and other artistic stuff
It took me about a week to build this kit. After the decals was done, I could assemble landing gears and all other stuff that should go on.
I let the plane sit upside down over night to be sure the glue for the gears would have set. So today I could take pics of the finished build.
Onto the next build! 🙂
With little more than a week left on the Airfix groupbuild, I decided to have a go at this old kit.
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.
There was a few ejector pin marks to sort, and I also added some weight and painted the inside of the covers.
The fuselage went together well.
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.
I forgot to take a few pics, so after the underside was painted, I masked it for the next colour.
Topside freshly 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.
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.
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.
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.
Got these two kits today.
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.
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.
Jumping a bit, but the leading edge needed some attention too.
Some sanding sorted that out.
Off with the tabs!
Rods added to the wing halves.
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.
After some adjusting, I got the first wing in place.
Quite ugly on the underside though.
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.
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.
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.
I’ve also started re-scribing the wings. Not many panel lines to re-scribe, so it should be a pretty quick job.
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.
I did a wash and then some minor dirtying down in the cockpit. I think I’ll leave it at that.
There are 2 decals for the small black side panels. I haven’t decided if I wanna use them yet.
I used Magic Sculpt to add details to the ugly kit stick.
Hopefully I didn’t make it worse. Perhaps a tad bit large.
I also made new rudder pedals from plastic. Here glued and painted.
Control stick painted. I also added some bits of plastic to raise it somewhat.
The instrument panel was painted.
Then I painted the upper parts in black and added instrument decals.
Then I did a test fick of the whole cockpit.
With some wash and dirtying down I think it’ll look alright. At least a lot better than the things the kit provided.
Now I need to decide what to do with the “sight”. Next I think cockpit will be done and inserted into the fuselage.
I repainted the seats and now they look like this.
I got 2 decals to sort for the seats, and then wash and some dry brushing.
The upper rear part of the body was a bit fiddly go get in place as part of it fits in a slot in the engine cover. I decided to get the underside to sit nicely first.
With the underside right, the topside has a small gap, but I think I can push it in place and glue with liquid glue.
According to the instructions, the exhaust pipes are supposed to go in now, but I’ll wait until after the plane is painted.
Putting the front gear bay into place was a bit of a struggle. Partly due to the struts poking out from the bay. Now both are broken. Have to glue them back later.
The struts poking out from the main gear bays are also easy to break, and I think it would have been possible to glue them later. Not so with the front gear bay.
After that I glued the fuselage halves. No great problem with the fit, and I think most of it will be sorted with minor sanding. I had to glue it bit by bit, but quite easy with liquid glue.
The HUD consists of 2 parts of PE that is glued together with the glass pieces, and then glued to the sight. But I decided to glue the etch in place and then paint all in black. Hopefully I can fit the glass later.
Next I’ll sort the canopy and other stuff.