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On 6/3/2020 at 2:50 AM, kurnass77 said:

Thanks Gremlin.

 

That's interesting as mine isn't a Improved Baz,so we have same airframe in different configuration.

The wheels: you right,A and C have different wheeks. I ordered the Reskit ones, but was at the full lockdown here in Italy;I've checked the postal tracking just yesterday and look like if the package arrived here the 29 May,with some luck will be delivered soon...

The first batch Baz was retrifitted for CFT around 1985,so you can go with them,but I don't know where you can find any.

 

I see you have the reskit set now, very good.

 

thanks for your information!!!

 

cheers

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Thanks guys for your support!

Actually I've filled the wings and already sanded and rescribed the upper surfaces of both, so need to finish the lower's.

Put some clear on the tanks and ready to start decaling them.

Because of the Covid,my small association can't deal with the rules ( more than justified) to work and sanitize the enviroment on which work with the children,so this summe my usually vacancy camp can't start,

For thiese reasons I reverted to my old job of painting statue/figure for my collectors, so the build will slow down a bit as currently I'm painting a 120mm SOF operator and a 54mm Napoleonic figure, but I'll post soon some pics of the progress on the Baz.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Gianni

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Awesome work. I usually glue the wings first, before the lower fuselage as I always end up with one wing lower and the other higher otherwise. It also helps a little with the fit.

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Hi all guys!

Thadeus, this is interesting, will try in an another Eagle.

Here a quick update.

The wings are glued and sanded,In some spot only a bit of Mr Dissolved Putty removed with a hearstick was enough, but in other spot I used plasticard and CA glue/talc powder.

 

CXJjL1.jpg

 

As evident in the close-ups,the left wing required more work than the right's.

 

ElZgvB.jpg

 

I added a pair of brass rod to the left wing to maintain the part to the desired angle/level,as tend to drop more than the right,especially the rear edge where the flap meet the fuselage.

 

np0PUS.jpg

 

The lower surfaces had the same problems

 

7Cbj0g.jpg

 

z80ekB.jpg

 

S5LhAy.jpg

 

The fuel tanks are full stencilled.

I choose to add the Squadron eagle stencil only to one tank, as per pics on the Israbook volume; both will receive a red tip when finished

 

Oa6V1l.jpg

 

After this photo session,I hit the tanks with some grey to done down a little the black of the decals.

 

wASgIM.jpg

 

Next,I'll add the vert stabs and add details to the various air inlets/scoops on the belly area, followed by work on the wheel bays.

As always thanks to stop by my friends and feel free to comment!

 

Cheers,

Gianni

Edited by kurnass77
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Hi gents,

some progress.

As precedently said, I started work on the NLG.

Added some details to the bay; despite the forward door is virtually always closed on the ground,some details are visible anyway so using plasticard,copper and lead wires and some scrap pieces from an electrical circuit of some kind, I obtained something more of the OOB's.

 

NEpOCw.jpg

 

The leg received its plumbing out of lead wire and some PEs from the Eduard sheet

 

lzOAh6.jpg

 

 

I drilled the hole on the gear strut

 

gI5yZo.jpg

 

Needless to say how important is a good quantity of reference to add/discover extra details;thanks to Jake Melampy's Modern Eagle Guide and the Daco book, I added small things ignored by the manufacturer like the one in the red circle,still need to add a pair of wires here.

 

S2HS9t.jpg

 

Achieved ( more or less) the NLG, I started to add the plumbing in the MLG bays

 

XQMbxY.jpg

 

Added the nav lights to the vert stabs, During the study of the pics of the stabs,I discovered that Hasegawa added more panelines that in the reality, so I need to fill and sand these lines before glueing in position.

 

qQOKRj.jpg

 

Now I'm focused improving the MLG legs, so more pics soon.

Thanks for watching guys and stay safe!

 

Gianni

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Hi guys,

I'm back with some updates.

Unfortunately ,my dad was hospitalized last week so my attention was "slightly diverted" from the build,but managed to do something.

I glued the vert stabs and gear doors, and now look an F-15.

 

jSpFz0.jpg

vAGG0H.jpg

 

The stabs: here the primary goal was obtain mooth and clean surfaces, especially the inner side that will be painted in metal.

 

MalnUS.jpg

 

Is superflous to say that I rescribed some panel lines as lost during the sanding; other was filled as not present on the real planes

 

eWO3Oj.jpg

 

The same is true for the landing gears doors.

