Gloster Meteor F.8 - Syrian Air Force - Special Hobby - 1/72

[SebTartar]

Hi all,

 

I started this build in August 2022, started losing interest, got distracted by some other kits and left it aside. You know the story...

 

One reason why I lost interest was that the build proved more difficult than I had anticipated for what I wanted a quick and relaxing build.

It is not a bad kit but the mould dates back to the MPM age and is not on par with more recent SH productions.

It definitely is a short run mould and implies a lot of dry fitting, filling, sanding, priming, filling, sanding...

 

Anyway, I got a KUTA at the beginning of the year and made some progress.

 

Box art:

 

Chosen Scheme:

The SyAAF scheme was the reason why I got this kit:

I found it was a nice alternative to the more classic RAF and IAF schemes.

 

 

Build:

I started the build with the ejection seat to which I added harnesses and details:

It would have been easier to buy an aftermarket item but I enjoyed spending some hours on this...

 

Once painted:

 

 

Then, I turned my attention to the cockpit.

The level of detail is sufficient as the canopy will be closed and this cockpit is rather narrow anyway. I only added the throttle handle.

As for painting, well, black is black...

The shape of the back of the cockpit and the rear plate are inaccurate. The Airfix cockpit is way better.

 

I used the decal for the instrument panel.

As little will be seen under the cockpit coaming, it was not worth spending time painting the dials.

 

The whole thing looks OK once inside the fuselage:

 

Assembling the wings was not really a walk in the park:

The trailing edges are on the thick side but I could not be bored to thin them.

The adjustment of the top and bottom of the engine nacelles is poor. In spite of a lot of sanding and dry fitting, I still had to use a respectable amount of filler.

 

The instructions call for a small modification of the flaps. Nothing that a blade, a file, a needle and a ruler cannot do:

 

The engine heads are not as nice as on the Airfix F.8 and the SH NF.14 but they are barely visible:

 

More visible is the junction between the top and bottom halves of the nacelles:

The Airfix F.8 and the SH NF.14 are much better.

 

Then I glued the fuselage halves and fitted the wings.

As there were no locating pins, I had glued some plasticard tabs inside one of the fuselage halves but it did not really help.

I tried to have a flush fit on the top and, as a result, there were steps on the belly which I corrected using stretched sprue dipped in glue.

 

The fit of the wings was not ideal either at the junction between the wings and the fuselage and on the underside. I had to force the fit during the drying time, file, sand file and sand a lot and restore the lost panel lines:

 

The landing gear on the other side is really good and even better than Airfix's:

 

Still, it looks OK at the end:

 

 

Painting:

I primed the model using Ammo One Shot sand colour. Of course, it revealed some defects that I had to fill, sand and fill and sand.

 

Then, I painted the underside:

I used Mr Hobby Aqueous H332 as per instructions, made some highlights and mottling using highly thinned H311 and shadows using a self-made smoke mix. A thin highly thinned coat of the base colour was sprayed to tone down the effects a little.

Looking at the period pictures, it lacks a bluish hue but that'll do.

 

I applied the camouflage starting with the sand. I used a 90-10 mix of H71 middle stone and H11 white. I made some highlights by adding more white to mix and shadows with pure H71.

It was masked using panzer putty.

The base colour for the green is H330, highlights made with H303 and shadows with H77 tyre black.

I tried to keep the effects subtle as the aircraft on the period pictures are really clean:

 

 

Decals:

I never gloss before decals. It often kills the effects and I find it unnecessary for good decal adherence.

Having said that, I always buff the paintjob to give it a smoother satin finish.

 

I applied the decals and a myriad of stencils using Daco Strong.

 

They are printed by Eduard and are of the "peelable" type.

Though they are really thin and though I hate doing that, I prefer to peel the carrier film off:

1. to avoid silvering / lifting at later stages

2. because they really look painted on once the film is removed

It took hours but the result was worth it and there was not too much damage.

 

 

The sharp eyes will notice a blunder...😳

 

I faded the decals by airbrushing a highly thinned medium grey and applied a thin coat of VMS satin varnish to protect them.

One big advantage of VMS varnishes is that you do not lose the effects, unless you pile up the coats.

Their Matt varnish is fantastic.

It took me some time to get used to their Satin as you absolutely must wet the surfaces and I do not like that. But now that I have got used to it, I find it really good.

 

 

Next step will be the washes and it should be this weekend!

 

Edited February 16 by SebTartar

[cpoud117]

Great work all around, I really like what you did with your highlight/shadown technique.

 

I guess the small blunder is linked to the codes under the wings but hey, no one will see that once it's in the display case  

 

Edit: Side note, you should ask a Mod to move the thread in the "Work in progress" section. 

[SebTartar]

Thanks a lot.

 

11 minutes ago, cpoud117 said:

I guess the small blunder is linked to the codes under the wings but hey, no one will see that once it's in the display case

According to the instructions, the codes under the wings should be mirrored.

But I can live with that as I applied them like on the tail, which is correct for "414" in arabic.

 

The main issue lies with the roundels on the top of the wings: one of the stars should point towards the front. I realised my mistake once the decals were way too soft to be moved...

 

 

11 minutes ago, cpoud117 said:

Edit: Side note, you should ask a Mod to move the thread in the "Work in progress" section. 

Thanks for pointing out!

Actually, I realised this second blunder minutes after posting and MPed a mod.

"Jamais deux sans trois".

Not sure I am eager to know what my third blunder will be...🫣

[Mike]

Moved this to WiP for you, as it's a WiP.  Keep up the good work

[SebTartar]

1 hour ago, Mike said:

Moved this to WiP for you, as it's a WiP.  Keep up the good work

Thanks a lot and sorry for the hassle.

[SebTartar]

Washes: done!

 

As usual, I used True Earth products.

- "General Ageing" on the underside

- "Neutral" on the sand

- "Black" on the green

- "Dark ageing" on the airbrakes

 

[

 

 

The weathering should be quick as the aircrafts are very clean on the pictures.

It should be over before next weekend.

 

[SebTartar]

I tried to keep the weathering restrained as these aircrafts are in a near perfect condition on the pictures I found.

 

Picture of the products used below:

As usual, I used felt tip pens to depict the streaks and dirt accumulations. I used 4 of them to vary the effects but used mostly the walnut brown and the cold grey

 

The watercolor pencils were used for dust accumulations on the wings where the ground crews would walk more ferquently. Of course, the aluminium pencil was used to make some small scratches around some hatches.

 

Finally, I made some projections behind the landing gear wheels and dusted the tyres using a the True Earth desert dust wash.

 

 

Then, I glued the landing gear, the landing gear bay hatches, the antennas and the pitot tube, made the necessary touch-ups and applied washes around them.

 

 

Aaaand, I could take the final pictures:

 

I am not entirely satisfied with the model itself (a bit coarse in some areas) and the final result (paintjob not perfect and those damn roundels!!).

But I have finished my first model this year and I like the originality of the livery.

[Vultures1]

That's a really nice result and thank you for the insights into your process!

[Celestialsphere]

She looks magnificent!

 

You have captured just the right 'deserty fade' for a realistic result.

 

Well done.

 

Cheers 

Andrew