Col. Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 These two are taking their distinctive shape nicely 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 I hate the primer stage, you spend ages going over the joins until you think they're perfect....apply a coat primer........gaps the size of Death Star canyons show up!! Still great to see you're so close to painting her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted April 16, 2020 Author Share Posted April 16, 2020 Thanks guys! Today I started to paint them, but in the afternoon sun some horrible horrible sanding grooves turned up. Grrrr Ok, apply more filler, and sand again....but a bit more careful! Still on target to make the deadline 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Glad to see you're still working on this pair. Hopefully that's all the seams sorted now and progress is all straightforward for you now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 @Christer A Plenty of time left! I hate it when seams re-appear. And gotta admit, I don't always sand & repaint them...especially if the seam is on the undersides How do you like the kits so far? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Good to see you're still on target to complete them. Arrr i hate it when I find those marks or similar....especially after spending so much time trying to correct/remove them. Shameless plug for your Spitfire build!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted April 18, 2020 Author Share Posted April 18, 2020 Thanks guys! It should be downhill from now, or atleast until I start on the main landing gear. To answer your question @reini I'd say that this is a shortrun kit in the shorter form and not the high volume stuff that Special Hobby manages to do now. The tail booms to the wing joints is quite bad actually and it feels like they complicated it a bit much. Still, it allows them to do a proper wheel bay which the old Heller kit ignores. Very much etch stuff in the cockpit that is very fiddly to get right, and nigh on impossible to see since there is no provision for an open cockpit. It is a bit more modern than the Heller kit, and slightly more detailed, but the R-version lacks the engine intakes and engine front which is really bad. But at the end of the day, it is the only injections molded J21R on the market so I'll take it for what it is. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted April 23, 2020 Author Share Posted April 23, 2020 All of a sudden the primary painting was done! I used Gunze 309 for the green and Tamiya XF-66 for the bottom. That is probably too dark, but I had it available. That paintjar was really old however, and somehow it was impossible to get a nice smooth finish no matter how I tried. Funny, when you try to do an uniform finish you end up with a pre/postshadet attempt... Not even a clear coat solved it. BAH! I'll just leave it and start on the squadron and exercise markings instead. So now one can tell them apart! The yellow nosed one will be the Attacker version with a building scaffold underneath and 10 rockets, and the blue nosed one will be the fighter. The white aint was poorly done in the first place and Maybe I should've used some hairspray as well go get a torn look. Time for a clearcoat and then stickers! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 I don't know!!! They look pretty good to me, if the finish is a wee bit rough you can alway knock it back with some soft paper towel or cloth. It'll help with that slight weathered/flown look. I've seen some cool stuff done with s "scotch bright" pad! They do look great and suitably odd! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted April 23, 2020 Author Share Posted April 23, 2020 Thanks Rich! I rubbed them a bit with some foam from an Aires set, and that worked fine. But to leave them in the sun on the balcony is not a great idea. The paint heats up quite a lot and then it's easily damaged. No major harm done, but I moved the models to a shady spot for now. Drying time is great though! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted April 24, 2020 Author Share Posted April 24, 2020 Today during my short-term leave I was forced to endure an online course in Failure Mode Effect Analysis, but to steel myself before that I took some time to decals these two birds. The fighter (J21R) Blue David had some very nice little decals which worked like a charm. I even managed to add a small amount of stencils, but since the priniting of them was almost illegible I left most of the small ones off. They were printed by Aviprint and performed wonderfully, sinking down into the panellines almost by themselves. The attacker (A21R) Yellow Ceasar were more or less the same: Unfortunately, some of the stencils curled up totally and had to be removed, leading to the decision to remove them totally instead. Now it looks a bit closer to the Heller kit in that respect. Time to look at what's left then. Armament which consists of guns ans rockets, some antennas and landing gear and covers. Oh. My. God. Of the four main landing gears, one was broken, but that can be sorted I hope. The biggest problem is that all of them shall be installed at an angle, and there are no negative holes in the bays helping this. Also all retracting arms are round bars that connects to the gear vaguely, and has also no real good location in the bay. Talk about energy draining! Or maybe that was the FMEA-education? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 Seems you've left yourself the worst task 'til last with these Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted April 25, 2020 Author Share Posted April 25, 2020 Yeah, in hindsight this was anything but smart... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 Every faith in your ability to ace it. Only a little more work than using standard kit parts straight out of the box 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 that sound like something my HR would come up with!!! I'd just call in sick and not do it! Look great! On question (he asks as he's being attacked by a giant Mosquito...a real one! ) Those white lines on the wings of the top one, do you know what they are for? Craig (Modelling Minion" had the same on his flying barrel and I was wondering what they are for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted April 29, 2020 Author Share Posted April 29, 2020 On 25/04/2020 at 14:02, Col. said: Every faith in your ability to ace it. Only a little more work than using standard kit parts straight out of the box Thanks! I just wish that it was Special Hobby of today that had cast this. These old short run toolings are not much fun. On 25/04/2020 at 14:52, trickyrich said: that sound like something my HR would come up with!!! I'd just call in sick and not do it! Look great! On question (he asks as he's being attacked by a giant Mosquito...a real one! ) Those white lines on the wings of the top one, do you know what they are for? Craig (Modelling Minion" had the same on his flying barrel and I was wondering what they are for? Calling in sick is not an option, but leaving a bad review is 🙂 Suck on that, FMEA-guys! Regarding the white lines I actually don't have a clue to what they're for. Sorry. Right, panicmode enabled, let's go some landing gears. First, they'd need some paint, so I assembled most of the parts that belonged together, and then impaled them on a few cocktail sticks. One cannot fault the ambition of SH with all these parts but the detail is a bit soft and vague, and compared to the very crisp resin wheels it's bit of a letdown. But who cares, lets just slap some paint on it and hope that Pilot Replica gives us a proper J21R in 1/48! And down in the bay we go! One difference between the propeller driven and jet driven J21 are the angle of the main landing gear. The Jet version is rotated further forward for some reason which currently eludes me, but it is important to get this angle right. On the A, the gear are more or less vertical. The nosegear was the most tricky part. Here I found it easier to attach the support braces before and hop that I get the angle right, and then focus on attaching it to the gear bay. One really needed to hold it together will the TETC set. Unfortunately, the yellow nosed one was a tail sitter so I needed to add some Liquid Gravity to sort things out. And here we are! I can almost see the finishing line now. However, I need to deal with 18 landing gear bay door, that just need paint, hinges and to be attached. A daunting task. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 56 minutes ago, Christer A said: I can almost see the finishing line now. However, I need to deal with 18 landing gear bay door, that just need paint, hinges and to be attached. A daunting task. That you were able to sort out the landing gear shows it'll well within your capabilities to deal with the doors 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 glad you sorted out the u/c problems, did have a couple of ideas, but all is good now I see. That looks like a boring soul destroying job! But at least you know it's all almost over! They do look great. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Great looking pair Not many more parts left in the box? Well, apart from those landing gear bay doors that is Oh, and those rockets! I bet those will look awesome. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted May 2, 2020 Author Share Posted May 2, 2020 Thanks guys! I sorted out the doors and a bunch of rockets yesterday (and happily ignored a bunch of etched hinges and stuff) so it should be possible to complete both of them today. Or tomorrow... Now, where did I put all the Tunnan stuff? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted May 3, 2020 Author Share Posted May 3, 2020 Last construction update on these two! Aftet reattaching some of the rockets for the 42:nd time it finnakly stuck. What could possible go wrong now? We'll come to that. Looking at Special Hobbys plastic front 20mm gun, and those rather crude pitot tubes I seemed to remember that I got a astarter pack from Albion Alloys. Maybe I can make them on my own? Well, that worked like a charm, at the cost of a blade in the large modelling knife. This stuff is a lot harder than plastic and lead wires! Ha! Who needs turned brass from Master? (Well, I do, that's for sure) But it's a lot better than plastic. Ok, off with the canopy masking tape, attach the glass for the landing gear lights and off we go. How hard can it be to assembly those? Well... You know how this goes... Off course, one was installed properly but the three remaining ones all disappeared into the wing, never to be seen again. I think I might need some Krystal Kleer to sort this out. Oh well, I'll just call them finished. More pictures to come, at the proper places! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 Well done getting these two done so well 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted May 4, 2020 Share Posted May 4, 2020 Gee they do look great together!!! After all the trouble you've had with both of them they turned out great! The rocket beast looks awesome!!! Thanks for building these two for us, great job and fun to follow! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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