The Finished Thing:

The Eurofighter is finished! YAY!

For the first try at painting and finishing properly, I don't think it looks too bad.

The matt varnish gives the effect I was looking for - military aircraft aren't usually shiny! - and if you don't look too closely the paint is okay (only a little wobbly in a few places).

Having never put transfers on a model before I can agree with Mr M that they really do add a large amount of detail for not much effort. They give the model a sense of completeness and makes the whole thing look a bit more real, even in miniature!

Even with my dusting mistakes with the varnish, it has given the wanted effect and only in the small cracks where the varnish had pooled was there any discolouration from too much varnish.

All in all this is a nice turn out to this model, and I'm a little proud of it!

Read more about it's progress here:
Putting the transfers on
Varnishing

Starboard Side

Nose Detail

Body Detail

Varnishing The Eurofighter: Enamel versus Acrylic

The time has come for me to varnish my Eurofighter, which I did. But first of all I had to figure out what kind of varnish I would need. This was not as easy as I first thought, as I was confronted with forums upon forums of people arguing that acrylic varnish will ruin everything and enamel is the best and vice versa!

So after a bit of reading up on what is actually in acrylic and enamel varnish, and on how they react with different things I made a decision.

Taped up ready for varnishing

I've painted the Eurofighter with acrylic paint, which is water based. But, most of the other model paint I have is enamel, which is solvent based (why it's more smelly!). So as it turns out the difference between acrylic and enamel varnish is very much the same (Although rumors are there are some varnishes that are labeled as acrylic but are solvent based). The problem comes when the paint under the varnish hasn't dried properly, with acrylic paint you're waiting for the water to evaporate and with enamel the solvent needs to evaporate. So if acrylic varnish has been put over enamel paint before it has had long enough to dry, the solvent will try to evaporate and cannot, and will blister up the varnish layer and then you have to get back to paint stripping and starting all over again. But the same can be said for the opposite way around.

There is a huge camp on either side of the fence here, some people will always use acrylic varnish on EVERYTHING, and the same with enamel varnish. So without being influenced by who is shouting the loudest, it is really down to personal preference. I used enamel varnish, but had waited a few months (not deliberately, but I hadn't got around to it) after painting and a few days after putting the transfers on, to make sure they had dried out properly, before I went putting the first coat of varnish on.

The Eurofighter has now had two lovely coats of matt varnish, and is starting to come together and look quite smart.

Underside with a fresh coat of varnish

One of the things I didn't do before I had taken the varnish to my little aircraft was to clean it of the dust and little bits that had accumulated on it, which Mr M told me wouldn't be a problem - using an aerosol meant that the dust would be blown off. Which sadly wasn't the case for me, and now I seem to have varnished in the dust so it now is permanent, oh well, learn for the future it seems.

Eurofighter Progress

Starting posting about a model most of the way through building it is probably an odd one. But I am proud of this model. It is the first model that I have cared enough to do properly, and it has taken a while to get here.

So for the first time, I've put transfers onto a model, instead of just painting it and hoping for the best. In terms of first tries, I'm pleased, all the transfers came out well, and are positioned in mostly the correct place. I'm currently waiting for the transfers to properly dry out before I go about varnishing the aircraft. Which will be another first. 

I did have to ask for the help of Mr M on this one. The lovely instructions for the transfers simply stated "soak in water and apply to model" which although I understood, wasn't sure of how to go about exactly "soaking in water" and "applying". In my field of work you do everything to the manual, this wasn't helping the perfectionist nature in me!

But with advice from Mr M, who told me in the end everyone has their own way of doing it, and "I guarantee you will mess at least on of them up", which of course I took as a challenge, I did them all. And without hiccup I may add Mr M. 

Cockpit and Canopy with RAF roundel.

Tail, along with serial number and other markings.

Before adding the transfers the pedant in me decided to do the research. I knew that the Eurofighters were flown by Number 29 squadron. One of my lecturers has great joy in telling me the same story over and over again about them. But it was obvious that this roundel was not, Number 29. I soon found out it was Number 17 squadron, which also was a Eurofighter test squadron.

This lead me on to the serial number of the aircraft, ZJ928, and much to my surprise (and enjoyment)  this aircraft was a Eurofighter and had previously been in Number 17 squadron. Very nice.