Mick Drover

Sure thing! Fully agree with the SEA scheme. F-4 anyone?

Hi all. Our club theme this year for the annual QMHE show here in Queensland is two seaters and trainers. We're not limiting subjects to only aviation subjects but considering that we mostly build aircraft I've decided on a another jet subject for the display anyway! The more the merrier right??? This is the 1/48 Hasegawa Mitsubishi F-2B. I'm a big fan of the of the F-16 and seeing the F-2 is a close cousin, it was an easy decision to crack on with this build. Additional extras lined up for the build are Afterburner and DXM decals, Finemolds seat belts and pitot/static, Hasegawa weapons and Royale resin wheels. Montex masks will be used on the clear bits. And after seeing the U-125A recently built by @_alfisti_ I just couldn't go past the lovely two tone blue that the modern Japanese jets are famous for. The subject of interest. Some clean up and priming of parts. The full length intake and gear door interiors have some pin marks that I've filled with Vallejo plastic putty. It's good stuff and dries quickly in the stinking heat that we've had recently. The cockpit features nicely raised detail and the Afterburner interior decals registered well with the detail when applied. Below is the pit before any kind of wash or flatcoat. The seats are nicely done though if you don't like black then leave them alone. I tried to dress them up by using black and then varying shades of grey. The stencils near the headbox are from Afterburner and they'll eventually get some Finemolds belts. Again, this is before they've been hit with a flat coat. The intake is full length right back to the face of the engine. Not quite why Hasegawa didn't opt for this construction with their F-16 kits. Tamiya putty thinned with liquid glues has bene used on the interior seams followed by sanding with a long piece of rolled 400 grit sanding paper. Paint is Tamiya flat white acrylic applied with a larger than normal needle/nozzle (0.4mm) through a H&S airbrush. The paint goes a LOT better than with the 0.15mm smaller nozzle I normally use, perfect for applications in a confined space like this. There was a bit of faffing around with the next part to get the top and bottom fuselage halves to fit. I trimmed a variety of spots on the cockpit tub, instrument panel and cockpit interior and I still had to apply a bit more pressure to get the upper and lower fuselage halves to meet around the tub. Not a big issue but annoying nontheless. I left the parts clamped for most of the week to ensure the glue had gone off completely. You can see in this image where the problem was when gluing the upper and lower halves. Wings, fin and others to go on over the weekend. Apart from the above, it's been an easy build so far. Cheers, Mick

Thanks Zigster. Good to hear it gets your approval! Thanks Ray! I'm keen to do a bigger version of the Super, same squadron but in different markings. I've got the Ronin 48th decals though I can't remember if its the Okra markings. Mick

Hi all. It's been a while between drinks for this one. It came close to being finished yesterday afternoon but the workshop was getting a bit warm, plus I had to go play darts at the BIL's place. These photos were taken yesterday afternoon post flat coat and before and after the clear parts were unmasked. Considering all of the handling its had I was surprised at how well they were after un-masking, there was no residue at all. I've also modified the wingtip slime lights to represent the longer RAAF (Lot 26???) version. The last few things to do are the GBU-32's from Eduard and the wingtip AIM-9X's and single AIM-120C; the canopy actuator and the decoy cable boomerang blade. From memory the seats are from Quickboost,the decals are from Ronin and the laser JDAM's on the wings are from Attack Squadron. Not far to go. Cheers, Michael

It's got the first coat of white on it but the Christmas period paused any progress on the modelling front. I'll be back to it soon.

Hi all. Not a productive weekend here as the weather in South East Queensland has been warm and not exactly conducive to sitting in the workshop for periods of time. It's going to be another warm week here with temps in the low 30's (C) and low humidity. I've only managed to get the canopy attached, of course not forgetting the debris shield separating the fore and rear 'pits. Hopefully I'll be back with more later in the week when it cools down a bit. Cheers, Mick

That's really nice. The different fuselage insignia has me intrigued. Nice one. Mick

Decals have arrived from Caracal, and they're rather nice. WOOT! I foresee painting on the weekend. Thanks @CaracalModels!!!

