This kit was
somewhat disappointing when I first bought it several years ago. The small parts
were little more than blobs of soft plastic from which one was expected to
carve the required pieces. The decals featured some bits and pieces of specific aerobatic
airplanes, but not enough to complete any of the schemes without some extremely
delicate masking and painting of small areas. With all of these challenges, the
kit sat in my stash, untouched, for the better part of a decade.
Click on
images below to see larger images
After I
finally figured out how to make my own decals for another modeling project using
a home PC and printer, this kit was the first subject that popped to mind.
I really like Pitts Specials painted in 'stock' schemes as opposed to sponsored
performer schemes, so that was the end goal of the build. All of
the designs were drawn in MS Paint with some tweaking in Adobe Photoshop,
and the final product printed onto Expert's Choice clear decal paper
on an HP Deskjet D4160 printer. Several test printings on regular paper
were required to check and adjust sizes, angles and shapes on the
actual model before the final decals could be printed.
Otherwise, the kit was
built without any aftermarket or scratch-built parts. The only major
modification made was to shorten the rear of the wheel pants by about
3/16', and reshape them. All of the paints are Testors Model
Master enamels, except the front of the prop blades which are Floquil's
'Old Silver'.
Darin
|
|