SzilardUK

🤣 I am not sure the fish would appreciate that.

Last progress report. This weekend I managed to finish the model. First I attached small bits, like pitot tubes and landing gear doors, then applied a satin coat. It hid the decals much better than I thought it would, so no sanding was required. I applied some panel line wash, and after drying and cleaning, a final layer of matt varnish. The plane now lives on the shelf with its friends. I will take some final photos and upload to the finished section later this week. I also worked on a little side side project this weekend, which also turned out pretty well.

I just had a 1/72 scale Italeri Desert Storm Warthog delivered today, so I'll be coming too. 😊

It's been like that for at least two weeks... 😂

Progress report No.7: Last weekend I made some progress with the ordnance of the airplane. The loadout of the plane I am doing is 3no AMRAAMs, 1no Sidewinder X and 1no Travel pod. There are only 2 AMRAAMs in the Tamiya kit, so I had to take one from the Hasegawa Weapons Set V. Of course to make things interesting, these are slightly different from the ones that came with the kit, so some surgery was required. Then I masked the missiles for the blue training strips. The base colour is Vallejo Light Ghost Grey primer, the strips are ATOM Navy Blue. Unfortunately the Vallejo primer sydrome struck me when I removed the masking tape, so some hand retouching was required. In the end it worked out fine. The Travel pod is also attached to the plane and I have to say I do like it a lot. I applied a couple of decals, and although could not finish everything, the finish line is near.

I don't think the score was correctly booked... 🤔😁

Progress report No.6: Yesterday, with a little help I managed to 3D print some Cargo Pods. They came out slightly smaller than the BLU-27 napalm bomb canisters in the Hasegawa Aircraft Weapons: I set, but after double checking the size with available documentation, I can confidently say that my prints are correct. A little work is required with the door, as instead of a recessed line, I have the entire door either recessed, or raised, but nothing that could not be easily fixed. I have about a dozen of these, so if you need one, shoot me a DM. I could not find any available at 1/72 scale in the UK. I will sort out the door tonight, and hopefully get the model through the finish line this weekend. Thanks for looking!

I would use Vallejo 73.615 Primer for FS36375 (Light Ghost Grey). In fact I will use it in my build for the AMRAAM and Sidewinder missiles. Apparently it is the best match in the Vallejo range, although in lack of an actual paint swatch, it is hard to confirm. The Tamiya painting instructions are completely wrong for the planes that they depict, as they should all be 2 colour scheme.

Progress report No.5: This weekend I did the final touches on the paint job, assembled the landing gears and did some decaling. I used Vallejo Model Air paints for the airplane. 71.097 Medium Gunship Grey for FS36118 (upper wing and fuselage). and 71.275 USAF Medium Grey for FS36270 (everything else). The landing gears and bays are Vallejo White, the tires are 1:1 mixture of Ammo ATOM 20159 Rubber & Tires and Ammo ATOM 20162 Satin Black. I find the decals rather thick, so at least a couple of varnish coats and some sanding will be required once all of them are on. I just got a message that the Hasegawa weapons kits will be delivered today. I can't wait to get home and jump on the last bits. The finish line is in sight. 😊

Progress report no.4 The past week was rather uneventful. Other than lying in bed with high fever, I haven't done much... This week I started feeling much better, so I got back to the bench. Now that the fuselage is in one piece, I thought I'd start painting the body and see how all those nice details hold up under a couple of coats. I have to say, I am surprised how good it all looks. I also did some detail painting, and started to work on the elements of the main landing gear bay. The look and weapon layout I am intending to replicate is the sn. 91-0352, as seen on RIAT 2011 in Fairford. There are some very nice reference shots easily available online. Image used under Creative Commons, Copyright holder: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajw1970/ This plane sports LAU-129 launchers, so I starded doing some surgery on the missile launchers from the Hasegawa F-16N kit that Col. sent me. I was not entirely satisfied, and lacking any reference drawings, I decided to buy the Hasegawa Aircraft weapons V set - I needed an additional AMRAAM anyway. Behind the scenes Col. also educated me about the Travel Pod. (I thought it was a fuel tank.) I looked everywhere for an aftermarket piece, but I could only find 1:48 scale on stock anywhere. After some digging, I managed to find out that these pods were converted from old BLU-27 napalm bomb canisters, which one can conveniently get from an Hasegawa Aircraft weapons I set, which I also placed an order for. Hopefully, I will also be able to do the conversion in smaller scale. I am happy that things are starting to take shape now. 😊 Thanks for looking!

Hi Andre. The idea did come from Hollywood originally. I took the line from Hot Shots. 😇 Thanks very much for the offer. @Col. kindly offered and sent me the surplus parts from his Hasegawa F-16N already – a massive thanks for that! I will be jumping on them as soon as I fight off the fever I am struggling with. Best, Szilard

So I had a little scare yesterday regarding nose weights and couldn't go to bed without addressing the issue. I had already glued the nosecone in place and did not really feel like cutting it open. Luckily, there is a delicate cornial inversion procedure, multi-opti-pupilloptomy, but in order to keep from damaging the eye sockets, I had to go in through the rectum. 🕶️ 🤣 Naah, I actually have not glued in the jet intake either so I had plenty of space to do the surgery. Then I thought I might as well mask the exhaust and glue it into position. I also masked the jet intakes for printing with the base colour.

Thank you both. I haven’t glued in the exhaust yet. I think I will push some lead putty down to the back of the cockpit just to be on the safe side.

Wait, is it a tail sitter? I am building the Tamiya version and the instruction sheet did not mention anything about having to put weights to the nose. I better cut it open before I paint it then... 😐

Progress report no.2: I have only made little progress this weekend. I put together all main parts of the airplane and glued on the canopy to minimise the chance of the interior getting damaged or gathering dust. I painted the jet intake white, which I had to fill/sand and repaint, but that was the point of the exercise anyway. I masked and painted the base of the exhaust with Vallejo Metal Steel, and the small ring between the base and lamellas with Vallejo Metal Aluminium. Whilst I was waiting for the paint to cure, I masked off the canopy, and applied a layer of gloss black primer on it. Then I painted the exhaust lamellas (I do not know the official term, please let me know what they are called) with Tamiya Titanium Silver. Once everything was dry, I applied some black panel wash, and used blue and purple felt tip pen on the base ring, and black and blue felt tip pens on the lamellas for "weathering". It does not show on the photos very well, but I think it looks OK. The exhaust and the jet intake are only dry fitted into the model for now, as there is some further masking/painting/varnishing to do on them.