I cut off the bomb holder rack from the pylons, and glued the pylons in place.
Pylons in place
Struggling with both the airbrushes and Vallejo’s grey primer.
Messy primer
A thorough clean up seemed to have helped the airbrushes, but I kinda gave up on Vallejo’s primer, and used AK’s grey primer instead.
Tried AK’s primer instead
It reavealed a few areas to sort!
Sorting flaws
Hopefully, after sorting the flaws, I can use this primer as the light ghost grey for the underside, and then just paint the 2 remaining upper side colours.
This is the kit I plan to build for the F-16 group build on IPMS Gothenburg.
Boxart
I actually started building this kit many years ago. I think one of the reasons I stopped was because I tried to figure a way to cover the landing gear well bulge inside of the intake. Not entirely an easy task, I’ll see what I’ll do. Perhaps a FOD cover solves the problem. Here’s a pic on what was done then.
Previously built
And here’s the decals I intend to use, if they still work.
Decals
My plan is to start the build after I’ve finished the Tonka I’m working on.
I decided to try and paint different shades of metallic on the wings and the underside, as they vary quite a bit in reality.
Painting metalics started
Masking and painting in sections.
More sections painted
Right now it looks like this!
All sections and wings painted
I might paint some smaller panels in different shades as well, otherwise I’m ready to start masking for the topside camo, now that I got the colours I need.
With little more than a week left on the Airfix groupbuild, I decided to have a go at this old kit.
Lightning F3 boxContents
As this had to be a fairly quick build, I decided not to put too much attention to details. I painted the cockpit black and added some green to seat rest, and painted the pilot.
Cockpit and pilot painted
There was a few ejector pin marks to sort, and I also added some weight and painted the inside of the covers.
Covers and exhaust
The fuselage went together well.
Fuselage glued
I had to tape the front to prevent the white glue from seaping out while drying. I also hade glued wings and prepared the missiles.
Weight added and wings glued
I forgot to take a few pics, so after the underside was painted, I masked it for the next colour.
Masked and ready for paint
Topside freshly painted
Topside painted
As I’m painting with Humbrol, there’s a bit of drying time between each cote. For some reason I didn’t have the proper colours in any other brand.
Here it is fully painted.
Painting done
Next will be a clear cote to prepare for the decals.
The inside of the covers was also repainted, as the ejector pin marks showed too much.
This is a kit I’m building for a group build or SIG for MiG planes. I choose this as a kind of warm up. So far it has taken a bit longer than anticipated.
As can be seen in the instructions it is not many steps and the build was fairly quick. The fit was fairly good, except for the nose which had a slight step that needed some TLC. Also the intakes needed a bit of putty and sanding as well as the underside of the wing joints.
Fuselage and wings assembled.
Someone else on the forum was building the same kit from another boxing, and he pointed out that there was a quite prominent detail missing. After checking pics on the net I tried to sculpt something that looked like whatever it is on top of the nose.
While painting white on some parts for another kit, I painted the missiles.
Missiles painted.
I’ve asked if a friend of mine can use his CAD skills to create a seat, and then hopefully another friend can do one on his printer.
Mirage IIIBE 1/48 boxartMirage IIIE/5 South America 1/48 boxart
Both kits are Mirage from Kinetic, which will be interesting as I never built a Kinetic kit before. The South American one I intend to build in a Latin America GB.
I don’t know what Revell had in mind when they constructed very small tabs for the wing support.
Small tabs for wing support.
So I decided to do something about it to strenghten the joint. By adding tubes that fit into each other, I could get a much better stability.
Plastic tubes.
Jumping a bit, but the leading edge needed some attention too.
Leading edge not matching.
Some sanding sorted that out.
Off with the tabs!
The tabs cut off and sanded.
Rods added to the wing halves.
Rods added to the wings.
Luckily I did a test fit against the fuselage. It turned out the rear wall section was in the way for having a tube going right through as I first had thought. I also accidently shot away half of the smaller tube, and still haven’t found it. I replaced with a piece of sprue that matched the size of the bigger tube (with some minor sanding).
The larger tube also had to be shortened to fit, as I had to use my Dremel to cut part of the wall. I wish I had planned this tube thing before I glued the fuselage. So now there a sprue rod going right through the body in the front part and a short tube in the rear part.
Wing rods and tubes.The wings.
After some adjusting, I got the first wing in place.
First wing in place.
Quite ugly on the underside though.
Quite a gap!
Got a bit of a gap on the underside. By using some mild violence, it is possible to close the gap, at least somewhat, but I think super glue will be neccessary.
Both wings in place, but still some work to do to close the gaps and tidy it up.
Both wings in place!
Next I’ll sort the wing gaps, and then put back the IP and hopefully close the cockpit. I also need to figure if I need to add some weight in the nose.
Insserting the cockpit and rear wall was no problem, but glueing the fuselage took a while, partly due to being made of three parts. A bit wobbly to keep the fuselage together while glueing one section at the time.
Fuselage assembled.
I shouldn’t have glued the canards as Revell suggested, as both broke off, one by one. I have to sort that later and have them in a fixed position. Often pointing downwards when parked. At least from what I can see on walk around pics.
I’ve glued the nose halfs, engine and assembled the radar. Not sure if I’m going to show the radar yet, although the nose can be made movable.
Nose, engine, radar and parts to the front of the intake.
I’ve also started re-scribing the wings. Not many panel lines to re-scribe, so it should be a pretty quick job.
Re-scribing the wing halves.
Next I will assemble the wings and glue them to the body. After sorting the surfaces where the wings will go. Even though the contact area for the wings are pretty large, it seems like the tabs are a tad bit small.