SaintsPhil

There's always these beauties.... http://www.eduard.com/store/en/eduard/aim-4d-1-48.html?cur=1&listtype=search&searchparam=AIM%20

Looks good, except the second snap seems to have gone missing....out of bandwidth? My experience of pigment fixer is only the enamel versions (which I assume the vallejo one is not!). I found it was best to apply the pigment dry, or as a paste with something removable (like low odour thinners or even water) the apply the binder with a pippet and let the pigments absorb it. Essentially I think the fixer is just Matt varnish thinned down!!

Lovely paint work, great tip on the ammo paints and Gunze thinners by the way, I will try that one as so far I've found them to be a PITA!

Good start, I've just finished mine! Looks like you have the heads up on the fit issues. Make sure you clean out all of the locating holes for the parts, it's a pain but it really helps. Also watch the wings, I should have thinned the leading edges a little both to get a better fit and to avoid the hassle I had with the PE wing fences! It's a nice kit overall but benefits from dry fitting and a little TLC in places.

Very much accurate, the sand top coat was a temporary finish and chipped off heavily!

Great work! I'm just about done on the FA2 myself and it isn't shake a bake to be sure! How did the Neomega seat fit? I used an old airwaves one in mine and had to cut a fair bit of the bottom off to reduce the height!

More good work, on the paint front you might want to look at Vallejo model air 71143 UK light stone, which by the name of it sounds like it ought to be the right colour for British armour in the gulf. I think it's new to their range, I'm going to order a bottle to try!

I don't personally use decalfix, but a decal solution of some sort will help, with the thicker far eastern manufacturers decals, the Mr Mark decal solutions (GSI) tend to be the best option as they're stronger. The other thing that works, at least with Tamiya decals which are similar thickness is to use near boiling water to soak them in. The newer acadeny kits have better decals so you maybe ok!

They should be good for Op Telic, I can't say for sure if they're 100% accurate but it really depends how hung you get on that. Academy decals do have a reputation for being on the thick side though, I build the older boxing of this kit and those decals were awful! Hopefully they've improved in this boxing! I'm not sure there is an 'accurate' colour with armour, if it looks about right then it's a good starting point as a base for fading and weather etc.

Good start on not a bad kit, with the exception of those irritating ejection pin marks you mention! Are you going for the box markings from Iraq?

Nice finish on a tricky but ultimately rewarding kit! Why did you change the missile adaptor rails? The ones in the kit seem ok, are the Has ones just nicer?

Lovely job, always like the builds that have 'history'. I've read the book and it's an interesting politics free take on combat.

That's annoying about the wheels, first thing I'd do is shoot some primer over them to see how bad it 'really' looks. Also Maybe 2-part epoxy might work better than super glue, I've used that before on rubber band tracks. Keep up the good work!

That was the same one I got in the end, it works really well, thanks for the reminder that I'd not replied on this thread and also that my AB is probably due another bath.....

I have used enamel washes over mr color paints with no problem. As far as I am aware the mr color paints are 'synthetic' acrylic paints, using a solvent base rather than a water solvable base. You might get issues from aggressive enamel thinners but something odorless should be ok. I would still recommend testing it on scrap or an unseen area first mind. As for an acrylic gloss you can't go wrong with the Alclad aqua gloss varnish.

Nice, I like the look of these APC as well, if it turns out like the build in your link above it'll be another stunner!

As something completely out of left field my nan, who had very limited sight, used a device that scanned the book and projected it onto a TV screen. This was a few years back so it was all analogue and worked via scart but I'm sure something similar must be available now. I can't recall what it was called but she got it from the RNIB so maybe worth at look at their website? Not exactly what you asked about but for what you describe it might be worth a look at? Phil

Lovely job!

Looks like it could be a winner! Thanks for sharing pics

Watching with interest as I have this kit to build soon!

Looking very nice, I started the FA2 just before the festive break and found similar fit issues to you. I did find that if you assemble the cockpit parts using the fuselage as a jig then the fit of everything else is improved slightly. I still found the wing to fuselage fit to be poor, the front section (engine access pale area) is a slightly different curve to the fuselage so it fits one side and not the other. Lots of clamps and a full 24 hours for the blue to cure on one side before attempting the other got me an ok fit. One other thing to be careful of is to remove any flash on the locating holes and pegs and in some cases reduce the length of the pegs, pylons especially I found. None of this helps you of course but it may help those reading your WIP with an eye to building the kit! It's a shame the fit is not great as a lot of the lovely surface detail will be lost, some of which is not easy to replace. Overall not a bad kit though, can't wait to get painting now I've seen yours.

That's great work, I think you have been very generous to what is an awful kit to put together! Certainly a silk purse from a sows ear in this case!

I've just done the same thing, went with cool white and got a new LED bulb for the main light in my cave too, wish I had done it ages ago!

Lovely work on the interior, looking forward to seeing the exterior now!

I'll watch this one with interest as I quite fancy one of these!