High visibility trainer - Hellenic T-33 1/72 Italeri / Platz

[cpoud117]

Hi guys,

 

This one was finished just a few hours ago. The kit came in an Italeri box but the tooling is from the Japanese manufacturer Platz.

 

 

 

 

 

In general, it's definitely not a bad kit but it can fight you from time to time.

The cockpit is rather sparse, adding a PE set is a must, I wish I'd also replaced the seat with resin ones.

To be fair, I thought keeping the canopy closed would make the project easier but I now regret doing so. The open canopy would have added some life to the model. I should also have dropped the flaps. Oh well...

 

A quick inventory of the project

 

Italeri kit 1444

Eduard SS710 PE set

Eduard CX303 masks

ResKit RS72-0174 wheels (those in the kit  are under sized and of the wrong type for Greek T-33s)

Armycast ACD 72 018 "Lockheed T-33 Silver Star in the World" decal sheet

 

Paints & varnish

Orange: 10 parts H14, 1 part H13

Grey: H311

GX112 & MRP-126

 

The pitot has been replaced by a piece of scrap photoetch

The fuel dump pipe has been replaced by a piece of stretched and flattened styrene cylinder 

 

I built this Greek bird as part of a "batch-build" and its Japanese brother should hopefully be finished soon too.

 

 

Have a great day!

 

 

 

[RidgeRunner]

Oh yes, very nice indeed.  That really does get my pulse racing!

 

Martin

[Mick Drover]

That is definitely hi-viz! Well done on mixing the orange colour. I've had to do mix an orange on a different subject and it was a hit and miss affair.

 

Great stuff.

Mick

 

[cpoud117]

7 hours ago, RidgeRunner said:

Oh yes, very nice indeed.  That really does get my pulse racing!

 

Thanks Martin, I think we share a soft spot for the T-33. So many operators, so many possible liveries. 

 

7 hours ago, Mick Drover said:

That is definitely hi-viz! Well done on mixing the orange colour. I've had to do mix an orange on a different subject and it was a hit and miss affair.

 

Thanks Mick! Honestly, painting orange was a pain in the rear.

After priming in white, I sprayed the grey then masked, then sprayed the whole thing yellow which took 3-4 layers. Then came the orange paint, I think I had to spray 6 layers give or take.

I wish I had been able to create some more tonal variation as I find the finished model a bit "toy-like", but after the orange paint ordeal, I didn't have much courage left in me to risk it all on post-shading.

[RidgeRunner]

18 minutes ago, cpoud117 said:

I think we share a soft spot for the T-33. So many operators, so many possible liveries. 

Absolutely :). I have a further FAU machine in my build list, plus I have the excellent Icarus Greek decal set too :). One day I will get to them. For now I have “invested” in a number of decal sets drawn and printed by Arctic Decals that I should get built :). The first of those is my current French Invader.

[cpoud117]

6 minutes ago, RidgeRunner said:

Absolutely :). I have a further FAU machine in my build list, plus I have the excellent Icarus Greek decal set too :). One day I will get to them. For now I have “invested” in a number of decal sets drawn and printed by Arctic Decals that I should get built :). The first of those is my current Invader.

The Uruguayan T-33s sure look good. I was eyeing a Paraguayan machine for the GB, if I'm not 100% T-33'd out by the time I'm done with the Japanese one. 

I'm looking forward to see how your Invader go, 50's-60's Armée de l'air is a fascinating topic.

[SebTartar]

Very nice!

 

I also built that kit in a Greek livery but opted for the SEA camo.

I was tempted by a red livery but chickened out somehow!

 

I did not cut the flaps either and even closed the airbrakes. I know it is utterly inaccurate but I thought it looked nicer this way! 🙃

 

I can confirm that the PE set is a must for the cockpit.

I also had to deal with some steps, mostly around the air intakes, and found the plastic to be a bit weird to work with. Is it what you mean by "it can fight you from time to time"?

[RidgeRunner]

11 minutes ago, cpoud117 said:

The Uruguayan T-33s sure look good.

I am lucky in that I have been given lots of reference material by a friend in Uruguay. I just need to get the decals drawn and printed now.

[cpoud117]

14 minutes ago, RidgeRunner said:

I am lucky in that I have been given lots of reference material by a friend in Uruguay. I just need to get the decals drawn and printed now.

Very interesting, I hope you'll be able to share them at some point.

