Another Restoration- This Time, An Airfix 1/72 A.W Sea Hawk

[Brigbeale]

2 hours ago, opus999 said:

Finally got caught up on this.  It's always fun to watch these take shape, and this is no exception.  it was probably nice to not have to remove paint (although you seem to have that to a science). 

It’s nice to have you along.

This one was just the slightly yellowed white plastic the kit originally was moulded in. I think I prefer grey plastic to work on as it’s easier to see what your doing when re-scribing lines.

Edited February 4, 2022 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

Tonight was mostly just sanding back the Mr Surfacer on the joints to get a decent surface to spray over. 
A couple of areas - the inner wing to fuselage joints where the Plasto filler had been used and to a lesser degree the inner wing to outer wing joints - needed 1 or 2 more coats of Mr Surfacer. I was able to do this on and off during the day, so the final coat was dry enough to sand back this evening. I also added some to the aelerons as the panel lines were more of a valley. they’ve reduced a bit, but I’m not going to fret too much over them.

 

Then, it was suddenly a great moment of progress………….

A spray over with Halfords finest grey Plastic Primer! I mounted it on the stand that I made out of piece of scrap wood and two bits of wire that the Patrouille de France Alpha Jet/Magister were sprayed on.

 

Now the Sea Hawk is one uniform colour - albeit the primer coat - it suddenly looks more like a Sea Hawk rather than a rough looking white plastic airframe with grey dots and lines all over it. 

Now the primer is drying, that sink mark on the starboard side of the cockpit has made itself visible again, but in the subject photo, there’s a dent in near enough the same place - which is handy as don’t think I could have emulated it easily.

Edited February 4, 2022 by Brigbeale

[bigbadbadge]

This is coming on very well Brian.  It looks great in Primer and looking like a Seahawk now

Great work 

Chris

[Brigbeale]

I only did some airbrushing last night as the mojo tank was probably only 1/2 full. 
The underside, and tail-fin/rudder assembly and nose were painted with a slightly lightened Tamiya Sky paint.

The replacement wheel doors were also given a coat of the same paint.

Even though the paint itself was touch dry within in 1/2 hour or so, I had to take a restraint pill to resist starting the masking for the Tamiya IJN Grey paint on the upper surfaces and under the leading edge of the wings.

The vent outlines were re-scribed as they’d almost disappeared under the primer.

 

I started to work out the height for the landing gear, initially by using tooth-picks as the prototypes to set the height and work out the stance. I had some extras from when I built the Sea Venom (the originals were copied in mind for when/if the old Vampire gets restored). I tried them out, but I wasn’t overjoyed at the result so I’ll just have to 3d print new ones from scratch. The kit wheels are just horrible so they’ll need replacing as well.

 

So in the end not much happened apart from a colour change to the bottom of the Sea Hawk.

[bigbadbadge]

Looks good Brian good luck on the stance too, just been getting that right on my Sea Venom  as they are quite nose up too and mine looked like it was twerking!!!

Great work 

Chris

[Brigbeale]

Despite a foreshortened session last night, I did manage to mask the Sea Hawk up and airbrush the Tamiya XF-77 IJN Grey onto the upper surfaces. 
 

It was given about 1/2 hour to dry off enough to handle and the masking was removed. I was fairly certain I’d covered everything, but still had a spot of grey on the rear starboard fuselage side. I touched it in with Sky, but it’s going to be covered with the yellow/black stripes anyway - which is something I have to work out later size-wise.

[Brigbeale]

Another shortened session last night - fixing a new chain to my stepson’s eldest daughter’s boyfriend’s motorbike (so simple to do - I don’t know why he couldn’t do it himself!).

 

Anyway, I used a HobbyBoss image of a Sea Hawk to work out the sizing on the stripes. I’ve settled on 4mm per stripe with a 12mm gap on the underside of the wings for the serial number to fit in.

Should be fun masking that lot up!

