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Icarus

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  1. Icarus
    enjoyed this build, which seems to be the second version of this a/c in the Gallery. Kit: Heller 1/48 Rafale A Markings: Dassault Demonstrator scheme Extras: PE cockpit additions Paint: Vallejo acrylics, Tamiya lacquers, Alclad metals and Klear varnish. Weathering: Minimal dilute Windsor and Newton Oils, artists' pastels on undercarriage and in cockpit Build thread here: Thanks for looking, Icarus
  2. Icarus
    Right - just finished this. The canopy is only placed on. I toyed about weathering, but in the end went for some very light oil wash.. Thank you for looking, Icarus
  3. Icarus
    What a fun build this was! Also hoping to build an ESCI 1/48 Viggen for this GB, but still need to finish the contributions to the High Wing and French Fancy GBs. Anyway... Kit: Hasegawa 1/48 1/48 J35O Draken Markings: Dragon Knight - Austrian Air Force Commerative scheme. Extras: Resin ejector seats, Master metal pitot Paint: Vallejo acrylics Tamiya lacquers, Alclad metals and Klear varnish (plus a lot of polishing with Micromesh cloths!). Weathering: Minimal dilute Windsor and Newton Oils, artists' pastels on undercarriage and in cockpit Original build thread here: Thanks for looking, Icarus
  4. Icarus
    Approx. halfway through the decaling now - this is a slow process. The decals themselves are of excellent quality - the only ones that have been really fragile thus far were the red cheat lines around the port canard, so a bit of touch up will be needed there... Enjoying making this beautiful aircraft model. Thanks for looking, Icarus
  5. Icarus
    So, yesterday got a chance to update the seat belt situation... Last night I finally closed up the fuselage sides. As a lot of the additional detail would then largely disappear, I thought I would take this photo for posterity! We will see later whether I run into the same fit issues everyone else seems to have had with the lower fuselage. Thanks for looking, Icarus
  6. Icarus
    Well, that was easy. Britmodeller itself had the answer. Looking at this reference, I will need to add a bit more for the pilot's Sutton harness, plus probably some lap belts (through the now assembled fuselage bracing!) for the observer. The latter manipulations will need all my old surgical skills, but I'll give it a go.. Swordfish mk.1 question on belts - WWII - Britmodeller.com Icarus
  7. Icarus
    The lovely internal fuselage detail is painted and built. I have added some seat belts out of painted Tamiya tape. I doubt the positioning is correct - will check references later. The lap belts might actually be a bit big, but after weathering should look fine. Thoroughly enjoying this build, and nice to do 1/72 for a change (although I am now of a vintage that needs a magnifier light to do detail painting in this scale!) Thanks for looking, Icarus
  8. Icarus
    Masking off. Not bad - a few touch ups as expected, but nothing too dramatic. I always remove the canopy masks at the end of a build, so once I've touched up the minor areas behind the cockpit (and sanded down that irritating seam on the tail boom I have just noticed!) it will be on with the gloss varnish, ready for those old and potentially fragile decals... Thanks for looking, Alistair
  9. Icarus
    Also available in white... This was the state of play after the Tamiya white primer. As you can see, I was already starting to mask ready for the black around the canopy when I remembered to take a piccie. Eventually, with a mix of Tamiya "tape for curves", Kabuki tape and good old decorator's tape, this was the result.. Clearly, taking no chances for a bit of black overspray on the base white scheme. Here we are now, with good old Tamiya X-1 laid down. I will leave this overnight to harden, then take off the (extensive) masking tomorrow to see where we've ended up. Thanks for looking, Icarus
  10. Icarus
    Thank you Heather - duly noted. I will also make sure any paint is removed from the mating surfaces. Icarus
  11. Icarus
    So, major airframe components now on. There was quite a lot of flex in the plastic, and as can be seen a fair amount of filling and sanding is required, which is still ongoing on the intakes. I have elected to add the canards later, as inevitably they would have been knocked off if added at this stage as per the instructions. Similarly I have cut off the nose probe. Will do some more sanding and filling on those air intake seams today, then aiming to lay down a layer of white primer - to show where I need to rescribe panel lines/detailing. @Shorty84 - good to see you've succumbed to temptation, acquiring a model of one of these beautiful aircraft! Thanks for looking, Icarus
  12. Icarus
    Very, very early stages - priming then initial painting - using a hairy stick for once . I think that "pink" dope colour on the fuselage inner face is perhaps a little too pink, but it will be muted somewhat by the oil pin wash later on. This is the first of the "newer" Airfix 1/72 kits I have made, and I have to say the detailing does look nice. Hoping to have the inner cockpit structures finished today, so we shall see if first impressions are justified. Still trying to work out if this will be built with wings extended or folded. Thanks for looking, Icarus
  13. Icarus
    Good evening morning. A relatively simple build here, aiming for OOB (apart from the bracing wires). Having built my first "modern" Airfix kit with the 1/48 Blenheim in the recent Bristol GB, I'm looking forward to this one. Thanks for looking, Icarus
