I wanted to show a series of kits I’ve been working on since last year. These are all older-series Airfix 1/72 kits from EBay…yeah, I buy most of my kits ‘used’ on EBay. Anyways, the F-104 is colored and marked in RCAF livery. I really like the older RCAF flag on the vertical stabilizer. I built the kit without modifications, and tried to paint it accurately. It’s hard to see the the engine nacelles and upper wings are white as they should be.
Behind the Starfighter is the SAAB Drakken. Again it is built without any modifications, and painted as per the instructions. One thing that perplexed me concerning the decals was that there was supposed to be a “13” on each side of the nose as well as the “01” on the tail. That seemed a bit busy to me, so I left it out. Then again, all the little yellow diamonds made it pretty busy anyways!
Front-and-center is the Israeli marked Dassault Super-Mystere. Correct Israeli livery according to the instruction sheet would’ve been a camouflage. I have a limited building area. I have to paint outside. I use good old-fashioned Rustoleum or Krylon in a can. With 1/72 kits, it’s not easy to actually ‘camouflage’! I do now have a small compressor and airbrush, and I’m learning(at 63 years old) to use that with water-based paints. Once I figure out how to reduce the spray pattern I’ll start trying to actually camouflage kits!
The aircraft in the rear on the right is the Mirage IIIC kit. really enjoyed this kit; it had no poorly fitting parts. Everything went together nicely, and I didn’t have to do a lot of sanding. This was painted as the kit prescribed. I like to have kits with their gear and air-brakes extended. I also prefer not to put pilots in, as I like the idea of the aircraft sitting ‘on-the-ramp’ waiting to go fly. I always try to put all the armament on that the planes come with as well.
The kit on the far right is the good-ole’ Lightning. This kit was only a few dollars on EBay; the description said it’d been exposed to heat for many years. When I opened it for the first time I was very intimidated by it’s condition. The fuselage halves were pretty badly warped, and the wings/horizontal stabilizers were bowed. I got the parts reformed eventually buy soaking them in hot water. I would let them ‘simmer’ for a few minutes, then lay them out on my little table and put some big heavy books on top of them. I also let the pieces just sit in the sun(Arizona…115f in the summer) and bake. Eventually I got everything close enough that I could use the liquid contact glue to put everything together. I had to buy a sheet of decals from EBay, as the kit didn’t come with any.
Anyways, that’s my ‘cold war jet’ series so far. I keep adding though. I also have a series of American jets that I’m slowly building up. I also started building each of the planes my Dad flew. I have the J-3 Cub, the AT-6, the T-28, the T-33 in 1/72 scale. I also have an old Revell B-47 that didn’t list a scale; I’d say it’s around 1/150 maybe. I still need to buy a B-52 kit for him.
Nothing to sneeze at in that bunch. On your airbrush there FSM and YouTube videos enough to make your eyes water, but see a few. But grab the airbrush put some colored water (drop or two of water based paint) in it and grab any ol’ plastic recycle jug (like a milk jug.) and practice, practice, practice. After a while you get the feel of the thing and you’ll be ready to paint a master piece–well sooner than later.
Thank you PropDuster. At 63 learning new ways is fun. I use liquid cement now more than the old ‘glue’. I am learning to use that airbrush; it’s a Badger although I don’t know the model. I think I need to move the needle to change the spray diameter, but I haven’t been able to turn anything on it.
I also tried using a commercial canopy-mask set recently on a F-106. I was really impressed, and might try more. I just finished the 1/72 Airfix Bristol Belvedere kit; I remember building it back in the early '80s. I masked it’s canopy myself; it didn’t come out as neat as a commercial mask, but I’ll be taking the time to mask from now on!