rainstel109

Right, finally got the basic colors applied, though not 100% sure I've got the correct shade, but its bit late now. I had no drawings to work from, just what I could find on the interweb, so there might be some errors that some people might pick up on. Opinions on the underside color are welcomed as to wether too dark, too light, incorrect totally, etc as I'll doing a fair bit of post shading after the model is washed.

Well its a bit late now to correct those issues as I've just finished applying the first coats of paint! Besides, if I had decided to do any more corrections I'd run the risk of losing interest and it might up on the shelf of doom. Off to bed now as I'm doing early shift in the morning, but I'll post up some pics when I get back.

I picked up one of these at the 2015 SMW at Telford for around £65 with an eye to doing an out of box build. Well, that all changed when I had a chat with the boys from the harrier sig that were attending SMW, and all the glaring errors were pointed out to me. This being due to Trumpeter using the AV8-B as a basis for this kit which means theres few things that are totally wrong. Still, I thought, what the hell, I'll throw meself in at the deep end and see what happens. Now, theres a chap called "Piero" who post on here and I've been using his thread/s as a guide (along with various sources in the interweb build this thing. First off, I wanted to do a green one, not grey, as theres more grey ones than green and I wanted summat just a bit different which menas I had to mix me own colors (more of that later). I've had to do some modifications to bring the kit up to what I consider to be a passable GR.7, this what I've done so far (iirc): Reprofiled the nose "hump" a bit and added a bit of detail to the front. Wolfpack martin baker bang seat (still to paint) Eduard p/e for the cockpit (wished I'd used the original or used the Aires av8b II set) Scratchbuilt the chaff/flare dispenser Added extra panel lines/ rivet detail to the fuselage about an inch forwards of the vertical fin. Added the GPS aerial (the white disc on the upper fuselage) Thats what I've accomplished so far with most of the work being filling, sanding and rescribing and generally tidying up (the fit is deffo not like a Tamiya kit here, especially in the gear bays).

I built one of these Zvezda 1/48 Bf109F a while ago, lovely kit to build with an engine too. Thats a very nice example of winter weathering and I like the scheme as well, well done.

Lovely job there mate, well done.

Right, I'm calling this done. I originally built this kit about 20-25 years ago and I was asked by the owner if there was a chance of upgrading it as it was built rather crudely with resribed panel line all over the place and looking horrible. So...I filled and resribed where needed,rubbed down, resprayed using Mr color acrylics, replaced the prop blades with GMA replacements, Barracuda seat and wheels, Eduard harness and Eagle Cal decals. I originally made this model by extending the nose by about half an inch (I forget the exact amount, it was a long time ago) a friend lent me some 32 scale exhausts that I was able to make a mold of and cast these items meself in resin. The original prop blades were totally scratch built by yours truly, but I chose to replace them as they were a tad narrow and the GMA replacements are so much more accurate. The depicted the model in the markings of George "Buzz" Buerling as he was a bit of character and was, I believe, the highest scoring Canadian Ace of the war although he did meet his end in suspicious circumstances apparently. And yes, I know the crowbar is supposed to be black not red

Very nice job done there mate, especially getting the covers to fit either on or off.

Thanks for all the kind remarks guys, kinda makes all the effort worth it.

Heres a thought, what type of glue did you use fix the u/c legs in place, was it superglue or a type of tamiya extra thin?

That really is modelling of the highest calibre, the attention to detail is stunning, well done mate, something to be proud of.

Just looking at this thread, lovely Typhoon there mate really like the finish. With regards to the u/c legs, I really don't see what the problem is, the legs on my typhoon are really solid with virtually no flex in them at all. there were a bit "bendy" before the retract mechanism was glued in place, but once those parts were fitted, they're as solid as anything and easily support the model with no flex at all.

Finally got this one done and finished, first a brief resume of what I used: The itself obviously Mr color custom mixed acrylic paint Kit decals (really good and easy to use) Eduard seat harness After market resin windshield and canopy. Thats it, the rest of the kit was built straight from the box. The kit itself is very good value for money for two reasons I reckon, first theres an awful lot of parts in the box to enable you to build any one of four versions and secondly, the level of detail is exceptional, especially on the outer surface of the wings, fuselage and tail assembly. Airfix have captured the "oil canning" effect really well and I personally reckon the cost of the kit is worth it for this reason alone. Now, as with most things, theres always a down side and its down to the quality of the moldings really. Theres an awful lot of molding seam removal to do which can be tedious to say the least, especially on the engine pipework as its quite delicate and theres a lot of seams to remove. Theres also the issue of parts fit in as much as....they don't unless they're test fitted, rubbed down, bits removed, which I suppose is just one of those things considering the cost again but is still a bit of a fag having to do it. Bottom line, when the thing is built it look like a Typhoon and by that I mean it "sits" like a typhoon and looks correct in all the right places to me. Its not an easy build as theres so much of it but the result is deffo worth the effort. Would I build another? not for a while, I spent a lomg time doing this ( for me anyway as I tend to build fairly quickly) but I reckon I'd like to one fully opened up maybe later. Heres some pics of the beast.

