Build pics for those interested:

The wife was flipping through a book I got for Christmas and suggested I build something white, as, apparently, "everything you build is green".

The box:

I'll be building a white-washed Swedish J-11 with skis. Found some pics of a complete model that was BUILT pretty good:

That was too white though, I don't like how he did the camo show-through, it looks sorta like a splinter pattern? The look SHOULD be standard Italian delivery colours, overpainted. (the colour plate inside the kit box also looks kinda goofy, if you ask me, and shows green-over-green as the show-through??)

I was going for something more like this:

Included reference book & really nice decal sheet. Of course I'm going with the Swedish machine, but all of the schemes are interesting.


One upside with a biplane... windscreen & a pair of lights...


The sprues, a lot of parts here are taking care of the various options & will be bagged up & dropped in the spares box.

Really good detail on all the parts to be honest, the little bit of flash to deal with is hardly worth mentioning..


The engine in particular looks really good.


Nicely flattened wheels.... into the spares box!


Because I'll be using the skis! (Also a pair of nicely done small anti-personnel bombs)


Cockpit parts really nicely done.

Oh, and shortly after I unwrapped the box, I spotted this on the floor:


Not a gun muzzle? But it has a slight hollow on one end? Same colour plastic as the Italeri kit. I held onto it just in case.

And a good thing I DID hold onto it, because... it's part of the exhaust ring assembly. Will need to glue it on before going any further. "Red leather" base will be followed up with some metallic washes to give me my rusty/burnt metal look.

Annnnnnnd - cockpit before getting closed up.



I even used the decal seatbelts. As far as I can tell the Swedes replaced the Italian-style chain-belts with their own, and there won't be a great deal visible through the cockpit opening.





It'll get a quick shot of dullcoat this evening & fuselage halves can be closed up.

Well... it's been generic up until now. THEN I snipped off the tailwheel & added the skid.



Landing gear bits snipped, & cleaned up, ready to be assembled. Manny, I tried the full spats with no luck, but it was too late in the evening for my brain to fully process. I'll check around for more refs and see if I can make it work. If nothing else, I can paint the upper portions of the landing gear in red to match the ID numbers.



Four-part cowling bits + upper wing + upper fuselage with primer. Too "putty", not enough "sand" for my plan of show-thru Italian camo. Think I'll be giving this another thin coat. I do have some Tamiya Sand in the stash, will probably use that.

Kit landing gear assembly as supplied looks sorta like the upper section of the spats assembly, with the actual wheel fairing portion removed:


Here's the ski with the full spat - pin & hole don't line up.


Annnnd the mount on the ski seems a little wide, so I may need to add a little shim, or do a little thinning on the attachment point.

Snipped & sanded & new prop shaft attached...

OK, it's official, skis with spats it will be. need to fill a couple of ejector pin marks tonight before I can paint the red. The "axle holes" on the skis have been trimmed a bit to let the spats drop down close enough. Will likely add a bit of sprue to strengthen the join.

Tamiya Desert yellow on upper surfaces:



Tamiya NATO green splotches freehanded, they look greener in person.



This also doubles as an exercise to see how happy I'd be with these colours & freehanding an Italian "splotch" camo.

MM Duck Egg Blue for the undersides.

Green spots only:


Green + brown spots:


Green + brown spots + future:

Yellow tips painted on the prop blades:


The skis, painted metal in this case from what I've seen, have been painted in Testors enamels, 7parts flat white, 1 part aluminum. Should give them a slightly different sheen than the full-on flat white. (the actual attachment plate area will be getting dirty aluminum.)


Humbrol flat red is my favourite for most "military red" applications, good colour depth without looking like a race car.


Second coat of Model Master "duck egg blue" applied by brush. Still slightly streaky - perfect, weathering already started!


Annnnnnd.... DECALS!! I pulled "white 8" from the Special Hobby Seversky sheet, assuming it was a safe number. I couldn't have gone double-digits on this one anyway as the 8 barely fits on the rudder. Still need to add the smaller 8s to the cowling and the underside roundels. Other than the digits, all decals are straight off the Italeri sheet. Thicker compared to the Special Hobby decals, but they seem to behave just fine.

Roundels on the wing undersides and ID#s on the cowling. Future coated various bits & pieces. Brush-painted the small yellow panel near the tail on the underside. Cleaned up the struts etc but left them attached to the sprue at one point, so I don't lose track of which part # each is. Gave them a first brush-coat of the duck egg blue.



Red spinner + spats hit with a coat of Future...



Engine not installed yet, just dry-fitting the cowling. (same with the spats)

OK, so, recap time. Krylon ultra-matt for the primer. Tamiya acrylics for the topside Italian-style camo colours. sealed up with Future, decals applied. Decals sealed with another coat of Future. Decals masked with GOOD poster-tac, from Germany. One application of hairspray. Thin patches/streaks & overall dusting using Tamiya flat white with a drop of buff...

Problem #1 - don't think I used enough hairspray? Or maybe I pussed out on scrubbing any harder, afraid that I'd damage the whole thing somehow??

Problem #2 - apparently, my sealing coat of Future missed a spot. (Good news, it was NOT one of the roundels.)

Yep, the last bit of putty I removed looked like this:


Meaning the "9" now looks like this:

I'll dig around, I've gotta have some black digits from something that I can assemble the missing pieces with.

Happy with the overall effect so far, even without the hairspray thing having much effect. I'm calling this a late-winter application that has started to wear allover. Some streaking & highlights with the weathering pastels should help, and allow me to get in closer to the markings on the fuselage as well.

OK, so this was the situation after all the masking putty came off. All decals survived except one of the "9"s. Bothersome, but at least I don't have to replace/repair a tre kronor.



Airfix decals to the rescue! (wait, did that *** just say Airfix decals to the rescue?) YES!! Airfix decals to the RESCUE!!!!



Took one of the "0"s from 004, snipped it into corners that I could use to complete the digit:


The tail on the newly rebuilt 9 is a touch long, I touched it up with a dab of the sand paint.

$5USD worth of quarters verifying that my wings are properly spaced after having the 4 central braces added. Letting that set a bit before handling again this evening.

Annnnnnd the spots that'll be harder to hide, dead-centre in the pics:


Second pic is kinda blurry, same deal as on the other side.


So - a crop of CA in the mounting hole, a drop at the spot where the strut actually makes contact now, some touchup paint.

That air inlet along the bottom, HAS only one way to slot in there, so I put that on ahead of the undercarriage. When I went to add those gear braces... mis-aligned? Tilted it, glued it, let it set & (after this pic) sanded down the bump & filled in the gap. Weird. Blaming that on the lizard too.


Took the pic, THEN realized I haven't yet added the manufacturer's badges to the prop blades.


I see a little touchup is required on that exhaust stub.

I'm liking this.

A unique and very cool scheme! Awesome build Vance!

Very nice. Some Italeri kids are so nice and others are a bear

This one is a REALLY nice kit overall, good detail, 6 solid markings options, the only build issue was really my lack of experience with biplanes. The forward cowling in 2 pieces is a bit of a head-scratcher but certainly no deal-killer. Recommended!

Wow, looks great Vance! Love the red cowling and spats, and despite your problems with the whitewash I love how it came out in the end.