Grant_T

I put in some serious hours on this build this weekend. Some random progress pictures. One thing I have only just noticed is that the the gear leg part is mismolded where it attaches the wheel (at least I'm sure that it must be). It doesn't fit the wheel and will need to be carved/filed down a little. I wish I had spotted this before gluing on the gear. You can see the odd molding here: This kit is a real puzzle. Incredible detail and engineering in some areas, and then weird bits like this.

I'm very happy I did at this stage.

Thanks! I'm really pushing on with this to get it finished by the dead line. The demarcation on the top camo was achieved with blu tack. It is not quite as sharp as it appears in the pictures and roughly approximates some of the pictures I have. But there seems to be a bit of variation in those too. Next up is the bottom colour and then detail painting. At the same time I've been working on all the other parts, so this should come together pretty quickly.

Winter is closing in down here, so I thought I would start another kit to build in the evenings. This is my first Wingnut kit and I'll be building it out of the box. I actually did a couple of hours of assembly past this, and all I can say is wow this kit is awesome fun. More photos to follow.

This is the bit I enjoy the most.

I have the Revell Me-262 and Fw-190 night fighters on their way to me, so I will be entering one of those.

Finished the filling then added the canopy, filled the seam around this and primed. The canopy front is not ideal because the sprue gates impinge on the clear area. I much prefer those kits where the canopy includes some of the fuselage (like the Trumpeter Flanker I just finished). I also glued the bombs, gear doors and the prop. Next I shot a bit of flat yellow (at which stage I took these pics). I've just masked this, but had to stop when I clumsily stabbed the tip of my thumb with a fresh #11 blade. I think the very tip of the blade broke off in there. Oh well, I haven't cut myself for years so I guess it was coming.

Getting ready for paint. I've managed to save most of the detail but had to add a tiny bit back. I'm looking forward to seeing this under paint because the surface has some really fine detail and variation. I'll build and paint the wheel wells after the main paint job is on.

Thanks all! My wife is at work and I've finished my chores, so I'm now living the dream. Quite a lot of filling to do given all of the removable panels. I reckon I can finish this by the deadline. Bonus pic of my work bench. I have a whole hobby room to myself, but it still needs setting up properly. I really need some shelving for my 1/32 aircraft.

Cockpit largely finished. And now, given that I want this entirely closed up, I'm going to skip some steps. Sacrilege!

Nice work Erwin. Interesting scheme too. It's definitely nice to get some thing finished after a break.

I'm pretty sure won't be able to finish this in time but I'm moving ahead anyway. These closeups tell me I could have spent more time cleaning up the parts. Still a little detail painting to go on this subassembly.

Finished this build. Overall it was lots of fun. I want to build the single seater and put a bit more time and effort into it now. Thanks for watching and commenting.

I've done that for a while now, it usually works great. No idea where I got the idea from.

Thanks all. I'm almost there. I could spend a lot more time on this, but I won't. I think I'm ready for the next thing.

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm back from my trip so I spent a few hours weathering the underside. Some detail painting needed here too.

Not a huge amount of time in the last week or so, but this weekend I got a chance to give the top a wash to tone down the colours and bring out the panel lines. I'm in San Diego for he next week for a conference (including a visit to the Midway hopefully) so no more progress for a while.

Lovely work. The sheen on the metal is really nice.

Decals on. All did not go to plan as the decals I intended to use were awful. Plan B is that this is now a generic/fictional aircraft.

Seems pretty good so far. Evaporates very quickly. The Airfix plastic is soft and I'm just wicking it into the assembled joints so I'm not asking to much of it. I'm also building a Hasegawa kit and it works pretty well on that plastic too.

Australian Shiraz. I'm okay to build after one or two.

A bit of relaxing time at the bench this evening. The engineering on this kit is something else. It's very fun to put together. There are mold parting and ejector pin marks here and there, but nothing that will be too bad once this thing is closed up. The big thing is trying to work out how much I can glue together before start painting (and what I need to bother painting).

Cheers. I just had a look at your SU-30 MKK build. It is truly outstanding!

Thanks Mike. Just a light panel wash with oils I think. In the pictures I have Red 20 is very clean.