Hi!

As I have submitted the Wyvern to the Suez-Campaign I´ll start a new tread about building this beast!

I have assembled about everything consisting of more then two parts!

My first impression of this kit was very good and it seems still true!
Fit so far have been between very good and excellent!

I painted the cockpit as Trumpeter suggested ( Dark Gull Grey with black panels), but it looked just plain wrong!
After much trawling on the net and reading , I decided to do a "traditional" British cockpit, that´s all black!
Late Spits, Meteors and Sea Hawks all had black pits, so this seems more probably.

Then comes all the really hard questions, how will I load it?

Rockets and centreline tank or bombs?
Bombs? RATOGS?

Does anybody here know how a "typical" loadout for "Operation Musketeer" looked like?
What colors were the Rockets and RATOG-bottles painted?

I´ll get some pics soon so stay tuned...

Cheers!

Stefan E

Hi all!

Now, I have started this kit by assembling all subassemblies.
I will take the build step by step here as my usual "building-sequence" is to jump around all over the kits! :-)

So here we go with the cockpit;

The seat consists of 10 parts and five etched (belts).
It goes together very well, but the seat belts are quite thick and stiff .

I painted the seat in matt black (Humbrol33), pads with Khaki (H26), head rest with Insignia Red (H153)and the seat belts with a light Tan (H148 Radome Tan).
A quite heavy drybrushing with silver (H11) to bring out the details finished the seat.
I still have to pick out the belt buckles and some small details will be added.
I´ll borrow some ideas from You Eetu, hope you don´t mind!





Later I will give it a black wash when the cockpit is completed.

In step 2 I assembled the cockpit, all fitted perfectly so it went rapidly.
The instrument panel consists of an etched face with all instruments on an acetate backing, and a plastic "clean" panel.

This is how it turned out;



Not a good pic, but the effect is very good and much more realistic then those pesky all-clear panels Trumpeter have used in other kits.

I treated the cockpit in the same way as the seat; matt black all over, drybrushed with silver and it will be "washed" with black/brown later.





In the next steps (3-4) we come to one of the most intriguing features in this kit; the contra-rotating prop!

Assembly is very easy, but be sure of what to glue or not as there´s many moving parts here!

All parts in step 3 are glued together.

In step 4 Parts C25, C9 and C15 is glued together.
Parts G1, G2 and G3 (the gears) are NOT glued together!
G4 is placed over G2 and then the whole assembly is located (NOT GLUED) in C5!
Then C4 is glued to C5 sandwiching the gears between those parts, take care to not gluing the wrong parts!
Actually it was very easy although a bit fiddly to get everything in place!

Does it work?

Oh, yes it does!

If anyone wants to motorize the prop; don´t forget to add a little grease to the gears as they are a bit rough.

This prop is a mighty thing and really impressive in this scale;





I painted the prop ( and the finlets) in a Maroon/Crimson red (H20), the blades in satin black (H85) and the tips in insignia yellow (H154).

So far this build have proven the first impressions!

I´ll be happy for some feedback and any comments or tips about the build!

More to come so stay tuned...

Cheers!

Stefan E

Hi all!

Time to do another update!

I´ll start with some pics of the completed cockpit;





Now, let´s continue with the build;

Step 5 and 6 is the torpedo and rockets, fast and easy.

In step 7 everything comes together in the fuselage.

The little camera is assembled and mounted on the rack.
I mounted the camera between the brackets, but didn´t glue it yet.
Note the direction and that the long rod on the rack is forward.
Propeller, Cockpit and tailwheel assemblies were glued to the right fuselage half.
Part C32 is a clever little part that ensures the tailplanes get the correct dihedral.

The fuselage halves fitted together perfectly!
I had to poke around a bit with a tweezer to get the camera assembly lined up.

Go easy and there´s no problems!



In Steps 8, 9, 11, 16 and 17 the RATOG´s (Rocket Assisted Take Off Gears) and bombs are assembled, nice and easy!

