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2 Gnats 1 Hawk - Red Arrows 40th Anniversary Set (Airfix 1/72 - 2004)


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Following on from completing a Yellowjacks Gnat and a Red Arrows Hawk (in the Best of British set) I decided to revist the old Airfix kits via a collection I remember having as a teenager (well, I was just about a teenager). This set contain the old Gnat tooling and the previous Hawk. The Gnat was, by far, one of the worst kits I remember putting together...and oh boy I wasn't really dissapointed. It's....it's awful. The new tooling was such a delight to put together that I had a massive culture shock working on these.

 

One of the gnats is missing a canopy. I cannot stress how much this has made me laugh / be annoyed haha.

 

As I streamed making this, and I'll do the rest of it tomorrow (hopefully I'll even get decals done tomorrow) the pictures after the first one will be from the stream - so excuse thatthey aren't as high quality as they're just stills from it!

 

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Where it left off

 

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Me, realising there is a canopy missing from one of the Gnat kits!

 

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The Pilot - literally looks like he was melted. Poor person!

 

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This kit had a lot of "oh screw it" moments because I realised how poor quality it was compared to the new one.

 

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And in true me fashion, I lost a part so I had to re-scuplt it. This was me doing it in progress.

Edited by MsModeller
Missed out a key point
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Great work! Looking forward to seeing your next instalment.

 

I'd thought about getting a Gnat, but from what you've said, I think if I do it'll be the Yellow Jack's issue!

 

Cheers,

Mark

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4 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

Great work! Looking forward to seeing your next instalment.

 

I'd thought about getting a Gnat, but from what you've said, I think if I do it'll be the Yellow Jack's issue!

 

Cheers,

Mark

 

Well, to be honest you'd be ok with the Red Arrows re-issue too!  Anything from this tooling onwards is fine. There's the Red Arrows, standard, and Yellowjacks one. There's also a few other manufacturers who do them (such as special hobby) but my understanding is they're pretty good? But I've never touched them.

 

I have a rather big leap forward in what I've done today! Streamed here for anyone interested

 

5egMgFL.jpg

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Final update for the day. 

 

The decals have been...bad. Just like I had one canopy, I had one set of decals between 2 aircraft. Luckily I got a partially complete newer Gnat set on eBay today so I have some decals to finish the Red Arrows one. I wonder if the new canopy will fit on the old model set too - as I will have oe of those too?

 

Either way, calling the Yellowjack done (might do some washes but the panel lines are....eh). I'll do some pictures of it when I do the final completed RFI. This will include the Hawk that, as you can see, is assembled but not yet painted, and the Red Arrows Gnat (which tbh will only take a little whilst once I get the relevent clear parts and decals).

 

Also, I used a pilot from the recent set and forced it in...

 

I'm realising why these old kits sell for next to nothing these days - this tooling is just...unpleasant haha. But hey!

 

Oh, and the Red Arrows decals ripped all the time. And I lost one of the tricolor from the Yellowjack haha! My bad!

 

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Edited by MsModeller
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Bad news I'm affraid! So I'm super happy with the Yellowjacks Gnat, and I should be able to finish the Red Arrows Gnat in the future when the extra decals arrive. However, the Hawk is no longer with us! 

 

Unfortunately the Decals for this just kept disintegrating. I had it on the Red Arrows Gnat a little, but nothing too bad....but on the Hawk it was just awful. Sol after some effort I ultimately decided it wasn't worth it. If I was going to do a Red Arrow of this era, I would buy a more recent boxing and buy additional decals or just buy the Itlaeri boxing of the same era (which from experience has less issues). 

 

The RFI for this will, therefore, likely not be until next week / week after - depending on when I get the extra decals! 

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Bit of a shame about the Hawk, but I agree sometimes it's better to draw a line under a build.

 

The Yellowjacks Gnat is looking great, and I think I'd be inclined to not do a wash for exactly the reason you've hinted at! Looking forward to seeing the Red Arrows Gnat finished when the decals arrive.

 

All the best,

Mark

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Soooooooo I just did a quick stream and finally got this finished. This was a pic before finishing it (clear nose part was the last part missing in this pic).

 

I have to use decals from a new Airfix Gnat to finish this one. It looks OK though....I think!

 

I'll do the rfi later! But I'm away for my birthday this weekend (the day is Monday, where I'll spend it streaming and model making!)

 

brIB071.jpg

 

 

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