Enzo's Airfix Project

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Well...   it's heeere!!! 

 

I now have three of these in The Stash. But not for long.   

 

 

So I'm going to build two of 'em in this GB.   

 

Usually at this point I would show the sprues, but instead I am going to direct you to @Mike's excellent review.  Mike's photography is far better than mine.

 

 

 

I have so many possible colour schemes for this one.  Really spoiled for choice.

 

 

...and there are another two very nice schemes on the Airfix decal sheet with the third (the box art scheme) being duplicated on one of the Xtradecal sheets.

 

I think I will build either one of the two that you can see on the right hand sheet.  My second build will be a Meteor F(TT)8.   This one, in fact.

 

 

This is from the Airfix 1/48 kit. 

 

It's all very exciting.   

[franky boy]

Great choice Enzo.

 

It’ll be good see to see how this new Airfix kit builds up. It looks great. 

 

James

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Excellent options Enzo, you certainly cant miss the F(TT)8. 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Just now, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

you certainly cant miss the F(TT)8. 

 

I believe the point was to make sure that people did miss the F(TT)8!   

[stevej60]

Great to see this new tool in the GB Enzo I could be well tempted before the GB's end.

[Marklo]

It does look like a great kit and the 15th of January is a long way away, should one cross my path between times I may well get it…

[81-er]

15 hours ago, Enzo Matrix said:

I believe the point was to make sure that people did miss the F(TT)8!   

I wonder what cost more, repainting the aircraft or the cleaning bill for the pilot's pants?

 

James

[JOCKNEY]

I've got the original ancient version of this for this GB.

I look forward to seeing how the posh new version scrubs up.

Good luck.

 

Cheers Pat 

[stevej60]

On 13/10/2022 at 00:18, JOCKNEY said:

I've got the original ancient version of this for this GB.

I look forward to seeing how the posh new version scrubs up.

Good luck.

 

Cheers Pat 

Mine arrived today Pat and it is jaw dropping in the detailing and molding I'll let Enzo kick off preceeding's so we'll see thing's progress.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

The first job is to build the cockpit.  The parts are nicely detailed but given that the cockpit is painted black, I don't know how much of that will show up on the finished model.

 

 

The instrument panel has a nice decal.

 

 

As you can see, there are some nice locating points for the cockpit assembly moulded into the fuselage interior.  Tabs on the cockpit floor locate into these and there are some vertical tabs on the cockpit floor which align everything nicely.   Or at least they will do, if the modeller is patient.  More about this in a moment.

 

 

There is a reasonable amount of room for ballast.  The kit instructions recommend 8g under the cockpit floor.   I managed to fit 5g there so there is another 10g squeezed in elsewhere.

 

 

As you can see, the nose area is quite crowded.   This brings me to the best tip I can give for building this model:  be patient!

 

The cockpit assembly needs to be aligned just right.  If it is misaligned even slightly, the fuselage halves will not join correctly at the nose and there will be issues with the nose cone.  It is actually very easy to locate the cockpit correctly.  Just let the locating tabs do their job - and then be patient!  Let the assembly set properly before you put in any ballast.

 

I was most impatient and bunged the ballast in straight after the cockpit and long before it had set.   The ballast forced the cockpit tub out of alignment so when I came to assemble the other fuselage half, there was a honking great gap along the underside of the forward fuselage. This would have caused major issues with the location of the nose cone. 

 

I think what had happened was that the cockpit floor was forced down slightly and so the tabs came into contact with the raised location marks.  This meant that the fuselage halves simply would not close properly.  

 

I solved the problem using a measure of brute force and ignorance.   I stuck a small screwdriver into the open nose area and levered it up and down gently, while pressing on the fuselage halves.  Eventually the tabs on the cockpit floor snapped into place and the fuselage closed up properly with a satisfying click.  All was well, except that the underfuselage joint was a little messy. 

 

That was the first model.   For the second one, I was more patient.   I cemented the cockpit tub into place in one fuselage half.  I then dry fitted the other fuselage half and taped it into position.  You can juggle the cockpit tub location around with no trouble until everything fits perfectly.   Then, be patient and let the cockpit assembly set.   Once it is set, it is nice and robust.  I then added the ballast and closed up the fuselage with no problems whatsoever.

 

Let me stress - this is not a shortcoming with the kit in any way.   This was all due to me rushing ahead when I really should have been more careful.  But all's well that ends well.

 

Remember, don't be an Enzo.  Be patient!   

 

And just as I was sorting this "problem", the postie delivered my latest consignment of comic books.   

 

 

 

[Marklo]

Sage advice. I’m intending to get (at least) one of these and I’m a terror for measuring once and cutting twice so to speak.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

2 minutes ago, Marklo said:

I’m a terror for measuring once and cutting twice so to speak.

 

I know that feeling!    But that's what wet and dry is for...    

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Moving on to the wings.

 

There are two spars and four walls for the undercarriage bays.  These are cleverly designed to interlock and provide a very robust structure.

 

 

The leading edges of the wings are part of the forward spar, so these will need to be painted in the extrnal camouflage colours.  The engine fronts are nicely detailed and should show up well.

 

 

 

 

Ready for main assembly.   It looks a bit shabby at the moment but that's just me filling and sanding every joint, just in case.  It should look better with some primer on it.

