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Egg(plane)s are not just for Easter


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Good evening all,

 

while building a project I like to have a second simpler project of let's say 'lesser importance' running in parallel. Like a B-side to the main project. So while I was building the Arado 196 for the Heller group build I confess I was having an affair with Hasegawa 🤭

 

Now that the A-side project is over and done, what was hiding in the shadows comes under the spotlight:

IMG_20210220_204109

 

The idea is as I understand this, to build a kit without having to worry about accuracy, details, sources, aftermarket products, expensive material etc. I failed.

 

Stay tuned for a high cholesterol group build of sorts. 😉

 

Thanks for looking!

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Look forward to seeing this in construction. My wife has a small stash of these, unlike the Meng cut-and-push kits, these cut-and-paste kits are made up like normal aircraft models, so there is potential to add extra detail as you go 😉

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Good afternoon people,

 

I'll start with a little background story tonight. The question is why did I buy this... egg thing in the first place? Well, the simple answer is I wanted to build a Phantom. OK I'll wait for you to stop laughing. Now, I've been working on Phantoms for almost 20 years, in various roles. This prevented me from being able to build a Phantom kit as I could never be good enough to get the details right. There was no way I could come home from work, sit down in front of the bench and build anything that would satisfy me as a passable model. This torment lasted for many many years. Then one day, while swimming in the vast ocean that is the internet, I came across this new kind of fish. So apparently you could build something that can be fun, funny and above all immune to criticism even to the most formidable kind of all: self-critisism. I lurked that corner of eBay for some time and when this Hasegawa combo box appeared I let my harpoon fly so to speak and managed to grab hold of it. "Yeah, two kits, whatever, I only want the phantom" I thought. How naive I was...

 

So the box arrived and there was also a Spook figure included! Ha! Looking at the sprues I couldn't resist building the little Eagle as well. True to the expectations, these kits are for a quick, simple and fun build. You sit down to have a look and before you know it you get...

IMG_20200809_135659

 

At this point I should have seen this for what it was. An addiction in its early stage. But I went on...

 

What bugged me the most at this point was that the Phantom came with only one pilot. I mean OK it might not even have ailerons or nothing much of anything but one pilot??? Un-acceptable!

So first the aft cockpit was dug out...

IMG_20200822_194835

 

Then the Phantom had a coat of matt black primer and the pilot gained some character...

IMG_20210109_212709

 

So the Eagle pilot was recruited and retrained to become a Phantom backseater!

IMG_20210121_181547 IMG_20210121_181558

 

Had it not been for the paint drying time, the washes etc this could have been done in a couple of hours but in real life it took me almost a week. But the most time consuming job by far was masking the inside of the canopies! I'm talking about days for each canopy.

Anyway, the inside masks were removed and the canopy was persuaded to stay attached to the rest of the model...

IMG_20210121_185355

 

Afterwards, filling the small gap around the canopy meant some of the masks had to come off...

IMG_20210124_135137 IMG_20210124_135156

 

...and were replaced by new maskol...

IMG_20210124_184711 IMG_20210124_184724

 

Meanwhile, I couldn't stand the sight of the empty Eagle cockpit. So I got me a cheap resin 1/48 ACES seat of eBay, I cut it, primed it, painted it, gloss coated it, washed it, drybrushed it until I was pleased with it. After all this is just an eggplane, right?

IMG_20210202_212032

 

Then I more or less made it fit inside the cockpit...

IMG_20210204_213141

 

and then I reached the point where I had to have the same conversation with the Eagle canopy too.

IMG_20210204_214606

 

I hope you like this build so far. I'll be back with more soul-searching confessions soon.

 

As always, thank you for looking and thank you for leaving a comment.

 

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Good evening people,

 

Here's another update you didn't ask for 🙂

 

So there is another reason I decided to build these eggs. I wanted to try a few new tricks (well, new to me anyway). The problem is I can't just use a kit as a test dummy; I can't pull a kit out of the stash, no matter how old or "bad" it may be, half build it and make tests on it. I just can't. I try new things only on actual, 'proper' builds. A character flaw for sure but there you have it.

 

The F-4E & F-15 eggs will be used as testbeds for new pre-shading and post shading techniques. And above all, colour modulation using oils. And, as both have some unpainted surfaces, I want to have a go at that too before I commit to a 'real' F-15 and/or F-4 build. But then I realised that this wasn't enough if I were to build a Natural Metal Finish model like an F-84 or F-86. Or at least that's my excuse for adopting a third egg...

IMG_20210216_225802

I am well and truly hooked. Whatever the reason for getting it, that EgG-15 will be used for trying my first NMF. But now back to the MDD eggs.

