flashlight Posted January 6, 2023 Share Posted January 6, 2023 Good day everybody, this is a placeholder for a maybe second contribution to the SSDGB, depending on how well my build of the Crusader will go. I intend to build this plane as the SAR/firebomber as shown in the boxart. Content of the box: We'll see if this will get started during the GB. Best of luck to all of you! 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertie McBoatface Posted January 12, 2023 Share Posted January 12, 2023 I certainly hope you will build this for us. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted January 12, 2023 Author Share Posted January 12, 2023 1 hour ago, Bertie McBoatface said: I certainly hope you will build this for us. The probability is increasing by the day! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyOD Posted January 12, 2023 Share Posted January 12, 2023 44 minutes ago, flashlight said: The probability is increasing by the day! Good to hear! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted January 20, 2023 Author Share Posted January 20, 2023 Good day, everybody! Now that my Crusader is on finals, I have started the second entry to this GB. @TonyOD Please Tony, turn it green in your build list! Thanks! While the gloss and matte coat of the Crusader were drying, I started as usual with the cockpit, which isn't much work in this small scale. Painted the interior in light blue gray and the seats blue and black and the IP anthrazite, Didn't take too much care as nothing of this will be seen afterwards. I also painted the forward wheel bay which is behind and beneath the cockpit in the same blue gray. Then I worked on some sub assemblies like the main wheel bays underneath the wings, the jet exhaust parts, the floaters and 4 pods, which I don't know what they are, maybe dinghi containers or else. That's it for today. Thanks for looking in. Any comments, critics, advice and encouragements are highly welcome! 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyOD Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 (edited) As I've done my nightly trawl through the not-yet-green WIPs to see if anything has happened, I've found myself mildly disappointed not to see this started yet. Great to see it up and running. Edited January 20, 2023 by TonyOD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 (edited) Good to see this excellent second subject choice turning green Nick Edited January 20, 2023 by Col. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted January 21, 2023 Author Share Posted January 21, 2023 Ahoy everybody, today I carried on building the Altair. First I painted the insides of the fuselage halves black, as there is a lot of small windows but nothing to see behind them. Then I attached the transparent parts with the help of Kristal Klear and placed the cockpit part. Then I put the required 10 g ballast inside behind the cockpit and buttoned up the fuselage. I also attached the front part. While the fuselage dried, I started to prepare the engine intakes. Nicely engineered as rings, so you get seamless intakes. Everything dryfit. I also glued the engine nacelles together. After the fuselage had rested for a while I attached the belly part. There is a small gap at the rear, but that'll be very easy to fix. Finally for today I glued the upper and lower wing parts together. Dryfit: This is a simple, easy and straightforward kit with very good fit of the parts. That's it for today. Thanks for looking in. Any comments, critics, advice and encouragements are highly welcome! 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted January 22, 2023 Author Share Posted January 22, 2023 (edited) Hi all, had a little progress today. First I added all the underwing racks and fairings and painted the life raft containers red. The I added the swallboards to the front fuselage. The I took care of the gap on the underside of the fuselage and unfortunately it wasn't only a gap but also a small step between the part and the rear fuselage. It's not quite done yet, I'll do another filling and sanding session tomorrow and also some rescribing. Next up was attaching the horizontal stabilizers and the fin tip, and finally I installed the wings. A bit of work will be needed at the upper forward wings/fuselage joint. Cockpit glazing is just stuck on to see if it fits. Apart from the aforementioned joint the fit of the wings is very good. Cockpit glazing fits perfectly! Wing/fuselage joint on the underside is also nearly perfect. That's all for today. Thanks for looking in! Any comments, critics, advice and encouragements are highly welcome! Edited January 22, 2023 by flashlight typo 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyOD Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 That's a remarkable looking machine, and coming along very briskly! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertie McBoatface Posted January 24, 2023 Share Posted January 24, 2023 On 1/22/2023 at 7:25 PM, TonyOD said: That's a remarkable looking machine, and coming along very briskly! Wot 'e sed! I almost missed all of this. It's a fascinating machine. Will you do a sea base? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted January 24, 2023 Author Share Posted January 24, 2023 Thanks @TonyOD and @Bertie McBoatface for your kind comments! No,Bertie, she won't float but rest on her undercarriage. After closing the gaps and cleaning up everything I primed her today. Tomorrow she will get an overall white coat. That's all for today. Thanks for looking! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 Nice work Nick. You're tempting me to add one of these into my own stash. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted January 26, 2023 Share Posted January 26, 2023 Great work . Those fan blades are fantastic . Martin H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted January 26, 2023 Author Share Posted January 26, 2023 @Col. Thank you for your kind comment. The kit is highly recommended, the parts fall together nearly automatically with excellent fit! @Grandboof Thanks Martin, they are just painted in steel colour. Ahoy there, had some progress yesterday and today and the build nearly turned catastrophic. Yesterday morning I applied Hataka Insignia White all over which went okay. In the evening I masked off everything and painted the boaty undersides of the fuselage and the floaters in Gunze H25 Sky Blue. I got the blue colour way too thin and after it had dried up it really looked awful and blotchy. So I left the masks on overnight to spray another coat of the blue with a better mixture today morning, which went very well then. But during unmasking the tragedy unfolded - there was seepage of the blue colour onto the white area all over! Not only did I get the colour thinnig awfully wrong yesterday but I also did a damn sloppy masking job obviously! The floaters were easily touched up, but the fuselage was a big problem. After looking down a big bottle (no - joke, but I was tempted!) and looking into the matter I saw that the seepage did not exceed too far up the fuselage so everything would be covered by the grey colour, that had to be applied next. But it is a very light grey, so I had the fear that it wouldn't cover the darker blue properly and so I took a sharp knife and scratched the blue stains off as far as possible without damaging the white colour too much. This went surprisingly well and after masking I sprayed MRP Traffic Grey. Unmasking revealed that everything has gone well. Phew! The only problem left is the nose cone, which will be retouched later, I already applied some white primer over the blue leakages. The red tips were painted using AKAN Red. You might notice that the masks for the side windows are rubbish, especially the masks for the blisters did not adhere well and were blown away by the airbrush. I hope that after the painting is done the colour can be scratched off without problems (it seems so, I already have tried, as you can see), and hopefully without pushing them inside. Next for tomorrow will be the retouching of the nose cone and gloss coat for the decals. That's it for now, thanks for looking. Any comments, critics, advice and encouragements are highly welcome! 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertie McBoatface Posted January 26, 2023 Share Posted January 26, 2023 Phew! What a drama. I'm glad to say it looks very neat and tidy now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 Looking great Martin H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted January 28, 2023 Author Share Posted January 28, 2023 @Bertie McBoatface and @Grandboof Thanks for your kind comments, Bertie and Martin! Good day everybody, yesterday's work was the application of gloss coat, and decals. After I had finished the decaling job I realized that I forgot to paint the leading edges! Typical silly me! Masking and spraying seemed to be too risky for the decals, so I painted them by hand. Of course I had to do lots of touch ups afterwards, but they look ok-ish now. Today's work was attaching the engines and floaters and the final gloss coat (which is already done) to blend in the decals and protect them and hopefully hide some silvering. The pictures show the status before she received the final gloss. The application of some decals had been quite tricky, especially the waterline decals. Three parts for each side, it was very funny to get them straight and in line properly. The big orange/blue stripes were tricky too, but I think it looks ok. Tomorrow I'll attach the undercarriage after I hopefully will have removed the paint masks without problems, the wheel bay doors and the four red containers. So she might be finished by tomorrow. But till then - in the very wise words of Sir Paul McCartney - "Leave and let dry!" Thanks for having a look. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted January 29, 2023 Share Posted January 29, 2023 Nice crisp demarcations . Nearly there Martin H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted January 29, 2023 Author Share Posted January 29, 2023 @Grandboof Hi Martin, thank you for the nice words! Hello all, after I added the rest of the parts and some last decals I call this project finished. I must admit that I am happy and that I am not happy. I am glad because I brought her across the finishing line despite my problems during the painting phase. I am not happy at all because of my problems during the painting phase. As usual my second nemesis besides PE parts, white colour, struck hard and I just could not get a nice and smooth finish, it's grainy instead. I could carefully sand it down to a more or less smooth surface, but not everywhere, especially on the undersides the paint is just horrible. My hope was that the gloss coat might hide away the bad surface, but it didn't. Then I had the problem with the blue seepage all over, but I could fix it. The masks worked fine besides those that got blown off the window blisters, but after multiple layers of colour they acted like liquid masks peeling off the surrounding colour coats a little, so that the frames have got a kind of frayed look. On the positive side I had been able to get the colour off the blisters without damage or pushing them inside. All this makes her one of those models that are looking fine from a distance, but don't go near! So she is condemned to sit in the rearmost back of the shelf, nicely hidden away from curious glances. The kit itself is excellent and it was a joy to build. Now the last pics in this thread, more pics to appear soon in the gallery! Here is a pic of her sitting next to the Crusader as comparison to give you an idea of the dimensions of this kit. Thank you all for looking, commenting and encourageing me throughout the build, special thaks to @TonyOD, @Col. and @Bertie McBoatface for their brilliant hosting! 13 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliGauld Posted January 29, 2023 Share Posted January 29, 2023 A fantastic result of an unusual subject. Nicely done. Cheers, Alistair 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted January 29, 2023 Author Share Posted January 29, 2023 @AliGauld Thank you very much indeed, Alistair! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertie McBoatface Posted January 29, 2023 Share Posted January 29, 2023 She is a precious stone set in a silver sea. That was a lovely demonstration of modelling. Thank you for your brilliant posting! 😃 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted January 29, 2023 Author Share Posted January 29, 2023 @Bertie McBoatface Thank you so much, Bertie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyOD Posted January 29, 2023 Share Posted January 29, 2023 That is very, very impressive. I continue to marvel at the sheer diversity of subjects in this GB. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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