In step 10 we come to the main wing, now it´s time to decide about the loadout configuration.

I Settled for Rockets and a centerline fueltank.
Be careful to open up the correct holes in the center part of the wing!
All holes are flashed over, BUT the holes for the rockets are already there!
Not good if you don´t want to use the rockets!
On parts D18 and D5 (upper wing panels) I found the only ejector pin marks ( ) that had to be delt with.



Luckily, they are easily filled and sanded, and not very visible!

As I wanted my wings spread, I continued with the outer wing parts, assembling the whole wing in one go.
I find it easier to fit the wing parts together this way.
You choose your own way!

Back to step 12, 13 and 14; the wheel assembly.

Trumpeter have moulded the wheels in plastic ( ) with seperate hubs, making painting much easier.
The wheels are not bulged, though.

I painted the struts Alclad aluminium and the tyres a dark grey color that i mixed myself from matt black and dark grey (H33 and 112).

In step 15 I married the fuselage and the complete wing, perfect "snap"-fit with no gaps anywhere! Impressive!



The tailplanes fitted very good even if the fit was a bit loose.

Now I glued the rear cockpit decking (part B10) and canopy parts (pt. F1, F2) in place, once again a perfect fit!
After masking it was time for the paintshop!



I had an old tin of Sky (Humbrol 90) , it had separeted and looked awful!
After stirring it for several minutes it looked good again so I loaded up my airbrush.
Man, this old paint went on sooo nice and gave a silky smooth surface!

I love those old Humbrol paints!

Soon i could mask for the second color;



I choosed Dark Sea Grey instead of Extra Dark Sea Grey as the contrast would have been too stark.
A bit of instant, scaled down weathering!



And after demasking;



I had some overspray and had some touch-ups to do, but nothing major.

Next time it will be time for the clear-coat and decals, so stay tuned!

Comments and feedback welcomed!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Wonderful!

Stephan, thanks for the build photos, they really help a newbie like me.

-Derek

Hi All!

Here comes the last part on building the Wyvern.

After the last painting session I let it dry for at least three days before I clear coated the model with Humbrol Clearcoat.


I left the model for a day before I could get the decals on.

Trumpeter gives you three nice options, but I decided to do an aircraft with Suez-stripes AND those big nose numbers.
I found such a machine in the 4+ book, ac number 378/WP337.
The nose number was easy enough to do, but the serial no. wasn’t possible to be cobbled together.
I decided to use the serial for no. 278/WN325, so my model isn’t quite accurate, but both aircrafts served aboard the Eagle, at the same period.
Close enough for me!



The options in the kit are all accurate, but the inner part of the spinner should be Sky, not Extra Dark Sea Grey.
Decal no. 23 isn’t shown anywhere, but it should be used on the centreline tank on 278/WL879 “Dennis the Menace”.

I could find no use for the decals no. 32, so i just left them off.

Most Wyverns had a small anti-glare panel in front of the windshield; Trumpeter forgot to include this on the decal sheet.
I used a spare anti-glare (for an A-4B Skyhawk I’m building at the same time), which I cut to shape.

Trumpeter’s decals are the weakest part in this kit.

They are very thin and very brittle and sticks within seconds on the model and can’t stand much handling.
This is no problems concerning the smaller decals, but it can be a bit problematic with the bigger ones as the stripes.

They are also printed out of register, not much, only a fraction of a millimetre (0.1-0.2mm).
But it is enough for the white undercoat to show trough in the edges on the dark portions on the model.
The white undercoat is so thin itself so they are a little translucent.
This caused no problems where the decals went over a single colour, but it bled trough on the fuselage stripes and the upper wing British cockades.
I used some white discs (Tamiya Spitfire) from my spare decal box, cut to fit the cockades.
I could not do anything about the fuselage stripes, though.

