crackerjazz

Always wanted to build myself a Tornado. That's a very interesting paintjob.

Beautiful work!

Ok, I just grabbed a can of the stuff so I can try it out on Hasegawa plastic and will remember to mix it well. My purpose is really just for spotting surface imperfections after some putty work. The Tamiya can's spray pattern is too wide and I find it difficult to control layer thickness, so I want to experiment on airbrushed primers. My only worry is burying panel lines. It's the "microfiller" part of primer that concerns me --- if it can hide scratches, I'm assuming it can hide fine details as well. I read about using just regular gray paint - maybe I'll try that too.

Hmmm...I was just about to grab a whole can of the stuff (albeit the gray one) after reading so much good stuff about it; now I'm having second thoughts. I normally use the Tamiya spraycan primer but couldn't get to deeper corners too well and thought an airbrushed primer should do the trick -- which should also provide better control of thickness and prevent burying surface details. I did read that the stuff feathers well and that the ridges from your lifted area shouldn't pose a problem when you re-sand and patch. Please let us know how it goes.

Going good! That's some tricky canopy sanding work with the Dremel. Do you use some device to slow down the RPM? My slowest speed is still fast enough to melt plastic.

OK, I just discovered something that made me break out in a cold sweat. There's was an error in the instruction manual. No wonder I was having trouble with the doors. I'm normally a visual person and would look at pictures more than the written word :) It's dangerous sometimes but it would have saved me. I vaguely remember noticing it before I started gluing the doors on, but I believe my reaction at that time was that they got the drawing wrong -- but got too lazy to confirm from reference photos. Or maybe I did sift through some reference shots but didn't find much that showed the area. Hmmmm... no, yeah, I think I just got lazy and now I'm paying for it. Anyway..... using A36 would bring that little access door correctly pointing aft. Whereas using A35, if you followed the label like I did, would bring the access door like so... for a funky SLUF, and send you off towards putty wonderland if you're after an in-flight bird :) : I can either hack the doors off again (not fun), or just shape them right and rescribe. I really can't believe what happened there. The moment the doors didn't meet should have made me realize right away that something was wrong somewhere. But then I had to keep charging ahead with the tenacity of a bull. Oh well....

Thanks, Aigore! For the rear support rod where one of the wires would go into I found I could just install a half moon holder for it to slide into and I wouldn't even have to glue the rod on; it can just be sandwiched in-between the holders. I think this is better than just gluing the rod itself onto the wall (the joint is more liable to break). The rod fits in snugly and isn't loose or anything. For the front rod I couldn't install it until I've closed up the fuselage then I can use a drill press to make sure the rod goes in straight. I kind of just eyeballed it for SLUF 1, but I want it to be exact this time. Hole diameter is just right for the wires -- less than 2mm. Testing SLUF 1 on the Tomcat base. I chose to have the wires go in from the side as I initially wanted to build an A-7 in landing configuration with the tailhook down -- and a belly-mounted support will get in the way. Wires are longish as they're really meant for the Tomcat. I'll construct a similar setup for the A-7s with the correct lengths.

Some progress with the doors on SLUF 1. Now to the bottom doors.. Everything was going good until I got to the airbrake which has some fit issues. I'm gluing this on first and will try to sand it down and see if the airbrake will fit better. There are these two panels that protrude -- I'm thinking about sanding them down but it can be a bit tricky because of the intake hump. Will see what I can do about those later. They're not really noticeable --- on second thought I guess they are if I'll be ogling the refuelling probe. Started fitting doors on SLUF 2 as well. For the upper main gear doors on SLUF 2 i was trying a different route by bending it to shape and the corner snapped. I glued the corner back on. Gluing the edges of the doors together. Deja vu.

Ah yes, my wife does that, too. Whenever I'm drilling, painting and gluing. Especially gluing.

Yes heated wire will create craters along the surface. Also, when it cools off it gets stuck. I gather you don't use a pin vise? It will give you leverage to twist the drill bit more slowly and with even pressure but it's still a challenge to keep it perpendicular to the surface. Maybe something like this would help: http://musicmedic.com/plastic-handled-rotating-pin-vise.html

Best to brush on some Future or other barrier first. Edit: Actually, if the enamel is fully cured -- yes it shouldn't be a problem.

I try my best to keep the bit as perpendicular to the hole as possible while I turn, but, yeah, we need a 1/48 scale drill press.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes as far as feathering and scribing.

Excellent detailing, Pappy!

Beautiful scratchbuilding, Thommo!