 

[Graham T]

Coming out well!  Amazing the difference rescribing makes to an old model!

[Brigbeale]

I took the night off yesterday as I’ve got tinnitus in my right ear and it was especially louder than other times and was accompanied with an ear-ache. I have an appointment at the ENT department at the hospital on the 17th next month for a hearing test. I can hear fine but it’s just the constant ringing. As I remember, I first noticed it when I was in hospital back in June/July 2021.

 

So I got back on the Sea Hawk tonight and started by putting a very thin strip of Tamiya tape around the fuselage to mask the outer edges of the stripe ‘zone”. White paint will be airbrushed in first as a base for the yellow, which will then have the black stripes added on top.
Once I’d got the tape straight, I cut some more tape to 4mm wide and then cut that up into tiny tabs 4mm x about 1.5mm. Starting at the previously applied tape line, I placed the small tabs next to each other in a staggered pattern to see them easier. Once I got 5 on (one for each stripe), I got another long strip and went to apply it around the fuselage. 
That’s where I discovered I c*cked up. I started from the back and worked forward where I should have started at near the exhausts and worked rearwards.

 

So I started again…

Once the fuselage stripe ‘zone’ had the front and rear boundary strips were in position, the same was done to the wings. The undersides have a 12mm gap where the serial number would be fitted. This was done by placing two strips of 6mm tape next to each other. A third strip was put over the seam where they met to keep the paint out.

An extra strip of 6mm tape was added up to and over the thin edging strips. Then some low tack 1” blue tape was added on top to mask off the remaining exposed areas to keep the overspray off - it’s amazing how far that gets even if you think you’ve got enough tape on.

Once the fuselage was sufficiently covered airbrushing the white paint could commence.

 

This is a pictorial view of how the masking went (after I’d c’cked up the first attempt)

[bigbadbadge]

This is progressing well Brian and looking good with the EDSG on you're doing well on the stripes.  Cracking work fella. 

Chris

[Brigbeale]

The white areas were airbrushed over with the Mr Color Aqueous Yellow this afternoon.

Tonight was the laborious job of marking out the spacing with 4mm tabs of masking tape and removing some again to leave the tabs which mark the black stripes. Long thin strips were then placed either side of the remaining tabs. Then the ‘to-be-yellow’ exposed areas were masked off. The tabs were removed and airbrushing the black commenced. Sorry - forgot to take photos in the excitement.

 

After 10 minutes or so, after I cleaned the airbrush and tidied things away, all of the masking was removed to reveal stiking black and yellow recognition stripes with a couple of hiccups which were touched in with a brush before the paint fully dried.

 

And finally, the Meteor and Sea Venom came out of the cabinet to a photoshoot.

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by Brigbeale

[Back in the Saddle]

Excellent finish! Nice to see the other two jets as well, they make a good set together .

[AdrianMF]

Looking super and hiding its origins well. I didn’t realise that Meteors came in FAA colours too.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Paul J]

Nice  work so far. Quite  impressed.  I did a restoration on one of my old Airfix  kits but not as in depth as yours. I used some Aeroclub white metal accessories. And new decals of course.

[Brigbeale]

8 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Looking super and hiding its origins well. I didn’t realise that Meteors came in FAA colours too.

EE337 was used for aircraft carrier trials and was painted in FAA colours.

[bigbadbadge]

Oooooo this is looking sweet with the stripes, nice group photo too, doing two Sea Venoms at the mo myself.

 

Great work 

Chris

[Brigbeale]

There wasn’t anything done to the actual Sea Hawk tonight. 
I just made the decals.

Two sets were printed each with extra roundels as I might need some in the future for something…..

One set is printed on white decal sheet and the other on clear. 
I might find the ‘J’s sure a little too large, but I can change the size and reprint them if need be.

 

[opus999]

I love that paint scheme.  The yellow and black stripes really look fantastic. 

