Gnat F.1 - Greg Baker [What if?] - Build Log

1
February 6, 2017
Love that bright red box!
2
February 6, 2017
The sprues look quite good.
3
February 6, 2017
First few parts cut and primed.
4
February 15, 2017
Blanked off the second seat to turn this into a fighter.
5
February 15, 2017
Added some "radio equipment-like bits" to the blanked off portion of the cockpit.
6
March 16, 2017
Looks pretty good painted and in place.
7
March 16, 2017
Wheel wells and landing gear installed and the fuselage glued together.
8
March 18, 2017
Added the putty and a bit of sanding. Fit is pretty good except that I misaligned it a bit while trying to squeeze the wings on.
9
March 22, 2017
Primer's on... but looks like I missed a few spots. A bit more putty should fix that.
10
March 23, 2017
Now for a coat of bare metal aluminum.
11
March 25, 2017
Cockpit enclosed... then opened... then enclosed... then opened... then enclosed... why can't I remember all the parts at once!?
12
April 4, 2017
A layer of hairspray and now for the first camouflage coat... let's hope this works!
13
April 6, 2017
This camouflage technique worked before... so let's try it again!
14
April 6, 2017
First camouflage layer is on... one more to go.
15
April 7, 2017
Second coat of camouflage. Looks not bad... now comes the tricky bit.
16
April 8, 2017
Okay... so I rubbed really gently with a wet brush trying to loosen the top coat of paint. I removed paint, but I'm not quite sure if I ended up removing just the top coat or all of it down to the white primer base.
17
April 9, 2017
18
April 9, 2017

6 February 2017, 23:52

Spanjaard
i am curious of what you are going to do this time 😉

7 March 2017, 13:19

Greg Baker
Heh... you and me both. I put this on hold for now to try and finish my Yak-38 for a Soviet group build, but only temporarily.

7 March 2017, 13:25

Murad ÖZER
Hot Shots! 😄

4 April 2017, 08:22

Greg Baker
LOL... I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, but it made me laugh!

4 April 2017, 12:47

Murad ÖZER
Youtube Video

4 April 2017, 12:52

Greg Baker
Oh my... LOL

4 April 2017, 14:33

John Thomas
Greg, nice work and video clip

5 April 2017, 13:57

Greg Baker
Thanks John! I'm trying out the hairspray weathering technique for the first time on this project. We'll see how it works.

6 April 2017, 10:52

Derek Huggett
I trust that is hairspray on the model, not the pilots hair!!! Topper Harley rules!!!

6 April 2017, 10:57

Greg Baker
LOL... we'll see... I've never done it before, so if it all goes horribly wrong...

6 April 2017, 11:01

John Thomas
Greg, I have not tried the hairspray technique, will be watching

6 April 2017, 14:14

Murad ÖZER
Greg if possible try it on somewhere else first with the exact same paint and thinner as your basecoat, because even if remote the paint reacting to hairspray is a possibility, you'll see when your basecoat begin developing cracks!
as for the HS i found that cheapest is the best somehow but of course YMMV, hence the trial to be on the safe side.

6 April 2017, 16:26

Greg Baker
That's good advice... but I probably should have listened to it before I started painting, right? 😉 that's okay either way. I more or less bought the Gnat kit as a tester for this technique anyway.

6 April 2017, 22:17

Greg Baker
Okay... so I rubbed really gently with a wet brush trying to loosen the top coat of paint. I removed paint, but I'm not quite sure if I ended up removing just the top coat or all of it down to the white primer base. I decided to quit while I was still not too far behind and reassess in the daylight. Not sure it was a success though...

8 April 2017, 15:04

Murad ÖZER
what was your metallic paint and thinner for it?

8 April 2017, 15:16

Greg Baker
All Tamiya Acrylics and thinner...

8 April 2017, 15:22

Murad ÖZER
now i can understand the paint lifting if it's thinned with isopropyl alcohol (tamiya x20 "A" is IPA mostly if that's what you used as tamiya thinner!) but no idea why would you go down all the way to bare plastic. if it was a lacquer primer it should be able withstand the hairspray...

8 April 2017, 17:15

Greg Baker
The primer seems intact. But does the hairspray react to the Tamiya acrylics thinned with X20?

8 April 2017, 17:23

Murad ÖZER
looking at the result, that is the most straightforward conclusion imo. IF the hairspray itself is lacquer based then it'll eat everything else but a same base.
when it comes to model paints the order is like this: lacquer > enamel > acyrlic. ie. if you shoot solvent based paint over enamel it'll crackle the enamel.

8 April 2017, 18:30

John Thomas
Greg, your camo masking looks like it worked well, what material did you use for your mask?

9 April 2017, 01:55

Greg Baker
Thanks John - I just used paper that I cut in a random rounded zig zag pattern and then taped them onto the body. That gave the edges a real soft blend.

9 April 2017, 11:05

Greg Baker
Murad - thanks for the advice. I'm going to check the hairspray to see if it's lacquer... but wouldn't that be dangerous to put on your scalp? I wonder if perhaps I didn't put enough hairspray. I was careful not to soak it... but maybe I was too careful. I guess I'll just have to do a bit more study and try again.

9 April 2017, 11:09

Murad ÖZER
remember makeup material is mostly petrol based. nail polish remover is acetone (not neat acetone off the hardware store of course but it still has acetone in it). probably the reason why old wimin's face turns to potato mash... 😄

9 April 2017, 17:56

Greg Baker
Alright. It is what it is... I've posted up the final pics here - scalemates.com/profi..bums&album=33789

12 April 2017, 02:29

Spanjaard
well done!

12 April 2017, 05:14