 

[Marklo]

Looking good. I had a few minor leading and trailing edge gaps particularly at the wing roots, but then that could have ten me rather  than the kit.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Marklo

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Assembly complete on both.  I found it was a good idea to fit the wing fillet part to the fuselage, making sure everything is nice and smooth.   If it is fitted to the wing assembly, there may be a ridge where it joins the fuselage.  The upperwing airbrakes have been fitted and sanded.  I will fit the undersurface airbrakes in the drooped position as though there is no hydraulic pressure in the system.   

 

 

Primed with my usual technique of a coat of clear lacquer to provide a key to the plastic, followed with grey plastic car primer from a rattle can.

 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Then on to the painting.

 

The F8 was sprayed with Xtracrylix XA1004 Dark Sea Grey.   The undersurfaces of the F(TT)8 were sprayed with Fiat Broom Yellow from a rattle can.

 

 

The F8 camouflage scheme was then masked with my usual technique of Blutak worms and masking tape squares, sealed with Copydex.

 

 

Then sprayed with Xtracylix XA1001 Dark Green.

 

 

A coat of clear lacquer was then applied and the uppersurfaces were masked off.  Finally the lowersurfaces were sprayed with aluminium paint from a rattle can to represent the High Speed Silver paint.

 

Moving in to the F(TT)8 and I was once again faced with the sheer lunacy of attempting to mask a yellow surface with yellow masking tape.   Once the edges were masked, I filled in the stripes with ordinary masking tape.

 

 

And sprayed the black stripes with Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black.

 

 

As you can see, the stripes needed a bit of tweaking.  After that was done, the uppersurfaces were sprayed with Xtracrylix XA1015 Light Aircraft Grey.

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Some touchups and detail painting, including painting the fin black on the F(TT)8 and I think we're just about ready for the decals.

 

 

[81-er]

They're coming along well, Enzo

 

James

[franky boy]

Nice stripes Enzo!

 

James

[Enzo the Magnificent]

At this point I did my usual trick and lost all self control. 

 

It occured to me that both F8 models were in the later configuration with wide diameter intakes and the later canopy and ailerons.  The kit provides options for the earlier canopy, ailerons and narrow intakes.   It seemed a shame to to take advantage of the choice.

 

What's a boy to do?   Start another kit, of course!     

 

So here is the third entry into this thread.   I haven't documented the eary parts of the build as they are exactly the same as the first two models.  Here is the early F8, ready for priming.

 

  

 

Priming was done with grey plastic car primer from a rattle can.  The High Speed Silver painted finish was also from a rattle ran.

 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Silver finishes are always a little problematic and they can look boring and nondescript.  Hopefully this can be avoided on a natural metal finish by representing the different shades of metal on the airframe.  There is no such luxury on a painted silver finish such as High Speed Silver, however.  True, painted silver finishes did weather but I find that the weathering needs to be extremely subtle to avoid looking overdone.  So we have to rely on the markings and greeblies to provide the visual interest.

 

Luckily the Meteor has a lot of upperwing walkway markings that always look good.   Here is the model with decals applied and greeblies ready for fitment.

 

 

I feel that Airfix has over-engineered the undercarriage parts.   Over-engineering of kit parts seems to be a bit of a hobby horse of mine at the moment. 

 

The wheels are seperate to the gear legs but both are in two halves.  I think this has been done to aid the painting of the tyres.  I took advantage of this and painted the wheels seperately and then attempted to assemble the undercarriage parts.   I simply accepted that this was a new kit and so wouldn't have any flash problems.   Wrong!!!      The undercarriage legs have a very thin line of flash along the mould joints that will prevent the tyres fitting in neatly.  This needs to be pared away with the tip of a very sharp blade.  It's fiddly and time consuming work. The wheels are still a tight fit into the mudguards which is made worse by the thickness of the primer and paint.   This meant that the mudguards did not fit together well and I had to fill and sand them - another fiddly and time consuming job that meant that all the painting work was pointless.  

 

The next time I build an Airfix Meteor, I wwill simply assemble the gear before painting and paint the tyres in the time honoured way: carefully with a hairy stick. 

 

This model is now up on its wheels so I will make a comment about ballast.   I tend to put a lot of ballast in my tricycle undercarriage models. I certainly did so with the other two Meteors in this build thread.  But I wondered whether that was strictly necessary, especially given how the nose gear is built up from numerous parts.  So with this one I put in a little less ballast, but pushed it as far forward as possible to give it the best moment that I could.

 

The model does sit correctly on its nosewheel...   But only if I have it on perfectly a level surface!   I think the centre of gravity is a fraction of a millimetre ahead of the main gear ground contact points.   If the display surface slopes slightly towards the tail of the model, it will tailsit!   Turn the model around and it will happily sit on its nose gear.   So...  lesson learned.   I'm going back to my previous policy of putting stupid amounts of ballast in the model.

 

And will someone   invent liquid cavorite, so I can put it in the tail...    

 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Here are the other two models in the same condition.

 

 

[Wings unlevel]

Nice representations of the different identities of the F.8, Enzo. They all look fantastic, but I do love that target tug.

[gingerbob]

So "build them all" isn't just a catch-phrase!  Interesting seeing three so-different paint jobs in the same "pose" (which looks a bit like a very hard landing has been performed).

 

One request- when you get there, please have a pic or two of all three [at present counting 😉 ] together, thanks!

 

bob

Edited December 28, 2022 by gingerbob

[Enzo the Magnificent]

And we're finished!