and other artistic stuff
Today we went to the large mall called Gekås or Ullared. I think I haven’t been there for 20 years or so. Quite a lot od people, but not as many as I’ve heard there could be when it’s crowded. I got myself a Bob Marley mug, 2 blues harps, a capo, a songbook, and I’ve heard that they possibly had model kits, so I had to check their toys sektion, and what I found was three different kits, so I got one of each! 🙂
Not much to choose from, but I’m happy! Could be fun builds! 🙂
I tried to mask the inside of the canopy and front glass, but gave up and decided to only mask the outside.
To be ready for putting the canopy in place, I had to sort a few other things. First I put decals on the ejection seats.
Then I glued the sight/HUD display.
I gave the seats a wash and then both seats and interior got a light dry brush with grey primer.
I forgot to take a pic of that before I glued the canopy parts in place.
Then I painted the frames with grey primer.
I decided to go with the open fuel probe.
These three holes on the bottom confused me a bit as the instructions told nothing about them. I realized that they are for a mid pylon that isn’t used on the ECR model.
I found a rod that was close, drilled some and glued in place.
After it had dried, I cut them even, sanded a bit and then filled with some putty.
I’ll sand that down, and then it’s soon getting ready for paint. I just need to cover the inside of the intakes, air brakes and the wheel bays.
I think it’s ok to add all small antennas and other stuff later.
The tail fin was glued in place!
All in all parts seems to fit quite well, and the fin only needed a little putty and sanding.
While handling the plane I accidently knocked off one of the stabilizors. So now it was time to sort this problem somehow. My options as I see it was either to glued them in a fixed position or find something better than the current rod system.
My idea was to find a tube and a rod that fit snuggly into each other, and by chance I had saved a few lollipop sticks that is hollow, and then I noticed that my ordinary wooden tooth pics fit very well.
After removing the kit rod, I could put the lollipop stick in place and glue it, and I also drilled the stabs and glued tooth pics instead of the old mechanism.
I also did the same thing with the broken pylon.
Stabilizers in place.
I’ve also painted some of the load out with black primer.
By the looks of it they need some more attention to look good, and then some more primer.
Next will be sorting the canopy so I can start priming and painting the plane.
The exhaust pipes got a darker colour and some dry brushing inside.
I took a pic on the exhaust to more clearly show the darker colour.
Some putty was applied on the seams around the body and intakes.
My idea was to remove the excess a while later with cotton buds and etylacetate, but it got late, and I think now a sander is the only way! I just dread the work re-scribing all the panel lines.
I’m also having a bit of a problem with the seam in front of the wing keeps breaking up. Maybe adding a bit of thin plastic will remove some of the tension.
Lastly I tried tire black on the tires.
On the pic it’s quite recently painted and looks more like a tire on a WW2 aircraft. Looks like it darkens a bit when totally dry. Not sure if need to add some black to the mix.
The seams on the front fuselage part is now sorted to my satisfaction!
I continued painting the exhaust parts. This time with a mix of steel and brown.
Not quite happy with that as I think it needs to be a lot darker colour to create that burnt look I’m after. I’ll do a test with a darker metal colour and perhaps more or darker brown.
I started using putty to get the weights in place, but that got too tedious, so I decided to use white glue instead. I poured some into the nose after having glued the radar in place.
Then I dropped the rest of the weights and then some more glue to cover them.
Typically there was small gaps in some places around the radar were the glue could and did seap out, and I think it took 2 days for it to cure enough to stop seaping out.
After removing excess glue and touching up the radar, I could finally glue the front to the main frame. In the process, I accidently broke off one pylon. Somehow I have to sort that later. Maybe I fix the wings and pylons in one position later.
I took a pic of the pile above the plane, with all the missiles and other parts that I’m working on while other things is drying, not realizing until afterwards how much of the pile that could be seen in the pic above. Anyway here’s the pile again! 🙂
Not quite happy with the inside of the intake so I applied a little more putty that needs to be sanded and polished, and painted again to look good. Then they’re going on as well.
I’ll check all seams and also see if I can re-scribe missing panel lines. Then it’s time to add everything needed before painting with the black primer that also will double as the body colour.
The front wheel bay was glued to the bottom of the cockpit tub and then the whole thing was glued in place into the front fuselage halves that was glued together. Everything but the seats was glued in place.
