1/72 Airfix CAC Boomerang

Gallery Article by Orlando Sucre Rosales on Feb 4 2015

 

      

Hello, fellow modelers.
My Airfix Boomerang is the third very old model kit that I finished by 2014. I bought this one more than 35 years ago, when Airfix Series 1 kits were packaged in a hard acetate blister backed with a piece of cardboard that had the building directions printed on one side and the box art and painting directions printed in full color on the other side. It showed the characteristic raised rivets of Airfix propeller aircraft kits tooled in the 60’s.

My son David began the construction of the kit several years ago, but he stopped the build just after gluing the wings and horizontal stabilizers. When I decided to finish the kit, I started by filling and sanding all the seams, touching up the cockpit, gluing the canopy parts and drilling holes for the antenna cables. 

After this was done, I realized that one of the wing cannons were missing. Although I had one cannon as a template to scratchbuilt the other, it had details that I’m not able to reproduce. Therefore, I decided to scratchbuild both cannons, by modifying two cannons taken from a damaged Airfix Hurricane Mk. IID kit. My scratchbuilt cannons just resemble the basic shape and dimensions of the originals. 

 

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After gluing the cannons, I researched on the Internet how the Boomerangs were painted (the kit’s instructions just had Airfix paint codes). I found that the approximate FS colors for the camouflage were Foliage green FS34092, Earth brown FS30099 and Light blue FS35550. From these, only FS34092 is easily available, so I had to mix the other two.My mix for Light Blue FS35550 was done using 3 parts Hu34 White and 1 part Hu47 Blue. With this color I painted all the undersurfaces and the tail. 

Then I overpainted the tail using Mr. Color Super White. When the later was dry, I masked the tail and painted the upper surfaces with faded MM FS34092 Euro I Green. Then I masked the camouflage pattern and painted the Earth brown FS30099, which was mixed with 2 parts Hu98 Brown and 3 parts Hu72 Khaki. 

When the basic camouflage colors were painted, I masked around the wheel wells and painted then with faded Hu78 Green grey, the same color used for the cockpit interior. I later masked and painted the fin tip with gloss dark blue. When the basic colors were all painted, the model received two coats of MM Acryl Gloss Varnish. 

Soon the model was ready for decaling. As the kit was very old, I replaced all the kit’s national insignias (in which the white looked as pale grey and the blue had an odd shade) with ones taken from Academy P-40 kits that I have in my stash. Contrary to my expectations, the kit’s codes and serials behave very well under Micro Sol and Solvaset decal solvents, leaving only a very small amount of silvering, which was painted over with a fine brush. 

A coat of Xtracolor Flat Varnish was later given to the model, and then I reached the final stage of the build, in which the undercarriage was assembled and the final details were added. Unfortunately, the two main undercarriage legs were slightly warped, but I didn’t any attempt to fix them because they looked very fragile. 

I lightly weathered the model with powdered pastel chalks and with aluminum paint chips.Well, I’m satisfied with the outcome, considering the kit’s age and imperfections, and I hope that you’ll like it too.

Greetings from Caracas, Venezuela.

Orlando Sucre Rosales

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Photos and text © by Orlando Sucre