F`s are my favs

I will not add a single rivet or such kind of indentation, but I plan on doing some oil canning of the plastic surface. It worked very very very nicely with the Strike Eagle, in this scale, so I'm going ahead. A few pics before the starting of the editing of the underside. I compared with reference pics and tried to copy the pattern with a pencil first. Surely, I'll skip the composite materials will the oil canning effect.

Some small, yet perfectly visible upgrades of the surface... 1) The covers of most antenna provisions are not flush with the rest of the surface, and have to be. So, after a little bit of scraping, sanding and engraving - here are the front antennas before and after: I wonder if they can get filled up during all the priming, painting and what have you, but I'll go over the edges after each layer if needed. 2) So, next up - these two hex-shaped (GPS antennas I think?!) objects were way too too much inside the surface. It's not stealthy anyway. I went through a lot of pix, and they seem to me flush with the surface, and yet from a distinctively different material/surface. I ended up filling them with stock plastic sheet... took me a while to do the right hex shape for a proper match. Here is the difference - one is OOB as it was, and the other is already filled; then both complete and sanded. 3) These little knives or airflow pieces (or maybe with antennas inside?) on both outer sides of the exhaust plates, that I have no idea what they are and I never stumbled upon on related information - so the original pieces were way way out of scale... I made them out of PE stripes, and are still a bit larger for my liking, but are 100 times better than the original pieces - here is a comparison and a testfit: And with that, the surface treatment is almost ready. Aaaalmost. I will attach the ruddervators after some subtle oil canning effects...

So about 24h later, it appears solid as rock. I think it is enough to remove the guides, yet I went all along the edges with CA glue for just in case. For the main markings of the airframe (80-788) I'll use the beautiful DN Models masks, and for the canopy edges too. They fit nice. And here are quite zoomed silhouettes with the wheels/doors down. I'm happy with the symmetry.

The fuselage is glued.... finally. A few pics inside, for the memorabilia. And... I can't miss to say it - big gluing business here. Quite the contraptions indeed. The leading edges are perfectly straight now and I hope they will stay that way. At least on a macro level. A little bit of sanding gotta straighten them even more.

Thank u too, Troy! Squizzy, thx, and yep, quite many things going on recently with me, but I always keep building this and that when I can. I just had a few free days at home and managed to complete the weathering and prep the bays for pics, etc. Btw yesterday, I did a pre-final assembly check of all the parts, and I can say the model is just about ready for final assembly. Because of the moveable flaps, a slightly complex procedure in the gluing of the fuselage will be needed. I'll keep you updated.

And ready - just some subtle weathering and wiring. A few with the trapezes retracted: And extended... Now on to the launchers/rails + the bombs. The rails will be definitely visible, so I plan to jazz them all up justice, with all the tiny decals, colors, wires, knobs, etc... they got to look like tiny models by themselves... Cheers for now.

The bomb bays are done. It is not worth adding wires/cables/etc as they will not be visible at all... but I couldn't resist. So I added only a few + some subtle weathering. But first, the opening/closing of the doors: So, there are 5 quite large and strong magnets along the centerline - where the wall that devides the bay into two meets the bay doors. They will play the role of hinges... combined with the small pieces of metal wire integrated into the edges of the doors - to provide enough force to keep the doors up when open. I couldnt figure out a way to do it with real hinges, so I had to improvize... but it works. And I had to add a couple of protruding ''self-leveling'' pins that drop just by gravity. They are with the width of the ''empty'' space between the doors - just to keep them stand symmetrically while open. When the doors are closed - I just turn the model upside down and the pins drop down in their holes by themselves, and the doors fit flush. Just another angle: Here they are hanging on the magnets - the pins are noticeable, but they will not be once everything is glued to the fuselage, as there is enough thickness of the fuselage to ''hide'' the pins... The bay doors are awesome in quality otherwise - perfectly straight, stiff, and with plenty of details.... btw I did some rivetting as well, and magnets on the opposite edges to keep them attached to the fuselage when closed. The hydraulics... made them moveable too And painting + testfit: You can see on that latter pic how I ended up doing the ''airflow disturber'' screens along the front edges of the bays - quite the simplest way - just metal rods that slide in tubes, and drop/retract by gravity. The movement needed quite some testfitting and trimming, but I skipped the ''detailing'' here as that front wall of the bays wouldn't be visible.

I kinda don't know what to say, but just to tell I'm quite impressed! That's wassup! Just a little question - why are there those subtle ''inward kinks'' in the chines? If we assume it is based on the A-version, the vertical walls of the fuselage above/below the chines should have been straight (like on the Raptor)... here I tried to highlight them in red. The concave surfaces were a characteristic trait of the YF-version of the plane... as far as I know...

Here is the MLG - of course this time the retraction is everything but realistic... so here are just pics in both parked/in-flight modes: And a view of the wheel wells - quite modified to fit the larger resin tires, and I didin't add even a single wire/cable as nothing will be visible of the inside sides of the walls. This is before the mods: and after: These open areas are covered by the faceted sides of the fuselage. Now on to da Bombs. Cheerz.

