Folland Gnat F.1 - Build in Progress

[strobez]

Alright... first camouflage coat down... one more to go. So far so good.

[Devilfish]

Wow. Nice work.  I love how you added the missile racks on top. I'm going to put mine underwing (after shortening them to fit), but that looks really cool.

Thanks.  I put the missiles overwing after much thought about what my Gnat fighter was going to be asked to do.  As it has no undercarriage, and is launched on a rail, recovery is via a rubber deck and net technique.  Because of this I wanted the missiles up out of the way, otherwise they would have been underwing too.

[strobez]

Ok. So, I'm reasonably happy with how the camouflage turned out, and now I'm hesitant to do the weathering. I'm not quite sure where to start. 

I'm also a little ticked off that I dropped a piece of the landing gear on to a bare wood floor and it turned smoke and disappeared... grrr. It CAN'T have gone far... I must be blind! 

[TheChronicOne]

Hey that's awesome!!! 


Extend your search radius for the gear. I've found that even on carpet sometimes things bounce a hell of a lot farther off than I would imagine.

[strobez]

I took your advice and found it over at the neighbours house three doors down! Man... I can't believe that little panel made it that far unaided!   

I had fun going to the Hobby Fair 2017 here in Seoul today... I rarely get to interact with other modelling enthusiasts.  It was a bit humbling and also inspiring all at the same time.  Besides all the dioramas on display, there was an airbrush technique demonstration by some guy from Spain (working on some kind of armour), but my favourite part was the "flea market".  I was able to snag some 1/72 kits at a very good price.  Picked up spare kits of Academy's A-10 and Super-Étendard (useful in case I screw something up!).  I also got a D-Corp boxing of the Revell F-4E in ROK markings (and apparently with some resin upgrades... that'll be a first).  But the grand prize was the Academy C-97A Stratofreighter.  I'd been poking around this one for a while, but sitting in front of me for $20 was beyond my ability to resist.  Man o man though... for someone who only builds kits in 1/72... it's so BIG! 

Anyway, after I got home, I decided to give the hairspray technique a go.  So I rubbed really gently with a wet brush trying to loosen the top coat of paint. I removed paint, but I'm not quite sure if I ended up removing just the top coat or all of it down to the white primer base. I decided to quit while I was still not too far behind and reassess in the daylight. Not sure it was a success though...

[Old Wombat]

Nice camo scheme!

[TheChronicOne]

Three doors down!   


Nice scores there and the c-97 was a steal!

[strobez]

Ok... so the hairspray thing didn't really turn out as expected, but I'm still pretty content with how it turned out.  I tried to wash out the whiteness of the scratched off bit with some panel liner. It worked alright.  Basically all that's left are some decals now.  Stay tuned...

[NARSES2]

That's looking really good 

[strobez]

Alright... step right up and feast your eyes! 

So, in the end, it wasn't exactly what I was hoping to accomplish, but I'm pretty happy overall.  It was a fun little kit to build and good practice on a few fronts... including lots and lots of tiny little decals.

I tried to make it a "partner build" with my C.714 - both small planes, although I think the Gnat is the much more successful of the two.

[TheChronicOne]

Most glorious....man, I like it!  Canadian goose style!

It looks fantastic and your Caudron was one of my favs from the last go 'round, too, so I'm diggin' the cohesion.      

[DogfighterZen]

That sure looks good, very nice work.

[NARSES2]

That's really nice.  Particularly like the camoflage

[Old Wombat]

I don't particularly like the Gnat but that's a great build & a great camo scheme!


The "Then & Now" images are cool!

[zenrat]

  your paint. Heck of a masking job.