James H

I've assembled the majority of the Natter. Just need to add the canopy, boosters, and a few small detail parts. Work has now started on painting the canopy to receive its wood and copper parts, and the stand is now base coated in Gunze Flesh. Hope you like:

That's got to be BIG in this scale Great looking work so far.

I'll be sending these onto Jeroen for his kit. I'm sure he'll be as thrilled with them as I was to receive and review them.

Soon Padawan.....

....piece of piss! Uschi decal? Soft pencil demarcation and strips made up from a combination of Knotless rich and pale decal.

Apart from the canopy, the whole airframe is now decaled! The wingtips, and even that pesky nose ring. Yes, it is enough!

I've used both, and Mr Mark Setter does seem a little more suited to the job for moulding things. I think this proved it. I no longer have Microsol to check though.

I was seriously worried about decaling the wingtips and tail tips etc. Some high octane compound curves there, BUT, I tried tonight and with Mr Mark Setter, and Uschi's decals mould like clay around them. Took me about 20 minutes to do the upper sides. I'll leave to set, then go for gold with the under sides.

More wood than a Ron Jeremy film here.

Awesome! THIS I like very much. I'll try to sort you with the extra info you need. There's something about these sort of builds which is real appealing.

1:32 Sopwith Snipe Post-War RAF Pheon Decals Catalogue # 32043 Available from Pheon Decals for £15.00 Pheon Decals, whilst not a new name on the scene, certainly are new with regards to their products appearing on Scale Plastic & Rail/Large Scale Modeller. For Pheon's debut here, they have sent two sets from their new 1:32 releases, and today we publish the first of these, concerning the Wingnut Wings Sopwith Snipe 'Late' release, which we reviewed here. I'd heard some great things about Pheon, and indeed seen a number of models finished with their decals, so I was quite excited to see the decal quality and presentation that has now become synonymous with their releases, for myself. There's no doubt that this slightly larger than A4 size ziplock wallet is quite hefty with content, unlike most 1:32 decal releases, so without any further ado, let's take a look inside and see what you get for your money. This Sopwith Snipe Post-War RAF set has options for no less than ELEVEN schemes; all of which are based on the classic post-war silver dope finish. If the usual post-war chequer-board schemes are a little run of the mill for you, but you still want your model to have that attractive doped aluminium appearance, then Pheon have researched and presented some both varied and unusual options which are undoubtedly going to appeal to silver wing fans. Before I open this set, Pheon has attached a note to the package which states that a serial number for one of the schemes has been inadvertently omitted from the sheet, but will be forwarded on to the customer as soon as they arrive back from the printers. We'll certainly not let that spoil our enjoyment here, as we see exactly what's on offer. A colour-printed A4 insert is used as the cover sheet for this set, with all eleven profiles being printed in small scale for quick reference. Inside the package, a further THREE sheets present these profiles, but printed in a larger scale, and in full colour on high grade, glossy photographic quality paper. This is something I have never seen before, and I have definitely not seen profiles produced to this standard, with perhaps the exception of the Ronny Bar profiles which accompany the Wingnut Wings decal sets. Along with the port side profiles, a number of wing plans are given which aid the positions of various bars and panels, as well as any other decal placement. The profile sheets have no notation on them which refer to either decal number identification or machine history. With this set, decal numbering isn't used as it's pretty obvious where the individual decals need to be placed, and the profiles are to such as high standard that you can easily follow panel and wing rib locations to ensure that you place your decal precisely. As for the machine histories and reference material, here I find something else which I have never seen outside of Pheon Decals, namely an instruction manual totaling 12 pages! This is printed on regular A4 paper, folded into an A5 format. The first three pages relate to the history of the Sopwith Snipe, through its development and wartime service. Reference to the failed Dragonfly radial engine which caused a number purpose designed aircraft projects to be shelved, is mentioned. The stop-gap Snipe saw service beyond its intended life, and into the post-war period. Pheon have thoughtfully included an extensive list of the reference material they have used for the development of this decal set, with acknowledgements too. It seems Rowan wants to see a WNW Gloster Grebe. I have to concur that that would certainly be a welcome addition. Hopefully Richard Alexander is reading this, or indeed the Pheon booklet. Each numbered scheme has some notation printed too, including colour and marking information detail, and any other relevant notes, plus a little history. These aren't comprehensive histories of the machine by plane and pilot, but serve as useful reference for the individual aircraft's markings. Accompanying this section are a number of colour walkaround images and also some period images of the Snipe. A couple of colour Grebe profiles are thrown in for good measure too, just in case Richard is indeed looking in. There is a little notation included for the rationale behind printing the cockade centers' as separate decals, as well as general information on applying the decals. Setting solutions aren't recommended, but MicroSol Blue is suggested in order to allow the decal to float properly until it is finally positioned. The schemes included in this release are: E6655, "B" Flight, 1 Sqn, Hinaidi, Iraq, 1925. P/O Dermot Boyle E6942, "A" Flight, No.3(F) Sqn, RAF Manston, 1924 F2441, 111 Sqn, Duxford, 1924 F2408, 23 Sqn, Henlow 1925/6 E6268, 32 Sqn, Kenley, 1924 F2527, 111 Sqn, "A" Flight Commander, Duxford, 1924 E7538, 19 Sqn, Duxford, December, 1924 E8358 "Bonzo", No.1 School of Technical Training (No.1 SofTT), RAF Halton, 1923 E7528, 25(F) Sqn, San Stefano, Constantinople during the Chanak Crisis, September, 1922 E6825, 41 Sqn, Northolt, 1923 E7423, 25(F) Sqn, Hawkinge, 1923/4 The decals A single sheet of decals are included, roughly A4 in size. Printed by Fantasy Printshop, the sheet includes the majority of national markings (both individual and as part of fuselage décor), serials and personal machine markings for 'Bonzo'. Fuselage tail bands are included as well as vertical fin markings for E6268. You will of course need to use a number of standard decals from the Wingnut Wings sheet, to complement those on this release. Where there are similar decals for both port and starboard, these 'handed' decals are signified by a 'L and 'Rt' symbol (left and right). The various decals are tightly packed onto this sheet, with only the serial numbers being given an identifying number for the machine, and included within their own print box. The decals are superbly printed, beautifully thin, and with minimal carrier film. Having used decal setting solutions with Fantasy Printshop products, I can concur that MicroSol Blue does work very well on them. If you do plan to use any other solutions, use a test decal on some scrap plastic first. Registration is perfect and the inked edges are sharp. Conclusion It is true that you really have to look around to find silver-doped schemes that have some individuality to them, but I think this is just what Pheon have succeeded in doing here with this superb array of 11 varied machines. There are probably two or three of these that I would like to build myself, and combined with the informative instruction booklet and excellent glossy colour profiles, this seems more of a complete package than I would otherwise expect to see. As I said, this is a first time for me looking at Pheon Decals, and now I know exactly what I've been missing. Very highly recommended James H Our sincere thanks to Pheon Decals for the review sample used here. To purchase directly, click THIS link. (Note, website will be fully active soon, so please contact Pheon via the details on their site)

