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Death dealing Bug!


karimb

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Hello girls and boys!

 

As some of you may know on the forum, my mom left us last January after a long battle with cancer. I have lost my best friend, my guiding beacon and above all a mother who was always there for all of us, even at the end. I try to find solace in the fact she surely is in a better place where suffering and sickness do not exist... I have stopped modeling after that, i kept feeling locked in my thoughts sitting at the bench alone. I had to adapt and reorganise my everyday life, trying to figure out how to explain things to my 4 year old daughter, figuring out how to be able to be there for dad and keep this family from drifting apart and juggling with being an expat and being a pilot flying for an airline. Thankfully life has been kind to me and i have managed to get home every month for at least a week to see the little one and dad and my sister's family. I have also realised that i was wasting precious moments i could and should be spending with everyone while i was back in Beirut instead of spending time at the bench. Lightbulb moment. Actually i had been going over the logistical nightmare of setting up a workshop in Qatar for a long while... i decided to take the dive and set up shop there. The major problem is there is NO modeling scene in doha, no shops, no supplies NOTHING. So i took my time amassing tools that i bought off on ebay, stuff i managed to move in my luggage every time i flew back. Two kits at a time, am resin stuff, sanders scribers the whole lot. The only missing thing was the paint. I managed to get my whole 400 pots of paint shipped by airfreight under a 'dangerous good' label and that alone took me two months and cost me an arm and a leg. Bottom line, i now have transformed a whole room into a real workshop! my very own workshop! I had wanted to do this every since i got back to modeling a couple of years ago but never had the chance as space was very limited in Beirut and here in doha i have a three bedroom apartment all to myself...

Now, i can work everyday at the bench, even if it is only for one hour between flying and grabbing some shuteye. On days off, being summer and the temperature hovering around the mid 50C outside, i also manage to pull half day stretches at the bench before going out for lunch or dinner or the movies with my friends. This arrangement also allows me to spend my whole time and focus on my daughter and my loved ones when i get to go home. I am happy, everybody is happy, and i keep myself occupied while i have no flying and i am in doha. Occupied in a constructive way! 

I had never used ebay before this year and to be honest i have found it to be like a fountain of rare kits, kits i could not find, exotic stuff...my goodness you can find everything you need on it. I even managed to get gaianotes stuff. I have also found a way through a shipping intermediary to have everything delivered to a pobox physical adress in the states (and another 14 physical addresses sprinkled throughout the globe) and the shipper forwards it to me here. I have stuff rolling in every week. I am a happy boy now...

 

Well now that everyone is up to speed on where i am in life, i present to you the first model that comes out of my doha workshop...

 

From the little notes i scribbled and what i remember here are the vitals for this kit:

 

The kit is Academy's F/A-18D "night attack" at 1/32 scale (kit #12103). The kit in itself is really nice as i am sure all of you know. Alot of reviews of it are floating on the net if you want to know more of the goods and bads of this kit. One thing of note are the sinkmarks on the front fuselage halves and on the spine. those need to be filled and smoothed out. I also rescribed part of the kit to properly reflect the aircraft i have modeled. I opened up the meshed areas on the top and bottom part of the aft section of the fuselage and replaced them with fine meshing from an old tamiya AFV (spares box).

Another area of the kit that is not up to par is the intakes. Alot has been written about them and not wanting to go down the reshaping and sanding route, i replaced those...

Aftermarket that has been thrown on this kit is substantial (and was the start of a never ending spending spree filling up the resin box on the storage cabinet. Thank you ebay!).

The intakes are produced my Rhino and come in white (which is very helpful as you need to only mask the area when its time to paint). The intakes took quite some work to get blended in with the rest of the fuselage, i dont know if it was from my own doing, or if it was because of the misalignment due to the Aires wheelbays. Talking about the wheelbays, I have used the Aires offering for the nose and mains. The mains took some work to get done the nose bay was a drop in fit and only required a bit of sanding and trimming. The problem with the main wheel bays is that aires has the locating pins for the landing gear legs drilled at an angle which would have the gear skewed. you have to carefully drill the pins vertically and then reinforce the pins when you install the main gear. I used slow curing epoxy to have a really strong bond and have the gear legs aligned properly. 

I also used Rhino nozzles. I had the aires closed ones but decided to keep those for the next FA18 build i have someday down the line (to which i already have amassed all the aftermarket i want). Some guys out there say that the circumference of the aires nozzles is too small, the Rhino ones are a bit bigger. I noticed there is actually a step between the fuselage and the nozzles from the photos i have seen but of course i might be mistaken.

The cockpit is academy, except for the seats which are produced by quickboost. The seats themselves are very cleanly moulded and you get a paint guide on the back of the QB pack which helps out along with the references you may use. The canopy was another issue. I drilled the rails as i saw in the reference material i had (i used DACO's Uncovering the F18). I also added the cameras on the right and left side of the rail. i used styrene and wiring for that. I used AK's new gauzy glass shine. I wasnt very impressed. The front canopy came out fine with no bubbles (i brushed them slowly off in two dippings) the main canopy was another issue due to its size. Tried to dip in two halves but impossible to get good results. When i tried to removed the stuff that's when things went horribly wrong. I tried lacquer thinners, alcohol nothing...then i tried acetone for the heck of it just to see if it would work (canopy was dump by then) nothing. Received a replacement canopy from a seller on ebay a couple of days later. That one was polished with the Novus system and shined and left as is. I also used Reheat photoetched mirrors as the kit ones looked horribly out of scale. I also used some the Eduard etch on the outside but very selectively as i kept the brunt of it for the next kit.

