FAA Fairey Fulmar Mk I 1/72 Airfix

My Fulmar Mk I in Temperate Sea Scheme camouflage.

Paints used:

Revell matt 65 for Dark Slate Grey

Revell matt 78 for Extra Dark Sea Grey

Revell matt 49/silk 371 mixture for Sky

I'm afraid a) the weathering got out of hand b) this isn't the right camouflage for British Navy planes in Crete 1941 c) rear canopy seams still aren't finished yet.

But I like the kit and the model! Final note, the original kit exhausts were mysteriously lost during the assembly but fortunately the Revell Hurricane IIc kits have a spare set!

Royal Navy Grumman F6F Hellcat 1/72 Italeri

Hellcat as a weathering testbed, don't know if they actually got ever this dirty on board. Italeri kit was easy to build and the British decal version was a nice touch, as the articulated landing flaps as well.

Royal Navy AW (Hawker) Seahawk 1/72 Airfix

Have I already mentioned I like Airfix navy planes? This Armstrong Whitworth Seahawk is such a elegant example of 50's style aviation design that it appears to be in flight on the desktop too. Also the Gloster Meteor/Hawker Hunter-type genealogy is clearly evident in the flowing shapes. It's surprisingly small for an attack plane, like when compared to a Fairey Swordfish navy biplane.

The Airfix kit was a bit letdown: opaque decals, sink marks at prominent places, poor seams for gluing the parts and so on so this became another "test build sample". I also tried some different techniques which failed this time, so this kit has to be built again with better luck.

Swordfish and Seahawk in 1/72 scale comparison

Royal Navy Fairey Swordfish Mk I 1/72 Revell/Matchbox

An old Matchbox 1/72 kit reissued by Revell, representing the famous Bismarck raid aircraft K8375. References used: Aircraft In Profile, http://wp.scn.ru

All painting by paintbrush, Revell and Humbrol enamels. Rigged by .009" guitar string. Kit decals augmented by E.S.C.I roundels. Looks like 'Stringbag' well enough, nice kit to build despite the age.