After a few hours drying time over a radiator, masking the grey to sky was done using 1mm Tamiya tape that I had, using the “normal” 6mm taper might prove problematic as the various bulges (cockpit air intakes and electrical ducting) preclude getting a neat straight edge along the fuselage between the front and rear cockpit areas. Also worth noting is that the wing and tail leading edges have a wrap around of grey, so these need masking also; the Hannants Xtracolor X005 RAF Extra Dark Sea Grey was again thinned with cellulose thinners, which really accelerates drying time, preserves the wonderful gloss that can be achieved with these paints and makes the subsequent decal application so easy.
I need to add that I had chosen to retrofit post paint all the three canopies and transparent fairing between the pilot and observer’s cockpits, as masking these on the model itself, I felt to be a challenge that I didn’t need. So again, Tamiya 1mm tape and a new scalpel blade were at hand and an hour or so of careful masking of windscreen including cutting around the windscreen wiper (!) and other transparencies was achieved by using a cocktail stick to mark the edge of the glazing and a steady hand on a No1 blade saw the edging completed using the 1mm tape enabling a fill in with the 6 mm tape. I taped up all of the aforementioned observers fairing and cut around the windscreens and visibility panels leaving them ready for paint offline, so to speak!
The framing around the cockpit canopies is very thin, so do be careful here also, There is a very faint joint line visible in the centre of each moulding due to a mould join line to get the double curvature, I chose to leave these as is; not wanting to over handle the crystal clear canopies with oily fingers and risking damage and a call to the Airfix spares department, but for those wishing to invest time sanding and polishing, then this is also an option.
For the metallic parts, I had chosen to use Alclad II, sadly no longer available from their distributors in the UK, but I believe still can be purchased from stockists here. A light coat of black gloss was airbrushed onto the wing ribs, wheel hubs as an undercoat, followed by airframe and white aluminium sprayed lightly over the black, giving a superb result as always! When dry, a light wash with some Ammo-MIG Starship Filth (!) acrylic filter was applied to highlight details on the parts.
The turbine exhausts were undercoated gloss black then airbrush painted with Alclad Stainless Steel followed by some sepia burnt jet exhaust to give a look that they might have got hot!
Nose wheels were brush painted with some Revell 31 Feuerrot for left-hand wheel hub and Tamiya RAF Dark Green for the right-hand wheel (yes they are different colour hubs) followed by use of a 1mm Molotow chrome pen to highlight the aluminium hub, before painting the weighted tyres with a tyre black followed by a light coat of matt varnish. The weighted main wheel tyres are easy to paint as they are separate to the hubs, thanks again Airfix!!
Propeller blades were painted Tamiya NATO Black, with the tips masked and painted Tamiya matt white followed by Tamiya Yellow Green.
The spinner was painted Tamiya matt white and masked using the white flexible Tamiya masking tape which can be stretched around the double curvature for the Tamiya flat blue/insignia blue to be brush painted before being glossed using Alclad II Aqua Gloss. The prop blades were burnished near the root in preparation for the Rotol blade stencils to be applied and once the decals were on, sealed with a coat of Alclad II Klear Kote Flat varnish.
After allowing to dry overnight, Sunday was time for decals…
Relieved that I had separate wing panels to work with no protrusions as the wing fold ribs had not been fitted yet, some Tamiya tape on the underside of the folding panels kept them aligned in the correct position as the upper wing roundels overlap the join and would have been a nightmare if the wing hinge structures were already fitted. The remaining major decals for my colour scheme choice, 815 NAS on operations with HMS Ark Royal in 1958, were all applied with no problem then it was onto applying the 110 small stencils which took up most of Monday!
I also elected to have the nose wheel doors closed, most photos show these closed and only if the aircraft has been powered down for a long period will weight cause the doors to droop open, something that Airfix show as probably all the prototypes they viewed have these open, so cut the front nose door covers from part F11 thinned the front edge and painted this and fitted this in place on the lower front nose.
Allowing the decals to dry out, fitting the painted/clear gun sight to the top of the cockpit panel, the windscreen and observers fairing to the model with thinned PVA glue, adding the still masked canopies in place and it was back into the spray booth for a couple of coats of Alclad II Satin Klear Kote over the entire model, and let it dry overnight!
Monday dawned, pleased with the results, it canopies were de-masked and final assembly started with adding the nose and main undercarriage legs and gear covers to the inner wing panels.
Wing panels were slid on and the task of getting the wing fold mechanism in place all went without a hitch. I haven’t fitted the wing jury rig which was painted gloss red as yet as the wing panels are no longer removable once the jury strut is glued into place and would only have been fitted when the aircraft was in the hangar and not on flight operations.
All other parts were fitted with absolutely no fit problems or fuss, just be mindful if you choose the bomb bay open option that the hydraulic struts are different between the front and back, guess how I found this out!?! I managed to remove these parts and swap them back to where they belong!
One final point to watch out for is the fragility of the arrester hook, I dry fitted this and the slightest brush with anything solid will bend the rod, so am thinking the very thin plastic rod needs to replaced with an aluminium or brass tube to make it more robust, as I cannot see it lasting much handling, particularly when transporting it to model shows and the like.
Nik Frost says
Absolutely fantastic, well done!