 

20 minutes ago, SebTartar said:

Very nice!

 

I also built that kit in a Greek livery but opted for the SEA camo.

I was tempted by a red livery but chickened out somehow!

 

I did not cut the flaps either and even closed the airbrakes. I know it is utterly inaccurate but I thought it looked nicer this way! 🙃

 

I can confirm that the PE set is a must for the cockpit.

I also had to deal with some steps, mostly around the air intakes, and found the plastic to be a bit weird to work with. Is it what you mean by "it can fight you from time to time"?

 

Thank you for the kind words. After the fourth layer of orange paint, I really wished I'd gone with the SEA scheme :D

 

The intakes are one of the kit weirdest point. The initial idea is good, no seam inside the intake is something we are all on-board with, but fit is poor and the panel lines are an hommage to 2010 Airfix trenches. I guess we can't have it all 🫠

 

The plastic is indeed quite soft. Being a Japanese kit, I was expecting the hard Hasegawa/Fujimi styrene which I enjoy but got something more akin to recent Airfix plastic.

I also found the tip tank to be a bit finicky. IMO they don't fit well enough to be added after the paint job but the short locking tab makes them quite fragile. I ended up breaking one on both models at some point during the paintjob.  

 

 

[SebTartar]

Well, I see that we encountered the very same issues!

 

It still is a nice kit and builds rather quickly, though.

[Lightningboy2000]

Fantastic looking T-33! 

[Watto]

Very nice looking aircraft, looks really smart.

 

Nice one 👍

[cpoud117]

Thank you @Lightningboy2000 and @Watto

 

8 hours ago, SebTartar said:

Well, I see that we encountered the very same issues!

 

It still is a nice kit and builds rather quickly, though.

I agree, the issues are totally manageable. It's the best kit in town for a 1/72 T-33 anyway

[Julien]

Very nice, ive built this kit though without any problems and I thought the kit supplied cockpit was good enough in this scale

 

Julien

[loloskymaster]

Interesting Greek T-33! Now, I can not wait for the japanese one. 

Great job.

Lolo

[cpoud117]

11 hours ago, Julien said:

Very nice, ive built this kit though without any problems and I thought the kit supplied cockpit was good enough in this scale

 

Thank you! And you've done a great job on yours! I may be clumsier or just hoping a level of perfection which doesn't exist.

 

9 hours ago, loloskymaster said:

Interesting Greek T-33! Now, I can not wait for the japanese one. 

Great job.

Thank you! I'm off for a two weeks business trip, so the Japanese one may take a little while before it's done.

[Mig88]

Lovely! Superbly finished!

 

Miguel

[cpoud117]

5 hours ago, Mig88 said:

Lovely! Superbly finished!

Thanks a lot

[Marcello Rosa]

How visible do you want this thing to be?

YESSS!!!

 

Joke apart, it is a great looking model.

[Dennis_C]

This is clearly an eye-catcher. One of my favourite trainer birds. I have this in RCAF colours (well I should say in bare metal). Excellent orange paint job too. I know orange colour is difficult to get it nicely. 

[cpoud117]

11 hours ago, Marcello Rosa said:

How visible do you want this thing to be?

YESSS!!!

 

Joke apart, it is a great looking model.

Thank you, Marcello. 
The Greeks used their T-33 for target tugging, the orange paint ensured the target was shot at, not the tug

 

2 hours ago, Dennis_C said:

This is clearly an eye-catcher. One of my favourite trainer birds. I have this in RCAF colours (well I should say in bare metal). Excellent orange paint job too. I know orange colour is difficult to get it nicely. 

Thank you Dennis.

I’m toying with the idea of a camouflaged RCAF CT-133 at some point in the future. The RCAF had a few very cool liveries for the silver star!

Orange is a pain but as long as you prime in white, paint it all yellow and add a drop of red to your orange paint, you should be fine. Patience is the name of the game.

[Dennis_C]

12 minutes ago, cpoud117 said:

Orange is a pain but as long as you prime in white, paint it all yellow and add a drop of red to your orange paint, you should be fine. Patience is the name of the game.

Interesting approach. I need to try. So far my method was just white primer and then orange in several rounds. Typically three. If I spray orange in just one approach the risk of leaking paint is too high as you need quite a lot of paint to ensure even finish. So two is a minimum and the third approach to clean up here and there.