 

Earlier in the week, before you did the stripes, I was amazed at how nice the model looked.  Funny how some scribing and a new coat of paint makes it look 100 times better!

[Brigbeale]

I thought tonight that I could get on well with the decalling having cut the roundels and nose art out this afternoon from one sheet and the serial numbers and RoyalNavy from the other sheet.

I started by placing the roundels on the underside of the wings. They went on with no issues using Humbrol Decalfix. I used this as the Mr Mark Setter behaved oddly on the Lynx.

I then went to fit the underwing serial numbers. I put the decal into soak and applied the Decalfix. Then the decal was slid sideways on the backing paper………..

 

Somewhere along the line while printing the decals, I got the white and clear decal sheets mixed up and printed two sets on the white decal sheet!! .

 

Oh well - no harm done! It just means I now have 16 type D roundels.

I re-printed the serial numbers and other lettered decals and gave them a coat of spray clear matt varnish, which are now drying in my shed/workshop.

 

I did place the squadron emblem/nose art in position - they turned out very well considering they’re home made. 
Then it was time for the fuselage roundels. This I where I discovered the drawback with some decal sheets. When the decal was placed in position, the yellow and black recognition stripes could be seen through the white in the roundel. I guess I should have used a plain white circle behind it (a plain piece of white decal sheet or an airbrushed white circle). The simple solution was to cut another pair of roundels and place them directly over the top! They turned out quite well and can only be seen if they’re inspected closely. Fortunately, the decals are quite thin, but the stripes are still just visible as a result - I don’t think I can add a third one on top, so I’ll leave them there. Next time I’ll airbrush the white circles on.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Brigbeale

[AdrianMF]

2 hours ago, Brigbeale said:

the yellow and black recognition stripes could be seen through the white in the roundel.

At least it wasn’t dayglo orange! It’s looking very nice indeed.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[stevehnz]

I'd not caught up with this for a bit, wow, what a transformation, I'm impressed to bits.

Steve.

[bigbadbadge]

That does look very nice Brian with the decals going on and the stripes.

Great job

Chris

[ColinChipmunkfan]

Wonderful Phoenix like rebirth for the Seahawk in new plumage.  Great work Brian.

Colin

[Brigbeale]

The home made serial numbers and lettering decals were dry last night, so the remainder of the decalling could begin.

I started with the two underwing serial numbers (looking at my other models to make sure I had them the right way round). They went on with no issues at all as did the tail serial numbers. 

The ‘ROYAL NAVY’ one on the port side somehow lost the middle of the ‘N’ but apart from that, they went on with no issues either.

 

The tail fin ‘J’ was applied to one side but it was too tall, so it was removed, shortened by eye using the width of the scissors as a guide, and re-applied. The other ‘J’ was also shortened and applied to the other side.

 

I dry placed the ‘200’ on the side of the fuselage in front of the wings and thought ‘They look a bit oversized’. I applied one anyway and - yep - they were too big, so the decal was removed, and the area neutralised with water and dried.

 

I the reprinted a pair of ‘200’s and sprayed them with matt varnish. I put them near a radiator to dry quicker. After about 3/4 hour, they were dry, so I applied them. The first one was applied with Decalfix which affected the varnish which in turn affected the black ink, so obviously the varnish hadn’t fully cured. It looked like very worn paint - hmm, useful to remember in future possibly. The other side was applied with plain water. It was better but still lost some ink when it was flattened with a cotton bud.

 

After they had dried sufficiently, I simply used the thin end of a Sharpie to touch in the numbers and now they look perfect again. The ‘N’ in the ‘ROYAL NAVY’ decal was also touched in.

 

Two ejection seat warning triangles were added from the Eastern Express Canberra decal sheet.

 

I did try a third roundel on top of the side roundels but it was too much although it did cover the still partly visible stripes. I opted to remove the third one.

[Brandy]

Looking great, but you've got your wingtip lights the wrong way around. Red left, green right.

Remember "red, right, wrong!"

 

Ian