Biggles87 Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 Having had a distinct lack of Mojo over the last couple of months and not made much progress on anything, I decided to build something new straight from the box, and resisting any embellishments or ‘ improvements ‘. My choice was the Kinetic 1/48 Alpha Jet as the last AJ I built was the Heller example about 30 years ago and wasn’t a very happy experience if I remember correctly. The kit is nicely moulded and comes with optional parts for A or B/E but only includes Martin Baker Mk10 seats so aftermarket or spares would be needed for a German or early French aircraft, so I opted for a late E model in the French markings provided in the kit as these are what I see overhead on a fairly regular basis. The cockpit tub has a reasonable amount of detail with moulded switches on the side consoles but the sidewalls are just plain with no moulded detail and were left that way in keeping with my ‘ out of the box ‘ plan. The instrument panes have small raised discs to represent the instruments but no decals, and although I have some Airscale instrument decals I decided not to use them and simply ‘ painted ‘ the raised detail with a black .3mm Edding profipen so don’t look too closely please. The full length intakes were cemented together and attached to the fuselage halves after painting them aluminium with the compressor fans gunmetal although very little can be seen of them. The interior colours may not be correct but I assumed that as the Alpha Jet and the Mirage F1are roughly the same vintage the interiors could be the same colours. The difference in the marks are catered for by several fuselage inserts including ones for the airbrakes, which were not the best fitting parts I have seen, and a coat of Mr Surfacer 500 has been applied in an effort to fair them in, no doubt with more to come later. Two types of nose and tail cones are also supplied and the appropriate ones joined, although on reflection it might have been better to join the halves to their respective fuselage halves, but too late now. The undercarriage doors are designed to be fixed open but as on most modern jets, the main doors only open when the gear is cycling so I cemented the nose gear doors on to a slightly curved piece of Plasticard to provide more rigidity and fixed them to the nose cone which was then filled with some rolled up lead strip fixed in place with Blue-tac, and added another lump of lead to the front of the cockpit tub. That's it for now, feel free to make any comments. Stay safe everyone/ John. 24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spookytooth Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 I will tag along John if you don`t mind, I can just about remember building the Matchbox one in 1/72 back in the 70`s. Simon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(ex)Sgtrafman Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 Hey john Great start buddy, I have to say the Kinetic Alpha Jet looks very nice and the attention you’ve paid on the cockpit ip has paid off looks very nice 👍. Keep at it 😎 All the best and stay safe Iain 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giemme Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 Nice one, John - I'll tag along if you don't mind Great job already with the cockpit, your paint job has certainly made up for the lack of details/decals Ciao 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nikolay Polyakov Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 Nice start John, I’ll take a look! 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 Good start John, will follow if I may. Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted January 6, 2021 Author Share Posted January 6, 2021 Welcome aboard everyone and thanks for your support. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbudde Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 Hello John, A good 2021 to you and I'm in for that. Only built an old Esci one once with a modest result. What camo will you choose? Cheers Benedikt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Quack Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 Great start sir. I fancy doing one with RAF roundels i.e. ex-German airframe operated by Qinetiq. Do the decals still come in the Kinetic boxing? Excited Quack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted January 6, 2021 Author Share Posted January 6, 2021 Happy New Year to you too Benedikt ( and to everyone else of course ). The colour scheme will be the normal french grey/blue with dayglo patches training scheme, I’m not planning anything fancy, as I want to finish it in a reasonable time. Hi Quack, the Qinetiq markings do come in this boxing, but if you have one that does not include them you can have mine. John 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 Nice start John - I hope this kick starts the mojo as desired 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 Great project! I do hope this kit is able to restore your mojo! If not, build an Eduard MiG-21! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted January 10, 2021 Author Share Posted January 10, 2021 Just a short update to keep the momentum going. The cockpit tub was cemented to the starboard fuselage half and the fuselage halves joined, then the main landing gear wheel well roof fixed in place. The instructions are a bit vague about the exact position of this part but having read a couple of builds on the net I was aware that it fits against the intake trunking and inside the lower fuselage halves to act as a spacer, helping with the alignment of the lower fuselage part. The main undercarriage legs come in three parts each, the upper leg then a ‘ knuckle ‘ joint and a retraction strut . I am hoping that I will be able to fit the lower fuselage with just the upper part cemented so that I can fix the main doors closed in the lower fuselage piece before attaching it, and get a better fit than leaving them off until after the lower fuselage is attached. While I was in cementing mode I also joined the wing and fin halves. Although the flaps are usually seen retracted on parked alpha Jets I intend to have them extended to add a little interest, as everything else will be closed. That's it for now, all comments/suggestions welcome. Stay safe. John. 