Miles Baylay

I’ve been looking to build this kit for a while one of my favourite aircraft and schemes.

It’s been a great online experience,

Just the main rotor to add

I went for the grey colour as described in the kit colour call outs

The original colour was a darker green

The reference photo’s are of a scheme dating back to 1989 and it not clear what the colour was.

I think the grey works best

Really enjoyed the competition well done to the organisers and all the Competitors .

Adding the door was a bit tricky

The kits location points could be better.

That said I’m happy with the result.

The aftermarket main gun and front probe were an improvement on the kit parts,

Added the rear antenna wires.

One post to reload !

After a light pin wash and some exhaust staining applied,

I painted in the demarcation lights and I’m about ready to fit all the open doors ,antennas the front gun and wing mounted missile pods.

I Removed the masking tape from the cockpit canopy All good !

After a clean and polish I moved on to fitting the undercarriage and external fuel tanks

Coming together…

After a gloss coat I laid all the decals they went down really well over the MRP varnish coat.

a second gloss coat over the decals ready for a pin wash next.

then remove the last cockpit masking..,

After a long time masking and prepping for the Tiger stripes the paint went on well

Three coats each lighter than the first to get some variation in colour.

Really happy with the result only a couple of touch ups to deal with,

The mask set was good but I had to cut it into smaller sections to get it to work and the masking solution was a must to work with the mask set but also for creating your own stripes to the fuel tanks and wing pylons

All working perfectly with the MRP paint!

I ordered a mask set for the Tiger camo

Which should cover most of the scheme

The other areas such as the fuel tanks I’m using a maskol solution to achieve the effect

ill also use it in areas were the mask set tape does quite sit down correctly

The paint is MRP my first time using it!

literally like water it takes some getting used to after acrylic paints

Laying light coats the finish is really smooth

i‘m having to move more quickly with the airbrush to avoid flooding an area.

Over painting can easily happen although thin it covers more the you think

It’s just practice and more practice and understanding the correct air pressure.

So it’s the darker blue grey first then the light grey

As a test I sprayed the Tiger stipe on the rear tails and the fuel tanks

Pretty happy with the results so far.

The Trumpeter kit is good for its age

I like larger scale models

1/32 being my favourite

As the choice is more limited at this scale I’m trying out 1/35

But In my opinion Trumpeter can lack in detail in some important areas which need some after market additions,

Ive tried not to purchase to many of these as kits are expensive enough!

Thats said there are areas I feel are worth some extra cash 💰

In this case I upgraded the cockpit detail

Second was the front end of this bird !

So I upgradEd the nose !

The long pito tube and the

Iconic four Barrel Yack - B Gatling Gun on the front end

Has to be worth it 🤔

After another undercoat

A little more filling and sanding

I mixed a thinned down Tamiya Nato black for the pre shading

Test fitting the closed up canopy and car door

It’s an ok fit so far …

So I protected and masked off the painted areas Cockpit, wheels bays and a rear fuselage access compartment,

then temporarily closed the crew compartment doors on both sides the cockpit canopy I’ll mask up and undercoat fitting it later before the top coats together with temporary fitting closed the pilots car door style cockpit door 🤔

Well that’s the plan

The kits design is for all these access doors to be open for display which I like but for the camo scheme I feel I need to close them all up to achieve it …