Got the gun bay covers completed now, quite pleased as to how the leather effect worked. Now starting on the HVAR rockets and rails.

Okies, got a lot more done on Tiffie this afternoon. I got the props and spinner finished, sprayed, washed and weathered the canopy, a resin aftermarket jobbie that doesn't have any imperfections, highly recommended, gave the entire model a coat of matt varnish but not heavy, just a blow over as it were as I didn't want to lose the oil canning effect. I then picked out some, not all, panel lines in an oil based wash to give the paintwork a bit more tonal changes. All tghats left to do now is the HVARs and launchers, pitot tube, aerials, step, a bit more grubbyfying and I'm calling it done after that lot. What I'm trying to illustrate in the pics is the finish with the matt varnish applied, but its not showing very well unfortunately.

Righto, the light is starting to appear at the end of the tunnel! I've got the flaps on in the dropped position, nearly completed the props and spinner but still a little weathering to do on the props, fitted the exhaust stubs and the final piece of tubing to the engine and gave it a final drybrush in silver to pull the details out (quite pleased with how it came out actually), and masked up the canopy for spraying tomorrow.. Nice to report no problems encountered here, all parts fitted perfectly. More to come later.

Ok boys found an issue here with the spinner/ props assembly. You can't assemble the spinner to rub down, rescribe, etc without installing the prop blades first. This means that all work, rubbing down, cleaning up, painting, weathering, etc must be carried out with the blades mounted in the boss which is inside the spinner assembly. This is because the blades will not slide into their mountings in the boss because the openings in the spinner aren't big enough, the roots of the blades are too thick. So, what I did after finding this out was to remove the blades from the boss with a razor saw, drill holes in the base of the blades and in the boss, then use brass rod to add a locating pin, then remove a fair bit of plastic from the rear blade root, just enough to allow the blade to be installed. This means I can work on the blades and spinner separately. Not ideal, but when everything is fitted, you can't see the rear of the prop blades very well anyway as the openings in the spinner are small enough to obscure them. The pic of the blades shows them before the roots were cleaned up and smoothed.

Ok, update time again kiddies. I got the u/c completed and fitted, main wheels and tail wheel also. No problems encountered there, in fact when you get the main legs assembled, I've found that when they're installed, the join / seam lines disappear totally as they sit in a recess in the gear doors. Also the main legs have a nice positive fitment, almost click into place, and are very sturdy, especially when the retract assemblies are fitted. The gun bays are literally a wash/ rinse job, assemble, paint and fit although I did remove about 85% of the barrels to enable the cannons to slide into position. At the moment I'm working on the prop and spinner. Theres still some smaller components to fit, I can do those at a later date. ]

I must admit that I'm finding the same as lots of others that are building this kit with regards to fit issues. I've found I've had remove or leave out a few components to the thing to go together which is absolutely fine if you're gonna button it up, not so good if you want to display it with a lot of the kit opened up. At this point I'm nearly finished in the wheel bays and I'm working on the wheels and legs at the moment so I should have some pics available shortly.

very nice build this, I'll be following this.

I used my own mixture. The blue was dark blue, black and a hint of red, the red was ordinary red, black white and yellow but I can't now remember the proportions. Its all a bit moot now as I ended up using the decals which I will say are very good.

Ok, got a bit of an issue here which I'm trying to work out how to remedy. Its all down to the rivets, theres just so many of 'em! I'm finding if I wash in say Phils Flory's dark dirt wash, all these rivets stick out like a sore thumb and cause a sort of "crosshatch" effect on the wings. I've evn tried scrubbing the rivets line gently with a soft toothbrush to try and alleviate the problem but I can't seem to hit a happy medium between showing the rivets but subduing them enough so they don't interfere with the overall appearance. Have a look at the pics and you'll see what I mean. I think I'm going to have to over spray each line very lightly in lightened base color paint to see if I can fade them out slightly.

If it does, I'm off to Texas

Now the main decals are on I can start with the secondary weathering using the pigment powders and blowing over again in the base colors. Once that lots done I can build up the u/c bays and get the thing up on it's wheels. I'm also pondering on tidying up the engine bearers as I reckon I didn't do a good enough job on them.

Ok, I've got all the main decals down now and checked 'em over and I can confirm they're really good, expected as they are from "Cartograph". I'm now at the point of figuring out what bit to do next, u/c bay, prop, gun bay, etc. You can see how well the decals have gone down in the last pic, all the rivets and panel lines are showing through.

Well, all is not lost Carruthers, I've checked the decals this morning and I can say that they've all settled nicely and shrunk onto the paintwork a treat. Theres no bubbling, creasing at all, and the rivets, panel lines, etc are all showing through as they should, so it hasn't been a disaster, just a set back.