discussion Airfix 1/48 Folland Gnat

[Wendall]

I opened up my one to have a look after reading this Dave. It looks beautiful and the detail is very nicely done. I was doing a bit of dry fitting and it seems well engineered in my opinion but some of the tolerances are very tight, especially around the cockpit, nose wheel and intakes I think even a coat of paint could leave the builder with fit issues. I'm committing mine back to the stash for now. Good luck with the rest of the build buddy.

 

[Dave W]

I've had another filling and sanding session.Thats enough untill I see what it's like with a coat of primer on.Then I glued on the tailplanes,wing flaps,Ailerons and rudder.Infact, the rudder and ailerons are designed to be moveable.I then turned my attention back to the cockpit.As you can see in the photo,quite a bit has to be removed from the base of the ejection seats so that the canopy can be fitted in the closed position.Im grateful to Mike (Migrant) for informing me of this problem.Otherwise I would have just glued the seats in,then at a later stage found that the canopy wouldn't fit properly!.Last thing I did tonight was glue some lead in the nose.Dont think this one would be a tail sitter but I want to be sure it isn't.

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[Dave W]

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Almost ready for primer now.The canopy is very thin and quite delicate.So I've glued it to the model with Gators Grip before masking it.when the glue has dried I will mask it then spray a coat of primer on.View attachment 211152

 

[The Migrant]

I wonder if Airfix actually build one of their new kits before putting them on sale to make sure they go together as intended?.

It does make you wonder when it's something as basic as the seats not fitting - surely that would have shown up in a test build? Despite that your Gnat is looking really good, and I'm actually looking forward to building mine now I've been forewarned of some of the issues.

 

[Dave W]

It does make you wonder when it's something as basic as the seats not fitting - surely that would have shown up in a test build? Despite that your Gnat is looking really good, and I'm actually looking forward to building mine now I've been forewarned of some of the issues.

Mike.I believe most of the fit issues are of my own making.I build a lot of old kits that require filler and sanding no matter how carefully you put them together.So should have taken more care with this one.The seats do need their bases thinning so that the canopy will fit though.And on my kit the rear of the wing centre section was slightly higher than the fuselage.Other than that it's a very nice kit.

 

[Dave W]

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Just put some Alclad grey primer on the model.View attachment 211167

 

[flyjoe180]

Gnat is looking good now Dave. Out of interest did Airfix reply to your email?

 

[Dave W]

Gnat is looking good now Dave. Out of interest did Airfix reply to your email?

Still waiting for a reply.If I get one I will tell them the bulkhead problem was of my own making.

 

[Dave W]

Today I've done a bit more filling and sanding.Then I airbrushed two coats of Humbrol enamel no.166 'Light Aircraft Grey' onto the undersides of the wings.Will mask this tomorrow and spray the rest of the model white.This kit comes with two sets of undercarriage doors.Im building it with the gear down and have used the other doors to mask the undercarriage bays with.Ive just secured them with some Maskol for now.

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[rickoshea52]

.Im building it with the gear down and have used the other doors to mask the undercarriage bays with.Ive just secured them with some Maskol for now.

I used that trick with my Typhoon but with blu-tac, Maskol sounds like a better way of tacking the doors on.

 

[Dave W]

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I haven't touched this one for a couple of weeks.Last thing I did was spray gloss white on the model.Then I lost interest in it .So tonight I decided to mask it up ready for some red paint.It took me two and a half hours to do the masking.Tomorrow I will spray a coat of gloss red on it.View attachment 213133

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[Guest]

Going to follow this

 

[Guest]

I missed this one somehow Dave. Just caught up and its looking like you've overcome some ill fitting issues quite nicely! Looking forward to seeing some color go on!

 

[Dave W]

I missed this one somehow Dave. Just caught up and its looking like you've overcome some ill fitting issues quite nicely! Looking forward to seeing some color go on!

The ill fitting issues were mostly my own fault.The fit of these new kits is so precise there is no room for error.Im going to have to be more careful in future.The ejection seats did need sanding down though.But it isn't noticeable in the finished cockpit.

 

[Dave W]

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Today I've put 3 coats of Humbrol 'signal red' on the model.Then I removed the masking.Just the black anti glare panel on the nose and black walkways on top of the intakes left to do.View attachment 213195

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[yak face]

Looking good dave , cheers tony

 

[flyjoe180]

That looks superb Dave, very sharp and clean.

 

[Guest]

Nice Dave, clean and sharp.

 

[Dave W]

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I've decided to put most of the decals on then seal them with a gloss coat.Then I will paint the matt black areas.The decals are very fragile and won't take much moving about.I managed to mess up a few including the 5 on the nose.Tried pulling the remains off with Tamiya tape,but it didn't work.Then I used sellotape. This predictably took some of the red paint off with the decal.So I've feathered the edges and will touch it up tomorrow.Luckily I've got some suitable decals in my decal bank.Ive read some great reviews of this kit.But I've had nothing but trouble with it.But I find that's the way it goes sometimes.Its a nice kit.But for experienced modellers only.View attachment 213543

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[Guest]

That's looking really nice now the paintwork is done Dave.