Started 19/02/2006
Intended Livery using a combination of painted markings and spare decals.
3 Mar 2006
Assembly progressing. Now at the stage where the white needs to painted in the intakes, before anymore can be done
9 Mar 2006
Major fuselage assembly done. Ready for masking of the canopy, for painting the base coat. I have also painted the main tail markings on the tail rudders.
20 Mar 2006
The decalling is complete and now has a Klear coat on to seal them in ready for an Oil Wash.
With painting the rudders the only other custom made markings were all in black which made them easier to do.
They were printed on to Expert Choice's Clear Decal film using an HP Deskjet 5650 in Photo mode. They were set aside for a day then I sprayed a light coating of Microscale Decal film over the markings, and after an hour brushed on a thicker coating. I made 3 copies of the markings and used about half of them. I found if you cut too close to the markings then the ink will leak out when you dip them in water. The Decal film dries thin enough to allow you not have to cut up to the markings though. The remaining stencils were from the CAM Hi-Viz Data sheets #72-012.
Oil wash of Raw Umber applied and the remainder of parts applied.
Nice build but a few items not happy with, for instance nose pitot was weird shape and I had to reshape it. Another item are the holes for the main landing gear - way too big, and had to fill them in and redrill to get a positive location.
I suppose I have been spoiled somewhat with the Hasegawa kits, but in the long run the Academy kit is good for the price you pay.
