Started 02 October 2009 - Completed 03 November 2009

02 Oct 2009

Boxart and kit contents

The parts on the Tamiya tape are 3 of the prop shafts and a main gear door that have come off the sprues.

main fuselage sprues - recessed panel lines

decals

21 October 2009

Due to the small number of parts, this was a quick and easy build. No filling was required so I laid down coat of Alclad Grey Primer followed by Humbrol #130 Satin White along the fuselage top. After masking this area I then sprayed on Humbrol #154 Yellow on the wing and tail tips. The engine innards and exhuasts were spryed with Aclad2 Steel. The Yellow was then masked off, and Alclad Aluminimum sprayed on the flaps and elevators and also masked off. I then laid down 3 coats of Xtracolor #X123 BA Blue (FS15052) and set it aside to cure for 10 days. After removing the masking I cut a slot in the fuselage to accomodate an Airfix stand, and filed a lollipop stick down to fit the slot for the next stage of Klear coats. After 3 coats of Klear, I set it back on its stand to cure, raedy for decals.

03 November 2009

Unlike the Connie build, the decals were a great deal more agreeable and opaque. I should mention the boo-boo I made with the main fuselage decals, in that I concentrated so much on getting them to be square, I forget the nose join and ended up with a 2mm gap from the windscreen to the nose landing gear doors. As you can see, there is a difference in the yellows between the decals and the Airfix yellow paint, so I could not paint the gap, and had to dig through my decal scraps and found a piece, which although not an exact colour match, doesn't look too bad in real life. The black de-icing decals, however were a pain, so after 2 attempts I decided to mask and spray them with Taimya XF-1. Final step was to dip the prop tips in Airfix Yellow.