Primer power!

 

Continuing the theme of poor photography and diversionary activity, here is a 1/144 Revell Tempest. Bought ten years ago to encourage my children to enjoy sniffing glue and cutting their fingers, I found that the canopy was missing. I filled in a form on line and a replacement canopy eventually arrived. In the meantime, I had used an Airfix Spitfire for educational purposes.

So I have had this chap sitting around dusty and unpainted for a long time. I finally had the urge to finish it off. A quick brush, clean, sand and prime. Unpainted, the Tempest looked quite uninviting. However, two coats of Vallejo primer and it starts looking very nice. RAF day fighter colours here we come.

 

Lift off...

 

The Fairey Battle is completed at last! I am very pleased with it. I have been learning some scale modelling tricks on this one. It is a lot more complicated than it used to be in the olden days. You might detect some panel lining (even tho its not really a panel lining sort of kit). I have also used Vallejo Decal Fix. Even Captain Beefheart couldn't get these decals off!

I have also done some research on colours. This is K9353 from 218 Sqdn in 1940. Painted in bomber scheme with black undersides and Dark Green/Earth upper sides. I used Vallejo 894 Cammo Olive Green and 921 English Uniform. It looks OK to me, even if a little dark.

I found a couple of useful resources:

• an on line copy of British Aviation Colours of WWII which gives the official RAF instructions on colour schemes and also includes facsimile colour chips;
• a site dedicated to Luftwaffe Camouflage Schemes, this includes some excellent diagrams showing the development of scehemes over time with RLM colour references. 

Over Xmas I also got a Spitfire, P40 and Cromwell from the Aldi's range of Airfix starter kits. These kits are really nice and I'm looking forward to making them. Panel lining here we come!