themongoose

Thanks Gazz, makes me feel like it’s coming together! lots of progress today trying to get the halves together. Here’s the exhaust. Done with AKI pigments - desert dust, burnt umber, and jet exhaust. And that was the last thing I needed before assembling the halves. Here’s another use for those eyelash brushes chuck promotes so highly...tapered end to plug the gun muzzles and then again to smooth out the intake and get rid of the step in the kit part,

I love seeing the face behind the mask. Very realistic. Just a quality build all-around, especially the weathering.

Just working on the basics so really not much to see until now. I've got the cockpit just about ready to close out. The pilot is based on the Tamiya 1/48 Thunderbird kit. I used that same info for the cockpit painting. What HB did hasn't been accurate compared to any cockpit pictures of a G that I've found so far. Since I am doing it 100% OOB though I painted it up to match what I've found in the E/F/G as it seems to be an unknown . I have to put the HUD on and a few little bobbles around it, then put the stars on the helmet. Before doing that though, take a look at this and let me know if there's anything I should do before putting the final varnish on it? I did a wash on my last one and it seemed to come out a little dark. For a Thunderbird that's kept pretty clean I'm not sure what might look best. Any suggestions would be great. Lastly, here's a few shots of the canopy and HUD. This is turning out tremendous so far. Should be perfect for foiling. Here it is with a coat of Future on it.

Ooooh this is awesome! I have a pylon racer to do that’s all chrome finish like the one you’re doing. Time for my lazy-boy chair and popcorn!

I’m betting this is where king roberts ******* comes back into play again. We saw him with arya in this episode and he’s a master smith now. Wonder if he’s fashioning one out of the dragonglass sword that jamie had done for joffrey? edit- ok the **** is the son of another mother, geez.

I watched a landing last year. Especially cool hearing the sonic boom as they return. Reminds me of a James Bond movie set when i see the film of the landing. I found that sooooo ironic!

Wow that looks soooo perfect!! Worth the time. I for one like it even better than last years. How painful was it though to cover up your original work?

Hmmm, I’m not looking forward to those lights your seems are looking clean!

Ha, I love that quote!! Should we open a fund-me site to buy a new tube? But seriously it looks like you’re making stellar progress on this. Gonna look good.

Will it be displayed in public in the future by chance? Would love to see it having followed your build from the beginning!

Working through some assembly details for now. The cockpit was a little more work than anticipated. HB has the IP right against the throttle and several knobs on the side panels end up hidden behind the IP due to this. Soooo, I cut the fuselage halves from the sprue and test fit it all together so I could trim the IP...but they fooled me and even after cutting it shorter there was no interference to the fit lol. You guys know me by now, it has to have a pilot lol I made a chute for him out of clay. Checked the fit to the pedals while I was at it. Can you believe, 1st time I’ve not had to cut his feet off! While parts on the cockpit dried I pulled out the wings to have a go at the wheel wells. which brings up a detail about skinning this with aluminum foil...do I open up enough gap here to roll the foil over the edges of the wheel weel and the doors?

Those screws look good under paint! Pattern looks good to. Sounds like you’ll be doing some wet sanding of that primer. Not to worry, I found out the hard way myself that you can sand over those Archer rivets no problem ;-)

Love the paint work! Crisp and smooth colors.

Great follow-up! Usually the 2nd movie loses something but in your case the theme is still solid. Nice looking camo and concept.

Beautiful