Troy Smith Posted March 14, 2022 Posted March 14, 2022 well, I think your time has come.... if your decals work.... Been stashed since, erm, 1978 IIRC. 50620003 by losethekibble, on Flickr 50620004 by losethekibble, on Flickr I did mentions this. Also I now I have an FS595 deck so I can match the paint.... Mostly as I don't want to buy some Israeli paint for a possible one-off, and it's good paint mix/match practice... 7
JOCKNEY Posted March 17, 2022 Posted March 17, 2022 Great to see another long term stash resident having its moment of fame. Another cracking plastic colour combination as well ! Best of luck with this one Cheers Pat 1 1
Rabbit Leader Posted March 19, 2022 Posted March 19, 2022 Nice one Troy and one of the early Skyhawk boxings with those rare Israeli decals. One of these kits sold for the equivalent of GBP60.00 down here a few months ago so you’re probably sitting on a golden ticket with that one. In my opinion, a built up Matchbox Skyhawk would look better than a fist full of dollars although not sure if Mrs RL would agree with me on that one! Cheers and best of luck.. Dave 2 1
Troy Smith Posted March 19, 2022 Author Posted March 19, 2022 6 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said: One of these kits sold for the equivalent of GBP60.00 down here a few months ago so you’re probably sitting on a golden ticket with that one. I'm hoping that would be one with a minty box and decals.... As that would a useful cash injections for various other projects.... This one has spent many years in lofts and sheds, the decal adhesive has gone between the decals and is holding the cover paper on. Funnily enough I recently was reminded of the name of the newsagents I recall it coming from. They used to have odd kits in there, I recall a Revell Fw200 and bough the Revell 1/48th H-19 there, because it was 1/48th. I think the main reason this never got built (along with various other 1/72nd aircraft kits) was my discovery of 1/48th 'back then' which seemed very exotic for some reason, even the range of available kits was tiny, basically Monogram, though it was on the way to becoming fashionable, with both Revell and Airfix starting 1/48 ranges in 1978... but that's another story..... Monogram has a lot to answer for.... the only intact survivor is the central Hurricane, these are crops of a larger photo which has been redacted due overall hideous clothes and haircut pictured... 5 1
JOCKNEY Posted March 19, 2022 Posted March 19, 2022 1 hour ago, Troy Smith said: These are crops of a larger photo which has been redacted due overall hideous clothes and haircut pictured... Spoilsport 1
psdavidson Posted March 19, 2022 Posted March 19, 2022 2 hours ago, Troy Smith said: overall hideous clothes and haircut pictured Brown flared corduroy trousers and a dodgy perm if any of my old ones are anything to go by /P 1 1
jean Posted March 19, 2022 Posted March 19, 2022 5 hours ago, psdavidson said: Brown flared corduroy trousers and a dodgy perm if any of my old ones are anything to go by /P Mine were light blue and rather shiny, but ridiculously bell bottom! Never got a perm though, dodgy or not. Troy, cropping this photo is unfair. We do not laugh enough in today's world! Nice line-up of kits though. JR 3
Troy Smith Posted May 31, 2022 Author Posted May 31, 2022 Well, I got a bit bogged down with my M-7 Priest (though I have been doing some painting) and...well, things slide. I'm aware this ends soon, so in a drive to do at least one that I hope should be straightforward, I pulled out the Skyhawk, as I had spent an age mixing up IAF colours for it... Anyway... given how the top tissue had stuck to the decals, I decided to test a spare, so cut out a star and bars, dipped in water, and applied on a Monogram Spitfire wing that has been being used as a paint tester, over the writing. Well, it worked pretty well. Maybe needed a bit more K;eer to bed it down, but mostly I wanted to see how they behaved, which was remarkably well for 44 year old decals that have been rattled around and exposed to heat, cold and damp over the years... very impressive! So, with that, it was on with the show... 50620196 by losethekibble, on Flickr I was going to go OOB, but realised that the see through intakes would bug me, fortunately I had some black 20 thou card, so using the exterior intakes as a guide, I made some blanking plates. I decided that I wasn't even going anywhere near cockpit detail, so it's going to be black. I found my Tamiya mat black was at the jar end, and has gone a bit cottage cheesy, separating out... weird, as had some Tamiya white.. so I ended up with semi gloss. The seat got a coat, and some white went onto the inside of the intakes. To fill cockpit void, the neatly sculpted pilot got an green flight suit, yellow lifejacket and white bone dome.. Now I could have swore I took some more pics.... seems not, as progress has been made, mostly trying to do the white bits, which needed a buff primer and then a load of thin