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giemme Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 Lovely progress, John I spot a great deal of detail from your pics, nice kit Ciao 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spookytooth Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 Nice and steady progress ther John. Keep up the good work sir. Stay safe. Simon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 Looking good John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted January 11, 2021 Author Share Posted January 11, 2021 Stepped out of the house at about 1600 to hear a familiar sound and an Alpha Jet went by just to the south, heading east. Oops sorry, wrong thread. John 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted January 11, 2021 Share Posted January 11, 2021 Looking good fella Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted January 17, 2021 Author Share Posted January 17, 2021 Another small update: Made a start on the main undercarriage. Being unfamiliar with the exact geometry of the legs I again found the instructions a little vague, but found a walkaround on Prime Portal which has some excellent photos of the main gear with all the doors open, amongst other things, so now the upper legs and retraction struts have been fitted. I have amended my plan to fit the main doors in the closed position on the lower fuselage part and fitted just the lower doors. The instructions tell you to fit the whole of the undercarriage in place including the wheels, before attaching the lower fuselage, but I prefer to wait until the airframe is complete. The nose and tail cones have also been fitted at this stage. The fin has also been attached, which needed quite a lot of adjusting to achieve anything like a close fit, the walkaround again proved useful as it showed the small notch in the base which I assumed was put there by Kinetic to help alignment but actually exists on the real thing, the same photo also showed that the uneven shape of the airbrake arms is correct. More filler will be applied to the insert panels, particularly around the airbrake area and the two panels below the wing trailing edges which should flush rather than recessed as they are now, then I can attach the wings so that I have something which looks like an aeroplane. I probably could have picked a better fitting kit as a mojo restorer but I'm still enjoying it. It looks like getting the airbrakes to fit flush might be a challenge but we'll see. Cheers for now, take care everyone. John. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spookytooth Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 Nice and steady does it John. Looking good from here sir. Stay safe mate. Simon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giemme Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 Looking good, John I don't envy you for having to fit the wheel legs so early in the build - clumsy me would make a total mess of them... Ciao 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 Good to see this coming together well, looking good John Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted January 17, 2021 Author Share Posted January 17, 2021 Thanks everyone. I am the master of clumsy Giorgio, and regularly break off undercarriage legs ( three times on one Spitfire recently ) so I will try to be extra careful. John 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 Coming along nicely John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 As I had suspected, the fit of the airbrakes was less than ideal, mostly because the airbrake petals are smaller and not the same shape as the wells, requiring quite a lot of adjusting to be done and some quite large holes to be filled, after which the airbrakes will be lightly re-scribed. The tailplane fitting has also caused some head scratching, they are of the ‘all moving ‘ type and have a small rubbing plate between them and the fuselage at the pivot point, like the Harrier, but Kinetic have depicted these as recesses around the attachment points. The tailplanes have a step in the mating surface corresponding to the recess in the fuselage but mine do not fit, leaving quite a large gap between tailplane and fuselage. My original thoughts were to fill the recesses and create new rubbing plates with Plasticard, but I decided to stick to my plan of building this out of the box and I have eliminated the gap as much as possible by removing some of the steps from the tailplanes, fill the remaining gaps and when everything is cured I will scribe a line around the fuselage/tailplane join. The jet pipes were also added at this stage, again less than a perfect fit so more filling and sanding will be required. These were followed by the lower main undercarriage doors in the closed position and guess what, they don’t fit either. As mentioned earlier, the instructions show these doors in the open position which would be fine, but for the closed position they are undersize! My solution has been to add thin Plasticard to the lower edges, which will be cut down and blended in. This is turning into a putty and Mr Surfacer 500 monster! The wings have now been added and finally I have something which looks like an Alpha Jet. Again not a perfect fit, the starboard wing was slightly better than the port, but I concentrated on the trying to get a good leading edge fit on both sides and ended up with quite a gap towards the flap hinge line, particularly on the port side. And so dear readers we come to the part that every modeller loves most, ( more ) filling and sanding. That's it for now, comments and suggestions welcome as usual. Stay safe. John. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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