Seamus Posted January 2, 2009 Posted January 2, 2009 Here's what I shall be building for my first of (at least) 3 builds in this GB, Hasegawa's excellent Skywarrior. I'd been looking for one of these for years, but at the best part of £30, it was way over my budget. Luckily, I found this one at the FAAM model show in October for £13 and duly snapped it up! On with the obligatories It's a great looking kit, and HUGE for a 1/72 jet. Having not touched a kit for more than 3 weeks, I'm itching to get things going with this one- Sunday can't come quick enough That's all for now, progress will be reported in due course Cheers Shaun
Stebos Posted January 2, 2009 Posted January 2, 2009 A good buy that one. I have the non-naval B-66 offshoot still to build, they're pretty neat!
Seamus Posted January 2, 2009 Author Posted January 2, 2009 Cheers gents I have the non-naval B-66 offshoot still to build, they're pretty neat! They're lovely looking aircraft indeed I built the Italeri EB-66 when I was a nipper, but being young and naive made a right mess of it. Just wish I had the foresight to keep it in the stash all those years so I could do make a decent go of it now...... Ho hum. They're a touch on the rare side now as well these days, so invariably any that do crop up will be going for silly money Still, at least I've now got it's Naval cousin to add to the collection
bexwh773 Posted January 2, 2009 Posted January 2, 2009 Never seen one of these built Shaun, roll on Sunday Bex
Antoine Posted January 2, 2009 Posted January 2, 2009 Very good choice! Please Shaun, a well detailed step by step!
Seamus Posted January 2, 2009 Author Posted January 2, 2009 Cheers peeps Antoine, I shall do my best mon ami
Antoine Posted January 2, 2009 Posted January 2, 2009 Cheers peeps Antoine, I shall do my best mon ami I have every confidence in you!
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted January 2, 2009 Posted January 2, 2009 Nice choice Shaun, I just picked up the lastest issue of this kit, it looks like it has the same decals as yours. The details look nice and crisp as well considering how long the kit has been around. Looking foward to seeing progress on yours! Ray
Seamus Posted January 4, 2009 Author Posted January 4, 2009 Alrighty then, have made a start on the Whale today. Nothing much worth showing- I've simply sprayed the cockpit, undercarriage and engine intakes/exhausts. I'll make a start on the detail painting/washes in the pit tomorrow and post some pics when there's some more substantial progress. From what I've read, the fit of the kit is excellent, and quick dry fit shows this to be largely true. One area where this seems not the case is the fit of the engines to the wings. An article I read on ARC suggests leaving the engines off until final assembly to make maksing and painting easier. A dryfit of mine however results in a sizeable gap between the wing and the pylon as shown Apologies for the crappy pic, not sure why it's come out all yellow, but hopefully you get jist. There's no way I can leave it like that til the end, so I'm probably gonna have to paint the pods prior to fitting them, masking them off and leaving just the pylon unpainted. That way, I can happily fill the gap and hopefully spraying the inboard side of the pylon won't be too difficult. I'll do alittle more fettling first though beforehand to see if I can get a decent join Anyways, enough waffling for now, I'll aim to report some more substantial progress tomorrow Cheers Shaun
Seamus Posted January 7, 2009 Author Posted January 7, 2009 (edited) Right then, progress has been slower than I would have liked, but there's where I'm at now, having completed the office. It's pretty much OOB, though I've added a few things to busy it up a beat, mainly on the seats. I've added belts to the seats from good ol' Tamiya tape, with the buckles made from 5A fusewire. These were then given a few coats of a burnt umber wash- looks pretty rough in the pics, but is easier on the eye in the fesh as it were. I've also tried something new by adding some oxygen hoses to the seats. These were made from a length of 15A fusewire bent to shape, with 5A wire wrapped around it and painted, before glued in place with some cyano. Again, the macro has not been too kind to me here, but they're really much easier on the eye The cockpit was sprayed Dark Gull Grey and given a dark wash to dirty it up a wee bit. The various instrument panels and consoles were flat, so I've applied the supplied decals over these areas- shouldn't look too bad though through the canopy. The IP was sprayed black and given a drybrushing with some silver, with the rest of the 'pit lightly drybrushed with light grey just to add a bit more weathering. Seats were then glued in place Followed by a quick dry-fit in the fuselage. The fit here is very nice indeed. With that all done, I should be able to make a good go of getting the bulk of the main construction completed over the next day or so. Thanks for looking, comments welcomed Cheers Shaun Edited January 7, 2009 by Seamus
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted January 7, 2009 Posted January 7, 2009 Nice progress Shaun, I like the simple techniques you have applied to the cockpit to give it a bit of character. Looking forward to more progress.
Seamus Posted January 7, 2009 Author Posted January 7, 2009 Why thank you gentlemen Ploughed on with the Whale this evening and have assembled the main components: Fuselage Wings A quick dry-fit of the wings to check the join, which is practically perfect. Finally, I knocked the engine pods together The fit so far has been largely very good with only a few gaps that will need attending to. I also need to sort the fuselage seams out, but that's for tomorrow now I think Comments welcome as always Cheers Shaun
Antoine Posted January 7, 2009 Posted January 7, 2009 Your pit is already looking good, but don't you add more scratch on the sides? I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one to have problems with the buckles size in 1/72. Still you manage to do it better than me. I'll have to try the fuzewire (Working usually with copper wire).
Seamus Posted January 7, 2009 Author Posted January 7, 2009 Cheers Antoine Regarding the cockpit sides, I've not found too many cockpit shots of the Skywarrior, so when you couple that with my below-average scracthbuilding skills, it was probably best to leave them be TBH. not sure how much will be visible once everything is closed up anyway.
bexwh773 Posted January 7, 2009 Posted January 7, 2009 That office is looking pretty smart Shaun, and I lurve the belts Bex
Antoine Posted January 8, 2009 Posted January 8, 2009 not sure how much will be visible once everything is closed up anyway. The canopy looks big enough, it seems.
Seamus Posted January 8, 2009 Author Posted January 8, 2009 Thanks Bex Antoine, the canopy is big, but made up of lots of smaller windows, so I doubt that much will be all that visible. I won't know for sure now til the end of the build when I un-mask, so we shall see then More progress today and I have spent most of time time sorting the seams out. Most sanded back nice and smoothly, with only a touch of filler needed just aft of the cockpit and the lost surface detail was rescribed. Filler was also required around some of the panels on the lower side, particularly around the tailhook area, where my carelessness in construction left the large triangular panel sat too low in the fuselage. I've billed this with milliput. The engine pylon to wing joins have also received a touch if filler, thought after glueing thee gaps were not as bad as the dryfit had showed. It was my intention to leave the whole wing assembly off until after painting to ease painting the engines, but there were noticeable gaps between the wing/fuselage joins that I thought would need filling- that was until I glued the wing in place- the gaps have now pretty much filled in. Never mind, I thik I should be able to get the AB in a position to spray the engines up, just the masking will be a bit tricky. The canopy has been masked and attached and the rest of the construction complete, with the exception of the tailplanes which are dry-fitted and will be glues on later. I'll also be leaving the IFR probe until after painting as well. Here's where she's at then. She's so big I can't get her all in frame! A very impressive kit, and one I'm thoroughly enjoying The milliput will need to be smoothed out once dried, but I reckon I'll probably be able to make a start on the paintjob tomorrow, provided it aint too cold in my workshop Thanks for looking, comments welcome as always Cheers Shaun
Rampage55 Posted January 9, 2009 Posted January 9, 2009 Sean She is certainly coming along nicely. That cockpit detail looks great. I agree, I don't think you will be able to see too much in there once the canopy is on and painted. Speaking of the canopy, excellent job masking it, nice and clean. Mark
Spazman Posted January 9, 2009 Posted January 9, 2009 Hi Shaun, The Skywarrior has always been on of my favourites and you're certainly doing a great job! Looking forward to seeing her with paint and decals. Ted P.S. Re: the yellow picture. I got all excited thinking that you were doing the little known mid '30s yellow-winged version!!!
Seamus Posted January 9, 2009 Author Posted January 9, 2009 Thanks very much peeps More progress today then and those joins that received some treatment with milliput have all been sanded back smooth. A few more pael lines were rescribed before the wheel wells wre masked off ready for paint. I've now sprayed the preshade; having barely touched an AB in over a month, it's amazing how quickly you can get rusty with them That, coupled with the near Arctic temperatures in my workshop has reaulted in this, which isn't my best effort, but it'll do once the main colours are on. It was trickier than I had anticipated getting the AB in a position to spray the inboard engines, but it'll pass, and should be easier when it comes to the main colours. Hope to get the white at least sprayed during tomorrow, provided it aint too cold Comment welcomes as always Cheers Shaun
Antoine Posted January 9, 2009 Posted January 9, 2009 ImustbuyoneImustbuyoneImustbuyoneImustbuyoneImustbuyone
Recommended Posts