1/48 YF-12A WIP.

[danimalmagic]

Hi all, a return to very familiar territory for me, over the next few months I will be building another 3 Blackbirds. This time they will be in in 1/48 scale, each project will be tackled one at a time and I plan to make a fair few modifications and changes to each one.
I think it is a worth mentioning at this point that I am not planning on building all 9 variants in 1/48 like I did for the 1/72 project, that is just too much for my sanity to deal with though I suspect someone will try to twist my arm toward it. 
The 3 projects will start with the YF-12A, followed by the A-12 then the finally the M-21 and drone, I am doing the M-21 last as Kiwi Resin are working on the resin D-21 drone and it may be a while yet, come on Dave L. 
One of the biggest changes from my prior Blackbirds will be the use of Alclad for the titanium finish, I had up until now been using Tamiya acrylic.
I have got an abundance of shades and I plan to do a little mixing as well so we will have to see what happens, I have done a bit of research and it all seems straight forward enough, he he he.
Alclad in abundance.


A lot of the work for the first few weeks will be the basics and making the modifications, I have made a good start with the Vertical Tails and Elevators so we will start the Odyssey there.
To add a little depth to the airframe I thought it would be a good idea to split the tails, these are a moveable control surfaces.

I had thought of splitting the tails first then drilling the hole but decided the far easier option would be the glue the two parts of each tail together and then drill the 2mm hole.
Using my reference material I could see where the pivot point should be and this lined up with the kit detail perfectly. Using a square I then marked a pencil line as a visual guide to drilling the hole, the hole must be square in all axis otherwise when the top half of the tail is turned it will be crooked or will not sit flush.

Once I had cut the tail in two i used a piece of 2mm Stainless Steel welding wire for the pivot pin as this is rock solid, there was a small swelling on the surface when the pin was fitted but this was easily sanded away.

Two halves fitted back together and the tail is vertically and horizontally square, the same was repeated for the other tail.

There is a little clean up work to do on the bottom half of the tail but essentially that is it, the tail will remain unglued so it can be displayed in any position.

Next up are the 4 Elevators, there are two inner elevators on the inside of each Nacelle and another one on each wingtip.
For some reason when they designed the moulds for the inner elevators on the YF-12A, the cast a small section of each elevator on the stumpy tail. This is really ugly when the tail area is assembled leaving a nasty seam.

I would normally fill in situ as above, I decided this time to remove the two inner elevators completely, this will make sorting the seam out much easier and we can remount the elevator on a more realistic drooped position.
I have a feeling that most of the SR-71 that are in museum’s have had their control surfaces fixed in position for aesthetic purposes, I would imagine with the power off they would droop like the following one. (Not sure what museum this is.)

Removing the offending parts.

There is a small section on the upper and lower section of the tail that has to be cut out as well.

These parts then in turn have to be re assembled and checked against the fuselage width.

Next up each elevator needs to be filled, the end cross section also has to be filled as we are displaying the elevators in the lowered position and the gap would show. I have already applied and sanded the coarse filler, a final coat of liquid filler should finish it off, and as usual the tape is there to protect the surface detail.

Next up I attacked the outer elevators on each wing tip.

The two halves were glued together then cut out and cleaned up leaving a slight angle to create the drop of the outer Elevator, I then test fitted to the wing.

I have used a couple of bits of old etch to act as mounting lugs.

The outer elevators still need a bit of work as there is another nasty seam to fill.


Having cut out the inner elevators you are left with a large gap that needs to be filled each side as it will show when the elevators are drooped.

I have inserted some plastic card and filled over.

Inner elevator checked for fit.

Underside.

The inner elevators still need a fair bit of work to make the seam invisible but that will just take a bit of time.

Before a can get all of the tail section completed I needed to finish of the seam on both halves of the tail. The fit is quite square but the contour is slightly out leaving a bump/step on the join, I had the same issues on my 1/48 Blackbirds. Once the gap is filled and careful sanded so that the step/bump is removed while not killing to much of the surface detail.

