Avro Arrow 111Sqn RAF - as painted by SPINNERS

[KiwiZac]

A few months ago I found a cheap Arrow online and, despite it being the original awful Hobbycraft kit, I wanted to build one. Fast forward to last week where I remembered I had the kit and decided to actually build it. This appealed:

Avro Arrow F.2 - No.111 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1967

and, as luck would have it, I had a Fujimi Phantom sheet that had very similar marks on it! So here we are!





And now she's on the shelf with the other whifs, mostly from this year:


I would like to arm it but couldn't find any pylons. One day.

Enjoy 

[Cobra]

This is a Superb Build,KiwiZac You Really did Justice ti SPINNERS with the Build! Keep up the Superb Work Dan

[NARSES2]

That's tremendous Zac  Well done

[zenrat]

Good job.

What do Hobbycraft have against wheel well detail?  None of their kits seem to have any and yet the ones I have built have been pretty good in most other areas.

[Dizzyfugu]

Yeah, nice. Wondered how an Arrow in the classic RAF livery (imagined with Maple Leaf roundels, though) would look like - very good, indeed! Reminds me of my CF-105 in the stash that would need some attention... Even have already decals stashed away for "my" take on it. 

[PR19_Kit]

That's awesome Zac, and superbly modelled too. 

I keep forgetting just how big the Arrow was, in RAF service it'd rival a Vulcan for the 'Largest Delta'! 

[DogfighterZen]

Looks very good, great job!

[kitnut617]

A few months ago I found a cheap Arrow online and, despite it being the original awful Hobbycraft kit,

Looks like you found one of the very first mouldings of it too Zak, it has all the flaperon actuators on the top of the wing. They were revised on the second release to be on the bottom of the wing.

Still a very nice job there though.   

[kitnut617]

I keep forgetting just how big the Arrow was, in RAF service it'd rival a Vulcan for the 'Largest Delta'! 

I found some photos of the Arrow with a Vulcan on the internet a while ago, which were taken at an airshow in Toronto. I thought I had saved them but I can't find them right now.

As an aside, a lot has been made of how everything was supposed to be destroyed when the Government cancelled the Arrow, my thoughts are everything is in an archive somewhere in the UK, because Avro Canada was a subsidiary of Hawker Siddeley and I'm sure they had tabs on everything that was getting done.  Time will tell  ----- 

[The Rat]

And now she's on the shelf with the other whifs, mostly from this year:

Queen of the shelf! Good work! 

[kitnut617]

I keep forgetting just how big the Arrow was, in RAF service it'd rival a Vulcan for the 'Largest Delta'! 

It's very close to the Mirage IV for size Kit

[Captain Canada]

Love it. The Arrow looks so right in camo. I found that 1/48th scale Phantom wing tanks ( like the ones in the Monogram kit with attached pylons ) look great on a 72nd scale Arrow 

[Glenn Gilbertson]

Well done, Zac - that looks so right.

[KiwiZac]

Thanks all! I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I'm trying to clear out the stash by focusing on the simpler kits and SPINNERS' Strike Fighters thread has often given me ideas I've not gotten around to. This time it was a very happy coincidence to find the same markings as one of his skins were in my decal stash. I do like the prototype Arrow schemes but I hate painting white and a modernised one was a bit more work than I could justify.

What do Hobbycraft have against wheel well detail?  None of their kits seem to have any and yet the ones I have built have been pretty good in most other areas.

Oh it has some: the raised outline of the landing gear on the main well roofs! How weird is that?!  Plus all three wells are far, far too shallow for their respective assemblies. Combined with the actuator humps (even though the painting instructions had it right?!) I had a piece left over, too - I could see where it went, I could see in the instructions where it should've gone. What a weird model.

The stencils and walkway stripes (which don't fit the panel lines!) are from the kit, the national and squadron markings are all from last year's reboxing of the Fujimi 1/72 Phantom FG.1.

Paint is Tamiya acrylics by brush - Sky Grey under, RAF Ocean Grey and Raf Dark Green 2 uppers, then Humbrol Gloss Kote as a base for the decals, finally covered with Humbrol Matt Cote.

Size - as seen in The Rat's quote with my shelf, it's just a bit bigger than a Foxbat (top shelf). If I remember I'll take some comparison pics. In that photo there are two 1/72 Spitfires directly behind the Arrow.

As a two-weekend rush job it actually turned out nicely. Except for some dust imbedding itself in the gloss on one of the lower wings 

[KiwiZac]

  I see what you did there! Not sure if I could build nine of them though...