This it what it looks like Zach. Cheers, Mick

No worries Zach. I made mine up over a 24 hour period and went about it in an incremental way. Started with a half bottle of Tamiya Extra Thin and then added chopped sprue (2-3mm pieces) a bit at a time. Perhaps a 5cm length at first. Let it dissolve and then check its consistency. If it's too runny add another 5cm until you're happy with it. You don't want it to run though you do want it to have some movement. Perhaps the viscosity of warm honey? (Never thought I'd use that as a form of comparison) Let me know how you go. I'll take a pick tonight so you can see what it looks like in the bottle. Thanks David. The power panel is only a small piece of the larger Verlinden detail set. Who says you have to use it all in one model right??!! The Jetphotos website is a great source of info. I've got the Reid Publication, Duke Hawkins and Eagle Publication books on the F-16 too so I think I got my bases covered there! It's always handy to have reference close by, screen or print. On another note, I noticed with the Pavla seats for my Tucano build that they're a bit shallow. Nothing a bit of plastic card can't fix. Thanks for stopping by. Cheers, Mick

Great to have you along Whiskey. As Pappy said, the Hasegawa kits are a lot gentler on the wallet. Their numerous release also means you can pretty much do an early block right through to the latest block, albeit with some changes that aren't beyond the realms of being achievable with some basic modelling skills; both single and dual seaters. Sprue is exactly that. I start with a roughly half bottle of Tamiya Extra Thin glue and then add finely chopped plastic sprue to the bottle. The idea is that the plastic in the glue melts into the surrounding kit plastic which leaves a clean join. I've used Eduard sprue in mine and I'm pretty happy with the result I've had with it. Depending on how much chopped sprue you add means either a thin or think mix. Mine will run a but but it's probably on the thicker side. Keep in mind though that if you layer a lot of the stuff on in one go it will take time to set due to the nature of the glue. If it's a heavy application it will need to gas off and set. So okay to leave on parts early in the clean up period. I tend to use it in small areas as per the wingtip rails. It's also handy for seams. Cheers, Mick

Quite possibly

Cheers Pappy. The decals came from TR, the inspiration is courtesy of AP Mick

Holy smokes! That's a fantastic result. Nice to see an F-16 in a lesser known operators markings. Mick.

A mate and I have small (two-man) group build happening so while other kits are either waiting for parts to arrive or paint to dry, I've cracked on with a Hasegawa F-16B. I've got a small fleet of F-16's to do and I wanted to do a less famous operator. Paired with a two seater and trainer build theme for my clubs QMHE display, I've opted for a two holer from the Royal Thai Air Force. I guess you could say this was motivated by a fellow Aussie builder who built a single seater version a few years ago using a bit of Verlinden resin and the Siam Scale sheet. Imitation, flattery...or whatever they say. Some of these images were taken in early October but the recent image of the assembled kit is where it's at was as of Sunday afternoon. (18/11). This is the B version before their aircraft went through MLU upgrades so no bird slicers or additional bits and pieces. I opted to get into the underside first. Kit undercarriage bay installed. The reinforcing plates around the arrestor hook will need to be addressed. Old molds have taken their toll in this area and the bits are soft as well as out of shape. The nose gear bay has been dressed up with some etch courtesy of Eduard. The panel for the ground power point has been removed in readiness for the Verlinden resin. I've placed some lumps of plastic around the resin item. If for whatever reason it separates from the CA it won't be going anywhere. I've built more plastic card around the resin that can be seen here. The piece of plastic near the intake mouth is one of three that is a stop for an intake blank I've fabricated. No need to tidy up the awful Hasegawa seam. Some wire brake lines for the main gear legs. Make sure you install the correct gun blast panel, as I found out. A few sink marks in the wing tips are addressed with sprue glue. And work done on the under wing join. I've still a bit of tidy up to do here but it looks better than what the photo suggests. The front cockpit gets the etch panels. Oddly the canopy lock handle is the wrong way around on the etch piece. I opted to leave it as Sods law would have me bend, snap and lose the piece. The reinforcing bands on the wing tanks have been replaced with plastic strut. They're still a bit too think but nothing five minutes with a sanding pad won't fix. I chopped off the imaginary version of the locating points on the drop tank pylons that Hasegawa would have you use. Again, a few small thick sheets of plastic with lashing of Extra Thin to melt it all together. The exhaust gets the etch on the inside of the petals. I've hacked open the MXU travel pod too. The kit has it hinge upward whereas they actually hinge at the bottom. I'll also add a flat internal floor from some plastic card. The resin seats compared to the kit seats. A clear win to the resin. I think they'll need a bit more height to lift them to the correct position but they're close. I've also nicked the rear frame/rails from the kit and attached them to the resin items. And the folly of buying a second (third)?) hand kit. The canopy had come adrift from the sprue during it's travels and I don't think it was a clean amputation. I've built up the messy attachment point with sprue glue over a few nights and then cleaned it up with some sanding pads. The canopy will be closed so the small inside blemish won't be seen after paint has been applied. As of Sunday afternoon.