konbini

Hello Rich, Many thanks for the kind words. Both methods in the end (decals vs painting) take a lot of effort for satisfying results.

Hello all, Been a long time, time for an update. Life does get in the way sometimes but with patience and a lot of decals I was able to make some progress. I applied the kit RAM decals. This probably took the most time as alignment and subsequent use of decal softeners were important. After the ram decals, stencils, and markings were applied I sprayed on a layer of Tamiya clear thinned with Mr. Color thinner. I opted to go with a deployed ladder. I went with the upgraded Reskit ladder kit. For the ladder door I used Eduard’s PE, as it will remain confidently fla

Hello, Wondering if anyone has any news about Minibase re: f-16 su-30sm? Been awfully quiet for a while.

Also hot decal solutions. Tamiya has their own branded decal solution that is quite hot, or the Mr. branded decal softener. I’ve had success, but needed time, and a few applications for the more stubborn Tamiya decals. If higher quality correctly sized decals are available, use those of course.

I have fudged up by spraying on mr color series varnish on alclad. The lustrous finish from the pale burnt metal was turned into into dull boring “metal”. O wells lesson learned, passing that lesson on.

Many thanks for your kind words. You’ll love the kit. Dear all, A bit of a late one for me. Been away from my desk. Good news is I got some spray time in and went in and bit the bullet for the main paint job. The grey is the Tamiya recommended mix, and I thought it came out ok. The LP paints were thinned slighted with mrcolor levelling thinner. I’d say 4:1, 3:1 paint to thinner. after everything was dry I sprayed on a mrcolor thinned x22 tamiya clear in preparation for the next stage, decals. I expect that wont be an easy task. I’ll keep everyone posted

Lovely care and great work. Keen to see more. 🙂

I am planning (for now) to use the kit decals with my current F-35 build. Knowing it is Tamiya gives me a bit of confidence. For masks: as far as I know, there is one company already producing masks for the Tam F-35 and Eduard will release their own set soon. I will experiment with decals on lesser seen areas first.

Thanks! It's slowly coming together 🙂 Many thanks Bendinggrass! Always a work in progress for improvement. Ah! That is my rather poor and rushed result of spraying on a too thin a layer of primer. I used more PSI and paint for more coverage and some areas were not sprayed as well as I would have liked. Fortunately, I took slightly more care with the main color - however, there are still microfibers and dust stuck to whatever layer I paint and I dont think I am able to ever completely rid of them unless I sprayed in a clean room.

Many thanks markiii! Update time: Things are starting to get more exciting. I mustered the energy to rebuild the mirrors of the EOTS unit under the nose. The kit calls for plain silver paint but reference photos call for mirrors. I experimented with molotov paint, and athough they were very fabulous, I wanted a clean untarnished mirror (kind of like the real thing). So i stuck on scratch made ovals made from Hasegawa’s mirror film. next, I slapped on the weapons bay doors (for the closed version), ladder door, and masked the other bays. I

I noticed a few things from Eduard announced for the March lineup for the Tamiya F-35A namely the instrument panel, PE, masks, and what looks like weighted wheels. The masks certainly are interesting addition. I am still on the fence as to doing the spraying myself or trying out the decals for the RAM panels. Later I’ll try some kit RAM decals on a not so visible section. Both decals / self spraying takes time and skill and I do believe both would work out fantastically.

Hello All, Another update. This one took a while from research, prep, and execution. The main landing gear. Tamiya did a great job with representation, of course not all of the detail could make it on. I debated leaving as is, but after browsing reference photos I needed to do the gear some justice. Theres a lot going on and multiple busy lines of hydraulic lines. First step for me is to scratch build the foundations for the 3 main lines that cross over the landing gear scissor link. This includes where the lines get anchored on the top and bottom, as well

Many thanks Andy! The engineering of this kit makes it easier 🙂 Many thanks! Very tempted to chuck everything in a box and start shaking. Will probably come out very nicely.

Update time again: I glued the nose+ intake top and bottom halves together. Despite my best effort there was still some sandwork to be done on the seam as the edges are sharp and any imperfection will be obvious. I used some mr surfacer to help. Next, the moment everyones been waiting for: top and bottom half coming together. This was done slowly and deliberately, using a heck of a lot of clothes pins and Tamiya extra thin for the internal structures if possible and the quick setting extra thin cement for anything external to minimize scarring. I did mess up one part d