Revell 1/72 Chinook - Unboxing

Every time I open the closet that holds my little stash, there's this little kit that whispers "Build me!" and today I caved in for Revell's 1/72 CH-47 D Chinook (kit number 04419).

It's one of the kits I bought in a second-hand lot of 11 kits, a compressor and my new Aztec airbrush.

Last time, when I started the Panzerjägerwagen, I skipped my usual first step of washing all the sprues in warm water with detergent to remove possible remains of oil or mould release agent. I don't remember why I skipped it, but I regretted it as soon as I started painting. Paint would pool up in bubbles and refuse to cover certain areas.

So, I went back to my normal routine, and gave the sprues a good soak. There's 3 grey sprues and 1 transparent holding the windows and cockpit. There's 132 parts in total.

The black-and-red decals look intimidating. While I'm sure they can be handled by a skilled person, I have had bad experiences with decals bigger than a few centimeter, especially if they need to conform to irregular shapes, so I have already decided in advance to not even try to get these big slabs in place and just paint the red and black area's.

It also helps to just paint them yourself, in case you need to touch up a few small areas that the decal doesn't cover. It's impossible to match the exact colour of the decal with paint.