Jabba Posted June 3, 2010 Posted June 3, 2010 With the Viking almost finished, it is now time to start on the next project. I have been wanting to make one of these ever since I saw a grainy picture in the Gulf Air War Debrief book, but until recently I did not have enough information to complete it. Eighteen Luftwaffe Alpha Jets were based in Turkey to defend NATO assests incase Saddam decided to venture up north. The Model. Some extras. The Decals. A little help.
Jabba Posted June 12, 2010 Author Posted June 12, 2010 (edited) The build on this one has begun. This is the cockpit, which is the Pavla version, although it is actually meant for an E version of the Alpha Jet. As it included a front instrument panel with a gunsight I used this one and put it all together. I have also put the wings and the lower fuselage together to speed the process along. Hopefully it should not take too long to get this built up, or is that putting the kiss of death of the project. Edited June 12, 2010 by Jabba
Mark M Posted June 12, 2010 Posted June 12, 2010 look we need to talk, you seriously are addicted to the Gulf War, you have a deviant variation of gulf war syndrome!!!!! its call GAPS (gulf and plastic syndrome) you just HAVE to fill the GAPS in your collection!! ok ill in all seriousness FAB production line
Jabba Posted June 12, 2010 Author Posted June 12, 2010 look we need to talk, you seriously are addicted to the Gulf War, you have a deviant variation of gulf war syndrome!!!!!its call GAPS (gulf and plastic syndrome) you just HAVE to fill the GAPS in your collection!! ok ill in all seriousness FAB production line Oh yes there are many, and most of those are big ones if you get my meaning, but I am working on it. I do also like to do the aircraft that are a little left of centre. The illness though will never be cured, just ask the modellers at the club I go to.
Jabba Posted June 13, 2010 Author Posted June 13, 2010 Another quick update. This picture shows the cockpit now glued into one of the fuselage halves. It also shows some of the other parts that have been put together.
Jabba Posted June 20, 2010 Author Posted June 20, 2010 I have got a little done to this model this week. I have managed to get the fuselage glued together, and I have hollowed out in the main fuselage and lower fuselage where the jet pipes go. This is because in one of the update sets that I have bought to go with this model it gives full jet pipes, which would actually look a little silly just stuck onto the end of the fuselage. I will add a piece of plasticard in the lower fuselage to which these jet pipes can be attched to. After that I can then start to build up the fuselage and get this wings and that attached.
Jabba Posted June 27, 2010 Author Posted June 27, 2010 Her I am with an update on this model. I have now got the fuselage together and will sand it down before I add the wings. I have added the nose piece and probe from a Fujimi kit that I had lying around as the probe was much finer than the Airfix one, although the part was slightly wider than the fuselage at that point. As you can see it is not now. The intakes from the Pavla set have been added and fitted very well, do not be duly worried about the amount of filler there. Hopefully I shall get the wings and the small intakes under the fuselage attached sometime this week.
AnonymousFO98 Posted June 27, 2010 Posted June 27, 2010 Nice nice nice! looks like the bashing together of parts is going well keep up the good work Jabba
Jabba Posted July 4, 2010 Author Posted July 4, 2010 A quick update on what I have done this week. The wings have been added,filled and sanded along with the rest of the kit. The tailplanes will go on as soon as I am happy with the sanding and then on with the painting, as soon as the paints arrive, which will hopefully not be too long away.
daz greenwood Posted July 4, 2010 Posted July 4, 2010 Looking good! Such a good looking airplane is the Alpha Jet
Jabba Posted July 4, 2010 Author Posted July 4, 2010 Looking good!Such a good looking airplane is the Alpha Jet Thanks Daz, good to see you back at the boards.
Jabba Posted July 11, 2010 Author Posted July 11, 2010 All together now, and painting has started. I added the wing pylons, which I again got from the Fujimi kit as they looked a little bit better, and a few intakes from the Pavla update set. The one thing that I have forgotten to do is to build up the cockpit, as the canopy will be closed on this model. So to that ends I have started to paint the ejection seats and control column, but I have the dreaded vac form canopy to cut out and fix onto the model. hopefully this will not slow down the model.
Jabba Posted July 17, 2010 Author Posted July 17, 2010 Having a bad week with this one. First of all after cutting out the vac-form canopy I find that the front instrument panel is too big. So off that came and it was shaved down along with some of the cockpit so that the canopy could fit over correctly. Then after painting the bang seats whilst still on their resin blocks I find that they are too big for the cockpit. So after a lot of cutting and shaving, especially on the rear seat I got the seats in and the canopy to fit over. Now I find that the vac-form canopy is too slim for the cockpit aperture, for which it is designed to fit, but only after sticking it on, as it fitted reasonably before hand. So now I will have to try and prise this off, and hope that the kit canopy will fit over what I have put in, or it is back to the drawing board, and the kit possibly in the bin. further news on the trials of this build tomorrow. :shithappens:
AnonymousFO98 Posted July 17, 2010 Posted July 17, 2010 AAAARGHHH! hope it goes better tomorrow Jabba
Jabba Posted July 18, 2010 Author Posted July 18, 2010 I have managed to get the canopy off and replace it with the kit one, but I am still not happy with it but I will persevere as I have spent too much money and effort to let it go to waste, but it will not be one of my better builds. I will have some photos later.
Jabba Posted July 20, 2010 Author Posted July 20, 2010 After a day of seeing a gap grow wider under the canopy I decided to take it off again last night to see if it can be fixed a bit better. After a little cutting of the sides of the rear instrument panle cover, and a massive chunk removed from the bottom of the front ejector seat the canopy now sits much better, so it is on with the job of masking up for the camo scheme.
AnonymousFO98 Posted July 20, 2010 Posted July 20, 2010 Cool! Well done Jabba gald you mangaed to get it fixed! we knew ya would mate
Jabba Posted July 21, 2010 Author Posted July 21, 2010 Cool! Well done Jabbagald you mangaed to get it fixed! we knew ya would mate Not quite as the canopy came off again last night. Whilst puuting on the masking tape for the camo scheme I managed to get a piece trapped under the rear canopy and could be seen floating around the rear ejection seat. Hopefully now it has been resolved. I think that I may have found what the cause of all my woes were, and this is the cockpit update set, as although it did not affect the fuselage joints, it may have pushed the cockpit opening slightly apart, as even the kit canopy does not really sit right, being slightly narrower than the fuselage.
AnonymousFO98 Posted July 21, 2010 Posted July 21, 2010 Aaaargh What a nuisance Will try not to tempt providence this time
RussTnailZ Posted July 21, 2010 Posted July 21, 2010 Hope you sort it looking forward too seeing this get completed the alpha is a nice looking little thing Russ
Jabba Posted July 22, 2010 Author Posted July 22, 2010 Canopy is back on and staying on. All I have to do now is mask up the damn thing so I can paint the green over the grey. I am about 2/3rds of the way through, mainly around the nose to do. I didn't realise that it would take so long, this my third night at it.
Jabba Posted July 23, 2010 Author Posted July 23, 2010 As promised though a little later than planned some photos of what has been going on. The first two show the model altogether, but I still had my canopy problem at the time. The latter three show all the masking over the grey that I did before painting the green. This was done last night and hopefully a second coat will go on tonight.
Jabba Posted July 24, 2010 Author Posted July 24, 2010 Green has now been painted, so there bit of touching up and the anti dazzle to paint and then it is on with the decals.
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