|
Not one of the better known aircraft
of WWII, this fighter was introduced into the French air force
in 1939. It was similar to its predecessor, the MB 152, in its
wing structure and undercarriage. The fuselage was more
streamlined and the cockpit pushed aft to accommodate larger
fuel tanks. Only ten MB 155s were completed before the
France-German armistice of June 1940. These and the few more
that were produced afterward, were used by the Luftwaffe as
fighter trainers.
I have always had a thing for
somewhat obscure aircraft and colorful paint schemes, and the CA
kit fits the bill on both accounts. When I saw this on sale at
half price in a recent Squadron flyer, I couldn't resist. Make
no mistake about it, this one, like all CA kits, is a limited
run item. In return for the a range of subject matter that no
major model maker will touch, you must be prepared to pay the
price of less than ideal fit. After reading a couple of Internet
reviews on this and its sister CA kit, the MB 152, I went into
it with eyes wide open. At least I thought my eyes were wide
open.
This is a mixed media kit which
consists of both injection molded and resin parts. The main
airframe, wings, cowling and landing gear are plastic, while the
cockpit, wheel wells, and engine are resin. Panel lines in the
plastic are recessed and very petite. The resin parts look good,
but require some very careful handiwork with a micro razor saw
and no.11 blade to remove them from their molding blocks.
The fuselage interior required
MAJOR sanding down to accommodate the resin cockpit that
consists of sidewalls, floor seat and instrument panel. When I
say major, I mean get out your Dremel tool and attach a grinding
stone or sanding wheel. Look out too for the fit of the wheel
wells resin part which sandwiches between the bottom wing and
top wing pieces. Major sanding down of the resin insert and
thinning out on the inside of the wing parts was required. Still
as can be seen below the fit was not good.
Back to the cockpit. I used a
dark gray basecoat for all parts, then Future'd to get a gloss
finish, and applied a wash of dark brown. The cockpit parts were
then dry brushed with a lighter shade of gray and tacked
together lightly to test fit the cockpit in the fuselage. With
the fuselage halves already glued together, I positioned the
cockpit up through the bottom of the fuselage (where the wings
would later be glued). All my sanding and scraping paid off
because the cockpit fit fine. Once in place I cemented it in
using gel superglue.
Then it was time to secure the
wing assembly onto the bottom of the fuselage. Woops! Although I
thought I had set the cockpit far enough up into the fuselage,
when I position the wing structure in place the bottom of the
cockpit floor interfered with the wheel wells seating properly.
This resulted in about a 3/16" step between that wing and
fuselage at the wing root. While this doesn't seem like a lot,
it's huge in 1/48 scale. I knew I would need to do some major
filling. To the rescue with Milliput Superfine Epoxy putty.
After overnight curing and much sanding, the results can be seen
below.
Having joined the wings to the
fuselage, it was time to prime the beast. I have recently begun
using Tamiya acrylics, and decided to use these exclusively for
the rest of this project. Referring to the painting instructions
that came with the Tamiya Dewotine D.520, I custom mixed the
Light Blue-Gray for the underside. This was airbrushed at 20 psi,
thinning about 50/50 with denatured alcohol, over the entire
airframe. This served as a base coat and primer. Surprisingly,
only one area needing further work was revealed (along the wing
root). Puttying and sanding re-completed, I reshot the repaired
area with Light Blue-Gray.
Next came masking for the
colorful upper fuselage and wings. I decided to try something
different for this paint job. First I airbrushed the rear
fuselage including tailplane and horizontal stabilizers with
Tamiya Lemon yellow. Once this was dry I used a thin strip of
Tamiya masking tape to seal off the demarcation separating the
yellow from the primary camo fuselage colors. All of the yellow
was then masked using a liquid masking product called Liquid
Mold Builder (LMB). LMB is a latex mold builder that can be
ordered through MicroMark. The advantage it has over other
liquid masking products (e.g. Maskol) is that is very easy to
remove when dry. After this had dried (approximately 30 minutes)
I masked off the demarcation line along the sides of the
fuselage. This was accomplished using two products: TacNStik and
Liquid Mold Builder. First, two pieces of TacNStick were rolled
out into the length and shape of a fat fishing worm for each
side of the fuselage (OK, this was the best visual description I
could come up with!). Each "worm" was lightly pressed
along the demarcation line for the lower part of each side of
the fuselage. Next, the Liquid Mold Builder was brushed onto the
bottom of the fuselage to seal off the areas that needed to stay
the underside color.
