bikerider Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 Well, here we go. The standard starting pic. Hasegawa kit, Aires exhausts, True Details intakes and decals from Speedhunter graphics. I also have the Eduard colour photoetch for the cockpit, but may or may not use it. This will be a Euro 1, 37TFW plan, in-flight. I started with working on the cuts to the fuselage for the intakes. This was a lot of cutting and sanding, but the intakes fit quite nice. Went to the cockpit and pilots. More work needed here. I was planning to use the Eduard PE here, but the detail in the cockpit is pretty good, and the PE set didn't look too great to me so I've decided to try to paint the cockpit myself, Something I don't really enjoy and am not great at, but... we'll see how it goes.. Then I closed up all the wheel wells and speed brake flaps on the bottom. It's easier to do at this stage then later. Final clean up needed but the landing gear doors went in fairly well. So that's mostly where I'm at. I did a few other sub-assemblies like assembling the missiles, the external fuel tanks and some other small parts. So far so good. K Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mlicari Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 So far so good. Indeed! Very nice work so far! Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 My favorite version of the phantom. I'm very happy to see this kit as part of the GB. Spruebros is supposed to have a restock of these, later in the year. I can't wait to get my hands on one. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bikerider Posted October 12, 2016 Author Share Posted October 12, 2016 Soooo...... welcome back! I'm happy ARC is back. Many thanks to Steve et al for the hard work providing a great tool. During the pause, I made lots of progress on my Phantom. I'll try to focus on pictures instead of text. I painted the cockpit, and crew, and added the assembled cockpit into one side of the fuselage. The control panel painting may not be great, but for me, I'm pleased. This is not a step I enjoy, and have not really mastered, but this one came out ok I think. . Next was glueing up the full fuselage Added on the lower wings ... managed to avoid the step that often comes with the join between the lower wings and front half of the fuselage! Then went to work on the resin intakes. Needed a fair bit of sanding of the kit parts to get a nice fit. Before: And some putty to even out the differences. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bikerider Posted October 12, 2016 Author Share Posted October 12, 2016 While all that was setting, and to get a break from sanding, I worked on the Aires exhausts. Used an off-green paint I have that seems close to photos I found and some black dry-brushed streaks that don't show well in the photo. Closed up the nose gear door... then added more putty Worked on the pylons and weapons and fuel tanks. This photo only shows the pylons, and a couple missiles. In the end I've changed from this loadout and am going with two AGM-88s on the inboard pylons and fuel tanks on the outboard and centreline. Finalized the cockpit - used the Eduard HUD and sight here. Glued on the canopy, And primed it all! The primer revealed some minor spots I've since touched up, and I hope to start painting later this week. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 I think your cockpit work looks pretty good. Putting the crew in there, really adds a lot! I got to get back in the habit of doing that. Are the resin intakes a great improvement on the kit parts? I ask because I don't know enough about the phantom to notice an obvious difference. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bikerider Posted October 12, 2016 Author Share Posted October 12, 2016 The resin intakes are a HUGE improvement for me. The Hasegawa kit intakes just end with the front wall of the fuselage showing at the end. With the resin, well a picture says a thousand words..... That's without the splitter plate and of course the main part of the plane unpainted. The resin intakes took a fair bit of work - cutting holes in the fuselage and some tricky sanding to get them to fit nice, but I think it adds a ton to the final look. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Ah, I didn't realize there was all of the trunking, I thought you just replaced the external bits. Cool! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bikerider Posted October 20, 2016 Author Share Posted October 20, 2016 Painting has begun. An uneven coat of flat black overall...trying the black basing idea. then the beginning of the Euro 1 paint, starting with light green. I have a few reference pics, an. I'm using Akan paints here, trying to go in light, almost mist layers, trying to keep the effects the black undercoat. I find it takes patience, and some practice. This is enough for tonight. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted October 20, 2016 Share Posted October 20, 2016 Yes! But it looks so good! Keep it up, it's going to be fantastic. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bikerider Posted October 24, 2016 Author Share Posted October 24, 2016 Got some more green and grey painted. Did some more work fading out some of the panels and toning down the main colours. Doing this I found the Dark Green Akan paint became almost sludge like and became difficult to control, so I took a break. Also having a set-back with the canopy. I used the one-piece canopy, glued with Micro Kristal Klear, and the glue is releasing, so I'm going to have to go back and re-do that before finishing the painting. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bikerider Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 Major Painting Done So, after posting the previous photos, i looked at my references more carefully and went, huh.... something aint right. I realized, the dark green I used originally (FS 34092) was the wrong green. So..... back to the paint shop where I re-did pretty much the entire plane using FS 34079 instead. And did the postshading too. Much happier with this result. I'm using a camera phone, with not great lighting so maybe the tonal differences don't show too much, but I'm quite pleased. I got the look I was going for. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nathant Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Awesome build! I like the look of your Euro 1 camo colors. How are you finding the Akan paints? What are you thinning them with. I've tried them before using UMP thinner and had a tough time with tip dry and found them just awfully tough to dial in. They seem to have just way too much surface tension and just don't want to flow nice. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bikerider Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 I don't thin the Akan paints. The first time i used them I tried that, mostly because I had a big model (SU-27 in 1/48) and I wasn't sure how far a bottle would go. I learned real fast that thinning them made them very slippy, if that makes sense. Lots of splatter and not much stick. After some experimenting I've found that straight out of the bottle I spray them around 20 or 25 psi and I am getting satisfactory results. At 30psi I was finding them hard to control ... I was getting lots of unintentional splotches resulting in an uneven looking finish. I'm talking about the acrylic lacquers here. I tried one color in their enamel line and it got all gunky in the airbrush cup after only about 10 minutes using it. So I threw that one away. I order them from Hobbycolours.com, in Greece, and they didn't have the lacquer version of that one colour when I placed my last order. Compared to the Model Master Acryl, or Tamiya paints i've mostly used, the AKAN paints dry faster, with, now that I've got a method, about comparable characteristics. They have exact matches for Soviet colors, which is what led me to them in the first place. But for typical FS colors, I think I'll stick with MM in the future. Just easier to get locally with comparable performance. One thing I found on another model is that my normal gloss cote, Tamiya from the spray can, did not work as well as it does over MM paint - I got an alligator like cracked finish in the gloss. It was salvagable, but not a happy experience. So, for this Phantom, I think I'm going to go with Future, which works for me, but I find a lot of work. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nathant Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Ok, I meant I was using Akan's acrylic water based line, but thanks for the explanation anyway Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted December 5, 2016 Share Posted December 5, 2016 You know, I used to not like Euro I schemes, but your build is making me reconsider that opinion. Your phantom looks great, and I eagerly anticipate seeing you put decals on it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bikerider Posted December 21, 2016 Author Share Posted December 21, 2016 (edited) Finished Couple small problems, but I'm pretty pleased. . . . Edited December 21, 2016 by bikerider Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Lancer512 Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 Great job! Are you still going to make a stand or something? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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