When given these kits to build by a customer I initially had some trepidation's as despite being boxed under the Two Bobs label, these kits are made by Kinetic, which up until now have received quite poor reviews regarding their kits. So armed with this knowledge I initially undertook a dry fit of all parts, which highlighted a few problem areas, but nothing that I'd consider to be beyond the scope of a normal modeller.
Whilst looking for some aftermarket additions to replace the kit parts, I came across Phase Hangar Resin (https://phasehangarresin.com) who produce a beautiful set, which contains a pair of replacement seamless intakes, a tail-hook and ventral fairing (48004) specifically made for the Goshawk kit. Sad to say, but the corresponding items in the Kinetic kit are absolutely terrible, so purchasing two of these sets was an easy decision. The kits poorly detailed Ejection seats were also replaced, with two sets of SJU-17A Ejection seats from Wolfpack Design (WP48090), and the kits pitot tubes and AOT probes were also replaced with turned brass items from Master Models (AM-48-038 & AM-48-008).
Construction of the kits was relatively straight forward, with some areas requiring attention as follows;
- The large gaps, in the lower wing to fuselage, for and aft joins were filled with Evergreen strip and Mr Filler.
- Several access panels around the starboard aft fuselage didn't appear on the reference photos and were filled with Mr Filler.
- The APU inlet on the top of the rear fuselage was drilled out and replaced with plastic tubing.
- The APU exhaust on the starboard aft lower fuselage was both the wrong shape and undersized and a replacement was made from plastic tubing and Evergreen strip.
- Replacement tail hook bumpers were made from Evergreen strip and fitted to underside of the rear fuselages.
- Edge strips added to the top and bottom edge of each speed brake to correct profile.
- Fuel dump pipe added port side of rear fuselage from Albion Alloy tubing.
With construction completed, all the seams filled and sanded, I could
now move on to masking the canopies and preparing the models for painting.
One area that is a real letdown on these kits, especially when it comes to
painting, is the plastics rough surface texture, which is something that I've never seen before on any other
kits that I've built. Therefore, to obtain the best possible finish, I
first gave the models an overall sanding, followed by several coats
of Tamiya's, Grey Surface Primer (L), which hopefully would provide a far better surface for the subsequent coats of paint.
As the commemorative scheme is predominantly white overall, with some colourful areas on the nose, wings and tailplanes, I then sprayed the models with several light coats of Tamiya's, White Fine Surface Primer (L) to ensure that the subsequent colour coats would be as vibrant as possible. Despite all the relevant markings being supplied on the decal sheets, I choose to paint as many areas of the models as possible, using Gunze Mr Color's throughout - Off White (J069 Spray Can), Gloss Black (C002), Matt Black (C033), Yellow (C329), Red (C327) and Sky Blue (C034). This decision resulted in several long sessions of masking, consumed large amounts of Aizu and Tamiya tape of various sizes, but in the end it was all worth it.
With painting completed the models were then sprayed with several coats of SMS Premium Clear Gloss, which dries really fast and rock hard, and provides an excellent surface for the application of decals. Two full sheets of decals are included in the kit - enough to do four aircraft - which are printed by Super Scale, are ultra thin and were a joy to apply with help of Microscale Set and Sol solutions. However, during the application process I somehow managed to tear a large chunk out of the starboard 'A' decal, but with a spare at hand this was soon rectified and disaster averted. With all the decals in place the models were then sprayed with several more coats of SMS Premium Clear Gloss, followed by a coat of SMS Premium Clear Matt on the anti glare panel.
Other than the application of a dark wash to the upper fuselage engine grills and undercarriage components, I chose not to apply any further panel line washes to the rest of the models, as I wanted them to appear as they had at their official unveiling.