When the LMB was dry I airbrushed
the base color for the upper fuselage and wings, Dark Blue-Gray.
Airbrushing at a 90 degree angle to the fuselage side will leave
a soft edge for the camo demarcation line once the TacNStik and
LMB are removed). Once the dark blue-gray was airbrushed, I
repeated the above masking procedure to paint the second (Earth
Brown) and then the third (Dark Green) camo colors. After giving
the final color a few minutes to set, I removed all tape and
dried LMB. While the LMB worked admirably for masking the yellow
rear section, there were problems with the three camo colors. It
appeared that the ammonia in the LMB had attacked the paint. Why
didn't it affect the yellow? I'm not sure, but the yellow being
a gloss color (the others were flats) may have provided more of
a protective barrier for the paint. While the LMB didn't remove
the paint, it did fade it in places, making it appears splotchy.
I also found that it had softened it up considerably, making it
very susceptible to scratching. I had to freehand airbrush much
of the camo to retouch it. Also, the demarcation lines produced
by the TacNStick were not completely to my liking, and I ended
up doing more freehand touching up (Modeling experiments don't
always turned out as planned! Still, something new was learned).
An overcoat of Future was airbrushed over the entire airframe.
This seemed to toughen up the
paint, and I had no more problems. Decals were applied. I'll
have to say that overall I was pleasantly surprised by the kit
decals. They didn't tear easily, covered underlying paint colors
well, were in register, and appeared accurate in color. The
roundels are three part affairs- white circle, red ring, and
blue meatball. The fuselage numbers are two part- underlying
white and overlying red. Once positioned properly, they look
quite nice. The red decal stripes for the horizontal stabs and
tailplane were a chore to align properly, but eventually they
were completed. The same procedure was followed for the engine
cowling which has been previously painted Tamiya Lemon Yellow. I
did need to use a strong decal solvent (Solvaset) to get the
decals to snuggle down well (If you use Solvaset, absolutely
don't touch, and don't even look hard at the decal. If you touch
it, your finger will come away with a gooey mess stuck on it
that WAS the decal).
The wheel wells were masked off
and painted a light tan color (According to my references, the
wheel wells could have been either an dark gray or light tan).
The landing gear were painted this color too. Wheels were
painted aluminum and masked off. Tires were airbrushed a very
dark gray. Miscellaneous bits were then painted appropriate
colors: antenna masts, pitot tubes and wing cannon.
I cut apart the vacu-form canopy
and windscreen. The rear side windows had been previously cut
out and glued in place (superglue) before the fuselage halves
were joined. I then airbrushed some clear decal sheet the Earth
Brown color, and cut narrow strips which were soaked in water
and applied for canopy and windscreen framing.
The fuselage was weathered by
postshading panel lines using a very thinned mix of Tamiya
Smoke, which was airbrushed along panel lines. A thin wash of
Payne's Gray watercolor was laid into the panel lines. Dried
overflow was wiped off using a slightly dampened cotton ball.
PollyScale Flat Coat was airbrushed over the entire airframe.
Additional weathering was done with pastels and an aluminum
Prismacolor pencil.
Landing gear were attached with
gel superglue. This was a delicate job, since there were no
positive attachment points for the gear. Remaining small bits
were glued on. Windscreen and canopy were attached using white
glue.
With the model finished, I sat
back and looked at it. It wasn't perfect, but it sure looked
better than I thought it was going to. Something akin to turning
a sow's ear into a silk purse. Would I do another Classic
Airframes kit? The answer is "No", at least no time
soon. I'll have to admit, though, that I am intrigued by some of
their other offerings, like the upcoming P6 Hawk. I'd better
recharge my Dremel tool; time to restock that 300 grit sandpaper……. |
