Starfighter

Excellent work, mate! I can't wait to see it in the flesh!

Looks great! I'd say you changed to the fast lane and passed me lightning fast... Your model makes me want to get back to mine. Excellent work!

Two standard config Tamiya sets for me, Ali!

Absolutely exquisite, Derek!

Almost no progress at the moment due to a severe lack of time... the rear of the fuselage requires a bit more attention, but we're getting there. The transition between fuselage and wings was pretty complex to design but I think I finally got ir more or less right.

You are welcome. The Rhino ones are one-part intakes. No idea about the GT ones; having seen some of their other parts, I am not going to spend any money on their intakes.

I don't have any for sale but I have some information - the DMold ones are restocked from time to time and the concept seems to ease painting, but the parts dont fit that well, causing a step between the front part and the intake trunks. The Rhino ones are one-part intakes which makes painting more difficult; the problem with them is the fact that the mesh pattern is not properly molded. I will probably use Eduard PE meshes on the Rhino intakes.

This one is not forgotten either. I have put quite some effort into the previously printed fuselage - i.e. hours of sanding to tweak the shape - but I decided it would make much more sense to redo the entire aircraft from scratch. As you may remember, I was lucky to get my hands on drawings use by the Grumman model shop to build their own in-house Greyhound scale models which I will be using for my model. Those probably the most accurate references one can obtain at the moment as the factory drawings of the real thing are still pretty much secret as the Greyhound is still in active service. The aim is to obtain surfaces as close to perfection as possible. This requires many individual sketches and a lot of tweaking. The Greyhound fuselage is defined by many characteristic curves which need to be spot on to capture the look of the real a/c. The experience gained with the Vigi (which will be finished as well!) has helped a lot. The engine nacelles will be fun as well - but they will come in handy for my Hawkeye (which is still sitting on the shelf of doom as well...).

That is a true work of art!

Happy Birthday!

Great work so far! But, if I may, do yourself a favour and get an all-metal landing gear. I know from experience that the kit landing gear does not support the weight of the model as time passses. My first Hornet was sitting on its tail after several years.

Absolutely brilliant, Derek!

Involves labour is close to 0. They just close a turn gate before injecting the parts . This cuts off the parts which are not required.

Printed clear parts need a lot of attention, at least the ones I did so far. Here's a little comparison between the part coming from the printer (with supports removed) and an identical part after several weeks of sanding and polishing.

Nothing too special - an italian Tornado IDS for a magazine. No idea how I got myself into building something like that... but it's fun, actually.