Hobbyboss’ 1/48 IAR-80: Another Gem In The Making

After I’d sung the praises of how nice the Hobbyboss Hawk Mk. 200 kit was, it dawned on me that this IAR-80 is right up there with it in terms of being a fun, trouble free build.

I wanted a more dramatic, over-the-top paint look, and I’m pretty happy with what I’ve achieved so far. The undersides are Tamiya XF-23, with carious shading and fading. The uppers were painted XF-52 and a mix of XF61 and XF-3. What followed was a series of experiments in fading, shading, blending coats, more shading and fading, and finally a cost that is best described as a “filter”, to end up with the result shown here. It was more steps than needed to achieve the finish, truth be told. But, I did learn how to correct blunders made early on in the finishing process and pull out a half decent result…. 🙂

Some very colorful decals are the next step!