Regular readers will know I have struggled to complete anything in the last few years that involved airbrushing.

I completed this just now with a strange mixture of elation and disappointment. Elation with having completed it without tossing it against a wall and happiness that I at last did some airbrushing semi successfully.

I’m happy with my masking efforts as mostly this was pretty good with not a lot of touch ups needed. The exception was the canopy where the tape was left on for months and caused issues. Other things – my rescribing of panel lines was pretty good and this is was mostly down to a new scribing tool and better technique including using a fresh scalpel blade where needed.

Also happy with the little bit of weathering I did.

The dissapointments included a pebbly finish on my airbrushing that I didn’t fix so that caused issues with decals silvering that were partially solved by Tamiya Extra Thin cement and multiple layers of Mr. Mark Softer. The selection of Techmod decals played into this.

Also annoying was the undercarriage area with fit still an issue. I should have paid more attention to this as it made the end work harder.

I sprayed Vallejo Satin Varnish on last but I still had scratches in the paint after handling even with gloves on. I’d like to try someone else’s varnish next time.

And lastly the rookie mistake was forgetting to weight the nose so it’s a tail sitter with Blu Tack under the front wheel. This is something I normally sort out early on but somehow missed it.

If I do the Toad Resins version one day they at least made the nose from white metal so it won’t tail sit.

On the whole I’m happy to have completed this kit but there’s lots of lessons to apply for my next kit. But that’s what modelling is about in some respects.