I know a lot of people will ask why not re scribe but I know from experience that it will not look right, I have looked at other builds that have been re-scribed and it does not matter how careful you are there are always visible areas where the scriber overrun, slipped or went out of control and has had to be filled.
On a flat surface no issue but on the curved surfaces it is a different matter that is difficult to get perfect even using Dymo Tape a guide, if I cannot get it all 100% correct then it is not worth doing.
I would rather just get the fuselage assembled and then gently sand the whole model leaving just a trace of the panel lines as a guide for painting and masking later on, it worked quite well on the 1/72 version.

Another minor but annoying issue is the fit of the wing halves, there seems to always be a small step, it was the same of the 1/72 version. I decided this time rather that spend time doing too much filling and sanding I would lift up the area to bring it level first.

Better but still a fair gap to fill.

I have filled the gap in the same manner as before.

That is about where I am now, the filler will take a fair while to dry but when done I can get these areas finished and the tail section assembled.

This is I am afraid all fairly routine stuff at the moment but it needs to be done, the goal for the coming week will be to get the wings attached to the fuselage and then the wingtips and the four elevators.
There will be plenty of other tasks happening as well but I will come to that next week.

At this point I would like to say a big thanks to Steven Flowers who has kindly gone out and got some up close reference material for me, Thanks for that mate.

Regards

Danny

Edited April 11, 2015 by danimalmagic

[geedubelyer]

Hi Danny,

You may consider this routine but for many of us it is a lesson worth learning. I've never been fond of filling seams or sanding them (or any other tedious task for that matter!).

Watching someone detail the work involved encourages me to buck my ideas up. Thanks for taking the time to add this inspiration.

The Blackbird family of aircraft are totally fascinating and I thoroughly enjoyed the work you did on the smaller versions so I'll be following this thread with interest. Keep up the good work.

Cheers.

[F-104 nut]

Danny my friend this is going to be freaking epic to watch your awesome magic. I love wghat you have done. Keep the awesome work !!!!

Cheers Brian

[danimalmagic]

1/48 YF-12A Week 2.

Hi all, the focus of this week was to continue the preparations on the fuselage, because I will be using Alclad every little blemish will show so I am trying to remove every defect possible. Nothing much to excite but all steps along the way to the ultimate goal.

I started by finishing the filling and sanding of the elevators, this took quite a while with numerous applications of liquid filler until I was happy.
The mounting faces have all had a slight angle applied so they drop a bit when fitted back in place and the raised surface lines have been reduced down as planned.

With that done I moved on to the nacelle wing seal, levelling up the joints made this process a little easier this time, surface detail has also again been reduced.

Something that is common to all the larger Blackbirds I have made is little pits and blemishes in the surface finish, it seems to vary for every kit. They are not a big deal to sort out but there are quite a few and they will show up after painting so it is important to fill them out.

Mr Surface 1000 liquid filler and a quick sand and we are good, there are a number more like this that we will come to as we go along.

Another common issue is the face of each nacelle engine intake, no matter what you do there is always a step or imperfection which means you have to sand the whole face back flush keeping the same angle. The wall thickness on the leading edge is very thin so a bit of care needs to be taken.

Once that is done the seam on each side of the Nacelle intake needs to be filled and smoothed.

Another piece of detail to capture is the fuel dump, this was pretty straight forward and just needs a bit more cleaning up.

Next I am finally in a position to join the wing sections to the fuselage, this is another area that needs attention as getting the wing seam square will save time later.
Every time I do this the result is the same, one half of the wing overlaps the other, this needs to be filed flat otherwise you end up with a huge step/gap to fill when the wings are joined.

The same needs to be done with the fuselage halves, much easier to accomplish.

With that done I glued the wings in place and left overnight, you still have a small seam to deal with bit that can just be addressed again with Mr Surfacer 1000.

It was relatively straight forward then to clean the seam up, there were a few air bubbles that needed to be dealt with but that was just a bit more liquid filler.
It has taken a bit of effort bit I am quite happy with the rear fuselage, surface lines have again been smoothed a little.


