1/72 Hasegawa Martlet Mk.II

by Orlando Sucre Rosales

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Hello, fellow modelers!

This is my first submission to ARC, although I've been modeling for some 35 years, but with some very long interruptions. For many years I built Airfix models almost exclusively, these were brush painted, assembled without putty (I even didn't know it existed) and decaled over flat paint jobs... I rediscovered the hobby when I read about using airbrushes, modeling putty, gloss coats and the like some 15 years ago. Then I bought my first single action airbrush and started buying better kits. I've been modeling very slowly because I'm very busy with my work, even on weekends.

The kit

My model is a Grumman Martlet Mk. II, serial AJ148 from the 888 squadron aboard HMS Formidable. It was built OOB except for the addition of masking tape seat belts and harnesses, and monofilament antennas. In fact, it's my first completed Hasegawa kit (I have others under construction), and the first I painted with a double action airbrush I purchased recently. This model is special for me because it was completed the very last day of 2008!.

Hasegawa's rendition of the Wildcat/Martlet is the best I know in 1/72 scale, though I've never seen the (discontinued long ago) Dragon version with folding wings. Assembly was straightforward, except for the complicated main undercarriage (which was assembled, painted and kept as a sub-assembly until the end). I pre-drilled holes to insert antennae "wires" on the top and the sides of the fuselage, and polished the canopy with "Model Wax" inside and out (as I do in every model since I met this product).

Color selection

There are many different interpretations of the upper camouflage colors of Fleet Air Arm planes (Dark Slate Grey and Extra Dark Sea Gray), as anyone can see in photographs of models of Martlets, Swordfishes and the like. I searched for photos of real airplanes, and I only found some photographs of restored Martlets and Swordfishes with brand new gloss-coated paint jobs, but only one very small color photo of a wartime Martlet. I finally used a wartime Fairey Barracuda color photograph as a reference for the colors (see below). 

I tried to get close to my reference's shades. I mixed Humbrol Authentic Sky type S with white (3:1) to paint the undersides. For the Dark Slate Grey (DSG) I mixed Humbrol's with Humbrol 103 Cream (3:1) to get a lighter and yellowish shade. At the beginning I planned to use Humbrol's Extra Dark Sea Grey (EDSG), but in trials I found it's too light and didn't spray well, so I replaced it with MM Euro I Gray FS36081 mixed with white (5:1). Some references state that Gunship Gray FS36118 is equivalent to EDSG, but I think it has a violet tint that EDSG doesn't have.

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Masking and painting

I often use Scotch Magic Tape for masking cockpits and camouflage hard demarcation lines as well, because the lines can be drawn over the tape easily, or erased if needed, and this tape is easier to cut with a blade than Tamiya's. After removing excess tackiness by touching the tape several times with the palm of my hand, I place the tape over the model and then I draw the line over the tape. I also draw some panel or hinge lines over the tape that will serve as references to later locate the tape exactly on the same place over the model. I then transfer the tape to a hard cutting board.

After masking the cockpit, cowling and wheel wells, I airbrushed the underside color. When it was dry I masked the undersurfaces. For the upper to lower camouflage demarcation line, I often refine the previously free-hand drawn line with a ruler, a circle template and/or a french curve template, then I place the tape over the model again and see how the line looks. When I'm satisfied, I cut the tape at the line using the aforementioned drawing instruments as guides instead of cutting it freehand. This method is very helpful to get perfectly symmetrical port and starboard demarcation lines (one is the mirror image of the other). Once this masking was complete, I airbrushed the upper surfaces with my DSG mix.

Before applying the darker color (EDSG) I prepared masks for covering the DSG. In this case I draw the lines over the tape as before, but I cut the tape free hand over the cutting board. However, before transfering the masks to the model, I cut narrow strips of tape and placed them beneath each mask and next to the border. In this way the border of the mask is lifted by about 0.3 mm from the model, resulting in a hard demarcation line without ridges. I also painted my model wheel hubs' outside EDSG instead of Sky: it's my interpretation of a B&W wartime photograph of the plane I was modeling (see above). I also painted the legs black instead of Sky (as suggested by Hasegawa) because many Wildcats have them this way.  

A note about masking: I think that making hard or soft masks from enlarged photocopied camouflage patterns is not a good method, because these patterns are two-dimensional drawings and the model is a three-dimensional object, therefore the copied pattern is always shorter than the actual mask needed. Moreover, almost always there are mismatches between the drawings of the upper surface and the sides.

Decaling and weathering

When all camouflage painting was done, the model received two coats of Tamiya acrylic clear gloss (Future-like products doesn't work well in tropical climates) and it was ready for decals. Martlet's decals are typical Hasegawa: they are thick and "white" looks like "ivory". I used kit's decals anyway. It was particularly tedious to construct the fuselage roundels, since these are made up of three decals. After decaling was complete, another coat of clear gloss went over the model. I then accented the panel lines with a sepia ink wash applied with a fine brush. Later I added some chipping with Tamiya flat Aluminium, and then the model received a coat of Xtracrylic flat clear. 

The final step in weathering was adding exhaust and gun blast smudges with pastel chalk powder. Smudges were also applied to the undercarriage doors, since they are behind the exhausts. I then glued the  monofilament antennas with cyanoacrilate glue (I found it very difficult to attach monofilament to the tips of the stabilators), and stretched them with blown-out matches. I sealed the weathering with another coat of flat clear, this coat also helped to hide the gloss glue residue, and then painted the antenna filaments with Tamiya Gun Metal. I also sprayed a very thin coat of flat white over the spine, wings and stabilators to simulate sun fading. All was done keeping the weathering very subtle, so it's difficult to see the results in the photographs.

Final assembly

The last step in assembly was gluing the undercarriage legs and doors, wheels, and drop tanks, and painting the navigation lights. The very last step was removing the cockpit window masks and polishing the windows again. 

Thanks for watching and reading. Greetings from Caracas "the city of the red rooftops", Venezuela.

Orlando 

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Photos and text © by Orlando Sucre Rosales