Whitey

Wow, great start to a great subject. I built a model of this aircraft back in 2012. Really looking forward to watching your work progress. It makes an impressive model. There are some quirks with the instructions and suggested build sequence but they are easily overcome and it certainly builds into a great looking model. Have fun. The pilot's name is different between our builds. I have forgotten the order but whatever name he gave when he was captured was not his real name. It wasn't until after the war that his real name was revealed through record searches. The pilot actually led the breakout from Cowra by blowing his bugle and then committed suicide inside the camp. Amazing stuff.

Great work Marc. Most impressed.

I would love to see a Jungmeister in this scale.

That looks like it might even come back.

Hi Nick, thanks for the info.My wings seem to be ok and after lots of dry fitting and trimming are on ok with some filler happening near the leading edge at the wing root. No go on the nose strut yet, still working up the guts to do it. The size is certainly impressive when the wings are on. Happy modelling.

It is amazing what you find after a primer coat goes down. It takes a lot of filler and sanding and polishing and filler and sanding and polishing .....if you get my drift to get the top sides of the intakes looking like F-15E intakes and other bits and pieces of the fuselage trimmed up. After a light coat of Tamiya Grey primer to check for lumps and bumps, before putting the wings on, a mold line became visible along the bottom curve of the conformal fuel tanks. I have only lightly sanded them to enable the line to show up. ELIMINATE - is going to happen next. More progress pics in the next day or so.

Thanks Nick, but the fuselage is all done up and I am working away at getting the wing fit right before putting them to the fuselage permanently. Dry fitting so far only reveals a few spots to get right but you never know what pops up when it comes to the crunch in putting the things on for real. Thanks again for the suggestion. Hit me with lots more if you have some please. Peter

Really nicely done Peter. I hope mine comes out nearly as well.

I am a little bit surprised by the amount of beating needed on a Tamiya kit. The nose section fit is not straight forward either mate. More on that next posting.

Slowly but surely progress is being made. Sorted the intakes and have joined the fuselage halves. Photoetch grills and some plastic card to smooth it all out. Undercoat with intake trunk white and then rolled up some tape onto a brush handle and rolled it out across the intake. Blocked the hole with some foam cut to fit. Then onto making the fuselage fit the intakes. You can see the area to be filled (in white Filler) on the starboard intake trunk. Enhancing the panel lines and lots of sanding to get it level and then Tamiya White putty to fill the cavern. I masked off each side before liberally applying the putty straight from the tube. It sands pretty easily once dry and then Mr Surfacer should do finish the job. Now time to sit back and wait for it to dry. Oops can't just sit back, more bits to do. CYA next time.

Coming on nicely mate. Have fun with the move.

By the looks of that Boomerang mate, I think it will come back. Love that chipping technique.

Next effort before major construction is the intakes. Tamiya make them adjustable, to allow in-flight variations I suppose, but when the engines are not running the intakes are at the most open position, ie fully up, which is how my model will be depicted, and significant gaps are visible .Lots of careful alignment and then still lots of sanding with a file taped to the back of a sanding stick for rigidity. Some significant gaps to sand and fill between the intake trunks and the variable ramps. I've got the intake trunks pretty smooth and now have to work out the point to which they are painted in the exterior grey colour and find a way to mask that off and leave the rear bits white, with some black-hander smudges. I will do the grey paint before starting the smoothing process - at least that way I will only need to re-spray the area near the intake ramps. I've got some photo etch grills so will be able to replace all of the detail I will lose during the process. It should all be square with the fuselage top. Photo credit: MJ Aviation. She will be a big jigger when finished. A bit of surgery still to do. Back to the bench I go.

From the last page to the front page for a little while. Work on the big jet continues. Cockpit in place and apart from some sill details which will only be added once the jet is painted - I'm sure the little bits will get in the way of masking etc. The black " smudges" on the sides are Mr Surfacer used to fill some sink holes. These are the only ones I have found so far. Hopefully not too many more. I used some Eduard photo etch enhanced with paint but the side panels are straight from the kit. The canopy locking levers are made from brass rod and a blob of putty as a knob.

Hi Nick, 2mm.