The NLG door;I used ti fill the doors CA with talc powder, more hard to sand maybe, but better for rescribing. Note that I've lost the door antenna which will be replaced with a PE one.

 

efpwAg.jpg

 

The MLG doors.My bird will be a late 80's one wuth chaff/flare dispenser under the air intake, just forward of the MLGs as for later models. This mean that the comm panel door present on the left intake was moved forward, in the red circle.

 

CTsiwY.jpg

 

Now I started my duel with the MLG legs and in particular with the struts; if the legs was easily improved with a combination of PEs, lead wire,etc... the kit struts need more work and the PE ones, despite nice, look to be too short.

Still not decide how move 'bout these details.

 

As always thanks for watching and stay healty my friends!

 

Gianni

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  • 1 month later...

Hi all guys, hope you're all good my friends!

Wow,so much time since my last update,but these are strange times,and for me ,working in a school as someone of you know, are terrible,pratically at home since the March' lockdown.

So, to survive ( litterally) I turned to my old job and realized some models for various collectors, here a pair of the latest.In conjuction with the fellow ARC'ers and long time friend Gene K,I've realized the skin for the Stike Fighter 2 sim available for download on the CombatACE forum, depicting the F-4 C ( and the whole 557th TFS birds) he flown in Vietnam,an absolute first for me.

 

sxtXVq.jpgwwy82u.jpg

 

So in a strange twist of thing, this left me with less time for my Baz, anyway I managed to paint the Aires exhaust, refined at my best the various  joint and add the new vacu windshield,replacing the damaged kit' one. Also the nose gear leg was damaged in some way ( I still don't understand how),requiring the scratch of some new details,comprised the connection between theforward oleo strut and the leg itself.

But the pics now,first some general view of the model,now you can see the graceful line of an F-15!

 

ddTesB.jpg

FOSwQo.jpg

MGQrJ3.jpg

 

Here the new windshield and PE HUD.

 

c6kj96.jpgwztUzo.jpg

 

Here the new parts realized for the nose leg ( red arrow ) and the new antenna ( blue arrow).

 

GU7jVL.jpg

 

The exhaust,sorry for the image quality...

 

coXAVH.jpg

 

That's all for now; as visible I'm ready to start paint it, so stay tuned for more progress my friends and stay healty!

 

 

:cheers:Gianni

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  • 3 weeks later...

Good day all guys,hope you're all fine!

I made some step forward with my build,and finally the F-15 received his two greys!

The pics are real bad I know, but I've some trouble with the camera,hope solve for the next session.

But here the shots!

 

VdxGSE.jpg

AGcOWy.jpg

 

 

As usual,added a first layer of weathering at this stage;Israeli F-15s at time can show a very heavy weathering, but lack of specific ref for my bird ( the better pics I found are after the Improved Baz program) convinced me to realize a more subdued effects, with the more concentrated on the belly

 

4sxHVj.jpg

 

A close-up

 

85lu0M.jpg

 

Some detail shots now.

For the upper surfaces I added a light brownish dirt layer without spent too much time in fade the colors,despite more often than not the IAF birds have the two grey almost indistinguishable

 

6dLfp2.jpg

5XxVr1.jpg

 

 

Look like if I was able after all to blend the PE grills to the model surfaces, much work required but in final I'm happy and think the general look is better that the original.

 

zGdhOo.jpg

 

1gagNs.jpg

 

N6P5xo.jpg

 

 

 

Now I've decide if paint or not the black on the vert stab'inner tips where the eagle head is positioned.Generally I prefer paint all,but my fear is that the white eagle decal will be transparent and turn so to a light grey...the other option is to use the decal from the sheet. Who do you think guys?

 

Like always feel free of comment and critique!

 

Thanks to stop by,

 

Gianni

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hope you' and the family are doing well, Gianni.

 

How goes it with the Eagle?

 

Your Covid-forced return to figure painting yielded some absolutely outstanding  works - I'm sure the recipients are more than pleased.

 

I'm amazed at the versatility  you demonstrate  doing such great work with figures, aircraft models,  and the computer painting (of the Phantoms) ... among other things. Quite a talent!


Gene K 

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Thanks Gene for your kindness.

Honestly the collector were very happy with the figures and 'cause my activity at school don't start for the anti Covid rules,I started to think at a definitive return to professional painting and open a little studio with my brother.

About the Eagle,probably tomorrow I'll post the actual progress,but first need fix a problem caused by the masking for the paint....

