This should have been a quick and fun little project. It wasn't. Some builds are just cursed. There's nothing at all wrong with the kit, except for the terrible canopy which comes in four parts and requires a four part jig to stick together. I don't know what they were thinking.
I first used Tamiya's extra thin cement which I have never successfully glued anything with. That didn't work, so I used PVA which didn't work either, so defaulted to the Revell Contacta which has the same melting effect as Napalm.
Painting the canopy wasn't easy either. Masking it didn't really work (and I wasn't going to spend £8 on a die cut mask) and all of the paint peeled off during the weathering process so I ended up doing it freehand. Consequently, the canopy is a bit of a bodge, which ruins an otherwise lovely kit.
On this build, for ease of colour matching I used the recommended Humbrol acrylics, which are ok, but a pig to clean out of the airbrush. They have a tendency to dry like a thin layer of polyurethane film and are not as resilient as Tamiya to white spirit during weathering. I ended up having to do an emergency repaint as the paint peeled off.
It didn't help that I'm still using the hated Vallejo primer. Once this bottle is done I'm never buying another Vallejo product again. I have absolutely no idea why Vallejo products are popular because they've sucked the fun out of every project I used them on.
Knowing what I know now, I could probably have a second stab at this kit and produce it to perfection, and I probably will because it's such a pleasing little aeroplane and one that really suits super-detailing if you're into all that. I could develop a thing for piston powered monoplanes.
I have to say that Airfix is really knocking it out of the park lately. I've had my foibles with some of the new generation kits, but on the whole they're excellent, and I'm increasingly hesitant to take on older kits. The latest Vulcan is a triumph, and this summer sees a 1:48 Buccaneer and Avro Anson. They really are listening to their customers.
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