Rainer Hoffmann Posted August 4, 2021 Share Posted August 4, 2021 1 hour ago, Starfighter said: Rainer, automotive putty is a difficult medium for scribing indeed; I usually apply several coats of Tamiya Primer and try to scribe the primer only. To avoid damage in case I scribe too deep, I use a PE saw in these areas instead of a classic scribing tool. Rivets and fasteners are more of a problem. I usually do them with a pin vise, but that does not work at all on a brittle base such as automotive putty. The only choice in this case is doing the fasteners with a 0,3mm drill bit. A, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you very much, Ben. Cheers Rainer Starfighter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfighter Posted August 11, 2021 Author Share Posted August 11, 2021 (edited) A week has passed and most of the progress I have made is more or less invisible, but I have put quite a few hours of work into the TA-7. Flawless surface quality and surface detail being as neat as possible is very important for me, and to obtain this, quite a bit of filling, sanding and priming along with more sanding and scribing was necessary. The groove lines and fastener details are slowly taking shape. I have now marked the locations of the boarding steps the openings for which will be cut next. In order to avoid damage to the surrounding surface, I have protected them with masking tape. I will also fit the panel with the cooling louvers behind the radome. The panel was removed from the Trumpeter nose and the louvers were slightly reworked with a #11 blade. Image quality is less than perfect, sorry for that... The recess for the boarding ladder from the Trumpeter kit will be used as well. The gun fairing needs quite a bit of modification in order to obtain a more realistic shape - whis is just the beginning. The muzzle was filled with 2k putty and will be sanded into shape once hardened. Pics seem to be fetting even worse... The refueling probe fairing was removed from the Trumpeter fuselage as well and its future position was marked on the new fuselage. Scribing on the starboard side has just started. The fit of the fuselage airbrake was pretty bad. It required careful assembly, putty and some rescribing in order to obtain an acceptable result. The main landing gear wells required the airbrake to be lengthened towards rear; this should be pretty much invisible once primed. I hope not to create a huge mess when cutting the boarding steps... more on that as soon as possible! Edited August 11, 2021 by Starfighter Maw1963, Anthony in NZ, Landrotten Highlander and 13 others 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony in NZ Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 Oh my goodness, that's as good as it gets! Perfection mate, love it! You are right in spending time on the surface details, mine seem never ending, but what you are doing will pay off big time when it comes time to paint. Cheers Anthony Starfighter, stusbke and Derek B 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfighter Posted August 12, 2021 Author Share Posted August 12, 2021 So, footsteps and replacement panels! A bit of drilling and filing... ... and we have some footstep recesses. Having filled the gaps between the outer skin and the intake with 2K modelling putty increased the overall strength of the model, it made making the cutouts a bit more difficult. Next was the cutout necessary for the panel with the louvers behind the radome: It fits! The footstep recesses were framed with 0,25mm sheet and voilà, here we go. The plan to use the ladder compartment did not work as the Trumpeter part is too deep for my corrected intake, so I had to rebuild it using plastic sheet. I also fitted the new hump to the wing center section after making an appropriate cutout in the kit part. And another overall view. I'll have to apply another coat of primer to get an idea of the surface quality before I can go ahead with the surface detail. Lenny320, scvrobeson, Greg W and 12 others 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted August 12, 2021 Share Posted August 12, 2021 Super work, Ben! Kev Starfighter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomprobert Posted August 12, 2021 Share Posted August 12, 2021 Wow - this is going to be a real show-stopper when done! Tom Starfighter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackbetty Posted August 12, 2021 Share Posted August 12, 2021 cool stuff, Ben makes me want to start my B conversion Starfighter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcel111 Posted August 12, 2021 Share Posted August 12, 2021 Awesome! Starfighter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 Looks awesome Ben! Will have a great place on your Navy shelf when it's all done, and surrounded by one-of-a-kid builds. Matt Starfighter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maw1963 Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 One of my favorite jet on skilled hands. Top Starfighter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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