AlexPopov

Some progress on this build. I decided to open up the underside nose vent and then glue a piece of PE in place using a mixture of CA / dental acrylic powder. The end result. I wasn't satisfied with the fit of the avionics bay door as it sat a bit proud and didn't quite match the curvature of the fuselage. In order to get a perfect fit, I glued a piece of stainless steel wire in place to slightly widen the rear, and then reinforced it with CA / dental acrylic powder mix. The rear cockpit area was detailed using brass wire. To ensure a proper alignment of the pitot tube, the nose cone was first placed on a flat surface, the W&D Studio stainless steel pitot tube was glued in place using 5-min epoxy, and then adjusted the alignment using a square as it was curing. The final step was to blend the pitot tube into the nose cone using CA. Thanks for looking in.

Beautiful looking build!

Nice and tidy paint work.

Thank you guys. Toby, here's a test piece of the NMF. This was done using Tamiya X-1 gloss black thinned with Mr. Leveling thinner as a base which I then polished to a very high gloss finish, followed by a coat of Mr. Color super metallic chrome silver. I very much like the results, but I'll be doing more tests using gloss black lacquer and enamel as a base and see if I can get even better results.

Very nice and clean work on the cockpit.

Thank you Rob, I agree CA based fillers can't be beat when it comes to speed and durability. Thanks Nikolay, glad you're enjoying the progress so far.

Hi all, I've decided to start my first build thread on here. This project was started some time ago and it didn't progress beyond the prep stage and modification of the fuselage halves to get the Aires cockpit and Reskit exhaust to fit. The aim with this model from the outset is to achieve a highly reflective natural metal finish. The kit and Aftermarket parts. The first thing I did was drill out all the nav lights on the fuselage and cemented plasticard disks from the back side. I will later paint them with metallics and fill them with UV resin mixed with clear colors followed by sanding and final polishing. The modified fuselage halves in order to accommodate the Aires resin tub. Test fit of the resin cockpit with the scratch built HUD lens temporarily in place. Reskit exhaust parts all cleaned up and ready for paint. Test fit of the exhaust. I decided to remove the top portion of the ejection seat rails and replace it with a more detailed part from Eduard brassin set. The painted cockpit with some additional Eduard PE parts. The cockpit glued in place and reinforced with a mixture of CA / dental acrylic powder. Thanks to Dr. Budzik, this mixture is now my go to method of filling and reinforcing joints. The top fuselage light was made using UV resin then sanded smooth and polished, the underside was then painted with metallics. Thanks for looking, Alex