Vidar_710

Ejection seat, HUD glass, and Canopy installed... I'm calling this nightmare complete! I've been contemplating weather or not she's worthy of IPMS Nats this August. I know where all the head banging problems are, so it has me second guessing myself. Tracy

I wanted a little more nose weight but I had nowhere to put it so.... I drilled out the base of the ejection seat and added a fishing line weight with some Liquid Gravity beads to fill in the gaps. All the weapons and associated flags applied, for a bird in alert ready configuration. Tracy

After a couple of years sitting on the shelf, I discovered the window fillers shrank significantly. Here, I've masked off the surrounding recessed panel and door details. 3M Acrylic white putty applied. After it cures, I'll sand it down to tape level, remove the tape, then feather it into the skin. I'll shoot another layer of primer to see how it went... Tracy

After many hours of doing walk arounds on the different AA aircraft I have flown, I've come to the conclusion that the AA Mica Grey is simply Boeing Grey with a metalic flake clear coat over it. To scale it, Use MRP's Boeing Gray as a base, then shoot a mix of Alclad clear gloss with a dash of Alclad chrome mixed into it to get the Mica finish. Tracy

I'll be tackling this when I wrap up my 1/32 F-16XL (in Progress) section. If I can pull off the bare metal finish I want, I'll be taking it to Virginia in August. Tracy

Still here... I've just shifted my attention to my 1/32 F-16XL project. Thead in the "In Progress" section if you want to read it. Tracy

More frustration with the engineering of the kit... At the leading edges of the pylons don't match the shape of the wing. More Epoxy Dough to the rescue! To ensure a good contact to the plastic, I drilled a series of divots into the pylon's gluing surfaces to give the dough some tooth. The initial application seen here was allowed to set up for a couple of hours. the dough still kind of soft, I took the pylons, laid down a bead of water on the surface of the model so that the dough would stick to the wing, then pressed them into their appropriate har

Wheels are on! Despite the big hunk-o-resin of a cockpit tub, it wasn't enough to counter the resin tail and afterburner/tail feather parts. She was a tail sitter! 3 fishing line casting weights were cut in half and flattened. Just enough to sit nicely hidden under the ejection seat without affecting its proper height in the tub.

Around of pastel work on the top. Stepping away from it for the night to see if I like it in the morning.

Starting the oils work First the white is blended into place... Then the black is positioned... Then everything is blended together Same done to the top... First of the pastel work going in on the bottom... More to come. Tracy

Decals finished with a protective clear coat. One of very few images of a test bed aircraft's staining on the belly. Mine will be more assertive representing a "What If" production aircraft in service. First layer of Yellow Ochre oil representing aged oil and hydraulic staining in the skin. Additional oil layers of Brown and black with some white to tone things down. Dark washes added to the skin and panel lines. After the excess wash is removed, the dull coat with be applied to protect it. Additional weathering will be ad

Hardpoints created by the manufacturer were terribly out of place. They clustered them so close; the bombs would not hang properly and would be bumping into each other. Here, the hardpoints have been filled in with Epoxy dough and feathered in with a wet finger. Bomb Hardpoints and AIM-7 Sparrow fin slots filled in since I'll be arming with AIM-120 AMRAAM's. Graphic showing actual hard point positions that distribute throughout the wing surface instead of clustered tightly at the outer 3rd of the wing. Template being made with parchment pap

Paint. decaling, and washes complete... All that's left is to add fins to the missiles, sway brackets, and paint the bright aluminum binding straps on the GBU's and they'll be done.

GBU's are from VideoAviation dot com Tracy

Stepping away from the jet for a bit to do the tedious stuff. Shifting to weapons work. Layering in the colors. Resin GBU 54's and 3D printed AIM-120C AMRAM's and AIM-9X's... Plus the metal landing gear... Primers Yellow stripe that peaks through the GPS head gear pre-shading and marbling Olive drab on and masked to spray the Lt Ghost Gray fin groups and GPS gear. Still a lot of work left... Missile fin (not shown have been sprayed a mix of stainless steel and Jet exhaust.