Next up are the engines, I wanted to modify these a little as the kit option is far from great, in an ideal world we will use Cutting Edge Resin Burners but these do not come up to often on Ebay. I am hopeful on picking up a set or two over the course of the project but just in case we will keep these on standby.

This is the real thing so I am trying within reason to copy this.

The first step was to find a suitable size tube that fitted over my unused flame ring assembly from the 1/48 B-1B.

Next I have used the 1/48 B-1B etch flame holder etch and pushed it in the kit part to give it a taper.

Flame ring/holder mounted.

As you have seen earlier there are 4 distinct rings that now need to be duplicated, rather than use wire I thought I would trying something else. I had some left other rubber tube from my Tamiya bike kits that I thought could be used to achieve the same effect.
With a little experimentation I worked out the size of each ring and the length of pipe required, it would be quite hard to get this perfect, if you look at the image of the real engine you will see that they are not perfectly round.
Each ring was glued together using a smaller piece of wire to act as a joining piece, from here I pushed each one on a suitable taper, a Turkey Baster on this occasion, don’t tell the wife.

Using the taper to keep the ring round I heated it with a Hair Dryer until warm then quenched in cold water. The idea was the heat would settle the rubber then the quench would set it in place leaving a nice round ring when removed for the taper.
Pleased to say it worked.

Process repeated until complete.

Next I need to replicate the dome on the inner face of the Flame holder, my best solution to this was to use some old screw heads, filled and sanded.

Complete and ready for paint.

The inside of the engines I have seen are all a very creamy colour, probably ceramic covered in soot so I have tried to do the same.

Next step is to remove the flame holder from the kit part and add the tube.

Flame holder test fitted.

Test assembly of the complete engine, hopefully it should not be too far off when painted and fitted.

Nearly forgot, another little niggle in the engine area are the moulding depressions on the surface, again these vary but have to be filled etc.

Needless to say that was not a 5 minute job but a good experiment for the remaining builds. With the rear fuselage ready I glued on the four elevators, they have a slight droop to them as planned but nothing to mad.


Fuel dump pipe finished.


I have made a start to the cockpit, but we will come to that next week along with the work to modify the gear bays, well that's the plan anyway.

Thanks for looking.

Regards

Danny

Edited April 18, 2015 by danimalmagic

[Planebuilder62]

Dear Danny

I have one of these to build in 1/72. Normally with fuselages that come in 2 parts, front and back, I have found it better to glue the 2 top halves together first and then start adding the bottom sections. I see you have chosen to build this one the other way round, any particular reason?

Regards

Toby

[danimalmagic]

Dear Danny

I have one of these to build in 1/72. Normally with fuselages that come in 2 parts, front and back, I have found it better to glue the 2 top halves together first and then start adding the bottom sections. I see you have chosen to build this one the other way round, any particular reason?

Regards

Toby

1/48 kit vastly different to 1/72, you are not making much sense?

[danimalmagic]

Hi all, the focus of this week was to get the wheel bays done and make a start to the cockpit parts.

I will start with the rear gear wells, I have some good imagery of these so I have just tried to replicate as best as possible. I cannot get all the piping in as that is just not practical, to do that I would have had to cut the bays out and build two new ones. That in itself causes a number of headaches that is just to risky.
The real bays look like this.

Some 0.5mm copper wire with masking tape to replicate the pipe brackets and some bits from the spares box.

Similar approach taken the opposite bulkhead.

Test fitting.

With that done I could move on to the nose gear well, there is no point trying to use this as it is completely wrong and missing a lot of detail and it is far too shallow. A section from the bottom is actually quite useful and will be incorporated into the new bay.
Stage 1 removing the old bay.

This is the real bay and there is a lot of detail that can be replicated.

