Scale Aviation Modeller International – April 2019

chose to use lead wire instead

since the etched looked rather

anaemic. The legs, inner door

surfaces and wheel wells were

painted Mr Hobby H70 and Bare

metal foil chrome applied to

the oleos. The wheels come in

two halves and need some clean

up although there are masks

supplied. There are a few other

minor parts to it at this point:

the pitot tube and landing light

under the starboard wing,

canopy handles and the slats,

which I’d left of earlier.

FINISHING OFF

With everything attached

but with canopy masks still

on, I gave the model a coat of

Citadel Purity Seal varnish.

This aerosol paint produces

a smooth satin inish but can

be prone to drying cloudy if

applied too thickly, particularly

on decal ilm. One guess as to

what happened! With the large

areas of ilm between the codes

on the port wing being

quite badly afected,

I decided to try and

remove the varnish

with an isopropyl

alcohol-dampened

cotton bud - disaster! I only

managed to cut right through

the varnish, decal ilm and

paint to the undercoat, leaving

a nasty sticky mess. Forty-

eight hours later and after

scouring my ‘spares-box’ for

alternative decals and inding

none, an attempted repair was

the only option. I sanded

down the entire wing

using 3000-grit cloth,

mechanically removing

most of the varnish,

and the damaged

ilm, and re-instated

the codes by hand-stippling

very dilute semi-gloss black

onto the afected areas. With

that dry and cut back with

more sanding, the individual

code letters and surrounding

camoulage was carefully

masked and the brown

resprayed at very low pressure

and with very thin paint.

Heart in mouth to remove the

masking, and the recovery

looked pretty successful. A

inal coat of a mix of 25% Mr

Hobby gloss clear and 75% lat

clear sealed everything in and

allowed some pastel shading to

be used as inal camoulage.

CONCLUSION

This is a nice kit, although

lacking the parts and in

some places. There are some

simpliications which serve

to drag the kit down too close

to the also-rans, like the ixed

control surfaces and the rather

simplistic undercarriage.

The inclusion of only a metal

propeller, where four out of the

ive schemes ofered apparently

use a wooden version, is the

biggest faux pas, especially

since Eduard ofer a ‘corrected’

version through the Brassin

range. Despite the propeller

issue, the ive schemes are

interesting and are surely

likely to appeal to a wide

audience. Overall, a neat, tidy

realisation of an interesting

and popular aircraft.

Thanks to Eduard for

the review kit and Aires for

the resin tail parts. Brassin

propeller courtesy the author.

Main colour painting complete.

A failed attempt to clean up the wing

decals resulted in significant damage. Here

they’ve been carefully masked to allow the

brown to be resprayed

The repaired wing

after re-finishing and

weathering

APRIL 2019 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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