arfa1983

Ok, thanks Graham! I guess they just put the tanks on the same sprue as the clear pylons to simplify production of the kit.

Well I have definitely been neglecting my studies but at least I'm ready for paint shop! No real issues I would say. All parts are off the sprues and ready for paint. One confusion I have is the fuel tanks and their pylons as they are moulded in clear. The instructions are actually not very clear but it looks like the tanks should be painted grey or silver and the pylons should be left clear? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks everyone for the kind comments! Certainly it feels great to be back on the builds! I made a bit more progress tonight. Unfortunately my next online uni course starts tomorrow which is gonna cut down on the building time available but I just need to keep doing little bit here and there I think because the kit falls together with a little bit of tidy up work and dry fitting. You know the fit is good when you cannot see where to apply extra thin cement because the join literally looks like the other panel lines! Unfortunately I didn't get the photoetch vents in front of the cockpit perfect. It was challenging and unfortunately called for the destruction of the plastic equivalent part so there wasn't even a back-up option! But being keen to improve my PE skills I took the plunge. It will be ok when done but it's not perfectly round nor flush.

Looking great Alan, I have been lurking and following this for some time now. Amazing detail work, but perhaps you can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. How many tins of grey paint have you ordered?

I made a start and spent a lot of time on the cockpit, using all the PE! Even the really tiny stuff. While it is practically invisible, it's also good practice for when I get around to doing one of those really mentally detailed ships with loads of PE. Then I buttoned up the fuselage. The kit really goes together amazingly, but i did break some of the frames of the cockpit tub while removing them and they were also a little broken to start off with. I didn't scratch any repairs to the missing sections because I thought it should not really be visible. Boy was I right. Can hardly see any of my hard work! 😐 And now got the wings on. Really lovely kit to work on. Not a fast build but certainly very rewarding and something to become absorbed in. The details are incredible. Hopefully I can get some more work done on this this week.

Well it's been a terrible year for my group builds. I must have built 10 last year and so far zero completed this year. But having just cleared out my model cabinets having sold most of my builds, and having a break between courses I thought I'd start on this. Some nice looking plastic. And of course the Profipack PE and masks. And the suitably deserty scheme. I actually just sold most of my collection to a Pakistani man so it's kind of fitting too!

Sign me up for sure!

I thought you were going to say, "So I found another wife"

A recent build... I really should join in this GB with my eduard hawker tempest in Pakistani desert scheme!

You cannot have too many Phantoms... both look great

I've been AWOL from the group builds for some time now... it's so sad, I've got a kit in the stash for at least 70% of the GBs. I'd happily trade half of them for some extra time up my sleeve but between everything else IRL right now all I can do is work on some small easy to build kits and do a little here and there on the shelf of doom. Even this is infrequent and stunted! After a super productive 2021 and 2022 for me, 2023 looks to be a real drought. I'll certainly be lurking in the galleries of all the GBs but hopefully 2024 will be another boom year for me! I'm particularly looking forward to lurking in this GB's gallery! Thanks all, and... I'll be back... Arthur

Thanks south viper. It is just the kits plastic part

Magnificent! And I'm sure looks quite imposing in that scale!

At least there's even more hope a viggen will end up in the gallery. My 1/48 one is hopelessly stalled! 😭 Good luck with yours!

And I thought the soccer ball just happened to be sitting in the backyard! Excellent job on this model and the airbase.

Nice paint job but I was expecting something a little more pink. Maybe it's the photo or my mild colour blindness but it looks white to me! Edit: I looked at it a little longer and it is definitely pinkish

Perfect job ! Looks great.

Definitely less than 25%! I'd say that you're good to go

Don't hold your breath!

I love it! The silver sticker turmed out really well. You should makea prime moooover for it now.

Work on this is continuing at snail pace. However hopefully this is the last of the filling and sanding before painting can begin. I restored all the panel lines that I could and I think I did a decent job! I used a tamiya scribing template with tape and a scribing tool and razor saw. I finally used a black pen to trace the lines to see how they worked out and it looks ok. I'm quite excited to start the painting on this and I really want to try do the scheme justice.

I just saw it. Lovely clean build!

So the almost 50 year old decals actually worked??!

Absolutely amazing job. Oh I just dream about the day when I can spend 15 hours within a single 24 hour period just at the modelling bench!

The finished product looks like a regular 3 month GB build! Outstanding work! I would have never looked twice at this kit in the past and now I must say I will likely buy it if I see it one day!