I began with the two accumulator tanks, well I presume that is what they are. 
Back when I was a real hands on engineer this would have been a five minute job on a lathe, since I no longer have access to such goodies another solution needed to be found.
I used a cut off section on a 10mm Stainless Steel bolt this in turn was fixed in a drill chuck and then the drill fixed in my vice. From there the drill was set to run at a reasonable speed and the end was attacked with as file, this took a while. (“My Kingdom for a Lathe”)

I then turned it around and done the other end.

Using the diameter of the nose wheel as a guide for depth I made a new gear bay from Plasticard and inserted the Accumulators. I have inserted a section from the original bay as it is pretty accurate.

Real gear bay.

Using the images for the nose gear bay I began to add some detail.

Some 0.5mm wire again for piping, and some smaller wire braiding for the accumulators, again it would be really tough to try and get it all in there so I have done the best I can with images I have.

Detail painted and a wash applied.

To finish the nose bay off I needed to fit it in place, quite pleased but a little more to do yet.

The sides of the bay have a pale sandy coloured layer of what I presume is insulation, I used glass cleaning pad for this and glued the material to the sides.


The final thing I wanted to do was add in the locking mechanism along with the bulkhead, this is the real one.

The same device unsurprisingly is used in the Lockheed F-104, I have a 1/32 F-104 so I used that as a template

It’s pretty basic but it should look the part when fitted, there are two small springs attached to the underside. This device also has the struts that open and close the bay doors attached to it, I will add these later on.

That is essentially the nose bay completed, in itself this was a fair chunk of the week’s work.


The last part for this week was the cockpit, these are the real thing.
Front Pilot’s.

Rio, note the radar scope and the cladding between console and fuselage.

I am using the true details set as it is far better than the kit parts. The only problem in using it is the cross section of the cockpit is a completely different shape on the YF-12A so some tweaks are required.
The panels themselves also need to be adapted, I will try to mimic these within reason. I have used the rear bulkheads from the kit YF-12 parts as these are a reasonable fit.

Gap filled and I have added some card to the sides and filed so it fits the internal profile.

Pilot’s console, I have used elements of the kit and resin parts, the hole for the scope will be filled with a piece of clear sprue after painting.

Rio, I have duplicated the cladding and again filed to fit the internal profile, the round scope screen is a cut off slice of clear sprue about 0.5mm thick that I sanded and polished each side, don’t ask.


That closes out week 3.

The goal of the coming week is to finish the cockpits and assemble the airframe and get the filling and sanding completed ready for paint.

Regards

Danny

www.modelmasteruk.com

[geedubelyer]

Hi Danny, superb work on the gear bays. Those turned steel accumulator tanks look brilliant. Who'da thunk it, using steel bolts to replicate scale metal cylinders. Outstanding.

The cockpit tubs are taking shape neatly. I'm eager to see them all painted up.

Cheers.

[danimalmagic]

Hi Danny, superb work on the gear bays. Those turned steel accumulator tanks look brilliant. Who'da thunk it, using steel bolts to replicate scale metal cylinders. Outstanding.

The cockpit tubs are taking shape neatly. I'm eager to see them all painted up.

Cheers.

Thanks, it will be a while until the paint is on, forward fuselage is fighting me as it is trying to banana upward, I think I have it covered now but took a bit of manipulation and a fair bit of C/A.

Been looking a model makers laths on eBay, I have been considering getting one for a while, trouble is they are not cheap so its hard to justify but a lathe and milling machine would make life easier.

Thanks for looking.

Danny

[danimalmagic]

1/48 YF-12A Week 4.

Hi all, the goal for this week was to get the fuselage together and apply the base coat, I will start with the cockpits, these have been painted as per my reference material and detailed as best as possible, I will add the control stick later.

Next I fitted the tubs to the top half of the forward fuselage, this sills will all be neatened up once the top coat goes on.




The seats were next, I will fit these later on in the project.

With that done I could begin to assemble the fuselage, this is where the fun begins, when I built my own 1/48 YF-12A I did not really have any significant issues but this moulding has fought me all the way.
The biggest issue was the large underside forward section, this was bowed upward and resisted all my usual tricks to straighten it, very weird plastic. In order to counter this I had to put a spacer in the corresponding top piece to force the bottom part down, this was easier said than done.
I have basically used a piece of Plasticard in the top of the join to angle the part down, once the two halves are clamed together both halves straighten out nicely, already test fitted.

