u/Jesterstear99

Finally signed off on this one, after 11 years!

I bought it with the Battle of Britain set in august 2015 - according to my email records I paid £25 for the set. (The two trucks and all the figures & equipment are still in the box)

I originally attacked it with enthusiasm as soon as it arrived, then after painting the base colours I masked one wing with white-tak worms & tissue, which took ages so I tried freehand spraying the other, which was a total failure.

I was so disheartened that it ended up in a box for 11 years.

Recently, when sorting through my old paints, I happened across the decals & clear parts, and enough time had elapsed that I though I could have another go with a repaint and the masking.

I used Tamiya acrylic paints and a Chinese airbrush, more recently a Fengda FE-183.

I finished off with Vallejo Ultra-matt polyurethane varnish straight from the bottle, gives a good finish but blocks the airbrush all the time- and I was using a 0.5mm nozzle too. I didn't try thinning it down.

I'm too mean to buy canopy masks, and not too handy with the 00000 brush....

The aerial mast on the stabiliser disappeared over the last 11 years and I forgot to make a new one, it also badly needs seatbelts or a little Kenneth More figure in the pilot seat, I might get around to it in the next 11 years!

(The Tamiya rotating cake stand hasn't been the same since the DH88!)

I finally signed this one off. This hellish weather has been a real challenge, I think painting needs to be done before 6AM!

It went together reasonably, although I'm not impressed with the canopy & engine fits. I did sand the rear of the canopy to get the angle to match the 'plane, but getting the rest of the profile to match was too much trouble. The engines needed more levelling or fitting so as to leave gaps each side and filling. The complete lack of any canopy lines meant I had to use some lining decals I had left over from a project about 20 years ago, and they weren't quite red enough, I'm not going to paint over them now!

I had great trouble with the decals, despite gallons of soapy water they seemed to glue themselves solidly to the surfaces only whenever they were misaligned, and the side stripes broke into several pieces trying to move them.

I wonder if I should add a few drops of washing up liquid to the decal softener solution next time.

Then they went crinkly when I clearcoated it, but due to the insane heat I blew a lot of clear onto it to make sure it went glossy.

One for the back of the display cabinet!