F_IV's Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk

[bluedonkey99]

Ah, the massive tin of humbrol trick

[cowleyi]

Hmmmmm, that is outstanding..... yes, worthy of publication.

Ian

[smeg1959]

Ah, the massive tin of humbrol trick

It’s amazing what you can do with a laser printer and a 4-litre tin of Dulux paint!

This is nothing but superb and I’m sure Brett will concur. And as I don’t have a Sparrowhawk kit, I won’t need to hide it unassembled in the stash. After what you did with your Battle, I can’t even look at my Zvezda kit!

[F_IV]

I definitely learned a lot from this one. The use of painted decal in varying thicknesses of coat for depicting access panels was a big one, and will be a fantastic alternative to scribing. The Mr Color Levelling Thinner was a revelation too and incredible that it can be used interchangeably with both lacquers and acrylics. It has a built in retarder, so it makes brush painting a viable option again. The setout jig with it's edges mirrored on the drawings was another method that I'll definitely be using again too, as it takes all the squinting and eyeballing out of the equation when trying to get the shapes right.

Looking at it now, it is still hard to believe it is finally completed. I'd pretty much written it off well over a decade ago and never had any serious expectation of working on it again. I was a much, much younger man when I started it, so it has been quite a nostalgic build for me.

Some things I'm really pleased with. The wing ribs and engine hub cutouts in particular (especially because I only planned to draw these on with a sharp pencil back in the day). Other bits I'm just okay with, such as the visible but not too detailed cockpit and the un-faired wing struts. Some things worked out well but can only be put down to dumb luck. For example the lower wings, which accidentally acquired the correct anhedral after assembly, before I knew that it was even a thing.