Once assembled I cut of the remaining Plasticard and did the usual filling and sanding.

With that done I got the nose section in, this was not easy either and the alignment was less than Stellar, biggest issue was the small step left in front of the fuel port. Nothing overly tough just allot of time consuming sanding then filling to get it level.

Next was the area around the nose radome, the top forward section incorporates the radome with the bottom half needing to be set in place. Needless to say it was not that easy, the profiles were different and again a lot of time spent filling and sanding.

Next I filled and sanded the awful gaps in the ordnance bay doors, once dry I re scribed the door lines.

Chine seam was another area of to address, yuck.

Chine seam after yet more filling and sanding, there is a pattern growing here. 

That is the fuselage assembly completed, basically four days graft, at this point I have to say that all I was thinking about was the Alclad, I have removed all the defects I can but I know that the Alclad will magnify any I have missed, somewhat nervous.


Oh nearly forgot, I decided to fix the bottom halves of the vertical stabilisers now, there is always a risk that I bit of glue will seep out and wreck the paint finish.

With that done I cleaned the whole fuselage with Alcohol and had a good clean up prior to painting, even with extractor fans there is always the risk of dust on your nice finished gloss coat.
My base coat is going to be Alclad Duraliminium, it is not a hi shine finish but I have still chosen to use a gloss black base, the gloss black is Alclad and I have to say it is the best gloss I have ever seen.
Sprayed on at 15psi as per the guidelines and I was very straight forward, however the dust bunnies did strike so I had to go back and sand/re paint a few areas.


I applied a few coats using about ¾ of a bottle and left to dry overnight, the next phase is the real step into the unknown.
As mentioned before I am using Alclad Duraliminium, I have test sprayed and this is as near as I can see it’s the best shade for a titanium finish.
Again spayed at 15psi I applied a couple of coats to the top and left to dry overnight, the airbrush gobbles this stuff up quick time and a mask is an absolute musk for Alclad.
The finish is similar to my Tamiya Acrylic method but the finish is much more uniform as the metallic media is so much finer and the carrier fluid spreads it out very evenly, a thumbs up for me. Once all the panel variations are done I will do some buffing as I think there is more to be gained from the paint finish.


The same has been done for the underside but I have only managed to get one coat on before running out of paint, when the next batch arrives I will give it another coat.
As predicted and even with all the preparation there are minor defects to deal with, the top was not too bad but the underside has some additional work required on various seems, nothing massive but I will deal with that in due course.


The goal for the coming week is to finish the base coat and iron out any defects, from there I can start to do the dissimilar panels and paint the other parts such as engines, gear doors, tails, guide fins and inlet spikes.
There is still a long way to go yet but I am pleased with the result as it stands.

Regards

Danny
www.modelmasteruk.com

Edited May 2, 2015 by danimalmagic

[POTKC]

Your YF looks very nice, I love the metallic finish. Good job!

[AngstROM]

Attention nailed! This is big, bad and...silver! Excellent work.

[danimalmagic]

Your YF looks very nice, I love the metallic finish. Good job!

Still as bit of touching up to do, surprising how fast you get through the Alclad.

Danny

Attention nailed! This is big, bad and...silver! Excellent work.

Thanks ROM

Danny

[David H]

Looks Fabulous!!

[danimalmagic]

1/48 YF-12A Week 5.

Hi all, this has been a real challenging week, I am getting the result I want but it is not easy. No excuses just learning as I go.

As you have seen in my last report the base Titanium coat went on fairly easy so I presumed that the application of the individual tonal variations would be the same. In principle it was but I have had a number of issues that have caused me to take a couple of steps back from time to time.

