bianfuxia

Well I figured this one would have been finished by now and I'd be struggling with my USS Long Beach but at the moment it's the other way around. I decided I couldn't live with the messy join between forward and aft fuselage sections, so I am doing some remedial work. I still hope to get this done, thanks to the extension!

Apart from the rear missile launcher and associated fire control units, the plastic on this is basically done. After that, I pondered how best to tackle the small amount of PE. Started with a quick blast of Haze Grey: Then assembled the tools... And I managed to do two ladders - on the turret things ahead of each gun mount - before it was time to wrap things up for the day. I'm not sure the angle the ladders are at is strictly correct, but they were a bit too long to go on vertically and once the first one w

This is good news! I think I can easily finish my USS Long Beach this week but my F-104 needs a bit of surgery on the join between the front and the back fuselage halves (yes, front and back, not left/right or top/bottom). With an extra bit of time maybe I can knock that off too.

This is super cool - well done! I love that movie too. I know it was nothing like the smash hit Top Gun was, and that they were quite different movies, but I really like TFC more I think (as cool as Top Gun is).

Things are moving along nicely now. Today I worked on some smaller parts here and there, and focused on the missile launchers. The missiles are actually pretty big - nearly as long as this Sea King I have sitting around from another completed ship: USS Long Beach apparently carried 52 of the long range two-stage Talos missiles (the all white ones below) and 120 of the mid-range Terrier two-stage missiles (the other ones): With the front two launchers installed, the ship is really looking ready for business:

Some more modern ones from my meagre collection: Moroccan AF C-130 - Morocco has 16 of these, two of which are used as tankers. It's the Hasegawa 1/200 kit with roundels painted freehand on Japanese roundel decals... And this is my Zambian AF JL-8 (K-8) Karakorum jet trainer manufactured by Hongdu out of China. Zambia has 15 of these. Mine is missing the fin flash because I couldn't rustle up the decal material for it at the time and once it sits on the display shelf, it's never coming back to the assembly line!

Not a huge amount to show but an important step completed. I always try to put these circle deck markings on fairly early in a build, before all the small parts are attached, and definitely before the guns or launchers which they protect are installed. I did the flight deck while I was at it, which was a pretty tricky job but worked out ok in the end. Dragon must have been on an economy drive the day they designed this kit because the decal sheet is tiny and I practically needed a magnifying glass to carefully navigate the blade through all the closely-printed decals.

Here is the kit: I like the Togo one mainly because I'm kind of fascinated with the country of Togo (fascination does not amount to knowledge, of course). Next choice is Cote d'Ivoire. Then Morocco, because although the two-tone brown scheme is maybe not the greatest, I can probably mock up the roundels using Japanese ones as a basis. I've done this before with a Hercules I made in Moroccan colours. The Cameroon one has a similar scheme but a harder roundel. A google image search brings up plenty of pics of each one, though none apparently copyright free. L

I'm going to join in with the old Airfix Alpha Jet kit in 1/72. I think I will do it as a Togolese example. I'm not paying $25 for a decal sheet to put on a kit I got for three bucks on eBay, so it will be a freelance job. For this reason I may go with a Cote d'Ivoire one as the roundels seem easier to handle! I'll decide as I go along and post up the starting pics soon. Already some super interesting subjects coming up in this build!

thanks! I'l probably clean it up a bit here or there later this week, but yes it was good to get it done!

thanks! And yeah, there was about thirty minutes left and I realized I had never actually tested whether it would stand up or not (I usually do this way earlier in the build, when there is still time to do something about it!) As I gingerly set it down on its recently superglued u/c, I suddenly thought, "oh no, it's gonna be a TAIL SITTER". You can imagine the kind of words I directed at it, at myself, and at the evil concept of center of gravity as I had that horrifying realization. But luckily it's a cargo plane! If I'd had a little more time,

Well, I worked on this one last night as seen in my last post, finishing up all the decals and other parts. The morning routine didn't go so well today so I didn't get back to this task until about an hour before the deadline (including after zipping to the supermarket for some superglue). In that time I managed to put the wings on, remembering to add the tailplane (!) then added all the undercarriage doors and the wheels themselves. Mini-potential disaster was that one main strut was kind of loose. It wouldn't take the weight of the plane without sending t

Haha yes I am one step ahead

A tale of last minute woe, but I made it! Turns out this was a tail sitter so inside it right now are several big pebbles from the garden. I couldn't find a single pic showing how the side doors attach so I have left them off for now. The main cargo doors are tacked in place for the photo, too. But anyway, I think it's finished enough to go in the gallery. Hope you enjoy it! And WHAT AN AMAZING group build this was! Thanks to all who participated and to the showrunners! More pics in the build thread: