and other artistic stuff
Although the wings are in place, it looks too awful!
I’m not sure what to do with this. The wings look awful!
I think I can make the right wing come up a bit and be straighter, but the other wing looks bent!
This kit is closer to the bin than any other kit ever been!
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 decided to try to make seat belts with Magic Sculpt. So I mixed a small lump and rolled a thin layer on a bit of plastic. Then I let it dry for about 20 minutes before I started cutting stripes with a ruler and a sharp knife.
I then put those stripes where I wanted the belts to go.
A few more details and the seat is ready for paint.
From the start I had decided to build this kit ootb, but after looking at some pictures, I realised that the seat didn’t even look close to the real thing. So I decided to modify it a bit.
I started by removing the side walls from the backrest.
Then I cut of the headrest, and made it thinner. Quite a bit of sawing. Then I cut some side panels for the seat.
The top part of the side panels was cut of and glued to the headrest. Right now it looks a bit ugly, but will look better once I’ve sanded and cleaned up all parts. I did a bit of a test fit.
The side panels are a little too wide and needs to be sanded down a bit to fit and things needs to be straightened out, and the side panels for the backrest will be glued back.
I’ve also done some re-scribing on the fuselage. Not many lines, so it was a fairly quick job. Need to sort a few misses though.