The first thing was the curing of the initial Alclad base cost for some reason I has taken the best part of a week to cure. When initially handling the model the finish seemed ok but if held to firmly fingerprints were left in the paint. I only applied the minimal amount of paint to get an even finish over the gloss coat so I am chalking that up to experience.
This was not that big an issue as a bit of rubbing with a damp cloth smoothed my clumsy paw prints away but it made handling the model all the more a challenge.
The next issue was masking tape, I had read that this might be an issue with Alclad but initially all was going ok. However once in a while the tape seemed to react and leave a nasty mark that then had to be dealt with, this naturally slowed me up.
I basically try to get as much use from the tape as possible and I dab the new bit of tape on another surface a few times to pick up some dust and reduce the stickiness first but even with that the odd blemish occurred.

I then had the further issue of the masking tape lifting the top coat off of the gloss coat, again I am not too sure what caused this as I was using fairly un sticky tape, it may be oily fingers, fortunately this only happened a few times and was easily rectified.


Another annoying problem was surface craze, I had read that this may be an issue and it was, I can’t really explain why as the same bit of paint in the airbrush was fine on one part but not on the next.
The crazing has to be rubbed away with fine paper before it can be re-sprayed and that took a while to do each time.

Some of the issues are just experience and some seem to be just the nature of Alclad, it is slow going but I am getting there.
For the individual colours I have made mixes of Titanium Gold, Dark Aluminium, White Aluminium, Aluminium, Pale Burnt Metal and Duraluminium. I made batches up of each in different amounts in sufficient quantity to finish the model, naturally I have recorded the mixes for future reference.
I have tried to make the tonal variations as minimal as possible as per the real thing but one person’s eye will always vary to the next.
These are some images I have of the NMF, the goal will be to get somewhere close.


So to bring us up to date, I have now just about managed to get the top complete, I tried the Micro Mesh this morning and realised this may not be the wisest course as the fine paper abrades the raised lines first allowing the gloss base to show through. I only tested in a small area so not big issue, when I have completed the kit I can just polish individual panels to create some more variation.
On face value I am not sure I really need to do that as I think the finish is ok as it is.



Naturally while I have been painting the fuselage I have also been doing the other parts
I have had a few crazing issues here but these are easier to sort out, I have some more detail to add to the burner petals but for the most part these are done.



I am going to have a rest from spraying today as I made the mistake of not putting my respirator on yesterday evening. I was just touching up a few sub parts for a couple of minutes and I have come to regret that as Alclad does not do the old snout much good, feels like I have got a cold.
my mistake as I should know better, it will pass as some point, I have two extractor fans as well so no excuses.

Beware the Alclad.

Regards

Danny
www.modelmasteruk.com

Edited May 9, 2015 by danimalmagic

[Spookytooth]

Nice work Danny.

That Alcad 2 is good stuff, but as you said has a tendency whiff a bit.

A good mask is very advisable .

It also needs a good curing time too.

Simon.

[danimalmagic]

Nice work Danny.

That Alcad 2 is good stuff, but as you said has a tendency whiff a bit.

A good mask is very advisable .

It also needs a good curing time too.

Simon.

Thanks Simon, I had been wearing my mask and with the extractors it was no issue, just had a lazy moment doing some touching up . As for the Alclad, this is the first time for me so its a learning curve that I am sure will get a little easier with time.

It is slow progress but the project is heading in the right direction, still a few weeks to go yet.

Thanks for looking.

Danny

Edited May 9, 2015 by danimalmagic

[HOUSTON]

Danny.

EXQUISITE in that SLEEK finish..

OMG ! it freaking INCREDIBLY STUNNING..

She turned out quite MAJESTICALLY... your detailing workmanship is PERFECTION....

FLAWLESS & NEAT job indeed..

LOVED IT.

KUDOS.

Edited May 10, 2015 by HOUSTON

[danimalmagic]

Danny.

EXQUISITE in that SLEEK finish..

OMG ! it freaking INCREDIBLY STUNNING..

She turned out quite MAJESTICALLY... your detailing workmanship is PERFECTION....

