Simon Bradshaw

When I bought my 1:48 TSR2 kit I thought I’d get a more mainstream kit in that scale to practice on, so I picked up the Airfix 1:48 scale Red Arrows Hawk. It’s been sat for some time in my to-build pile so I thought it would be my first serious project to test out airbrush painting on. After all, it should be fairly simple – as colour schemes go, the Red Arrows one is a lot more straightforward than many.

( lots of pictures )

And here is the result:
( Read more... )

What did I learn from this?

1. Test-assemble the entire kit first before gluing it. And if a bit doesn’t fit well, file and sand it until it does – don’t force it!

2. It’s actually easier to build the cockpit first, add the canopy, mask it and paint it. Trying to add the canopy later makes it very difficult to match the paint on the canopy edges with the adjacent fuselage.

3. Check reviews of the same kit before you build it to look for handy tips and warnings. It turned out that other model builders had commented on the awful decals for this set and had I known I might have had a go at painting the white bits instead or have ordered a third party (and maybe more up to date) set of decals.

4. If you’re going to use third party components, order them in time for you to start building. That way you can stick to the manufacturer’s recommended assembly order, which has probably been arrived at for a reason. The seats could really have done with going in when I first build the cockpit.

Overall though I’m pleasantly pleased with the result. I think my next project will have to wait until after we’ve got our house move out of the way, though.