loftycomfort

Their Jaguar kit has a bunch of resin by Aires.

Hi Fred, I believe there might be too much width discrepancy between the BB cockpit tub and the Academy kit to make things fit. You might be better off converting the kit's IP to backdate it to an analog one. Jake's F-16 book is an excellent resource for such a conversion. I actually build a CONA F-16B conversion using the Academy Sufa kit a couple of years ago. The difficult parts were the cockpit backdating and the vert fin base conversion. Here is my WIP thread: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=248178&st=0&p=2359855&hl=f-16b&fromsearch=1entry235

Thanks for the heads-up. Did she have a firewall installed on her computer? Terry

That's a real shame. I was very looking forward to a 1/32 Tiger kit. I would have bought two - one to be built with shark mouth, the other in Blue Angels. Hopefully Fisher Models will see an opening and come up with a resin one. Terry

*Almost* finished now. Only missing items are the leading edge guns, hanging the bombs under the wings, and some minor touch-up. Terry

Good progress made on the big Russian tube. I did some post-shading, then gloss coated it with Alclad Klear Kote, then a panel line wash, then applied some generic bort number and red star decals by Delta One. Now here she is: Next I'll work on the various odds and ends (landing gears, ordnance, pitots etc), then flat coat and final assembly. Thank you for looking. Terry

Since the kitchen has better lighting than in my hobby dungeon, I thought I'd show you the post shaded build there: Next up is painting the dielectic panel on the vert fin tip, then the bombs, then gloss coat and decals. Terry

I've done touching up and further weathering and effects on the camouflage over the weekend. First I worked on the green. This is how the camo looks without the effects: I misted on patches of yellow on the green: Then I added a drop of the green into Tamiya clear gloss (almost like a green tint), and sprayed it over the yellow to blend it back into the green: Now tan patches over the dark brown: then tied it back with brown tinted Tamiya clear gloss: It's still looks somewhat "meh" at the moment, but once I do some post shading, highlight the panel lines, then tie everything

Masking. Priming. 4-tone camouflage painting (free-hand). All done. Lots of touching up to do, though. Terry

Perfect. Thank you. Terry

I'm holding the kit in my hands now. It uses the same radome as the original kit (part #206, same as my Revell Germany F-4F kit from a couple years ago). There is no retooled radome. Personally I don't care about the radome's shape, this is a decent kit at a very good price. Does anyone make a 1/32 F-4G decal sheet that is READILY available? Thank you. Terry

beautiful!

I'm a bit on the opposite end of the spectrum - I actually enjoy fitting resin aftermarket sets into plastic kits. I enjoy the improved level of details, and I view any fitting problems as challenges that are fun to solve. I can't say the same for PE sets, though. I don't like their flattened look therefore I find them to be a less effective media for cockpits. Therefore whenever possible, I avoid using them and look for resin alternatives when it comes to improving details. Then there are full resin kits. While successfully installing a beautifully detailed resin cockpit set gives you i

While deciding whether to build a Czech jet or Soviet jet, I discovered a frustrating problem with the kit. According to Google pics, Czech jets did not have the outer wing pylons. Some Soviet jets and Polish jets have them, but not on any operational silver painted jets. The outer wing pylons were only found on museum displays (Soviet and Polish) that were painted silver, or camo'd Soviet jets. After some more research, I found that the outer pylons were installed after 1972, by which time the Soviet jets were camouflage painted, and Czech AF might have retired their fleet already. The p

BTW, I'm really starting to like the Czech AF Su-7BM jets. They had that metallic sheen so I assume they were NMF (vs USSR's overall silver) which allow for more interesting looking panelization effects. And the bort the numbers are relatively easy to make by either decals or mask. Here are a couple. In the first one, the landing gears look like were grey painted. Terry

What a beauty! Terry

Gianni, I plan on doing a boring USSR silver scheme with red bort numbers. I had wanted to paint this as a wild and exotic Czech or Egypt camo jet, but those export versions are Su-7BMK, which has an apparatus on the tail fin which this kit lacks. The ebay seller also sells a BMK with the right fin if you're interested. Terry

I test fitted the landing gears on and... it's official, it DOES sit on its legs, if only barely. It was a good decision to fill the canopy bulk head with weights, because without them, the thing was tethering on its rear gears. Of course, I'm not completely out of the woods yet. The free fall bombs are solid resin, and they are hung on the outer pylons which sit far behind the rear gears. I think it might be prudent to install the two drop tanks side by side underneath the fuselage (they look strange hung together like that, but is actually accurate according to the ref pics), then the

Tell me about it! He also has a new 1/32 Su-22UM two-seater that I really like, but since the Canadian dollar's value has nose dived since last year, it's hard to justify the US$260 cost now. When I bought this kit early last year, the Canadian dollar was almost parity with USD so it was a lot more affordable. Not anymore. Terry

Thank you guys. From a design and looks perspective, this thing is a brute. Its simplistic design is a complete opposite to say, a Flanker, which epitomizes grace, beauty, and power. Anyways, the build continues. Now I am working on the nose gear. Here is the gear with the brass tube already cast in. I also drilled a hole in the main axle and inserted a silver pin (from a paperclip) to add strength. And also painting the wheels and tires: Even with the radome completely filled with fishing weights (and some extra added behind the cockpit), this thing just barely sits on its gears.

Good tip, Laurent. Thank you. It looks like the Czech AF Fitters were NMF rather than silver lacquer. Perhaps I'll do one of those instead of USSR silver because I like NMF more. I can even use the "black 5206" decals from my 1/32 MiG-21UM, the font is close enough. Cheers, Terry

Here's how the Fitter currently looks. Airframe construction is completed - all the fins and stabs, scoops and vents, and wing pylons are assembled and glued. Still not yet built are the undercarriage, ordnance, and a couple of pitot tubes. My next task is to build the landing gears, then mask and prime the parts. Terry

That's perfect, thank you very much! Clearly, the undercarriage was painted silver. Terry

Hi all, I'm close to painting my su-7 Fitter build. I plan on painting it overall silver lacquer in a basic USSR red star scheme. Should the undercarriage also be silver, or should they be gray? Thank you. Terry