Thats for construction...

Painting and weathering:

I used mostly Tamiya and Gunze for the paint. The colours were mixed from the FS callouts using a nifty app i have on the iphone and adjusted accordingly for real life.

I went all out on weathering although i know a lead aircraft would never get so dirty, but i needed the exercise to get back in the grove of things. i am very happy with the results though. I started with Doug's black basing technique to get tonal variation. I also used the salt chipping technique which i find works really well on two tone grey aircraft. Furthermore i used AK's light chipping fluid on selective areas. For panel lines i used Florymodels clay wash and AK's paneliners. General grime and dirt was done using Abteilung oils, AK oils, MIG pigments and Winsor and newton oils.

Lastly the decals, i used Flying Leathernecks's Chesty P sheet which has enough for 4 aircraft. I bought this sheet because it contains the beautiful 'death dealer' aircraft. I used Microsol/Microset combo to get the decals to snuggle down but they barely did, then i used Walther's Solvaset and the Death dealer decal specifically disintegrated in a couple of places so i had to touch those up with paint. Oh well!

Flat coat used was AK's Ultra matte coat.

If i can recall right, i havent forgotten any of the major points in the build...

Since then i have built another 1/32 aircraft (my mule for the WW1 endeavours i am about to embark on. WW1 subject have sparked my love for airplanes again but more on that in another post) A scifi subject which i will post in non lsp at some other date, and my first 1/9 bust figure (that was a super steep learning curve lol)....

 

I am happy to be back amongst all you guys (and girls) here on the forum and am looking forward to many more posts and a work in progress in the near future

 

As always please do leave your criticisms good and bad as i haven't been back in the saddle for quite a while now

here comes my old catchphrase,

 

Stay safe and happy modeling everyone!

Karim

 

Below some photos of the workshop annotated, next post will be of the kit. MANY of them :-D

 

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My friend, I am pleased to hear you have finally recieved some peace in your life. Yes such things are life changing and affect us all in different ways. We each must learn how to guide our lives in the direction that  gives us the most pleasure as well as structure and mental health. Sounds like your on the right tract. I wish only happiness for you and yours. Now.. I am jealous of your "shop". Very well put together ! What are you working on ? Hope to see your work soon.....Harv

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My condolences, Loosing someone close is hard, I know, But I am glad that you are back in the saddle again.

I think the you nailed that F-18 on the spot! I like the weathering and color balance. Great work.

Edited by Mr scale32
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My friend, I am pleased to hear you have finally recieved some peace in your life. Yes such things are life changing and affect us all in different ways. We each must learn how to guide our lives in the direction that  gives us the most pleasure as well as structure and mental health. Sounds like your on the right tract. I wish only happiness for you and yours. Now.. I am jealous of your "shop". Very well put together ! What are you working on ? Hope to see your work soon.....Harv

 

 

Hey Harv it's good to hear from you my friend... and thank you for the wishes. it impresses me every day how resilient we humans are when the going gets tough we pull through and always look forward albeit the pulling through is very very painful...

Thanks for the thumbs up on the shop buddy, its a small room i call my own. I can read in it and can relax and i can build. Specially when i dont feel like sitting in the living room watching telly...

I finished the trumpeter mig 3 in wood and camo as a trial run for the wnw kits i have bought. for some reason i got really sucked into the ww1 vortex lol. i bought two albatrosses one hisso, the felixstowe and the HPH macchi m5. super sexy sleek flying boat. its like ww1 gave me a new spark to build again, all the new techniques the rigging the wood etc, so i am looking forward to it. Also build a very old Nitto kit from Maschinen krieger call the PAK Krote, did a small vignette out of it with some tamiya 1/35 stuff. very simple. Also finished today my first bust. Buddy that was a steep learning curve, but i am happy with the outcome. Started painting it out like you would paint a tank, but i soon found out it doesnt work that way hahaha....

you know what i might as well post the mig now in RFI lol

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My condolences, Loosing someone close is hard, I know, But I am glad that you are back in the saddle again.

I think the you nailed that F-18 on the spot! I like the weathering and color balance. Great work.

 

Mr Scale32, thank you for your thoughts...i am happy to be back in the saddle again and i am glad you like how she turned out!

thanks again for leaving a word

 

Karim

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karim, first of all my sincere condolences to you and your family, and my congratulations on your Bug build, AND i'm impressed by your working spot, your man cave abroad, try to keep it neat and tidy will ye...... :hmmm: :innocent: :wicked:

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My condolences mate, i lost my father in may this year, so i know you're feelings my friend, losing a parent is losing a part of yourself, and thing's changes forever. So i'm glad you picked up the hobby again and start building.

 

That Hornet is just spot on, beautiful painted and wheatered, congrats mate. :speak_cool:

 

Greetz

 

Danny

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Karim, good to see you back at work!! So sorry to hear about your Mum, these events always leave a huge hole in our lives, but while hurt does eventually subside, the memories never loose their sweetness.  It is all part of life...

 

Your workshop/office/home looks the business!! I managed to build a shed/studio for my hobby a few years ago, and already it is completely full of, STUFF!!! But it is MY stuff, I can leave it where I like and it will all still be in the same place when I come back. Oh, joy!!!  But you are already way ahead with finishing the Hornet. I still have at least 4 projects partially built, nothing near finished. You inspire me to focus, focus, focus!! I really have run out of any meaningful excuse now!

 

Hornet looks splendid, by the way, as does that display case. 

 

Now, if I only had a display case like that..........

 

Tim

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