Wowsers! I wish I could get 60-70% of that appearance with alluminum tape for the Starfighter one day... That's tremendous!

The riveting adventure is very nice looking, and many thanks for the input on the Quinta rivets! I recently found them available at a local store, and now I think to get the 1/32 scale ones.

And the NLG - here is a vid of the retraction I think I could have gone a little bit crazier with the wiring, but I'm happy with this as well. And extended, for the parked display mode: And with the door closed - no magnets required, it fits flawlessly, just a pressfit, and it is not even sanded flush with the fuselage yet... Next up - the MLG bays/wiring/assembly...

A few angles of the cockpit (99% assembled) without the canopy:

Finally the cockpit/NLG assembly is just about done. Only a few things are left to be done, but I'll do them once the two halves of the fuselage are glued (the throttle handle, wire/hose connections between the seat and the cockpit, the stoppper for the opening of the canopy, and maybe that's it). So here is the HUD - of course I used thinner transparent pieces instead of the original OOB thick acryllic transparent parts: And the IR guidance provision on the bottom side is ready as well - the turet itself is ever so slightly visible, so there is litterally no detailling at all just some thick black paint directly with the a big brush, and some gloss purple for the IR lense, which is barely noticeable. I also used the OOB transparent acryllic part, scared with a mech pattern and then I applied a very very thin black filter.

HNY! Great mods of the mods - they look amazing... I can't believe it is all in such a giant scale. The only thing that cought me thinking is, why are the contact points of the tires not sanded flat at least just ever so slightly? It is displayed parked on the ground after all.

10x blackbetty and themongoose! Well, only the bomb bays are left as for dynamics go. The launcher rails are basically ready, but the doors need to be synched to move along with the airflow disruptor plates, and the 2 hydraulic pistons for each door. Almost none of the parts that attach to the bottom part of the fuselage is complete. But slowly slowly I gotta get there.

Lovely! I feel the gloss a little bit too much, but it could be because of the lights... Just checked the WIP topic - congrats for the awesome build!

Hello hello So I'm back in the game. The DIY PE replacements of the zig-zag patterns are finally glued to the fornt of the canopy: The intake and exhaust ducts are in: The doors for the air refueling proovision as well: and this is how the compresor faces look like with the doors open, and of course with the help of a flashlight. Cheerio & happy holidays!

Wow, I had to catch up through the topic. Awesome modifications! And quite needed of course. In the beginning, I didin't pay attention to the nose section, but after reviewing the pics a few times, I got the idea. Btw it could be too late already (at least for the inserts for the thickening of the nose section), but I found out that just stacking/glueing sheets of plastic is the best working solution. Some bare curved pieces frome the same plastic of the kit, for exampe, from unused fuel pylons as they have similar shapes. Otherwise, you will see it when you get to the painting stage, but with the time, the boundaries of the ''surfaces from CA glue'' create visible edges, as the ''material'' is different from the surrounding plastic. I assume you may know that already though. Anyway, if you really like how it goes with the CA glue method - you could try with cotton as well. Just a little bit of cotton - a few drops of CA glue - a little bit of cotton - then another few drops of CA glue, etc. Until you get the required thickness. The cotton absorbes the liquid along the fibers, while the baking soda is powder, which means that the CA glue will soak up in only the uppermost ''layer'' but there is risk of unsoaked powder underneath. Just a tip. A very nice project, but I kept missing it because of the title that doesn't sound like A-10 (I forgot the nickname)... I'm following now. Btw it is very nice to see another examplary build of this model after the Chuck's build quite some years ago. I kind of remember it. Cheers, and happy modelling!

Nice! I'm back and I'm glad to see the Mirage complete. I think I remember you had some mishaps with another model of Mirage or maybe I'm mistaken... you dropped it on the floor or something like that, and then cancelled the build... So I'm very happy that you continued and finished it, or maybe it is a whole new kit (if i'm not mistaken, of course)... Anyway, congrats on the final results! It looks splendid. The weathering is lovely! Maybe a very very subtle overal darker filter would be great... to soften the contrasts between the bright colors of the plane, and the black streaks from the weathering....

I don't quite understand from legacy planes, but this looks freakin fantastic! A very GJ!

She's looking awesome - from the top and the bottom. The preshading is good and still visible, but I would like it with a little bit more weathering, at least on the bottom side. The payload and especially the Amraams are superb!

Another aggressor well, I it's my first time seeing the topic. Quite a nice surprise. I like how the thinned wheels look like in comparison to before... just a bit more recessed, but perfect now. That digital/kind of hybrid paint scheme could be a challenge, but I hardly doubt you wouldn't nail it. I'm following... and cheerios

Hi , nope, not really. I got the mojo, I keep watching youtube clips with the ''new'' Nighthawks flying, and hopefully I'll continue it soon-ish.

Here, if we take the red line as a reference (from corner to corner), it seems like the widest portion is along the entire center area of the red line, and even a bit wider near the front of the canopy (the red circle), while you did the major widening near the rear of the canopy/where is the pilot (the yellow circle). I don't know, maybe those are not final drawings... just noticed it and would like mention it. Hope it helps as a hint.