Jabba

Now standing on 3 of her wheels. I should hopefully fit the main U/C tonight. I have also been decalling the fuel tanks. These plus a few other parts I have sprayed with a Matt varnish as I am thinking if these items are from normal stock they would have been used and not the nice shiney new Stain varnish of the airframe.

Newer outrigger fitted and now standing on 3 wheels. The main U/C should be fitted tonight.

Or when you are looking for the next dropped part.

That would be true if it were not for a slightly annoying problem that occurred last night. I was in the middle of fitting one of the outrigger wheels without glue, when I lifted up the model to see that the alignment was alright when it fell to the ground. On the way down it hit my heel and I thought that it should not be too hard to find. How wrong I was, as I have search all around and still have not found it. Luckily I have an Italeri Sea Harrier in the stash, so this has been dug out and one of the outriggers is in the middle of being painted. The one that fell to the floor was tight in its position, so I am not sure how or why it fell out. The other one has been fitted fine, but I have a Harrier kit with only one outrigger wheel. I will continue to search and hopefully one day the carper monster will reject this part and I can put it safely in the Sea Harrier kit.

That is it.

Engine exhausts and wing pylons fitted. I have done some repainting at the nose, plus made up the ejection seat and the Nose U/C. Hopefully be fitting the U/C soon.

Engine exhausts and wing pylons fitted. I have also done some repainting at the nose so that it is now how Modedecals instructions say. I have also made up the ejection seat for the Green one to see if it would fit in this model, which it does. So I have taken the MB Mk9 from the AV-8A/GR1 kit that I have handy so that it will be used in this one. U.C to be added soon.

It does mention weapons carried on the decal instructions. Whether these are typical of the deployment or ones that were carried by "KCs" aircraft I will have to look later, as they are not to hand at the moment.

Certainly looking like a Harrier now. I am glad that your expeience with this kit is a lot better than the Hasegawa one. Yes the intakes were a slight struggle with mine, and a good job you have done with them.

Getting there slowly, still a few more things to do.

Not at all @exdraken. I am just doing the aircraft none of the damage, as I think that is slightly beyond my skills level.

A wonderful model, well done. I have this in the stash ready to be built one day. Thanks for the tip about taking time with the construction.

Most of the stencils have now been applied, a few to be added to parts that are on the sprues, such as the out rigger wheels. Some Klear to be added over the decals and the some Satin varnish.

Stencilling almost done, in that I still have a few to apply, but not to the main model. The Italeri sheet was a bit of a nightmare in that I had to peel most of the decals off the backing sheet, with me actually losing a few. Still onwards and upwards with a splash of Klear here and there and then a Satin varnish.

For this GB I will be using the Italeri A-10A kit to make an aircraft that was flown by Capt Kim "KC" Campbell of 74th FS, 23rd FW during Op Iraqi Freedom in 2003. For this I will be using a decal sheet from Twobobs. This aircraft was very badly damaged after being repeatedly being struck by AAA during a mission near Baghdad. She then expertly flew this aircraft back to her deployed base at Ahmed Al-Jaber AB Kuwait, having to revert to manual flight controls having lost hydraulic power. Being badly damaged ths aircraft was not repaired, but parts were cannibalised and the aircraft never flew again. The box. What's inside the box. Kit instructions and decals. Twobobs instructions and decals.