 

I decided I was going to build a standard two grey JSDAF F-15 with my egg. With the canopy attached and masked, it was time for primer and then some pre-shading. I decided to try other colours as well this time and especially brown.

IMG_20210212_203208 IMG_20210212_203224

 

As for the phantom I decided to build it as an Aegean Blue / silver Hellenic Air Force example. I wanted to try a matt black primer as a base and see how I can work on that. While I was to try some elaborate airbrushing on the top surfaces, I thought I should try some marbling for the lower surfaces:

IMG_20210213_201837

 

Using various degrees of coverage on the black base and then variations of the FS35164 paint (+1 drop of white, +1 drop of blue etc) I reached a somewhat interesting result to try the oils on top, at a later stage:

IMG_20210212_203113

 

IMG_20210212_203034

 

I then masked the model...

IMG_20210214_192747

 

and sprayed the silver...

IMG_20210220_201715

 

The marbling preshading was completely covered and not a trace of this shines through now. Also, notice how easily you can see where putty has been used... Hmmmm... Some lessons to be learned here.

The F-15 went on much better though. Light grey first, then masking...

IMG_20210219_215722

 

then the blue-ish grey and un-masking...

IMG_20210220_173459

 

to reveal a generally speaking successful paint scheme...

IMG_20210220_174014

 

More to come. In the next episode the EgG-15 comes in the build. So stay tuned.

 

As always, thank you for looking and thank you for leaving a comment.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello people,

 

making slow progress or no progress at all these days. But still I managed to get enough done to warrant an update.

 

So I painted the Phantom's radome using some rubber black...

IMG_20210223_222219

 

And then a couple of layers of gloss coat were applied on the Phantom...

IMG_20210228_203137

 

...and on the Eagle...

IMG_20210228_203149

 

And after it dried it was time for the decals...

IMG_20210304_212438

 

of which there were more than I expected...

IMG_20210304_232643

 

and then it was time for the Phantom decals...

IMG_20210305_203001

 

it was a mix-and-match affair really...

IMG_20210305_224546

 

After both eggs were sprayed with another coat of gloss varnish, they were masked for painting the bare metal areas...

IMG_20210307_204337

 

IMG_20210307_194610

 

I decided to use Jallejo Metal color for the F-15 and Mr. Metal Color for the Phantom. These went on without a problem.

IMG_20210314_152414

 

IMG_20210314_152352

 

and on the Phantom, too. But when I pulled the masking tape off, the numbers went with it 🤬

IMG_20210314_151259 IMG_20210314_151332

 

Now I need to repair that before going ahead... Trouble is I don't think I have another set of numbers 🥺

 

Next comes the weathering and oil paint experiments.

 

Thanks for looking and thank you for commenting.

 

 

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6 hours ago, Keif said:

I'm with you for the Eggs.

 

 

My first two builds after a long break and a bit of Lockdown sanity were a Meng Lancaster and a Hasegawa SR-71.

 

Very nice! That SR-71 Blackegg looks particularly yummy!

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These are gorgeous! You're making it hard for me to resist getting into these. I've had a secret desire to do an F-14 and a "MiG-28"...

  

On 3/16/2021 at 4:11 AM, Keif said:

My first two builds after a long break and a bit of Lockdown sanity were a Meng Lancaster and a Hasegawa SR-71.

I remember when the Mengs first came out there was a Mosquito in the instructions(?) somewhere. I'm really hanging out for that to happen!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello everyone,

 

the Easter holidays are upon us so here's something... seasonal 🙂

 

Picking up from where I left it, the damaged decals were repaired and more gloss varnished was applied. When that dried it was time for the weathering...

 

IMG_20210321_211321 IMG_20210322_213556

 

I did some light oil application on the F-15 before moving on to the Phantom...

IMG_20210322_213612

 

But experimenting with oils was a major point with this build. So on the Phantom I first sprayed some black over the tail end...

IMG_20210321_204616

 

And then the oils came out. Earth tones for the under surfaces...

IMG_20210321_213251

 

Blue and black tones for the upper surfaces...

IMG_20210322_215520

 

Although this is experimenting I wasn't at all satisfied with the results of my handiwork. Anyway, I had enough and decided to close this build before I did any more damage.

 

Matt coats were applied on both eggs in thin layers and then again on the next day. When everything was dry, the F-15 got it's legs

IMG_20210326_221445

 

The masking tape was removed and here it is:

IMG_20210326_222643 IMG_20210326_222813

 

And here is the completed Phantom:

IMG_20210326_223204 IMG_20210326_223055

 

So there you go. Happy Easter everyone!

IMG_20210326_223525

 

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