Thomas2542

Having seen these at Telford, i can say they look as good in the flesh as they do in the photos. Cant wait to see what you do next

A quick update for now. I've finished painting the main camo colours. The grey was a mix of hatakas light ghost grey and white, while the blue/grey was a mix of the light ghost grey, intermediate blue and white. The colours aren't perfect but they're much closer than before so i'm happy with it. All thats left is to paint the radome dark grey. I've filled the gaps with superglue and rescribed a few lines with a scalpel. I don't like rescribing so I've left it at that. I wouldn't worry about the HUD. The green colour is from the image projected on the glass HUD. When the jet is shutdown the HUD would be colourless anyway. I've just finished brush painting the clear parts. I haven't had any problems so far but plenty of time left for things to go wrong. I'm not that bothered about the R 550. Compared to the rocket/bomb things they're quite accurate. I'm loading it with 2 R-550, 1 Super 530, the flare pod and the rocket/bomb things. I think they're supposed to be PGM 500s but they don't look anything like them. TBH, if I hadn't already drilled the holes for the pylons, i would have left them off. Thats where im up to at the moment. There's not too much left to do. Only paint the radome, glue the seat, coaming and HUD into the cockpit and glue the undercarriage and weapons on. There isn't many decals so i should be done in the next two weeks. Thats all for now.

Sorry for not posting an update for a while but i was moving so its sat in its box for the last few weeks. Before I moved I painted the base colour and the first few layers of the blue. I lightened the blue and grey paints. While they're still not right, its the best i could do with the paint i had. I really miss my airbrush now i have to brush paint everything but its not practical at the moment so its brush marks and lots of layers for now. I haven't added the ejector seat, HUD or coaming to the cockpit yet so i don't damage them while painting. Painting the intake bit black would have been a better idea but no ones ever accused me of being sane. I was planning on doing a bit more today so ill post any progress soon. Your mirage is looking great though, much better than mine. Have you posted a WIP anywhere? You'll probably finish before me so any guide would help.

I can't believe how much detail you've crammed in there. Its so cramped i don't know how gunners managed to get themselves in. The amount of effort you are putting in is a fitting tribute to their bravery.

That looks great. If i tried that, there would be over spray/runs everywhere. Its going to look stunning when you've finished it

Thanks for the comments. The canopy isn't too bad really. just a bit thick especially for this scale. Could have been a lot worse though, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as the canopy from the old airfix he111 i did a while back (scalemates tells me that it dates back to 1962) Basically there was a sticky out bit inside the intake which i cut out and replaced it with a sheet of styrene. Its hard to describe the sticky out bit but you'll see it if you try this kit and laugh at my insanity. Ill be painting this (hopefully soon) with hataka paints as i bought their Brazilian air force set because it supposedly had the colours i needed in it. Unfortunately their colour matching leaves a lot to be desired and ill have to lighten the colours before using them. This photo shows hatakas efforts in similar light to this jet http://imgproc.airliners.net/photos/airliners/2/3/8/1487832.jpg?v=v40 I'm still working on filling gaps so no update yet. I might be finished tomorrow or the day after so ill post an update then. Tom

Can't have too many spits, ill be following along

Got a good bit done tonight. First up was the intakes. There was a fairly large raised section which allowed the wing to fit. I was worried that it could be seen when the intakes were on so i decided to cut it out and cover the hole with styrene. Its hard to describe it and i forgot to get a photo of it pre-surgery but the photo below shows the styrene plate the intake and shock cone with a coat of grey paint on. I thought it also showed the styrene plate but its almost impossible to see in this photo. At least i know its there, even if no one else will. As you can see (not very clearly but it'll do) it was definitely worth the extra work in this photo And here is the intake glued in place. It fitted pretty well this side but there were large gaps on the other side which will need filling (you can also see the upper left wing which i used to test brush painting. The paint went on ok but the colours are nowhere near what theyre supposed to be. Ill sand this back to plastic and mix my own colours when i get to painting) The lower wing was then glued to the fuselage. I glued the right upper wing to the lower wing before this which resulted in big gaps on that side. on the left side i followed the instructions and this resulted in much smaller gaps (note to self: the instructions are sometimes right ) Its starting to look like a mirage now so im happy. And just for @AlbertoYagi, heres a shot of the canopy. As you can see, the frame is extremely fine. I think its hardly raised at all. Its hard to feel even with a fingernail which is going to make masking this one interesting. You can also see just how little of the cockpit is going to be visible. Thats where im at now. I'm off to buy superglue first thing in the morning to fill those gaps so if anyone's interested in buying stocks in wilco, nows the time to do it Filling and sanding don't make great posts so it might be a while before theres an update but the end is in sight. Tom

I can only think of either masking the canopy and sanding down the frames which might affect the fit of the canopy or using something like glue n glaze. https://www.deluxematerials.co.uk/gb/scale-plastics/49-glue-n-glaze-5060243900333.html letting this pool between the frames could help but i don't know if it would affect the clarity or cause distortion. I might have another update tonight depending on what gets done and ill post a picture of the canopy then.

I hadn't really looked at the canopy before and just checked it now. It doesn't seem too bad to me. What exactly is wrong with it?

Thanks for the comments I've got a fair bit done in the last few days but as usual forgot to take photos while i was working I primed the cockpit with white primer and then painted it in hataka's gunship grey. This didn't cover very well so it took many, many coats to get an opaque finish. Between my poor brush painting skills and the many coats of paint, it didn't turn out too great so this one will definitely have its canopy closed. The dials and buttons on the cockpit were picked out with vallejo black. Its a bit hard to see them in the photos as the light isn't great. I've adjusted the middle one to try and show it better but it hasn't made much difference. Once the paint had dried, i glued the two fuselage halves together. The fit was better than i expected and only a bit of filler will be needed around some of the joins. Thats all i've done so far. Next up are the intakes which are supposed to fit between the wing and fuselage. I'm planning on getting the joint with the fuselage as good as i can and then work on the joint with the wings later. I'll post more progress as it happens but for now ill leave you with the photos. Tom

Sorry to hear about your issues with 'professionals' but the lanc is looking amazing and i really like the backstory to it as well

Your not the only one who struggles to airbrush white. I think the black primer gives a nice shadow effect as well as a good base for metallic paints. Its looking great though so ill be keeping an eye on it

Been a while since i posted an update as white plastic is hard to get good photos of so most of my photos tended to look the same. I'm getting towards the end of the cockpit detailing though so i decided to post a few photos. This is where im at with the right side of the cockpit. A second floor was added as it was too low before and was causing problems with the seat and instrument panel. The instrument panel was scratch built using thin cuts of styrene rod to represent dials. If i had my drill bits and needle files with me i'd have drilled holes in the panel and backed them with sheet styrene to give a better appearance but this will have to do. I also added the left console. I'll add a few more parts to the console to add interest but thats all i've done so far. I've walled in the nose wheel bay and added a few strips of styrene to represent ribs. I havent found any photos of this area so far so ill probably add a box or something similar to add interest (probably at the front end to hide that gap) Finally a shot showing the fuselage test fitted to the wings. There is a fairly big gap around the wing roots and intakes which will probably require styrene to be filled but it looks like a mirage so i'm happy. Now the cockpit is nearly ready for paint, I've started thinking about which paints to use. I'd normally airbrush with tamiya or Mr hobby paints but they don't brush well so any recommendations for paint brands for brush painting would be appreciated. Tom

That was a nasty gap to fill. Looks like you got it pretty good though. Should look great with the camo on