they can be built before installation,
so I added brake lines from different
diameters of lead wire and painted
them aluminium, with Bare
Metal Foil chrome for the oleos.CANOPIES
Can’t get away from them. Despite
the initial disappointment that I
was stuck with the single option
of a closed canopy, there looked
to be a glimmer of hope of an
alternative. The pilot’s canopy
is correctly moulded as sitting
outside the fuselage sides,
ready to slide back, so careful
separation from the windscreen
could allow it to be posed open.HEART IN MOUTH THEN, OUT
WITH THE SAW
The observer’s canopy is in three
parts, and in real life, the centre
section can slide under the forward
section. The kit parts don’t quiteallow for this, but with some
careful trimming, and some small
liberties taken on frame width,
it is possible to get the centre
section at least partly open.
I’d acquired some Montex
vinyl masks for the interior and
exterior of the canopy parts,
which are pretty valuable, since
there are about 50 individual
panels to mask. I applied these
before fixing the canopies. I then
painted the inside green, and the
outside to match the camouflage.WHICH ONE TO PAINT?
Since I’d already settled on a MK.I
to build, I had five interesting
schemes to choose from, none
of them bland “vanilla”. In the
event, I chose what might appear
the easiest – the early camouflage
of extra dark sea grey/slate grey
over sky grey/night/white of N1932
from 805 NAS, Maleme, Crete,
1942, thus avoiding the complexleading edge masking and squiggle
markings of the other versions. I
also liked the high demarcation
line on the fuselage – that’s my
story and I’m sticking to it.
Finishing followed my usual
routine: Halfords grey primer,
polished with Abralon abrasive;
pre-shading with black, followed
by a slightly dirtied Tamiya XF-2
White (with a drop of XF-63) and
Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black for
the two-tone undersides; and
Tamiya XF-19 for the sky grey, all
hard masked with Tamiya tape.
The upper surfaces were done
using Mr Hobby H333 for the extra
dark sea grey and a 50:50 mix of
H78 Olive Drab and H32 Field Grey
to represent the slate grey. All of
these were sprayed at around 15-20
psi (1-1.25 bar) through an Iwata
Eclipse, having been thinned 75%paint to 25% Tamiya thinner or (Mr
Hobby Mr Color Levelling Thinner).
I masked the surfaces with
BluTac rolls and Frog tape. The
colour of the wheel wells isn’t
entirely clear, so I compromised
and hand-painted mine aluminium.
I didn’t risk relying on the semi-
gloss Mr Hobby finish for decaling,
and applied two thin coats of Future
instead, letting it cure for 24 hours.
The decals worked well, although
they were very thin and rather
fragile, and tended to grab quickly,
despite using water and MicroSet.
Because of this, I ended up with
the large fin flashes set rather too
low on the fin, with a resultant
gap at the leading edge. I patched
the gap with red, white, and blue
pieces taken from an unused decal
on the sheet. The white areas of
the decals were barely opaqueWWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • FEBRUARY 2018 • 29
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