Holy crap! This is modelling nirvana for me. Seriously, many thanks for sharing these here. Many thumbs up!

That looks just amazing. The best images I've seen of this so far, and that PC10 looks superb. I give you ONE WEEK to rig this, seriously

Gotta do those wingtips yet

I've been decaling all weekend. There is a pile of used decal paper which is mountainous, right next to the rows of empty drink cans that have sustained me. Here are the results of the work so far, just before I started to add wood nail decals.... I've also used dual layers of wood grain decal on the control surfaces to create a distinction. Not particularly authentic, but serves the purpose of this project.

Thanks for this one Nick. I work in a science-based job and use Sodium Hydroxide all the time (caustic soda), and I never thought of using it to strip paintwork. Your effort seems to show it works totally. Very impressive. I think I'll use this method in future. Remember....try not to get this stuff in your eyes as the alkaline properties will attack the eye's chemistry quite badly.

Great possibilities for static and flying models.

Nick, Thanks for posting this. It's invaluable. I'll try to copy this later this year as it will come in very useful. Got to be the best instructional I've seen for this yet.

What a great subject, and in 1:32! Do you have any CAD to show us too? Thanks for sharing Petr.

Adorning this with wooden plumes is certainly plenty of work these days, but well worth the effort! There might seem like lots of panels to create, but equivalent, I reckon I can get from a single sheet or so for the fuselage. Yes, it is enough. I'll pour a little Yamazaki whiskey this weekend and do the business!

Two updates in a number of days? Not like me! Ok, I know Uschi says that if you lower the tack on masking tape, then you can take a tape profile of the panel you are decaling, then transfer direct to the decal. My experiences have been poor of that as I tend to lift the decal from the sheet. My way of doing this, which is a little more time intensive, is to mark out the panel on the model, using making tape, then I peel this off and stick to very thin card. A good quality cereal box is what I use. I then take the card template, place it on the decal sheet and trace around it with a fresh scalpel. This is a test piece I did for the Natter. I actually removed/destroyed this afterwards as my intention is to produce all panels as decal parts before I apply them in one session. The reason for that is that I don't want to risk lifting any parts that are stuck down. That would make a serious mess. Anyway......here you go.

No Tamiya paint here....just Gunze, and all shades are already gloss, ready for decaling tonight

It's been a while since I updated here, but you know what it's like. Too much time with much laughter, and enjoying life with fantastic friends Anyway, I've been preparing the Natter for its false plumes by following Uschi's pre-decal paint regime, and despite it taking a day with each of the layers, it's now finally ready to receive the decals. With the fuselage finally buttoned up, I replaced any lost panel line detail with my Mr Hobby scriber and infinite lengths of Dymo Tape. The kit itself didn't have anywhere near enough panel lines to represent the number of wooden panels that the Natter had. Under the regular paintwork, there were far more panels, many of where puttied. All timber was also glued and nailed. I intend to add HGW wood nail decals after the Uschi wood grain decals are added. I removed the pips on the wing roots that aligned the wings to the fuselage. I drilled their positions instead with a drill bit that matched the holes I drilled in the fuselage wing root. This was the same diameter as a cocktail stick. I intended to use one of these for the wing spar. A little real timber to supplement the plastic. Next up, the various assemblies were airbrushed in Gunze 'Flesh' before being heavily pre-shaded in black. Next up was a coat of heavily diluted Flesh. This was to help balance out the base coat and pre-shade. After leaving for 24hrs to dry, Gunze Radome was used to highlight the panel centres, before a balancing coat of heavily thinned Radome helped to balance things out again. If that wasn't enough, Radome was then mixed 50:50 with white, before the same process was repeated. To break things up a little, a few panels were lightly shaded with the original Flesh, again, heavily thinned. I will be using both a mix of pale and rich wood grain decal, but those Flesh tinted panels will help to break things up further. It looks like shit at the moment, but I promise it will come good. I did a couple of decal tests to see how it looked

...you sends yer sample, you gets yer banner I'm starting to use these on the Natter tomorrow evening

Nice review! I might not like NMF, but I quite like the machines with a mix of olive and NMF. I could go for that.