Academy Hawker Typhoon MkIb, 1:72

[Guest]

Found the first thing i'm unhappy with on the Academy Typhoon.

The decals, just started doing them tonight and having practically bathed them in microsol they are proving more resilient than I would have thought possible, they seem quite thick compared to most i've used.

I was hoping to have had all of them on but only gotten the roundels top and bottom and left the bottom ones soaking.

Oh well, hopefully once they're all on and it's top coated it'll be OK.

[Guest]

Last pic before the flat /satin coat on the body of the model, gloss coated here with oil and pin wash just drying.

FYI, the gloss coat is Fimo gloss varnish, (tried courtey of my missis who has just added the Fimo stuff to her shop range), looks promising, water based acrylic and thins well with water and sprays nicely for anyone wanting to try it.

It looks to be glossier than any gloss acrylic i've yet tried, and i've gone through a few, Revell's acrylic gloss is awful, almost matte, Citadel Ardcoat, has badly clogged my brush on both occassions I've tried spraying it, strange as it's very thin before thinning, just seemingly dries very very quickly, Xtracrylix is not bad but this looks pretty good, I have yet to try it over a gloss painted surface though.

[Guest]

That pin wash looks interesting. I've not tried that before so I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

One thing you didn't mention above is how Kleer/Future compares with the above gloss coats. It seems to be so widely used it would be interesting to see how it compares with the purpose manufactured products.

[Guest]

The pin wash is just to help define the seperations between moving panels, Flaps / Ailerons etc.

Re the Klear / Future

To be frank, (might upset some Klear fanataics here) Klear in my opinion is good for a basic gloss over before decalling and or washing.

It's tricky to spray becuase it's water thin, i've had runs more than once when airbrushed, brushed on is OK but having recently tried that out of curiosity as well as dissolving itself it also starts to dissolve acrylic paint if you give it more than a couple of brushes on the same area.

The other downside for me is it's drying time, it takes far too long and seems to attract dust too easily so needs to be covered imediately and let dry.

When you consider Hannants Xtracrylics gloss varnish is £3 for a large bottle, thins with water, sprays well and is dry in 15 minutes, (I can attest to trying it and doing an oil wash 30 minutes after and it was bone dry with the oil wash doing no damage to underlying paint), initial impressions with the Fimo stuff look to be similar too with quick drying times.

Klear however is still ideal for canopies and clear parts though I don't use it for much else now.

[stona]

it also starts to dissolve acrylic paint if you give it more than a couple of brushes on the same area.

Hiya,everyone has their own favourite products of course but I was a bit surprised to read that you'd found that Klear dissolved acrylic paint. I use Xtracrylix and Vallejo acrylics for the most part and have never had that happen to me.I always brush Klear on as I can't be arsed with faffing about with the airbrush and as you say it's not the easiest stuff to spray. I just wonder if the paint that you had trouble with was fully dried and cured.

As for Klear drying times,yes,I always leave it at least overnight between coats or before applying washes etc despite the fact it APPEARS dry after twenty minutes or so.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

The paint I was going over was Tamiya acrylic Steve, been eft at least 36 hours, haven't tried Vallejo or Model Master so can't say about those, it surprised me I have to say but it was the new bottle Klear, not the old stuff, maybe a slight recipe change?

[Guest]

Typhoon, finished, at last, also completed is the Airfix Hawker Hurricane, (Vintage 1/72), see my other thread on that one.

So one heavily weathered Typhoon using salt weathering on the body chipping off to show polished alu Humbrol metalcote underneath, same principal with the prop and spinner but scuffed paint off with sandpaper, I know it's OTT but I like it.

The kit was lovely to build, everything fit well, I don't think I had to use any filler at all, the only thing I really didn;t like at all were the decals, they were really thick and very resilient, I was practically sloshing Microsol on them and had to really fight with the serial on the left side to get it to settle over the bumps and ridges, a couple of tehm still lifted and silvered slightly too.

As an when I get around to the Tempest in the stash i'll think about getting some aftermarket decals.

Bugger, just noticed the exhaust stacks haven't been done, oh well, get onto that tomorrow.

[Guest]

m1ks great job looks outstanding !!!!def 5star from me.Great write up along with the build as well ,really enjoyed the wash info thanks.again nicely done

Trey

[Guest]

Thankyou very much, kind words much appreicated.

Mike

[Guest]

5 Stars from me. Stunning and very creative.

Tony..