The Romsey Modeller - Romsey Modellers

ANGEL INTERCEPTOR, AIRFIX 1/72 ND SCALE BY PAT CAMP
PART DEUX: LE POSTE DE PILOTAGE.
I thought I would be at the painting stage by now, but progress with finishing the assembly has been slower
than I had hoped for.
The air intake areas were airbrushed with white H34 with a touch of sand colour. The intake was a tad narrow
on one side and so some plasticard shim was glued into place to the intake so it matched up with the fuselage
[13]. Even so, a large quantity of modelling putty was needed to fill the gaps [14].
[13]. Strips of plasticard applied to one side of
the intake to shim the part to match the
fuselage. Note also masking has been applied
because it would be easier to do it now than
when the intake was glued into place – not that
I decided on the colour scheme as yet!
[14]. Generous quantities of modelling putty
were needed to fill the gaps between the intake
and the fuselage. I used (for the first time)
Tamiya putty mixed with Mr Hobby self‐
levelling thinners to get a paste that could be
trowelled on
The decking behind the pilot’s seat was detailed, referring to photographs and diagrams of “the real thing”
that I found on the internet [15]. The radio set was a chunk of resin that was sawn and filed to shape, a pair of
plasticard rails with holes drilled through (I always drill the holes before cutting the plasticard to size: there is
less chance of the piece cracking if you do it that way around) and a pair of hydraulic jacks for the canopy that
were electrical wire with the insulation trimmed back. Wiring and hoses were from rolled Milliput, following a
technique described to me by Guillaume Monnier from the Toulon club, who is an absolute wizard in the art of
fine detailing.
All I did was to roll out a small piece of Milliput into a fine filament (Guillaume actually rolls it out finer than
mine, but I was happy enough for this first attempt) and give it a curl before cutting to length. Pick up the
piece using a moistened paintbrush and put it into position. Use the brush to tease the piece into place – there
is no need to use Superglue to hold it in place. It was a lot quicker and gave a better result than using wire.
Whilst I had the Milliput out, I fashioned a headrest and back cushion for the pilot’s seat [16]. The real seat
has indentations moulded into it and I copied these as best I could. As a final measure, the pilot was pressed
into the cushion so that the Milliput would take up her shape.
I have a number of different pilots to hand and could not decide which to use. I had one around 1/100 scale,
which is about right for this kit (rather than the 1/72 nd it says on the box). Nevertheless, I selected a 1/72 nd
pilot in the end as I did not want to have a different “scale” in my collection [17].
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