coats. This is the intake inside, and the UC legs and wheel wells. Dipped canopy in Kleer, dust in it, strip, re-do, more dust, strip again and another dip now drying.... Pilot got more work, black boots, dark brown gloves, flesh face, with a dark grey mask and I found a colour photo showing a green oxygen hose, so went with that, that show the life jacket was orangey yellow, so I re-did that, dark green visor..... and then an burnt umber oil paint dissolved in lighter fuel wash..... which gets me here. The pic is a bit over bright, but should fill the cockpit void reasonably well. Needs coat of matt varnish too. You can see what I mean about the sculpting in this as well, the wash has brought it out. 50620197 by losethekibble, on Flickr So, as long as the white is OK, some assembly should happen tomorrow. if not I could just do this gear up and use the stand. That should be OK, as test fits show a decent fit. Hopefully it be touch up in the Priest, and that can be decalled. Thanks for reading. cheers T 5
Troy Smith Posted May 31, 2022 Author Posted May 31, 2022 an overview 50620199 by losethekibble, on Flickr white bits being done, this has taken multiple coats.... Also, added a blanking plate behind cockpit and bit of 10 thou at the base of the tail fin, to blank that off. added some lead sheet in the nose, and then glued the halves together. One things that did cause a bother, the seat mounts were at different heights, so to get the seat level to a lot of messing about, in the end some plastic strip at the back, and small slot in the wheel well, and a peg in the rear bulkhead, which gets the seat at the right height and straight... 50620201 by losethekibble, on Flickr pilot post matt varnish, to get it W&N Matt really matt, add a little talc. The quality of the sculpting is clearer in the macro. This will really help fill the black hole that is the cockpit. 50620202 by losethekibble, on Flickr The kleer canopy dip seemed to have worked OK. I also started a primer coat on the wing undersides to try to kill off the red-brown plastic which really 'grins' through. thanks for reading cheers T 4
JOCKNEY Posted May 31, 2022 Posted May 31, 2022 Hi Troy Your pilot looks superb I really hope we can still admire them when the canopy goes on. Cheers Pat 1
Troy Smith Posted May 31, 2022 Author Posted May 31, 2022 4 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said: Your pilot looks superb I really hope we can still admire them when the canopy goes on. The wash brought out the sculpting, and it's lit from above, so maybe the best it will look... The Kleer has helped the canopy, and the pilot is the only thing to admire through the canopy... I was tempted to do the trick of twisting black and yellow thread together to make the stripes ejector seat handle...I have not idea if this was used on the Skyhawk! I'm curious to see how my paint mixes look.... That was hours of fun with an FS595 deck... cheers T 1
Troy Smith Posted June 2, 2022 Author Posted June 2, 2022 On 31/05/2022 at 23:09, JOCKNEY said: Your pilot looks superb I really hope we can still admire them when the canopy goes on. using my patented hi-tech macro lens..... erm, a magnifying glass held over the front of the point and shoot lens in my five quid posted off ebay camera. I'm not joking. This is how this was taken. 50620204 by losethekibble, on Flickr also shows what a good job the Kleer dip has done... Apart from some paint touch up's on the M-7 Priest, just visible in the background, I got on with this, 50620203 by losethekibble, on Flickr I flippin' hope it it's straight and even... anyway, I leave it to set overnight, though I did use dots of superglue to align the wings, and then after some squinting, used the capillary action of TET to finalise the join. I did sand some joints, more so underneath, as it felt pretty solid. All going well, paint tomorrow. thanks for reading cheers T 5
bigbadbadge Posted June 2, 2022 Posted June 2, 2022 Looks Good so far and like your home made Macro lense too. Cracking idea. Chris 1
Troy Smith Posted June 2, 2022 Author Posted June 2, 2022 Did a coat of Tamiya Buff as a primer. Added intakes, and masked the canopy, and did dark grey frames and internally, and attached canopy with 5 min fast grab woodwork PVA. 50620205 by losethekibble, on Flickr and the underside, the little square in the front UC 'well' is the bottom of the plastic strip used to align the pilots seat. 50620206 by losethekibble, on Flickr and several thin coats of light blue, this my home mix of Vallejo for IAF light blue, visual match to a FS595 chip used for the underside. 50620207 by losethekibble, on Flickr I did wonder how this would cover the buff, but went on well with a 1/4 inch flat brush, thinned with a little water and flow improver. Also remembered to do the UC doors and pylons. Uppers tomorrow at some point, i did have to add some Mr Surfacer by the intakes, and the clean up removed the buff, but it's only a small area. Thanks for reading cheers T 4
