Lifeline

Thanks for the support, gents. Happy to report, the build still continues.. To minimize further breaking, the nose glazing and dorsal turret parts will be install last. Meanwhile I glued in the wheels and props.. Also scratch marauder's sight system using wire on the nose area. The artwork and colored spinner were based on a black/white pucture of this particular airframe I found in the 391bombgroup.org.uk. red is just a guess I made... Also glued the undercarriage doors.. that's when I found a noticable gap. Probably from the previous incident. I'm getting lazy, so I fill the gap using CA, sand it as soon as it dries, and instead repaint it, I decided to play a bit with microscale's foil glue and aluminum foil. It was too shiny so a few coat of Mig Ammo flat coat of the area. Afterwards I start to weather the whole underside area.. I found a picture of silver marauder showing unique pattern of underside oil leaks or some sort on the engines and the fuselage underside, so I decided to replicate it using oil wash. cheers, Mario

Hi @mp44tom... I use the pit-road PE set.. Cheers, Mario

Yet.. I broke it again 🫣 This time when I just installed the fwd glazing which has the cal.50 nose gun. And I was in process installing the top machine gun turret. It was my stupidity for pushed the turret too hard it launch the kit to the side of the table and into my lap. It's enough to broke the nose gun barrel, and both barrels on the top turret.. I seriously considered to trash this kit.. And sourcing new metal barrel (something that certainly will buy a bunch for future build!) will cost more time. So I just make do with the pieces of the broken barrels The glue blop and skewed barrel looks silly.. but that's the best I can get for now. 😒 Cheers Mario

Small update... Last night after I post the update, I install the tailgun and cheek gun. When I just about to turn off my workbench lights et al, I accidentally nudge the build and it crash down... Miraculously the only damage was to the port wing assembly and the nose landing gear. The wing is easier fix.. The nose landing gear, I need to drill and add a piece if wire before gluing the broken parts together. (Yes... I'm tempted to sand and repaint hose glittery area on the wheel well) Back on her feet.... cheers, Mario

Thanks for the nice words, guys! It feels weeks since my last updates, but the project still going... Weathering... I reserve more in using pigments and brown and dust wash on the upper section of the wing near each engines, since from the pictures I saw these area looks more dirty than others. Other reasen is I was too scared to lift off the metallic paints if I use normal washing. Legs are on... And she sat on her tails So I flattened a fishing ballast cut it and put it in the area between bombardier station and cockpit. Nobody cant see it when the clear parts is on later. Then I realized, during the extra ballast installation i cracked the area fwd of nose gear. So it's another story of glue-sand-primer-metallic paints Cheers, Mario

Hi, I've been busy with my B-26 build and Easter preparation... But finally had enough time to paint; I choose the PAF scheme since it would be the easiest to paint and obtain the decals. It seemed that PAF F/A-50 wears standard "light grey eagle" scheme. Although with more of "blue" on the darker grey and paler on the light grey side. I use Tamiya XF-20 Medium Grey for the light grey side, and AK RC FS36176 plus a couple drops of Aggressor Blue from the same brand. Clear coated with future... And now we wait for decals. Cheers, Mario

Bare metal is just stressful for me.... I keep findings all those imperfection whenever I pick up the model to do something When I mask and paint the OD area, and bombs.. When I install the engines and and bombs.. when I paint and decals the prop (oh and start the decals.. KitsWorld didn't exactly numbered the decals so I stuck the wrong bar and stripes, so I use the kit's decal) During the afromentioned steps above I always found some kind of surface imperfections which -although small- stands out like a sore thumb... So I need to sand-primer-paint , each time. The instructions sheet did a not so good job explaining the build... But I made it through Cheers, Mario

Very slow progress... Mostly to fix gaps and other surface imperfection which shows after black primer using Mr.Hobby black primer coated with clear gloss from the same brand. Not shown, but I paint several panels with white or light grey to give different metal shine later on. Left couple of days to cure, then came the first coat of polished aluminum from AK Xtreme Metal, which shows more gaps, steps and other problems needs filling and smooth sanding and re-primer. No pictures since I was too frustrated. After several session of filling, sanding, riveting, primer, etc and several thin layers of AK Xtreme Metal's Polished Metal; Cheers, Mario