  14. Icarus
    Thank you Arnaud - what beautiful potential additions. However, having spent quite a lot on the PE to try and get the cockpit reasonable, I will try the kit components initially to see how they look. Icarus
  15. Icarus
    So, cockpit now complete (apart from the HUD, which I will add later to try and stop it getting knocked off in the build). The extra PE and those Reheat decals work well. A test fit of the canopy looks promising, but also illustrates why I went for somewhat exaggerated weathering - even with the canopy as clear as this, I am likely not to fix the canopy, as it just clicks into place at the moment. This will also give me the option of mounting the cockpit open later if I wanted. Will need to touch up the base of the MFD with grey as well. Next steps are building up the main airframe, and then working out how to mask off the upper fuselage for the colour scheme. Thanks for looking, Icarus
  16. Icarus
    Cockpit coming together, with the PE detail really working for the instruments. I found some ancient 1990 Reheat 1/48 generic instrument decals, that have enabled me to make a pretty accurate representation of the original Rafale A i/p. Can't get the photo focus quite correct, but in reality it looks pretty realistic. The flash has accentuated the weathering in the rest of the cockpit, but I do think I may need to tone down the seat cushions a tad. Of course, when its all in the murk of cockpit tub the contrasts will be useful. Thanks for looking, Icarus
  17. Icarus
    So, early steps. I have used the kit plastic and then added the Eduard PE seatbelts, plus a bit of weathering. At least this is accurate. Unlike the cockpit tub that I will start work on today, which will by necessity will incorporate a fictional upgrade, to accommodate as much of the Eduard Rafale C PE that I can fit in! Thanks for looking, Icarus
  18. Icarus
    Agreed - no easy solution here, but great work Alex. So I am going to go for a little bit of artistic license, and follow the (invented) line of thought that the demonstrator might have been used as the basis to test some of the MFDs/instrumentation present in the modern Rafale C cockpit. Following this (invented) logic, I will see what bits from the Rafale C cockpit PE I can cram into the very interesting interpretation of a cockpit that comes with the Heller kit. Anyway, as I always said to my brother when we were building kits on the very same day that we bought them with our pocket money, "it's my kit, so I can do with it what I want". Just as well he ended up as the engineer!
  19. Icarus
    So, this is now complete (apart from a minor touch up at the nose probe base that I have just seen! I'll put some better photos in the Gallery later, then it's off to France for the Rafale A build. If I get time, I will also try build the 1/48 ESCI Viggen that I have in my stash for this GB, in the famous all red Danish "ghost" scheme. Thank you for looking, Icarus
  20. Icarus
    Evening everyone and thank you so much for the comments. Looking at reference photos of the original aircraft this had gloss finish, so I've been having fun with the micromesh polishing cloths today. I've also added the u/c - the front one was pretty complicated, but seems to have worked out accurate and strong. Enjoying this build. Thanks for looking, Icarus
  21. Icarus
    Good morning. With the Draken contribution to the Nordic GB approaching the "final straight", I thought I would make a start on this. Initial priming and painting shows that the kit supplied ejector seat will be fine with the addition of the PE belts, but the cockpit and instrument detail is pretty laughable (middle bottom on the photo below). I will need to get some aftermarket reinforcements for this, even if I'm mounting the canopy closed... So much for this being an out of the box build! Thanks for looking, Icarus
  22. Icarus
    So now with decals on. What an amazing paint scheme! Next step is to build up and add the various undercarriage and fragile bits, remove the masking from the canopy and cockpit space, then glue open. I also need to add the nose probe, with its "stipes", which could be a bit of a challenge. Hopefully then all will be complete, and I can start on the Danish "Ghost" Viggen. Thanks for looking, Icarus
  23. Icarus
    So, as usual. diluted X-1 in multiple thin layers generates a lovely gloss black with great lustre: Tonight, the fun really starts with those amazing decals! Thanks for looking, Icarus
  24. Icarus
    So, now with main structure built, masked, then good old Halfords automotive grey primer: Looking to lay down some of the ever reliable diluted X-1 this evening, then after micromesh polishing it's the main challenge in this build - those decals! Thanks for looking, Icarus
  25. Icarus
    Afternoon all. This is a relatively simple build, with excellent engineering, and is progressing well. I decided that I might leave the canopy open, so have invested in a resin ejector seat. Fitted and painted up as follows: I refrained from going the "full hog" with a resin 'pit, especially as the kit instrument decals have worked out so well! I added a few extra instrument dial decals from a generic set where there were some obvious inaccuracies, but that's all. This does mean the area behind the seat is a bit simplified, but I can live with that for the sake of sanity/finance. Thanks for looking, Icarus
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