Troy Smith Posted June 4, 2022 Author Posted June 4, 2022 Despite meaning to get on with it earlier, I lazed about... Anyway, I finally got back to this, I had painted some sand on last night later on, but forgot to take pics, so I used a camo pattern from Israeli Air Force Colours Vol.2, which didn't look much like the box pattern, though in the book there is a profile( yes, i know..) of the kit markings, I assume.... and the side pattern matched up... looking at pics in the book the pattern seemed to vary..... Anyway, first coat of green over the sand, 50620213 by losethekibble, on Flickr I should have just free handed this as the pencil took some obscuring, 50620214 by losethekibble, on Flickr this is after 2 coats of brown, and another in the green. One good thing about Vallejo is the speed you can over coats with, but I do use very thin coats. The green is different to the usual Israeli green, as Skyhawk were delivered in this green.... though with the 'hump' it may well have been repainted in the right one... I'll ponder on it, nut would mean finding another green... I'll se what it looks like in daylight but probably over thinking it... I'm rather glad of the build extension, which will save a mad rush.... thanks for reading Cheers T 6
Troy Smith Posted June 9, 2022 Author Posted June 9, 2022 Progress uppers repainted, and Kleered. 50620228 by losethekibble, on Flickr and then the underside 50620229 by losethekibble, on Flickr And just now, decalling. 50620230 by losethekibble, on Flickr as the backing paper had stuck to the sheet adhesive, between the decals, I wiped them down, and then gave them a coast of Microscale Decal Film, they too a while to come loose, and did require close trimming, and some coaxing with a scalpel to lift an edge, and brush with dilute Kleer, which was also on the surface as well, pressed down once in place with a bit of tissue. I also put some Microsol on, so hope to do the starboard side later. Note decals in foreground. I'm still very impressed at the survival of the decals! thanks for reading cheers T 6
Troy Smith Posted June 15, 2022 Author Posted June 15, 2022 On 10/06/2022 at 01:17, JOCKNEY said: Looking great looks better now... 50620254 by losethekibble, on Flickr added the gun soot black panels, and then a dirty grey oil wash (Burnt umber, black, white in lighter fuel) wiped off with tissue in airflow, which takes most of it off, but modulates the tone a bit, and a darker wash on the control surfaces lines. Also touched up the red round the intakes, I found a vallejo red that was as near as dammit match.... I don't think it the right red, which is bit more orange, but it matched the decals.. 50620255 by losethekibble, on Flickr will od the nose well dark grey, it should be white but as you can see it's very shallow. You can just see where I had to touch up the port magen david with white. So ...matt coat, add UC, doors, hook (which is black/white stripes) pylons, jet pipe, refuelling probe and a couple of other bits. I'm pleased with mix mixed colours though. annoyingly this shows an undernose probe, which other photos don't.... and I'd therefore filled... this is a later stage in service, as it has the jet pipe extension which was to prevent SAM missiles from doing to much damage, basically they'd blow the pipe to bits which saved the main tail... Even a casual study will reveal the Matchbox kit fails on many of the details, (air intakes, windscreen shape, number of pylons, kit only 2, cannon bulges, lack of stores... the kit has a pair of Bullpups the Israeli's never used....) but it does seems to catch the main shapes well. I'm tempted to do the rudder like that to jazz it up.... and it seems to be the only Skyhawk photo I have seen with the same unit badge.... thanks for reading cheers T 4
JOCKNEY Posted June 15, 2022 Posted June 15, 2022 The paintwork looks terrific Troy, congratulations mate. I see where you're coming from with the extra bit of colour on the rudder, but red can be an awkward sod to paint so it would be a shame if you detracted what you've achieved so far. However if you can do red paint left handed with your eyes closed, what's stopping you Cheers Pat 1
Troy Smith Posted June 19, 2022 Author Posted June 19, 2022 On 16/06/2022 at 00:02, JOCKNEY said: so it would be a shame if you detracted what you've achieved so far. indeed.... after an age of faffings, and adding small parts, and touch up etc etc. I'm calling this done. I'm sure I missed the odd bit, and ended up some stuff inside the canopy, plastic flake I think, as I had to drill and and pin the nose leg. I'll add some more waffle later, but here's some pics. This got the close crop because of a sign in the background.... 50620281 by losethekibble, on Flickr 50620283 by losethekibble, on Flickr 50620274 by losethekibble, on Flickr 50620277 by losethekibble, on Flickr 50620279 by losethekibble, on Flickr Thanks for reading cheers T 8
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