FLAWLESS & NEAT job indeed..

LOVED IT.

KUDOS.

Thanks Maru.

Danny

[philtn]

This is an enormously good looking airplane already... I think you did an outstanding paintjob, not to mention your excellent build.

Keep it going, I will be watching

[rom1]

Great modelling!!

[danimalmagic]

This is an enormously good looking airplane already... I think you did an outstanding paintjob, not to mention your excellent build.

Keep it going, I will be watching

Thanks Phil, still allot of spraying to do yet.

Danny

[Covjets13]

Awesome

[danimalmagic]

Great modelling!!

Thanks Rom.

Danny

[danimalmagic]

1/48 YF-12A Week 6.

Hi all, as you know last week I was having a few issues with the Alclad crazing, I would like to say that I managed to find a solution to this but I did not. However the number of similar events was much less so that allowed me to make great progress and catch up a little bit.

While I was waiting for my Alclad sinuses to clear up I moved on to the landing gear, I already had a good idea in mind what I wanted to do so I was just a matter of getting stuck in.
I am using the True details resin wheels as these are a fair bit better than the kit ones and they are weighted. I also wanted to add some piping details as per the actual aircraft, this was done by adding some 0.5mm wire carefully bent around a suitable size round bar. I have represented piping bands with masking tape and added some small blocks or resin for the pipe junctions.

With that done I moved on to painting them, they need a further wash yet but these are essentially finished. All paint is Alclad apart from the piping, and the red filter on the wheel hubs.

Wheels are only on loose at the moment.

Rear landing gear hydraulic cylinders.

Next up was the front gear, I added some piping for the retraction cylinder and a valve block mounted to the left side with some further cable.


There are two lights on the front landing gear and I wanted to craft some proper bulged lenses as there are none supplied in the kit. Time to get the drill out again and do a quick bit of filling and polishing.

Once I had it about right I cut off the domes section then filled and polished the cut, that bit was tricky. Once done I tested on the landing gear.

Next the nose gear was painted up again with Alclad, wheels are just on loose and a further wash will be required to finish it off. The cloudiness of the lense is the PVA glue, this will clear as it dries.


The engines were fairly straight forward to finish, first I painted the flame tube and fixed in my scratch build flame holders.

With that done I added some variation to the burner petals and test assembled.

View from the top of completed engine section.

Variable inlet spikes.

With that all out the way I could move on to the fuselage and finish the panel variations on the top, this is the image we are working from, I have never found anymore but it is good enough to get a good sense of the variations etc.

Naturally as mentioned I did have a few more adventures but this is the top essentially complete.

It was a this point I decided to have a test play with the micro mesh, it was ok but it was not giving me the finish I wanted and it was taking the paint of the raised panel lines in the test area. The finish still did not look correct to my eye and I decided to try something else.
When I built the earlier birds I toyed with the idea of using metal polish, the Tamiya metallics were too course and I knew it would not work so I never tried. Alclad on the other hand is so much finer so I thought I would test the theory, I just got a small amount of my Tamiya Canopy Polish and rubbed a little.
“Boing” my jaw dropped, oh so simple but the difference was amazing and took the finish to what I envisaged, I think any type of fine polish will do the same there is nothing special about the Tamiya polish.
I decided to give the top a quick polish all over and this is the result, my camera cannot show it exactly as it is but I am a happy boy.


I repeated the same processes for the bottom, and after a few days and a number expletives later it was done, I have taken the chance to get the radome painted as well.

There are still some more metallic details to be added forward of the front canopy and on the lead of each intake, these will be painted with the Alclad polished aluminium so it will be done once the black areas of the chine have been painted on the rear of the fuselage.

Once that is done it will need a fair while to dry properly.

I have done some more polishing and this is the bottom as it stands.

The goal for the coming week will be to finish the painting and get her all assembled, not sure if I will have that all done in the coming week but we will see.

Thanks for Looking.

Regards

Danny
www.modelmasteruk.com

"In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World"

Edited May 16, 2015 by danimalmagic