rather than free-hand it with the airbrush. There
are too many tight curves and wild shapes for my
airbrushing skills and medium point to handle!
To this end, I painted the Dark Tan first,
and once it was dry, I applied the masking to
it. I then painted the Dark Green. Once all the
tape was removed, I had a pretty convincing-
looking almost-Mustang in FAD colours!DECALLING AND FINISHING
Before I could decal, I had to level out the paint.
That’s one disadvantage of MMA paints over
others; they seem to go on thicker, not quite
as finely, resulting in a distinct step between
masked colours. I applied a coat of Alclad II Aqua
Gloss to the plane to take care of this. Alclad
Gloss is awesome! It dries fast, and it dries
HARD. It can take a huge amount of sanding
without giving up or burning through.
I actually ended up doing two passes of this
to help level out the paint. Even when I was
done, there was a bit of a wave to the surface,
but overall, it looked much, much better.
I used the Airfix FAD decals and a couple of
stencils on the kit. Like all new Airfix decals,
they went on beautifully. They were over-
coated with Future and then the whole thing
was once again sanded smooth to blend in the
decals. I now applied a coat of Future to prepare
the plane for the next step, weathering.
The question in my mind became one of how
to weather this plane. Should I do it beaten, or
pristine, or somewhere in the middle? If it was
to be pristine, I’d have just pencilled in the panel
lines and been done with it. However, most FAD
machines were a bit worn (35-plus years of service
will do that to you), so I decided to give the plane
a filter wash of grey to fill in the panel lines and
dull the colours a bit. Also, as I’ve found that a grey
pastel filter on grey paint is very effective, I knew
I wouldn’t need a lot of work on the underside.
I applied a medium-grey chalk pastel wash,
made with several different greys, blacks, and
whites, and then liquefied with Varsol (white spirit
in the UK). The Varsol makes the powder stick
to the paint a bit better, and it boils off quickly.
Once the first coat was dry, I wiped the pastel
more evenly onto the plane (in the direction
of airflow, of course!) with a paper towel. The
pastel is fairly stubborn, thanks to the Varsol
which attacks the Future very slightly, which
means that I was able to drag it along the wing
without it all coming off. To first highlight the
panel lines, though, I wiped off most of the
pastel with a slightly damp towel, and then
used another coat of Future to seal everythingdown. I actually repeated this twice before
leaving more of the pastel on to give a filtering
effect. I wanted to very gradually build up
the colour, which was already quite subtle.
Once the filtering was done, I applied a coat of
Delta Ceramcoat Indoor/Outdoor Matte Urethane
Varnish (not available in the UK so use any acrylic
matt varnish) to seal everything in, and to give
the plane a good, dead-matte finish. I applied
some black pastel mixed with a bit of rust red to
simulate the exhaust staining on the fuselage.
At this point I had to decide if I was going to do
any more to the panel lines. Often, I will apply grey
pastel to the lines to highlight them. However, I
find the current vogue of over-weathering to be
a bit out of control, so I decided to “fight back”
and go with what I had, which was quite subtle.
To give the plane a semi-gloss look, I
applied a low-satin coat, which is the matt
coat I used before with a bit of Future in it.
This yields a just off-flat finish, perfect for
camouflaged plane with a weathered finish.
Final assembly was next, and before I knew it,
the M.B.6 in FAD paint was all ready for war!CONCLUSIONS
While the M.B.6 was never a real plane, at
least not in this form, I can’t say that AZ’s
rather imaginative rendering doesn’t do it
justice. And it actually looks more realistic
than some real, yet weird planes, like the
Westland Wyvern or Ryan Fireball.
At first look, the M.B.6 seems like it would
be a great model for a beginner, as it has a
relatively low piece count and very few “fiddly
bits”. However, that is not the case. The model
requires quite a bit of experience to get the
most out of it, what with its lack of part location
devices and parts that have both flash and
heavy mould lines that need removal. The fit
is only passable in most cases, and there’s a
lot more that has to be put into this kit than it
looks. A good arsenal of tools, putty and the
knowledge of their use is important for this kit.
Still, all things considered, once you get it
together, the AZ M.B.6 does tick all the right
boxes, with sufficient, and sufficiently fine,
surface detail in most spots, a passably busy
cockpit, and enough what-iffing options to
fuel even the most jaded imagination.
The best part is that even if “whiffing”
isn’t your thing, the M.B.6 looks so much like
other planes that maybe it won’t put you off.
If, like me, you do like a good What-If, then
this model delivers in spades. It’s one of those
that will have people doing a double take,
trying to figure out what it is, or rather, isn’t!
Thanks to the Editor and AZ Modelsfor
supplying me with this kit to build.Social iconRounded squareOnly use blue and/or white.For more details check out ourBrand Guidelines.The Airfix 1/72 Defiant makes an interesting comparision
on many levels. The size and aggressive design of the
imaginarily successful M.B.6 contrasts well with the smaller,
less daring, and realistically unsuccessful Boulton Paul
turret fighter.KIT REVIEWS
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