Nice build! Beautifully done... I actually have the same project in mind... Can you elaborate more which areas need aftermarkets to make an accurate lybian mirage F1? Cheers, Mario

Hi, Overall a small update... I just bought a riveter set 2 weeks ago, and I was just curious. So I (either being stupid or brave) test it on this build.. So I spend days to add rivets Challenging.. and some crooked lines. But I hope it won't be noticable and would overall add interest later on. Cheers, Mario

Hi, Originally Academy only released the 1/72 T-50 Golden Eagle kit as an entry level kit which means simple type build steps, no landing gears, and no decals. A friend of mine designed 3D parts for the missing parts to convert the kit into FA-50, complete with landing gears parts. I'm fortunate enough to help him with testing the test prints.. I actually started this build on late December 2023, but I just had the chance to upload the pictures Certainly some cutting required, especially for the wheel well parts; fortunately the 3D parts fits nicely The kit being "snap tite" kind did not supply control stick, while the panel detail was actually pretty good. So I add control stick made from wire, unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures. Other parts including the gun muzzle (my input was to have the instructions to shows the exact point to glue the piece, or probably drill and shape a hole to make it more blended with the kit surface) Other conversion is the vertical stabilizer, which also needs slight adjustment The landing legs is printed as one piece on the test parts, the fitting also good although a little tricky The landing gear parts glued with PVA just to test the overall stance Yes, the conversion kit also include pylons, RWR and drop tanks. Some of it still need improvement. I also recommend to add exhaust nozzle to replace the toy like one (not to mention hollow) on the original kit Next, I'll dismantle the parts and paint... Yet I really don't know yet whether to build this as Phillipine (PAF), Poland, or Iraqi 🤔 Cheers, Mario

Last look at fuselage halves before closing The fit is overall good, but I still fill with thin super glue and sand it just to be sure... I also did a few sub assembling such as the wings and bombs... engines... The tail cone of the engine nacelles is actually slightly bigger than the halves, so I glued the forward section first, then attached the cone, this will cause a small gap just aft of the wheel well door area. But it's much easier to manage than having to sand/scrape to blend the whole area with the cone. And Wheels.. wheel threads was too shallow, and missing when I sand it, so I use Hasegawa mini saw to make new threads.. And then there's the engines.. I add soldering wire to add a bit detail on the engines. in hind sight... I should've use smaller wire.. 🤔 Cheers, Mario

Then I believe it's the only option for B-26 with early style tails (and for some, the shorter wingspan CMIIW) Then again, getting valom kits only for the tails is a bit much... No? Although the resin parts do look interesting... Anyway, here's the flightdeck so far... Seat back padding made from epoxy putty, while seat belts from masking tape Decided to play with the waist guns... With copper wire and drill.. looks crude though. I hope nobody realize it later Ammo box and belts added to the interior, followed by simple wash using tamiya dark brown. Dry fitting shows that little will be seen unless you really look at it though... Cheers, Mario

If only valom kit are easily available 😃 Cheers, Mario

Decided to pose the waist gun in deployed position, so I think I'll try to add simple details in case someone try to peek inside; first one is ammo box for the waist gun made from avrylic sheet and masking tape; Also made ammo rails made from aluminum tape and masking tape Definitely not as good as aftermarket, and most likely innacurate.. but this is what I can get right now 🤷 I actually finished with the cockpit area. But I forgot to take pictures of it. Now, like I said before the plan is to build this; Trusting Kits-World profile, seemed to be simply use the Hasegawa kit. Then I found out that it was stupid of me, since the profile is wrong.. "My Baby" has different aft A feature which difficult to scratch build because that means one has to make a new tail gunner glazing.. So, it's plan B; B-26C-45-MO with "Little Pink Panty" pin-up girl from the same decal sheet. The girl is not as sexy as "My Baby", but this block seemed could easily build using the kit. I'm more concerned with bare metal scheme though... 🫣 Cheers Mario