Decalling the Heller 1/72 Mirage IV and Miniart 1/35 T-55A

As well as starting on the Matchbox Lightning, yesterday afternoon was also spent applying the decals to the Heller Mirage and Miniart T-55. Regarding the Mirage it will be interesting to see what happens when the final coat of matt varnish is applied as the decals came off the backing paper straight away, indicating that the adhesive had failed so it would not surprise me if I get some 'silvering' of the decals. I may go over the decals again with Johnsons Kleer.
Regarding the T-55 I used the kit decals and the Soviet Navy flags had some difficulty conforming to the turret curves, so much so I had to remove them. Luckily I had a second set and after smoothing them out while still wet and with the application of Micro Sol decal solution they look better. I also made a photocopy of the decal sheet in case I needed to make masks to paint them on instead;

Matchbox 1/72 English Electric Lightning F6

I've made a start on this one and the first job was to scribe around the panel lines I wanted to keep before sanding off the raised ones;

Seeing as it's a vintage kit I'll use some vintage reference too;

I thought I had an old Aeroclub Martin Baker Mk.4 ejection seat in the stash somewhere but unfortunately not so I've sent for a resin cockpit that may or may not fit (not that you can see very much of the cockpit anyway).
This should be quite enjoyable!

Heller 1/72 Mirage IV

Not long after I sprayed the camo scheme I realised that the colours would more than likely show through the roundels so using a vernier gauge I measured the diameter of the decals then divided by 2 (using a calculator because I was always shit at maths) to find the radius.
The vernier was set to the radius measurement then I set the compass cutter to the vernier;

Using a self adhesive masking film that I found on Amazon the masks were cut with the compass cutter, cut into squares to allow for any overspray then applied to the model.
Mr Hobby Aqueous white was sprayed over the masks rather than Tamiya as that stuff is a bitch to spray nicely for some reason, the masks were then removed and the model given another coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss;

While I was in the mood for spraying I masked off the air intakes and painted the red rims around them. Also there are dayglo panels on the main undercarriage doors and a dayglo stripe on each fuel tank and to do this I masked off the areas first, sprayed them with Tamiya XF-3 Yellow and when dry oversprayed these areas with Vallejo Model Air Flourescent Orange. This was the first time ever spraying anything a dayglo colour so I'm quite pleased with the results;

The next step is to get the decals on. 

Heller 1/72 Mirage IV

I sprayed the green camouflage and when dry masked off some areas and sprayed them with the green but with some light grey added, also the black anti-glare panel on the nose was masked off and painted.
All the masking was removed and the model sprayed overall with Alclad Aqua Gloss varnish ready for the washes the model will receive and decals. Thinking about it now I may have to make masks for the roundels and spray the areas white where the decals are placed as the dark colours may show through.

Heller 1/72 Mirage IV

As I'm waiting for the Takom Bergepanther to set for a day or so (the hull and tracks mainly) I've pulled this out of the 'to do' pile. I sprayed it with Tamiya XF-24 Sea Grey but the finish was terrible due to the paint drying too quick and leaving it with a 'sandy' texture, so I rubbed it down, resprayed, rubbed it down, resprayed and realising I wasn't getting anywhere I left it.
Earlier this week I bought a Humbrol rattle can of Matt 27 Sea Grey acrylic to see if that worked and resprayed the model with that and the finish was a lot better. Once dry I masked off the areas for the green camouflage pattern and here's where it is so far;

I haven't masked off a 1/72 aircraft for years! Going 'old school' I used masking tape cut into narrow strips and followed the pattern on the decal sheet instructions, the areas to be left grey were taped over and using a scalpel I verrrrry carefully cut around the narrow strips of tape.
With a bit of luck I can get this one finished soon. It won't be perfect by any means as this one put up a fight from the start but it will be nice to have a Mirage IV in the collection.

Matchbox 1/72 English Electric Lightning F6

A good modelling buddy of mine has just completed a 40 year old 1/72 Matchbox kit of a Vickers Wellesley and has made a SUPERB job of it. During a conversation with him via his Facebook post we got talking about Matchbox kits and how some of them were not THAT bad (Except their H.P Victor which was truly awful, trust me AND It was reboxed by Revell so beware).
Gerry mentioned about revisiting the Victor seeing that I had built it years ago but there was absolutely NO chance of doing that one again due to the bad fit of parts, weird double-spaced panel lines and big empty voids where the air intakes are in the wing root (plus Airfix released one not long ago). However it did get me thinking about revisiting a kit from my modelling youth when I remembered the Matchbox E.E Lightning F6 in the stash.
I built this kit about the same time as the Victor and finished it in a two-tone grey scheme from the early 80's found on Modeldecal sheet number 65. At the time I was quite pleased with it but over time it eventually degraded with bits falling off then ended up in a landfill site.
Feeling all nostalgic I got the kit out of the stash to have a look and here is what you got in the 1980's;

Typical Matchbox with the multi-coloured parts;

The bang seat needs a bit of work;

The raised 'bricks' on the tail end are actually painted stripes on the real aircraft;

Just looking at the kit reminds me of the build I did in the 80's! This time however there will be a LOT of rescribing as those panel lines have to go. Also this will be done without the aid of any aftermarket parts apart from a decal sheet as basically there is none available for this kit. There is stuff for the old Frog/ Hasegawa/ Revell Lightning via Flightpath but lets see what I can do without all that, it should be a giggle anyway and something to do in between the Takom Bergepanther. How accurate it is I don't know and don't really care as this will just be a trip down Memory Lane. Stay tuned!