JRV Lockheed T-33 Oz-Models 1/144

[FlyingLow]

Last year at the Silicon Valley Kick Off I purchased Oz-Models kit of Lockheed T-33 with goal to build it in Yugoslav

markings.

I did see through the the transparent bag that there is a bit of flash on the moldings but that is major understatement,

so this is everything but short weekend project.

I am pretty stubborn person and like a challenge so I decided to go through with it. In fact I started several months ago

but will only now copy some of my older posts to this forum.

Let's start with the content of the bag:

The good news is that base shape is pretty good at least compared to the drawings I found on the web. I started with

the wings, main sanding and shaping is done, gas tanks are added and little wings scratched from the styrene sheet.

To see where I stand I shot a layer of Alclad, not too bad, some more work on the right side is needed...

I also cut panels, some more fixes are required where needle went too far.

[FlyingLow]

After having wing roughly shaped I turned my attention to the fuselage and interior.

During sanding all that terrible surface away and removing all the flash one of the sides broke, which is actually

not too bad because that enables me to scratch interior of the cockpit and align it properly. To simplify the panel

engraving later I decided not to use putty but melted sprue. As you see I wasn't shy using it because there are many

areas where material was missing.

I had to deepen the air intakes:

I was able to use parts of the seats, headrests and belts were added, I also scratched both instrument panels. Here

everything is painted and ready:

Office is so small and narrow I had to finish it before I closed up the body:

After this step extensive drying was required and then some serious sanding.

[FlyingLow]

After I glued the body halfs together the "butt" looked pretty nasty:

To get proper circular shape I decided to use brass tubing:

After the drilling:

And the larger of the tubes glued in with CA:

And everything generously filled with melted sprue:

After some more sanding of the body and first engraved lines, again a layer of Alclad to verify the progress. It

really shows any minor surface blemishes and problem areas:

Compared to what I started with I am pretty pleased so far.

[nicely11b]

This is looking amazing for such a tiny model

[viking73]

Nice work! I've wondered what those 1/144 Oz Mods kits look like. Thanks for sharing your photos.

-Derek

[FlyingLow]

Quite a lot of work was done in recent weeks, but not much is visible. I also have to organize my photos so

I will post in several installments...

Here is what I have so far, wings and body are glued together. I had to fill the trenches that appeared there

with strips of styrene and some dissolved sprue. I also added some detail to the wheel wells. At the end everything

is sanded and polished smooth.

It is starting to look like T-33.

[FlyingLow]

Nice work! I've wondered what those 1/144 Oz Mods kits look like. Thanks for sharing your photos.

-Derek

Thanks nicely and Derek.

I read some reviews of the OzMods kits and they are generally positive... I am not sure if I was just

unlucky and got this really bad one or their tooling is deteriorating so rapidly that some of late

moldings are in such a bad shape. It is not just flesh, the surface of parts is really uneven almost

like scratched.The plastic is pretty hard though, which I prefer to the soft plastic some kits are

molded with.

[singeri]

Nicely done......love the brass tube exhaust

[ChippyWho]

Excellent work, Sir -looking forward to seeing more!

[FlyingLow]

Thanks for viewing and of course for compliments.

Wheel well covers were completely unusable so I had to scratch them. To create some depth and structure I used two layers.

Outer one is simply cut out of soda can and the inner is from thinnest styrene sheet I have (0.25 mm).

After layer of Mr.Surfacer:

I would like to start painting soon it is time to start preparing the surface. Mr. Surfacer exposed still many problem

areas, especially in the wing root and around stabilizers. Therefore back to sanding...

[Nemsy_29]

Well done, this is amazing for that tiny model, i can't wait to see the paint job

[FlyingLow]

Thanks Nemsy. I am very busy at work and with private life at the moment but hope to be able to paint soon too.

It will be bare metal on top and yellow/black underneath for the practice target towing (tegljac meta).

[FlyingLow]

Thanks for watching everybody...

As expected tires and struts in the kit were not acceptable, and scratching the wheels in this scale is very tough if not impossible so I had to find some shortcut. After some thought I decided to try a part of modeling I haven't done before - creating my own resin copies and modify them.

I checked my 1/144 stash and closest I found were some P-51D Mustang wheels from the Platz kit. So let's try...

First frame from Lego's and layer of Plsaticine to fill the half of the frame into which I pushed originals.

Covered with rubber:

Turned around and Plasticine removed:

it looks a little messy but imprints look pretty good:

Resin injected:

The moment of truth:

I must admit I am very pleased, closeup shows that all the details are clearly visible and I am sure I can make very believeable tires and underacarriage with it:

Now, few days of vacation in the Sierra and then the project continues...

[phantom]

Some serious work your up too with this one.

[FlyingLow]

Some serious work your up too with this one.

Thanks Phantom, indeed it is. I just can't accept the approach that 1/144 should be quick and easy builds

[FlyingLow]

I collected a lot of photos for this update.

Cutting the "glass":

Masked from inside:

And outside:

Painted (I still need to polish few dots) and unfortunately the vacuformed parts are of the similar quality as the injected ones.

Front leg (yup, that is a match underneath):

Main wheels with completely reconstructed main gear:

Wheel covers ready for painting:

Paint test, I used standard Tamiya XF-3 over Alclad aluminum.

[FlyingLow]

After few cycles of sanding, scribing, correcting, priming and back to the start I had enough and I consider this finished and ready for painting:

Aluminum is applied:

Now Alclad has to nicely cure and then colors, it will be proper Christmas tree with yellow, black, red and of course

red, white and blue (yugoslav) markings, to have another US jet with red stars.

[dragan_mig31]

It looks outstanding.I love the metallic looks of it.

[vesthepes]

very nice, very nice...

[FlyingLow]

Thanks Dragan and Vesthepes.

BTW. Dragan I have generic Yugoslav decals in 1/144 from BM ready and can't wait to try them ;)

[FlyingLow]

I sprayed yellow today:

[FlyingLow]

Black (Tamiya Nato Black):

[dragan_mig31]

Great work.I can`t wait to see this one with decals and finished.

[FlyingLow]

Thanks for looking.

I painted wheel wells, antiglare panel and those red panels, for which I have no idea why they are red. :blush:

Tomorrow Future and decals...

[geedubelyer]

This is some remarkable work particularly in such a small scale.

As we know, BMF is very unforgiving so the flawless finish of the Alclad tells the full story of how much work has gone into this little gem. Great stuff.

Keep up the good effort.