Scale aviation modeller international

If I were doing this again I’d be

tempted to use slow setting cement

and trial-fit the intake exteriors.

On the real aircraft, the top and

bottom of the intake splitters have

prominent slotted bleed air vents,

which unfortunately, Airfix appear

to have missed entirely. It might be

possible to simulate the slots with

fine saw cuts, but my workaround

was to emboss short lengths of

self-adhesive aluminium tape with

a chisel blade, and stick them on.

The one-piece belly section

extends from the nose wheel well

right through to the arrestor hook

mount and has the main wheel well

inners, the auxiliary engine doors,

and the catapult hooks added to

it. The main underwing closure

plate needs to be drilled for pylon

mounts if they are to be fitted. It

also needs some patience in dry-

fitting and sanding to get a good

fit, the panel tending to sit proud

of the fuselage under-surface.

I wanted to show the auxiliary

engine doors open, so I painted

their inner surfaces and the interior

of the wells red before assembly

(actually, if I were doing this

again, I’d cut the doors off and

scratch-build them with thin card

at the end of the build). The belly

piece fits well with only minor

easing, gluing incrementally and

starting at the rear. There are

some helpful locations moulded

in to align the assembly and to

help with fitting the upper wings

(which come next). A small gap

appears right at the front of the

belly piece, but this is easily filled

with small pieces of plastic strip.

Two fins are provided, an early

rounded-top version, and a later

type with the Marconi RWR box;

this version was relevant to the

airframe I was modelling. What

aren’t relevant are the two blade

antennae moulded on the fin

and which only appeared in RAF

service. These need to be removed

and the fin detail re-scribed.

The upper wing parts, flaps

and inner slats can be fitted now

and some very minor surgery

undertaken to allow the outer

folding panels to fit flush. I

left off the stabilators to ease

painting, since they have multiple

metallic shades, as well as the

underside white and EDSG.

The coaming at the front of the

cockpit is cleverly moulded in clear

plastic so that it can be fixed and

painted while leaving a clear section

for the HUD, the reflector for which

is another clear part that sits on

top. I was planning on having

the canopies open, so I masked

the windscreen and central bow

and glued them carefully in place

with Tamiya Extra Thin cement. I

then masked the opening sections

inside and out so they could be

painted more realistically. I left

the opening canopies separate and

masked off the cockpit aperture.

With the main bulk of the

airframe now complete, I went

over a few joints with De Luxe

Perfect Plastic just to improve the

consistency of the panel lines.

PAINTING

The main airframe was given a light

coat of Halfords Grey Primer and

polished with 3000 grit abrasive

cloth. In my current model builds,

I’m trying to break myself of the

habit of pre-shading, trying to

move to more controllable post-

shading. With a white underside

though, I was nervous that inexpert

post shading would look too stark,

so I did some pseudo pre-shade

by painting the underside panels

with Mr. Hobby H11 White, from

their centres outwards straight

on to the grey primer, before

blending with several light coats

of white. Overall this was a more

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