Plamax 1/72 VF-1A/S

Just arrived !!

Airfix 1/72 P-40B #3

A layer of flat clear, and closed the fuselage, installed the cowling and air intake. 

Test fit the wing to fuselage and there is a gap on the right wing root. Will see how to fix it after sanding the airframe seams.

Airfix 1/72 P-40B #2

Prepared cockpit and main gear well with Mr Color UG series (gundam color) green, must be one of the Zuku green. Think it quite match the tone of the P-40 internal. 

Brushed the detail with Tamiya enamel paints - red, white, black, yellow and silver. 

Cut 4 thin strips of Tamiya masking tape and glued on the seat as the harness. Mixed a deeper green with Tamiya enamel mixture with white / black / yellow as the harness color. Applied a few dots of silver and black at the end. 

Weathering is done by dry-brush of enamel silver and AK brown wash.

Added another round of color dots and ready for a coat of flat clear.

P-Bandai delivery - RG Freedom ver GCP

 

Airfix 1/72 P-40B #1

Soaked and washed the two sprue in dish washing agent, clean with old toothbrush.

Cut and cleaned nubs and ejection mold lines, followed by trial build. 

Overall the fit is very good, i can see a relatively (in this kit only) "large" gap where the wing meet to the bottom of the fuselage, a little bit of filler will fix it.

There are also some flashes along side the connection area on the upper right side of fuselage and front cover / air intake area. Clean them carefully will ensure a good fit without much filler applied.

As of this point, the only fit issue which I have yet to fix is the rear vertical rudder. It does not sit in nicely to the vertical stabilier.

Yet another potential next aircraft project

P-40B by Airfix, 1/72, simple two sprue in grey color and 1 small tree of clear parts, no PE.

I wonder if it can be fixed by end of 2022 ? 

Italeri 1/48 Hawk T Mk.1 #13 (Completed)

Installed lights and remaining gear cover doors.

Project completed after 2.5 months. A good learning and practising. 

Potentially the next aircraft project

1/72 A5M2B Claude starter kit from Clear Prop.

Italeri 1/48 Hawk T Mk.1 #12

Slowly, prepared the last few parts including the signal lights.

Italeri 1/48 Hawk T Mk.1 #11

Installed landing gears, doors, air-brake and drop fuel tank. The fit is generally ok, but I have problem fitting the support rod (not sure how it is called officially) on the main landing gear.

There are glue mark over the small parts too, lesson learnt.

Italeri 1/48 Hawk T Mk.1 #10

The airframe is considered complete, and it's time to prepare the rest of the parts - landing gears, doors, centerline drop tank ... etc

There is some minor adjustment to do during test fitting, and after that, all the landing gear / wheels seems to fit well together.

I have painted the tires with Mr Color #137 Tire Black and masked the tires and applied Gaia 1001 Siliver on the rims. Worth to note that I use a circle templated made by Eduard to mask the front wheel, which is handy. However even the bigger circle in the template is too small for the rims on main gear wheel, hence I use masking tape and pen-knife to cut the shape. It took me 3 times of practicing. The result is acceptable, with a little bit of paint overflow on to the black area. Afterwards, applied and cleaned up AK weathering liquid which also fixed the paint overflow. 

Italeri 1/48 Hawk T Mk.1 #9

Weathering pass 1 with Mr Weathering Brown

Italeri 1/48 Hawk T Mk.1 #8

Sand the fuselage and wings surface lightly with 3M green sanding sponge and it is decals time !