Great work with lenses

This looks fab Steve, what tail fin are you going to use, the old design or the new one ?

Fab fix on the lenses Steve and a great tip for others.... .. Once again your efforts are paying off.... very well done....

Regards

Alan

Thanks everyone

Well, as I said, I have to go for the new tail decal as it's going to be the Arrows new permanent design. If it had been just a commemorative like the 50th last year then I wouldnt have bothered.

For those who havent seen it, here's a look at it - http://www.raf.mod.uk/ne...design-on-jets-25022015

I was thinking of masking the design but then had a better idea, I will make some decals instead.
I had a sheet of white A4 waterslide decal sheet so this will do fine for the white parts.
The red will just be cutouts to show the base colour and the blue will be separate pieces of the decal sheet sprayed and coated. I made an exact replica of the fin with foil and transferred that onto a cutting surface to make the shapes accurate for both sides to meet.

So heres the bits so far, I have done a couple of tests to make sure the painted decals work ok and they seem fine

More soon
Steve

Thanks Alan

Im about ready to get the main paint layer on. The 3 paints I'm considering are -

1. Red Arrows Red by Xtracrylic
2. Fiery Red by Revell
3. Tamiya's gloss red X7

No.1 is my preference really as it is supposed to be the exact colour as it's the same BS537 as the real aircraft. It does look a bit pale under some lights but if you look at as many pics of the Red Arrows as I have then they don't look like they are a deep red.

The Revell is my next option and the Tamiya is a little too crimson to be a contender

So, I think I will go with the Xtracrylics and see how it looks.

More soon

Steve

Thanks Kev & Paul

I now have the paint finish to a standard that will take the decals nicely, 3 coats of Humbrol Clear Gloss, cut back each coat with micromesh ranging from 3200 - 12000 grit. I left the paint dry 3 or 4 days first then left each clear coat dry 24 hours before the micromesh.

It will probably need 2 coats of Clear after decals depending on how glossy I want it, may even put a satin coat on it as I dont want the shine to be over scale really.

There is an arrow white decal on the underside that has to go before the landing flap struts an smoke pod so I may get all the decals out of the way before moving on to the undercarriage, canopy and flaps etc. More soon when the decals are done.

The pics below show the 1/72 scale alongside and also show quite well how the red colour changes shade in different light, it's one thing I have noticed with the real thing that they can sometimes look like an orange red and sometimes a real red. I think the colour is definitely the right choice anyway

Steve

Its looking very nice indeed, Im looking forward to seeing your tail markings in place

Super stuff Steve
youve really cracked on with this little beuty

regards
Dan