered too late the bench seat the kit provides is incorrect and there should be 2 separate seats. I added a whip aerial as well. I also thought there was a yellow roll bar in the cockpit but contemporary photos didn’t show it so I left it out.

3. The canopy is heavily framed so the interior is not easy to see but hand painting the frame was a lot easier.

4. Looking at contemporary photos other aerials and intakes are not present when the aircraft depicted by the kit decals was flying.

5. The wheels are in an uncompressed state as tho it were in flight. I didn’t change them as I decided the necessary mods were too hard to achieve convincingly. I should also have shortened their axles for a better fit.

6. Decals are from the kit and went on surprisingly well considering their age. Registration problems meant however I had to replace the fuselage side roundels with spares. I would have replaced the underwing roundels for the same reason but had no more of the right size and style. They took decal solvents with no problems.

7. There’s little AM but I understand Aircraft Design will be imminently releasing a decal sheet with a Provost on it. There are no masks either.

 

 

The kit took just over 3 weeks from start to finish with no nasty surprises. (and within a week the new decal sheet was announced. Doh!)

 

 

 

 

 

[junglierating]

Excellent job BZ 

[Ed 209]

Lovely want one