It’s important to place the big decals (The stripes) as correctly as possible at the first try.
Luckily this is quite easy if you do it this way;

Before dipping the decals in water, make sure you cut out the slot in the rear end and the gun port in front on all wing stripes.
Begin with the lower wing stripes and use the slot and gun port cut as a guide for placement, making sure the stripes are straight.
Let the decals dry thoroughly.
Now you can attach the upper wing stripes, using the slot and cut in the same manner as earlier, and aligning with the lower stripes will make sure it’s straight.



Trumpeter has supplied the decals for the upper air brakes in separate parts, but not for the flaps on the underside.
If you (temporarily) glue the flaps in the up position and attach the decals, you can cut the decal and reposition the flaps later.
This is how I did as I wanted the airbrakes closed but the flaps down.



I used Micro-set and –sol liberally to get the stripes to settle, only –set was needed on the smaller ones.
All decals snuggled down very nicely and look almost painted-on.

I got some silvering on a few wing stencils, mostly due to the surface not being glossy enogh.

Ensure you have a really glossy surface on the model, work slowly and do not rush, is the best advice I can give on the decals.

I used three days to get all decals on the model, there are more decals then you might believe.
I decided to paint the finlets, as they should have the same Maroon colour as the spinner.
I believe they are way too light and red on the decals.




After wiping off every residue from decal solutions and fingerprints I let the model dry for a day.

I used a wash (black paint and white spirit) to enhance the deeper recesses, and a “sludge wash” (Tamiya acrylic Nato black, white, water and detergent.) all over the airframe.
Exhausts were sprayed with Alclad II “Jet Exhaust” (this is a turboprop ac after all) lightly along the sides.
I tried to keep the aircraft fairly clean as they were never old on carriers; the Wyvern served in the navy for only 4 years and this is the group commander’s mount (one yellow diagonal stripe on the finlets).

A nice clear satin coat sealed in the decals and washes.


From this point it was downhill all the way.

Now it was time to attach all the small parts and I started with the landing gears.

The struts fit a bit loose in the holes, but are easy to align at the correct angle.
Be aware that the inner gear doors should be closed on the ground, not open as Trumpeter shows.
Just cut off the mounting lug and they will fit fine after a little sanding.

I had to enlarge the holes for the rockets, but this was an easy task and then they fitted very well.
The rocket stubs are Sky and the racks and rockets are matt black.



Note that the he wing tip lights have red (port) and blue (starbrd.) covers, while the formation lights are clear.

After fitting all the antennas and some other small parts, it was only a few touch-ups and removing the canopy masking before the model was ready to take its place in the cabinet.










My first impression of this kit was very good and it still holds true!
Fit during the whole build have been between very good and excellent!

Only drawback is the decals that require some experience to cope with, and Trumpeters dubious colour-recommendations.
Everything else would be nitpicking.

This was is a very easy and fast build, almost as easy as the Tamiya Skyraider or P-47 Thunderbolt.

I can recommend this kit to anyone but the absolute beginner (Lots of parts, Wing fold option, and tricky decals) and it represents very good value for money.

Thanks to Trumpeter for doing the Wyvern in 1/48, can we please have a Gannet next?



Cheers!

Stefan E

Good Morning,

Your build looks fantastic!!!! I cant wait to start on mine,it really is a cool looking plane the paint and decals are great.

Thank you for the review it will be very helpfull once I start

Been following this one for a bit and it looks great. As others have said, I want to start my copy of the kit. Alas, i have a sweet current project to finish first: the famous Hasagawa P-400. Just one question, I may have past it in the previous post, but what did you use for the maroon colour on the spinner and fins? Thanks and beautiful little bird STUG

Hi Steve!

Thanks for the feedback and I´m glad you liked my Wyvern!

I used Humbrol #20 Crimson Red, a very deep and a bit translucent color.

It´s gloss, but with a satin or matt overcoat it looks really good.

This was a really good and fun build, no troubles at all!

Cheers!

Stefan E