Starfighter

I have printed the canopy for my S-3B on a Formlabs Form 2 back in the day and the Formlabs clear resin does not yellow over time. Most if not all clear resins compatible with cheaper DLP printers seem to yellow over time.

Thank you guys! Matt, that's indeed another one in the background - this one is going to be an ES-3A once it's done. Did I mention I like esoteric stuff? In the meantime, Mr Portrait and me were busy preparing some more masks. I need a new blade, but even with the old one, the results are pretty nice. I love that little machine! And here it comes... The other side sadly wasn't as successful - I pulled off a bit of paint when I removed the mask. I possible pulled it off too quickly... So out came the sanding paper... Touched up. After a coat of matt varnish, it should be good enough to repaint the "Bandits" logo. Bonus: gun barrels and refueling probe tip from plusmodel. The barrels are mightly impressive - just have a close look at them!

The engine looks lovely, Dave! Makes me want to dig out my Tiger as well...

Thank you guys for your effort and especially to Lester for his incredible research which will enable me to apply the correct name to my model - that's why I love LSP! Thierry, thanks for the hint. The different IP layout is the reason why I printed a new front IP according to a drawing from the NATOPS and I did not forget the boxes on top of the coaming either. I modified the rear IP as well but I think I'll print a new one. The basic Black Box part was not nicely cast which did not help my (rather bad) painting effort. I managed to get a bit of bench time last weekend. I was not quite happy with the look of the FS36320 on the top surfaces; I sprayed several coats of FS36320 from MRP and Gunze and applied a bit or MRP FS35237 on top in order to obtain the shade I was looking for. The model was then sealed with flat varnish from VLS (great stuff!). I then applied a firs warm grey wash and added several shadings with highly diluted Tamiya Smoke. The photos of the real a/c show wome nice stains around the guns. I have tried to replicate the stains with a combination of oil paint and Tamiya Smoke. The typical scuff marks above the elevators were applied by airbrush. Next step: Masking! The masks were cut on my venerable Silhouette Portrait. One of the best moments in scale modelling IMO... Not too bad IMO! Thanks to Lester, I can now draw the artwork for the pilot name. I'd love to paint it on as well - sadly, it's too small for my Portrait to cut. I have contacted Oneman Army to ask if he'd be willing to do custom laser cut masks for me, but I am still waiting for his reply. Stay tuned!

Thanks a lot Erin and Olivier for your effort helping me to find out the missing details; I will try to do some further research by looking for H&MS-32 instead of MAG-32. I really appreciate your help, that's one of the many reasons I love LSP!

There are (much) harder versions of this foam available. They are usuall brown or green.

Tamiya all the way.

Could be "Fries" (no idea why you guys keep on calling them "French" fries, those guys have no idea how to make proper fries), "Best Beer" and "Mussels" as well then... No, that's not going to happen. My aim is to stay as close to reality as possible; I think I'll go with the evidence I have and "BANDIT" seems to be a realistic possibility for the Callsign.

Perfect, please keep us posted, Alistair. I am currently working on the ICM kit for a German magazine and your skids would come in very handy.

I'm late to the party... Tamiya in standard and launch configuration for me.

Thank you all for your kind comments and encouragement. Peter, thanks for the links - I do know both of them and the photo at the bottom of th eskyhawkassociation page is indeed one of three photos I have of the aircraft. The third one was kindly shared by Anton Kochetov on Facebook and is probably the best photo I have. Sadly, I can't read what exactly is written below the cockpit... According to skyhawkassociation, MAG-32's CO in 1990 was Major Bellman. To me, it looks like: MAJ. J.J. ????MAN JR. (does not look like "BELLMAN" to me) BANDIT (not sure but would make sense) C.O. Plane captain was obviously SGT. SMITH. What do you guys reckon?

The OA-4M has a different front IP which was 3D printed - on my old Photon back in the day. The part would look better on a 4K or 8K for sure, but those were not yet available back in the day. The photo nicely shows the difference between a part printed flat (on the left) and a part printed at an angle. Eduard offers very nice and useful PE parts for the Trumpeter kits. Whilst I was too stupid to use the ones for the slat recesses, I managed to fit the vortex generators on the wings and slats. They are a huge improvement over the rather rough kit details. After a bit of tidying up, the model was primed and painting could start. As usual, I have used FS36375 and FS36325 from MRP; unlike most TPS Scooters, the aircraft I am building does not seem to have FS36495 undersides. This is the aircraft I'd likle to build - BuNo 154306, one of two TPS Scooters with black markings, flown by MAG-32 in 1990. Sadly, there are very few photos of these aircraft - there are only three I know of, including this one (Official Navy photo - source: Wikimedia Commons). All markings will be painted using custom masks. I'll need decals for some small details.

I'm in the mood to finish some of the projects I have started over the last few years. After finishing Scooby, the OA-4M is the next one on my to-do list. It's basically a combination of the old Hasegawa OA-4M and a Trumpeter A-4M following Brenhen's receipe - his brilliant OA-4AR conversion convinced me to try the same. Have a look at his gorgeous build: He was kind enough to post WIP photos of his conversion, which made my life much easier - I just did it the same way he did. In order to spice things up a bit, I decided to add a Black Box cockpit... ... Aires nose avionics bays... ... Aires wheel wells and AMS Resin intakes. The front gear bay required a lot of cutting, puttying and swaring but I was able to make it fit. Not my best cockpit, but it looks quite OK. I'll try to touch it up a little to improve the over all look. The engine was detailed with lead wire and Anyz braided lines as the hell holes on both fuselage side will be open. The Hasegawa electronics hump had to be widened to fit the Trumpeter fuselage. The rear part is from Trumpeter.

Ali, I am definitely interested in such a set but I am not quite sure 3D printing is the right solution for the skids. To my experience, long, thin printed parts tend to deform over time.

A few drone related antennas on top of the fuselage... ... and we can call her done! A proper RFI thread will follow as soon as I have taken proper pics of the model. Thank you all for following the thread and special thanks to my buddies Fred aka Stusbke for the center canopy and the PE parts and to Thomas for milling the stiffening plates on the fin for me. See you soon!