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Well, this is my first entry for this group build. I'll be building the Academy 1/72nd Hawker Typhoon, and I'll be using Aviaeology decals for a sharkmouthed Typhoon from 245 Squadron. The sheet gives two options for the same aircraft, and I'll be doing the more colorful postwar version with the blue spinner and gear doors and the blue and white checkerboard around the tail.

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I did a little bit of work on it last night but I didn't get any pictures yet. So far all I have done is paint the interior, landing gear and wheel hubs, as well as gluing the wings together and doing some dry fitting with the fuselage.

So far so good!

Thanks for looking,

-Dave

Edited by 2qwik4u
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Thanks for all of the positive comments guys! I too really like this scheme, partly because I think the Typhoon is a cool looking aircraft, but mostly because it isn't your typical sharkmouth aircraft even though that big radiator scoop just screams for some sort of mouth to be put on it! Just imagine if the Burma Banshees had had Typhoons and put some big skulls on there!

Anyway, I worked on the Typhoon for about an hour last night and made some significant progress.

First up is a couple pictures showing the progress made the first night with a picture of the painted main gear and wheel hubs. Both were washed with a Citadel Miniatures black wash:

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Ok, so last night I washed the cockpit interior parts with a Citadel Minatures brown wash, and then painted all of the little details inside. Here is a shot showing all of the painted and assembled interior parts ready for assembly into the fuselage. The tail wheel is only base coated, which I will detail paint after painting the camoflage later.

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And a closeup of the cockpit parts:

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I really like the way that RAF Interior Green takes a brown wash. For some reason, that color is sooo easy to make look "just right" for weathering.

After that, it wasn't much to assemble the fuselage and attach the wings that I had glued to together the night before as well as adding the horizontal stabs. Now I just need to clean up the seams and she'll be ready for paint.

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I do have one question for you RAF/Typhoon experts. What color is the top of the fuselage underneath the canopy? Is it the camoflage color, black, interior green, purple and pink polka dot?

Thanks for looking!

-Dave

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Thanks peebeep! Although I was kind of hoping for purple and pink polka dot... :rolleyes:

Also, I forgot to mention in my previous post: Dirk, the decal sheet that I have is an Aviaeology sheet that I got not too long ago from Flightdecs. Aviaeology themselves are sold out of them, but I think that Flightdecs still had a few left if your are interested in getting a set and didn't want to pick up the HB kit.

-Dave

Edited by 2qwik4u
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I'm impressed at the level of oob detail these Academy kits have. I see several of them in my future.

Yeah, some of them are quite good. Their 1/72nd A-37 is one of my favorite kits. You have to be careful though because some of the old ones aren't nearly as good, the MiG-27 would be a good example of that.

-Dave

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Aviaeology themselves are sold out of them, but I think that Flightdecs still had a few left

Dave, Flightdecs is sold out of all but 1/32nd scale. However, Aviaeology seems to have reprinted them (?) as they are all able to be added to a shopping cart. Hopefully, if they are sold out, the "add to baske" button should have been disabled.

Regards,

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I'm impressed at the level of oob detail these Academy kits have. I see several of them in my future.

I've been VERY impressed with the Academy Scorpion I'm working on. What a joy to put together! Still in the starting blocks with it, but what I've done so far has fit nicely and has great detail for OOB 1/72.

And back to the topic @ hand, Dave, you're 'foon is coming along nicely. That Citadel wash really pops the details! You guys are really making me feel slow with my builds though!

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Very tempted to pick up this decal sheet myself as I love the Typhoon. I know a guy on Ebay who has one for trade. Can I ask though, do you guys try to sand off the seam lines on landing gear? In 1/72 it's a real paid. Also how do you do it best?

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Can I ask though, do you guys try to sand off the seam lines on landing gear? In 1/72 it's a real paid. Also how do you do it best?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It all depends on how prominent they are and how much I care about it on that particular model. For this one I did not, but for my F-14 build I did. Generally, I will use a good file and a sharp knife to clean up landing gear seams.

Wow, nice decals you got there! I wonder if they exist for 1/48 scale?Academy kits, especially the newer ones are very nice... BUT be careful, most of their decals are just waste.

They do exist in 1/48th, and also in 1/32. It looks like Aviaeology still has some in stock which you should be able to order here.

-Dave

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do you guys try to sand off the seam lines on landing gear? In 1/72 it's a real paid. Also how do you do it best?

Unless it's going to be hidden, I always clean up seam lines. Like Dave, on a small part I would use a razor blade (xacto) and shave them off. What I hate is when not only is there a seam line, but the part halves have a step to them.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks guys for the comments.

Just a little update on build progress.

The bottom was masked off and the top darker gray was airbrushed. After the gray had a few days to dry, I spent an hour with some Tamiya tape, a pencil, and a fresh x-acto knife and masked off the camo scheme.

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After that it was a coat of Dark Green and an overnight dry and the masking was removed.

Bottom:

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Top:

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Next up will be a clear coat and then decaling.

Thanks for watching!

-Dave

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Thanks blunce.

This is my first hard edge camo RAF scheme. I'm used to USAF and USN stuff with the feathered edge where I can just chuck up some paint in my Iwata and lay down a camo scheme in short order. I can honestly say that right now I'm not a fan of having to mask off the hard edge scheme first. Which sucks because I've got a bunch of RAF Hurricanes, Mosquitos, Spitfires, a Mustang and a Lanc that I still want to do! Hopefully, I'll have decals and a clear coat on by Monday.

-Dave

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Well, I got the first clear coat on, and then I realized that I had forgot to paint the leading edges yellow. :doh: So instead of going forward and decaling, clearing, and then masking off for the yellow and risking peeling the decals away, I masked off the area for the leading edge stripes and sprayed them yellow.

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Unfortunately, when I removed the masking, I discovered that I had removed some of the clear coat as well. :bandhead2:

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So I had to spray on yet another clear coat. So I have to put off decals for hopefully tomorrow. I just checked on the second clear coat, and you can still see where it pulled away, but it isn't too bad. The flat coat at the end should even everything out.

Thanks for watching!

-Dave

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Well, another minor setback on this one. On Sunday evening, I started applying decals. As usual, I try to do the most difficult ones first, which in this case is the red decals for the background of the mouth. I put the first one on, and started trying to get it to lay into the complex curvature of the nose/intake area. Unfortunately, it started cracking, even with repeated applications of Micro Sol, and even a little heat from a heat gun. So, I pulled it off before it had a chance to fully set. Needless to say, I stopped with the decal application right there. I think what I'm going to do is give the clear coat a few more days to cure up, and then mask off the red area and paint it on. Hopefully I won't have issues with the clear coat again. So basically we are in a holding pattern for at least a week right now on this project. Luckily, I have plenty of other projects to work on..

-Dave

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