The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

ShaunW wrote:I've always thought 1/144 to be too small for most military jet fighters but actually this looks very nice with more detail and a better decal sheet than I was expecting. I'll not jinx the build further by joining in Greg's bet

Too be honest it's only 'cos it's a Hunter T7 that I got it, I normally reserve 1/144 for anything Canberra sized or bigger, and since there are so may wonderful T7/8 schemes, it saves on space and time. I've got a 1/72 PJ Productions conv. to do a fully detailed model.

Starting to think 1/144 is too small for me altogether. As I've hurtling into my early forties my eyes have decided to put their feet up and take it easy and have needed reading glasses for the last couple of years if I didn't want to hold a book at arms length - which draws attention on the train. To paint the figures though I have to combine the glasses so I can focus on what's near me with a magnifier to make it big enough to see. These little trouble makers took as long to paint as the two window sills I glosses immediately beforehand - talk about different scales!



Done with citadel acrylics.

The wings are a good fit to the fuselage but at this scale any gap is magnified and benefit from the roots been spread a bit using shim between the wheel well and the upper half. There is partial trunking but stop short of the wheel well, a blob of filler smoothed with a damp cocktail stick will suffice to complete it.

Looking good, James!
I imagine those pics are about 3 times actual size, if not more!

Cheers,

David

Nice work, and those pilots are well worth the effort taken

I have 'few' years head start on you. I find I am continually taking off my glasses to do detail work then putting them on to be able to see well enough to find stuff (tools, paint, parts) on the modelling table!

Lovely work on the pilots and with the big trainer canopy, I'm sure they'll be very visible.

David

Great job on the pilots. I don't think I could paint 1/144 figures that well.

Firstly this evening the pilots were shoe horned into their seats. All warm and cosy.



But before I could cosset them further in the confines of the fuselage I needed to add the wings. Firstly I added the undercarriage doors. These needed the small locating tabs trimming off and a very thin shim inside to keep them flush (the stuff Airfix supplies for belts with their 54mm figures, 5 thou ?). the fit it pretty good.



Remember I said there was a small gap all around the wing roots, well my shim helped a little but by pushing down on the wing to spread the root I could improve the fit further. I used some small dabs of superglue to hold the parts in position while Tamiya extra thin did it's job.



I added the IP and closed her up. Getting good alignment was a little tricky and required pegs a judicious angles to get the joined halves as flush as possible. I nearly added the tail-plane in haste but decided to leave it off so I could more easily clean up the joints. Note I've left the fuselage attachment points on as I think it better to clean them up after mating the halves to prevent over sanding.

Very nice work. Like the detail on the pilots.

All the best.

Greg.

That is looking really good. A well thought out approach to the little foibles of this kit. Good work.

Been nothing much to show over the last few days as I've just filled some small gaps, they are tiny but look big on a kit that is less than 10cm long, sand sanded down. The 1/144 seem to suffer from same issue as the 1/72 (see kitaholics build) in that the leading edge extension are too think underneath. The Mark 1 nose wheel doors were in two parts and didn't look a great fit. I made a template and cut my own from card.



I was glued in slightly proud and then sanded flush.



The tip of the gun barrel is square, this is correct. I just trued up the sides and cut the tip back at 45degrees. I also opened up the rear end a tiny detail no one but me will care about

Quite a little gem coming together here, James.

David

Cheers David. Finished filling (Mr Surfacer 500) and sanding then added the tailplanes. When sighting these are noticed large sink marks of the the wing trailing edges, these are the Revell parts.





Next finish the cockpit ( may tart up the head boxes) and add the glazing.

Nice work James, the Pilots have come up a treat for something so small.

That is looking very fine, shape-wise.

Cheers,

David

This is looking great. Very nice work.

All the best.

Greg.