Jaime's Value Blitz Buy ***COMPLETED***

[Jaime]

Inspired by my weekend Blitz experience and having seen how well Sissel's Zero turned out, I bought this on impulse today: http://www.airfix.com/shop/aircraft/172 ... 1-val-172/

At a marked down price of only £4 as the last one on the shelf in Hobbycraft I decided that it was eminently blitzable and I already have all most of the paints

All being well it's pencilled in for 22nd/23rd Feb but after the 18 hour all-nighter required for the Hunter, I might take the Wuss Option for this one!

[Sissel]

Very interesting choice.

Which scheme will you go for?

[Ian]

Unlike the Zero, the Val is an older kit in a pretty new box. You'll be OK but it won't fall together like the Zero does.

[Jaime]

Unlike the Zero, the Val is an older kit in a pretty new box. You'll be OK but it won't fall together like the Zero does.

I've had a look and at first glance it looks reasonably crisp. It's about the same age as the Hunter (1968), which went together well. However, it does have two pilot figures, which take me ages to do and they seem to have a few 'issues'.

Very interesting choice.

Which scheme will you go for?

The simplest! That means the cream scheme. I also have the paints for that.

[Jaime]

Here we go again. The instruction sheet in the photo below shows the paint scheme I'll be doing



Within a very short space of time I sustained a serious modelling injury whilst cutting the flash off the crew figures but I think I'll be OK to continue:

[TimJ]

Ouch! One of the crew must have had a samurai sword with him.

[Sissel]

Jaime, now that you've cut yourself and sacrificed blood to the modelling Gods, you're a proper blitzer.

[jssel]

Yes, you are now a proper blitzer. Score one for the Zeke pilot.

[Jaime]

And they told me they had bad eyesight and were too small to fight!

I was so stressed that I had to stop for some food:

It's not quite sushi but still basically raw fish... yes, I love anchovies!


And some salmon..



And so this is where I am after a couple of hours, which has included an early stop for food, washing the sprues in soapy water (years ago, when using enamels I wouldn't have bothered but I find that now using acrylics it's essential), a fair bit of flash trimming and sanding and some minor first aid.



I've ignored the generic paint scheme for the crew and based this colour scheme on early WW2 photographs of Japanese pilots. I don't know why but I'm fussy about crew uniforms, even though I'm not one for bothering with scratch built cockpit details. In fact, I'm more than happy with the old bench seat and 'paint it all black' approach.

[TimJ]

The crew are looking good.

[Jaime]

Crew still not finished but most of the other sub assemblies have been de-flashed and either painted or put together, so I don't think it'll be too long before it starts looking like a Val.





Time for a brew.

[Jaime]

State of play at 11pm. Crew completed and about to start assembling the model.







Hopefully not famous last words but so far the build has been relatively free of this:

[ShaunW]

Off to a great start Jaime, excellent work with the crew too.

[splash]

Great start, this has all the makings of a classic blitz, blood, strange food and a kit covered in rivets

Regards Splash

[TimJ]

Coming along well. The crew look great.