Phew
The final step for weathering the main airframe was to throw some salty type staining/deposits to the floats. Again, yep, I used enamels. This time opting for light grey panel line wash. Again, you may want to let some thicken up in a pallet for a bit. Once that’s done I use a brush to dot it around in a random fashion.
Let these dry off a bit and then work them into the paint with a stippling motion. It’s quite effective, and easy which I like.
That pretty much wraps the build. From here I did need to address the so called “fiddly bits”. These were all addressed in the same manner; weathered with appropriate colors.
The propeller was chipped down to metal with hairspray like the rest of the build.
I wrapped things up with rigging up some aerial wire with Uschi van der Rosten’s “Rig That Thing” thread. If you’ve not used any of this material I suggest checking it out. It’s an elastic fiber that stretches and will stay taught once applied to the model. Uschi makes three sizes. For this I used the thickest with the 0.005 outside diameter.
Conclusion
The Kitty Hawk kit certainly has it’s challenges. There’s some disappointing engineering designs, and given that my joy in the hobby is painting and weathering, I found it a bit laborious in getting through construction. That said, the main components actually fit quite well. I think this kit would be very well served with the addition of a resin engine, and I could probably be convinced to build a second with one in hand.
I must say the decals were the pleasant surprise from this kit. I don’t normally use decals from any kit – if they don’t say Cartograf – but these were nice. I will almost always paint anything I can like I did with the insignia here, but you could totally get away with the kit decals I think.
In the end I was glad to have built this one. The subject is very interesting, and we likely won’t see another in plastic in this scale in my lifetime. Navy WW2 aircraft will always be my favorite sub-genera, and for good reason. If you feel the same I can certainly recommend this kit. Just be prepared for the fiddly aspects.
My sincere thanks to Geoff and Scale Modelling Now for allowing me to bring you this build.
James DiC.
Gallery
Below are a series of images of the completed model. Click on a thumbnail to see the enlarged image.