The intake fans got a black oil wash.
The wings was connected, aligning the cogs.
Putty was applied to the fuselage seams.
Stabilizers was connected and put in place in the main body.
Then it was time to do the same with the wings, which took a bit of adjustment to fit in place.
Then the upper fuselage half was glued in place.
It wasm’t entirely easy to get the seams even, and they’ll need some work with putty and sanding to look right.
The exhaust parts was painted black.
The front fuselage needed some more putty as well as some parts for the intakes and air brakes.
The sander starter set I ordered arrived yesterday.
Maybe no bearing on this build more than that I started using some of them. I really liked the skinny ones as they made it easier to sand areas where the larger ones wouldn’t fit.
Some of the exhaust parts got a cote of steel and here’s a pic of the parts I’m working with at the moment, that needs to be done before I can progress further with the build.
Some putty was added to the fuselage seams.
I guess it’ll need more than that to look good. Working with the seams is a bit hard as the stabilizers and wings are in the way. I just hope I can avoid breaking anything!
I started building this kit for a tiger meet and special markings group build on Facebook.
I guess the big challenge with this one will be the painting and tiger meet decals. I’ve never done that before, and certainly not on a big model like this.
I started by assembling some of the cockpit parts.
Like all good tv-chefs I have already prepared and done the entire cockpit! 🙂
That’s actually for my stalled RAF Tornady, which I might pick-up while I’m at it.
Next step was to paint some dark grey.
The idea was to create some kind of pre-shade. Then everything was painted in a light grey.
I don’t think I managed to make the pre-shade show very much.
While getting the front fuselage halves from their sprue, I realized that there was two more instrument panels, and after checking I noticed I’d taken the wrong set.
There are minor differences, and luckily I managed to sort that in time. Now they only needed some paint.
After painting light grey, some details was picked out in black and the seats was painted with a darker grey on the side frames, then masked and painted in a different grey.
The cover between the front and rear seat was painted, and the seats masked and painted green.
With the tape removed it looked like this!
The instrument panels got some decals.
For some reason some of the decals wouldn’t fit with the dials on the plastic, so I had to cut them apart, and some decals seemed to be better fit with the panels I shouldn’t use. I opted them out.
After painting some more details and adding a clear cote, I did a black oil wash on the tub.
The radar nose parts was painted black.
Then I turned my attention to the wings and movable pylons.
Maybe due to the movability the fit isn’t optimal.
The instructions calls for 55g of weight in the nose. Here measured in a lid.
Some hours later the excess wash was wiped off.
Some more weathering done and the panels got a clear cote
I decided to use the pylons as they are without trying to create something to make them move along with the wings.
The panels got the same wash treatment and the body section with intake fans was painted.
The radar got some details painted in aluminium and was then assembled.
The wash on the panels was wiped off.
Then some dry brushing with white was done.
The seats got details painted by hand.
I need to touch up somewhat and add a few more details to the seats and also some decals.
Next will be building the cockpit and inserting that and wheel well into the front fuselage. I’ll also start assembling the main body and wings.
If I am to believe the instructions, it’s only the Gulf war version who has those “danger” markings on the sides of the head rest. Have to check!
Anyway, the seats can go in later and the cockpit was fitted into the front fuselage halves and glued in place.
A bit fiddly and I had to glue one bit at a time. For some reason there’s a gap between the front panel and coaming. Have to carefully fill it with plastic or putty. Hard to sand where it’s already painted.
I’ll sand and check all seams, and use putty where needed.
The wings have gears and turnable pylons, but as it is now the pylons can turn any direction, and really don’t sit very tight.
On the 1/48 kit there’s a mechanism to turn both pylons at the same time. I wonder why they didn’t do that on this one?
Maybe they thought of it afterwards.
The cockpit is more or less done and can be fitted into the fuselage halves.
As the plane is standing on the ground with engine off, I decided to omit the instrument decals and instead have blank screens.
A few decals for the seats still needs to be added. Other than that the cockpit is ready for the next step.
I started by painting everything black.
Then most parts got a cote of Dk gull grey, and then I added a few drops of white and made another pass to break it up a bit.
Then I started painting details.
The seats will have more colours and some more details will be added to the panels as well as instrument decals.