 

Thank again and stay safe Gene!

 

 

Gianni

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Hi all guys, as said in the previously reply, here some progress.

First ,I painted the metal area of the rear fuselage;after masking the model with Tamiya tape and some food cellophane,I airbrushed some Tamiya TS-14 decanted from the rattle can, followed by Alclad Stainless Steel, Dark Aluminium and Magnesium,the latter in random spot.As all was dry I rubbed the surface with Tamiya Rogue Compound ( a tecnique adopted by Chuck for is incredible 1/32  Aggressor F-15C ).Not Bad I think...

At this point I painted also the landing gear wells and legs in white.

 

OTYq58.jpg

nUa4M8.jpg

 

But I received a nasty surprise when unmasked the model...

The cellophane left all the surfaces with a gozillion of subtle imperfection.

Look the following pics.

 

5KrWAX.jpg

jTY2aq.jpg

 

I don't understand why this happened especially if you keep in mind that the build was already coated woth at least a pair of layers of Tamiya X-22,was like if I've used some rogue sandpaper...

So after some moment of both rage and sadness ,in fear and feeling of a whole project destined to the trash,I've sanded the model with the Alclad Polishing clothes from 3600 grain down to 12000.Some spot received also the Rogue Compound.

After cleaning the residue of the Compound,a new layer of X-22 was airbrushed,and as bonus ,I obtained the best gloss model since I've started build planes!!!

 

n3XrVj.jpg

 

But if the cellphane problem wasn't enough, when masking-unmasking for the touch-ups,some Alclad peel off from the rear fuselage' metals ( fortunately a very small spot...) and I loose, after broke it a dozen time, the left side vortex generator blade, so a new one  was scratched out of clear plasticard.Pics with and without flash.

 

 

hhqdbQ.jpg

WTYkDx.jpg

 

 

Finally,the postman delivered the Brassin  shallow ALQ-131 for the centreline pylon.

 

6e3qUQ.jpg

 

 

So I think to be ready to start apply the decals,so stay tuned ( and healty) my firends,and feel free of comment!!!

 

As always thanks all for the support ,

 

Gianni:cheers:

 

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  • 5 months later...

Hi all gents, quite some time passed since my last post!

As previously noted, I opened together with my brother a modelling studio, returning to the painting /customization job.

This left very little time foe my Baz but made some progress; the decals job is now finished and just yeterday I was able to coat the lower surfaces with Tamiya clear to seal the decals,so now I'm very eager to finish it!

 

uReKx7.jpg

 

JdkLcT.jpg

 

tCCiji.jpg

 

Some detail shots ( I love all these stencils,evn if maybe a little too stark)

 

jv8wFW.jpg

 

U8sp6X.jpg

 

2p0ipG.jpg

 

r7NBvT.jpg

 

9SO3we.jpg

 

 

The wing pylons/weapons subassembly are also finished; despite not easily readable from the pics, not only the rollerons was drooped, but also the forward fins was glued at different angles,as often happened to the real missiles.

Fitting all the necessary pieces of these sub assembly was quite tricky, as any lack of pins, especially for the rails and the pylon adapter, complicated a bit the things, but finally there they are

 

 

yzT6Ru.jpg

 

tB26A9.jpg

 

 

One of the goal of yesterday was to prepare the canopy for the paint but I noted some cracks,this happened in the past with an F-16 canopy and I don't know how happened and why, as I don't stressed the part...fortunately I've the Rob Taurus vacu one's. Anyway, the new canopy need some work to obtain a good fit with the kit turtledeck, 'cause is more thin of the original part, so I'll add some plasticard to the inner frames, but left me room to add extra details.

 

Think to be close to the end of the project, all I need is some free time!!!

 

For the interested here the FB page of our studio, more than happy if we have some feedback

 

Thanks all to stop by guys

 

 

Cheers,

 

Gianni

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Beautiful as always Gianni! Maybe you could go even further on the weathering on the bottom part of the fuselage, they are pretty dirty I believe 🙂

 

Looking forward to seeing the finished Eagle!

 

Arnaud 

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Thanks mate.

For the weathering I'm slightly unsure; I've pics of super weathered birds, but are principally after the upgrade to  Improved Baz standard, mine depict the plane in late 80s-very early 90'.

But at the same time, some shots of "mine" timaframe shows some airframe veri patchy...I think that I'll finish to add some more dirt anyway

 

 

Gianni

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