The
LTD kit has been presented in the past, so I will jump directly to
construction details.
Construction
As
a general note, the kit sprues are quite thick. Be careful when removing the
parts such that you do not clip into the actual part. You will have to do a lot
of heavy filing to remove the extra plastic from the parts.
I
started with the wheel well piece. It leaves holes in the fuselage, so I decided
to fill them with thin styrene strips. I recommend this step, as it provides a
better look of the undercarriage. After gluing the wheel well, I had to do some
heavy filling in order to fit nicely the wing parts. I continued with the
spinner, propeller blades and crank case housing. After gluing them together, I
painted the ensemble, busied the blades with one decal each and applied a flat
finish. I sat them aside for final gluing on the engine.
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The
cockpit followed. It has levers, rudder pedals, longeron and structural details,
and an instrument panel, all on a floor board. The interior got painted with
Light Gray FS36622. I weathered it with raw umber and then I applied a flat
coat. All the little details got glued, including the instrument panel. As the
instrument panel provided by the kit is quite basic, I decided to improve on it
by adapting one from the F2A Buffalo from Eduard. Yeah, I know they are not
identical, but they are close enough. The extra work with the PE parts and the
acetate foil pays off in my view. I also decided to switch the kit seat with the
True Details #48411 F6F Hellcat seat. To make it look more like the Romanian
seat, I had to clip the right and left extremities on the seat top. Trial fit
the floor board to make sure it is not too wide before fitting it into the
fuselage. I glued mine on one of the halves while having the entire ensemble in
place together. An additional note on the instrument panel. It is positioned too
much towards the nose of the aircraft. Later on, this is obvious, when the
exterior antenna has nothing to sit on.
I
moved on the body, gluing the two halves together. All the gluing on plastic was
done with Tenax. The seams between the halves were filled with Tamiya putty. I
had to use the sanding sticks to make the entire surface smooth. I masked the
interior of the cockpit having it ready for painting. The wings followed. The
three parts were glued together. Then the aircraft body was attached to the
wings. At this time I painted the wheel wells with Dark Gray (FS35237) glossed
and weathered them. The wheel wells were masked to prepare them for the body
painting job. To complete the body, the horizontal stabilizers were attached as
well. Also, I decided to add at this time the exhaust ring and the two side
exhausts. Having the side exhausts and ring in place, I put together the
cowling. Here one problem shows up: the cowling does not slide long enough on
the exhaust ring to barely touch the fuselage. You need to file and dry fit
until the model looks to your satisfaction. Next, I painted the body. While
waiting for the paint to dry, I put together the engine. The engine cylinders
are flat black, dry brushed gently with Testors silver chrome.
Although
the kit vacuform part has a small but visible defect, do not fear. A vacuform
cockpit for IAR-80 is offered by Falcon, Set No. 37, part 2. It has no defect
and it can be positioned open. I went for the open position. I decided to add
the little rear view mirror on the edge of the moving part of the canopy. Next,
I put together the landing gear assembly: wheel well doors, landing gear and
tires. As True Details provides a set of bulged tires specifically for IAR-80, I
could not help myself and use those, instead of the kit provided ones.
Brake-lines are easy to add and provide a definite plus to the model. I added
them. In the final assembly, I switched the kit provided machine-guns with the
Aries MG131 1/48th scale Machine guns.
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A
few words about painting the model. I decided to go for the “lizard” scheme
camouflage. It is made of stripes, Tan and Dark Green over Light Blue. The
spinner, propeller tips, cowl, lower wing tips and rear fuselage band are in
chrome yellow. The markings are for the airplane flown by “Locotenent
aviator” Ion Galea. The colors used are:
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Interior:
Light Gray FS36622
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Wheel
Wells: Dark Gray FS35237
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Tan
FS30219
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Green
FS34127
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Light
Blue: equal quantities of FS35414 and FS35622
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Yellow
FS13538
In
an attempt to represent some wear and tear on the fuselage, I decided to use the
Gekko Metalized decals. The problem that I encountered was that the individual
decals are big enough to create an unrealistic look to the model. The solution
is to apply them, as usually, on a glossy surface and then use the tip of an
exacto knife and easily scratch the decal until it resembles the desired texture
and form. The weathering was done with raw umber dissolved in mineral spirits
and applied after the entire model was coated with Polyscale Acrylic gloss. Also
all the exhausts were painted raw umber. It took me 40 hours to complete it, on
a period of almost th ree
months. The kit was a pleasure to build, and I recommend it.ree
months. The kit was a pleasure to build, and I recommend it.
Enjoy
the pictures.
Ion
IPMS
Austin, TX
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