the pronounced step in the
fuselage, I dissolved about one-
third of a tube of Tamiya grey
putty in some acetone to create
a very thin, almost liquid, putty.
This has the advantage of being
able to not only be brushed on,
but also run into any tiny gaps.
The Deiant has two scoops on
the underside. One is for the
engine air intake and is just
in front of the wing, under
engine cowling. I opted to paint
the inside of this one before
attaching it. I used Testors
MMA RAF-Sky Type S. Midway
down the intake scoop is a piece
that has ine grating printed
on it. I painted it black and
used the silver pencil crayon
to pick up the mesh. I glued the
mesh in place and then glued
the assembled scoop under the
nose. The other scoop is for
the oil cooler, and I opted to
attach this after the rest of the
painting was done. The landing
gear, tires and gear doors
were all painted separately.
After masking
of the canopies,
I primed the
entire plane
with two very
light coats of
Paint-It! Primer.
I then used the
MMA Sky for
the underside.
Once dry, the
underside was
masked easily; it’s a straight
demarcation line on the
fuselage and it follows an
engine cowling panel line up
the nose. I then sprayed the
entire topside with my own
mix of various MMA paints to
approximate RAF Dark Earth.
I then drew in the shape of the
camoulage lines I wanted,
based on the painting plan,
and then used Testors MMA
Dark Green to ill in the areas
marked. This is a brilliant idea
and technically it worked out
great. The decals provided in
New Airix kits are generally
very good. They’re completely
in register and the colourdensity is excellent. However,
the decals aren’t perfect. They
have two strikes against them.
Firstly, they are matte inish.
Secondly, they are thick. After
some persuasion they settled
with a few applications of Micro
Sol and Set. Once the decals
were dry, the entire Deiant
was sealed with two light coats
of Future, and I sanded the
topcoats of Future with 4000and 6000 grit polishing cloths
to get things nice and smooth,
and one inal coat of Future
sealed it all in. I then applied
some ilters and washes to show
some wear on the paintwork.
The inal assembly isn’t much,
but it was troublesome. The
good news is that the landing
gear it very nicely, and the
pre-latted tyres can only go
on one way, and he end result
is a surprisingly sturdy, yet
simple, arrangement. Only the
inner gear doors are hard to
position, and there’s no real
location for them, so getting
the right angle is tough. There
is a pair of radio masts below
the airframe, and they are
devilish to cut of the sprues.CONCLUSION
This New Airix Deiant does
not disappoint. The detail and
it are, by and large, excellent,
and given that this is not
that expensive a kit, there’s
nothing to complain about.
There’s enough room for
superdetailers to go to town,
but enough detail that those
who want to just build it out
of the box (like me!) can. Is
it perfect? No, not quite. The
decals were a bit problematic
and the it of the fuselage was
not perfect. Yes, some putty
was needed, but come on now- it’s a model! Where’s the fun
in just having it fall together?
Thanks to Airix for
the review sample
http://www.airix.com
SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL • MARCH 2019KIT REVIEWS
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